Friedrich Nietzsche Reading List
Nietzsche
Hey! Had a little extra time today and wanted to put together a reading list for anyone interested in diving deeper into the work of Nietzsche. It’s funny…the popular misunderstanding of Nietzsche is that he was a nihilist that thought we should all sit around whining about how nothing means anything. The reality is most of his work can be interpreted as a REJECTION of nihilism and a call to do the work necessary to overcome passivity. Because of this he was really helpful to me in my 20’s. He taught me a level of introspection that I didn’t know existed. He taught me to embrace whatever hardships may have happened in the past, to not let fear of bad things happening ROB me of the opportunity to take risks, and to live as fully as I can as life inevitably goes on.
If you’re looking for a philosopher to get into he will not disappoint. My recommendation is to read him in a particular order though. As usual if you’re completely new to his work or even just cautious about misinterpreting him I would start with a secondary source before you dive into his actual words. Couple classics in this realm that I’ve read that I can recommend are:
Walter Kaufmann's Nietzsche: Philosopher, Psychologist, Antichrist
Alexander Nehamas’ Nietzsche: Life as Literature
As for his actual work I think starting where he began is a good idea:
1. The Birth of Tragedy: Out of the Spirit of Music
It’s his first major work and introduces a lot of big themes that he’d develop throughout his writing. Lot of necessary context here.
2. The Gay Science
I’d read this next because it's crucial for understanding where he’s coming from with his more complicated critique of traditional morality/religion. God is dead, eternal recurrence– it gets you into the direction Nietzsche is going with all this.
3. Beyond Good and Evil
Absolutely necessary reading for anyone trying to understand modernity or post-modernity for that matter. It’s where a lot of people start with Nietzsche, but I think you’re less likely to misunderstand it if you familiarize yourself with the earlier books.
4. On the Genealogy of Morals
This is the obvious next book once you’ve laid the groundwork. Builds on everything you’ve read so far, but in the non-system-building style of Nietzsche.
5. Thus Spoke Zarathustra
If you’ve read and internalized the last four books then this book will STILL be a challenge for you. The scope of it is beyond ambitious. It is written in a style that is very complex and symbolic. When I was much younger I read it, thought I was the smartest dude in the world, and completely missed the point. Understanding this book is oddly what made me move past Nietzsche to other philosophers who were more valuable to me. But to be fair: Nietzsche was a big part of the reason I developed into a different stage of my life where I no longer needed to be reminded of Nietzsche’s philosophy.
It’s for this reason that I am forever in debt to Nietzsche. Gratitude is the only word I can think of to describe how I feel about him. I have a bust of him on my mantle. A picture of him in the podcast studio. And if that’s not the way a monkey that’s a follower of a religion of materialism would express itself…then I don’t know what is. 😂
Hopefully someone out there gets something out of this list! New episode will be out very soon. Be well!
