region	Western philosophy
era	19th century philosophy
name	Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche
birth date	October 15, 1844
birth place	Röcken bei Lützen, Prussia
death date	August 25, 1900
death place	Weimar, Saxony, German Empire
school tradition	Weimar classicism; precursor to continental philosophy, existentialism, postmodernism, post-structuralism|, individualism
Main interests	aesthetics, nihilism, expressionism, ethics, metaphysics, fact–value distinction, tragedy, value-theory, ontology, philosophy of history, psychology, poetry, anti-foundationalism
notable ideas	Apollonian and Dionysian, death of God, eternal recurrence, ''Übermensch'', master-slave morality, herd instinct, will to power, ressentiment, world riddle, transvaluation of values, perspectivism, ''der letzte Mensch'', ''amor fati'', ''Bejahung'', tschandala
influences	AristotleBurckhardtDostoyevskyEmerson EpicurusEmpedoclesGoetheGuyauHegel Heine HeraclitusHölderlinKantLangeLeibnizLa RochefoucauldLichtenbergMontaigne PascalPlatoRéeRousseauSchopenhauerShakespeareSocratesSpinozaSpirStendhalStifterTaineVoltaireWagnerWinckelmann
influenced	AdlerArtaudA. BloomArmandAdornoBarrès BarthesBelyBaudrillardBatailleBennButlerBerdyczewskiBrandesBuberBurkeCampbellCamusCankarCioranDeleuzeD'Annunziode BenoistDurrellDerridaDrieu DöblinD.H. LawrenceEvolaFoucaultFreudGoldmanGrantGideGibranGeorgeGreenblattGrossHeideggerHesseH. BloomHanssonHamsunIvanovIqbalJacksonJaspersJüngerJeffersJungKaufmannKlagesKazantzakisKrležaKerényiKunderaLewisLangLondonLevyLinnaLovecraftLudoviciMahlerMannMenckenMerezhkovskyMaulnier MusilMishimaMorrisonMayakovskiNovatoreOnfrayO'NeillPapiniPalanteRandRankRortyRothkoSartreShawSlataperSloterdijkSorgeSchelerSpenglerStieglerSteinerStraussStrindbergTönniesVaihingerValois van den BruckVattimoWeberWilliamsXunZweig
signature	Friedrich Nietzsche Signature.svg
quote	}}

Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche (;; October 15, 1844 – August 25, 1900) was a German philosopher, poet, composer and classical philologist. He wrote critical texts on religion, morality, contemporary culture, philosophy and science, displaying a fondness for metaphor, irony and aphorism.

Nietzsche's influence remains substantial within and beyond philosophy, notably in existentialism, nihilism and postmodernism. His style and radical questioning of the value and objectivity of truth have resulted in much commentary and interpretation, mostly in the continental tradition. His key ideas include the death of God, perspectivism, the Übermensch, amor fati, the eternal recurrence, and the will to power. Central to his philosophy is the idea of "life-affirmation", which involves an honest questioning of all doctrines that drain life's expansive energies, however socially prevalent those views might be.

Nietzsche began his career as a classical philologist before turning to philosophy. In 1869, at the age of 24 he was appointed to the Chair of Classical Philology at the University of Basel (the youngest individual to have held this position), but resigned in the summer of 1879 due to health problems that plagued him most of his life. In 1889 he became mentally ill with what was then characterized as atypical general paresis attributed to tertiary syphilis, a diagnosis that has since come into question. He lived his remaining years in the care of his mother until her death in 1897, then under the care of his sister until his death in 1900.

Life

Youth (1844–1869)

Born on October 15, 1844, Nietzsche grew up in the small town of Röcken, near Leipzig, in the Prussian Province of Saxony. He was named after King Frederick William IV of Prussia, who turned 49 on the day of Nietzsche's birth. (Nietzsche later dropped his given middle name, "Wilhelm".) Nietzsche's parents, Carl Ludwig Nietzsche (1813–49), a Lutheran pastor and former teacher, and Franziska Oehler (1826–97), married in 1843, the year before their son's birth, and had two other children: a daughter, Elisabeth Förster-Nietzsche, born in 1846, and a second son, Ludwig Joseph, born in 1848. Nietzsche's father died from a brain ailment in 1849; Ludwig Joseph died the next year, at age 2. The family then moved to Naumburg, where they lived with Nietzsche's paternal grandmother and his father's two unmarried sisters. After the death of Nietzsche's grandmother in 1856, the family moved into their own house.

Nietzsche attended a boys' school and then later a private school, where he became friends with Gustav Krug, Rudolf Wagner and Wilhelm Pinder, all of whom came from very respected families.

In 1854, he began to attend ''Pforta'' in Naumburg, but after he showed particular talents in music and language, the internationally recognised Schulpforta admitted him as a pupil, and there he continued his studies from 1858 to 1864. Here he became friends with Paul Deussen and Carl von Gersdorff. He also found time to work on poems and musical compositions. At Schulpforta, Nietzsche received an important introduction to literature, particularly that of the ancient Greeks and Romans, and for the first time experienced a distance from his family life in a small-town Christian environment. His end of semester exams in March 1864 showed a "straight I" in Religion and German, a 2a in Greek and Latin, 2b in French, History and Physics, and a "lackluster" 3 in Hebrew and Mathematics.

After graduation in 1864 Nietzsche commenced studies in theology and classical philology at the University of Bonn. For a short time he and Deussen became members of the Burschenschaft ''Frankonia''. After one semester (and to the anger of his mother) he stopped his theological studies and lost his faith. This may have happened in part because of his reading around this time of David Strauss's ''Life of Jesus'', which had a profound effect on the young Nietzsche, though in an essay entitled ''Fate and History'' written in 1862, Nietzsche had already argued that historical research had discredited the central teachings of Christianity. Nietzsche then concentrated on studying philology under Professor Friedrich Wilhelm Ritschl, whom he followed to the University of Leipzig the next year. There he became close friends with fellow-student Erwin Rohde. Nietzsche's first philological publications appeared soon after.

In 1865 Nietzsche thoroughly studied the works of Arthur Schopenhauer. He owed the awakening of his philosophical interest to reading his ''Die Welt als Wille und Vorstellung'' (The World as Will and Representation) and later admitted that Schopenhauer was one of the few thinkers that he respected, dedicating to him his essay ''Schopenhauer als Erzieher'' (''Schopenhauer as Educator''), one of his ''Untimely Meditations''.

In 1866 he read Friedrich Albert Lange's ''History of Materialism''. Lange's descriptions of Kant's anti-materialistic philosophy, the rise of European Materialism, Europe's increased concern with science, Darwin's theory, and the general rebellion against tradition and authority greatly intrigued Nietzsche. The cultural environment encouraged him to expand his horizons beyond philology and to continue his study of philosophy.

In 1867 Nietzsche signed up for one year of voluntary service with the Prussian artillery division in Naumburg. However, a riding accident in March 1868 left him unfit for service. Consequently Nietzsche turned his attention to his studies again, completing them and first meeting with Richard Wagner later that year.

Professor at Basel (1869–1879)

In part because of Ritschl's support, Nietzsche received a remarkable offer to become professor of classical philology at the University of Basel. He was only 24 years old and had neither completed his doctorate nor received his teaching certificate. Despite the fact that the offer came at a time when he was considering giving up philology for science, he accepted. To this day, Nietzsche is still among the youngest of the tenured Classics professors on record. Before moving to Basel, Nietzsche renounced his Prussian citizenship: for the rest of his life he remained officially stateless.

Nevertheless, Nietzsche served in the Prussian forces during the Franco-Prussian War of 1870 to 1871 as a medical orderly. In his short time in the military he experienced much, and witnessed the traumatic effects of battle. He also contracted diphtheria and dysentery. Walter Kaufmann speculates that he might also have contracted syphilis along with his other infections at this time, and some biographers speculate that syphilis caused his eventual dementia, though there is some disagreement on this matter. On returning to Basel in 1870 Nietzsche observed the establishment of the German Empire and the following era of Otto von Bismarck as an outsider and with a degree of skepticism regarding its genuineness. At the University, he delivered his inaugural lecture, "Homer and Classical Philology". Nietzsche also met Franz Overbeck, a professor of theology, who remained his friend throughout his life. Afrikan Spir, a little-known Russian philosopher and author of ''Denken und Wirklichkeit'' (1873), and Nietzsche's colleague the historian Jacob Burckhardt, whose lectures Nietzsche frequently attended, began to exercise significant influence on him during this time.

Nietzsche had already met Richard Wagner in Leipzig in 1868, and (some time later) Wagner's wife Cosima. Nietzsche admired both greatly, and during his time at Basel frequently visited Wagner's house in Tribschen in the Canton of Lucerne. The Wagners brought Nietzsche into their most intimate circle, and enjoyed the attention he gave to the beginning of the Bayreuth Festival Theatre. In 1870 he gave Cosima Wagner the manuscript of 'The Genesis of the Tragic Idea' as a birthday gift. In 1872 Nietzsche published his first book, ''The Birth of Tragedy''. However, his colleagues in the field of classical philology, including Ritschl, expressed little enthusiasm for the work, in which Nietzsche eschewed the classical philologic method in favor of a more speculative approach. In a polemic, ''Philology of the Future'', Ulrich von Wilamowitz-Moellendorff dampened the book's reception and increased its notoriety. In response, Rohde (by now a professor in Kiel) and Wagner came to Nietzsche's defense. Nietzsche remarked freely about the isolation he felt within the philological community and attempted to attain a position in philosophy at Basel, though unsuccessfully.

Between 1873 and 1876, Nietzsche published separately four long essays: ''David Strauss: the Confessor and the Writer'', ''On the Use and Abuse of History for Life'', ''Schopenhauer as Educator'', and ''Richard Wagner in Bayreuth''. These four later appeared in a collected edition under the title ''Untimely Meditations''. The four essays shared the orientation of a cultural critique, challenging the developing German culture along lines suggested by Schopenhauer and Wagner. In 1873, Nietzsche also began to accumulate notes that would be posthumously published as ''Philosophy in the Tragic Age of the Greeks''. During this time, in the circle of the Wagners, Nietzsche met Malwida von Meysenbug and Hans von Bülow, and also began a friendship with Paul Rée, who in 1876 influenced him in dismissing the pessimism in his early writings. However, he was deeply disappointed by the Bayreuth Festival of 1876, where the banality of the shows and the baseness of the public repelled him. He was also alienated by Wagner's championing of 'German culture', which Nietzsche thought a contradiction in terms, as well as by Wagner's celebration of his fame among the German public. All this contributed to Nietzsche's subsequent decision to distance himself from Wagner.

With the publication in 1878 of ''Human, All Too Human'' (a book of aphorisms on subjects ranging from metaphysics to morality and from religion to the sexes) Nietzsche's reaction against the pessimistic philosophy of Wagner and Schopenhauer became evident, as well as the influence of Afrikan Spir's ''Denken und Wirklichkeit''. Nietzsche's friendship with Deussen and Rohde cooled as well. In 1879, after a significant decline in health, Nietzsche had to resign his position at Basel. (Since his childhood, various disruptive illnesses had plagued him, including moments of shortsightedness that left him nearly blind, migraine headaches, and violent indigestion. The 1868 riding accident and diseases in 1870 may have aggravated these persistent conditions, which continued to affect him through his years at Basel, forcing him to take longer and longer holidays until regular work became impractical.)

Independent philosopher (1879–1888)

Because his illness drove him to find climates more conducive to his health, Nietzsche traveled frequently, and lived until 1889 as an independent author in different cities. He spent many summers in Sils Maria, near St. Moritz in Switzerland, and many winters in the Italian cities of Genoa, Rapallo and Turin and in the French city of Nice. In 1881, when France occupied Tunisia, he planned to travel to Tunis to view Europe from the outside, but later abandoned that idea (probably for health reasons). While in Genoa, Nietzsche's failing eyesight prompted him to explore the use of typewriters as a means of continuing to write. He is known to have tried using the Hansen Writing Ball, a contemporary typewriter device.

Nietzsche occasionally returned to Naumburg to visit his family, and, especially during this time, he and his sister had repeated periods of conflict and reconciliation. He lived on his pension from Basel, but also received aid from friends.

A past student of his, Peter Gast (born Heinrich Köselitz), became a sort of private secretary to Nietzsche. In 1876, Koselitz transcribed the crabbed, nearly illegible handwriting of Nietzsche for the first time with Richard Wagner in Bayreuth. He would go on to both transcribe and proofread the galleys for almost all of Nietzsche's work from there on. On at least one occasion, February 23, 1880, the usually broke Koselitz received 200 marks from their mutual friend, Paul Ree. Koselitz was one of the very few friends Nietzsche allowed to criticize him. In responding most enthusiastically to "Zarathustra," Koselitz did feel it necessary to point out that what were described as "superfluous" people were in fact quite necessary. He went on to list the number of people Epicurus, for example, had to rely on—even with his simple diet of goat cheese.

To the end of his life, Gast and Overbeck remained consistently faithful friends. Malwida von Meysenbug remained like a motherly patron even outside the Wagner circle. Soon Nietzsche made contact with the music-critic Carl Fuchs. Nietzsche stood at the beginning of his most productive period. Beginning with ''Human, All Too Human'' in 1878, Nietzsche would publish one book (or major section of a book) each year until 1888, his last year of writing, during which he completed five.

In 1882 Nietzsche published the first part of ''The Gay Science''. That year he also met Lou Andreas Salomé, through Malwida von Meysenbug and Paul Rée. Nietzsche and Salomé spent the summer together in Tautenburg in Thuringia, often with Nietzsche's sister Elisabeth as a chaperone. Nietzsche, however, regarded Salomé less as an equal partner than as a gifted student. Salomé reports that he asked her to marry him and that she refused, though the reliability of her reports of events has come into question. Nietzsche's relationship with Rée and Salomé broke up in the winter of 1882/1883, partially because of intrigues conducted by Nietzsche's sister Elisabeth. Amidst renewed bouts of illness, living in near isolation after a falling-out with his mother and sister regarding Salomé, Nietzsche fled to Rapallo. Here he wrote the first part of ''Thus Spoke Zarathustra'' in only ten days.

By 1882, Nietzsche was taking huge doses of opium, but was still having trouble sleeping. In 1883, while staying in Nice, he was writing out his own prescriptions for the sedative chloral hydrate, signing them 'Dr Nietzsche'.

After severing his philosophical ties with Schopenhauer and his social ties with Wagner, Nietzsche had few remaining friends. Now, with the new style of ''Zarathustra'', his work became even more alienating and the market received it only to the degree required by politeness. Nietzsche recognized this and maintained his solitude, though he often complained about it. His books remained largely unsold. In 1885 he printed only 40 copies of the fourth part of ''Zarathustra'', and distributed only a fraction of these among close friends, including Helene von Druskowitz.

In 1883 he tried and failed to obtain a lecturing post at the University of Leipzig. It was made clear to him that, in view of the attitude towards Christianity and the concept of God expressed in ''Zarathustra'', he had become in effect unemployable at any German University. The subsequent "feelings of revenge and resentment" embittered him. "And hence my rage since I have grasped in the broadest possible sense what wretched means (the depreciation of my good name, my character and my aims) ''suffice'' to take from me the trust of, and therewith the possibility of obtaining, pupils."

In 1886 Nietzsche broke with his editor, Ernst Schmeitzner, disgusted by his anti-Semitic opinions. Nietzsche saw his own writings as "completely buried and unexhumeable in this anti-Semitic dump" of Schmeitzner—associating the editor with a movement that should be "utterly rejected with cold contempt by every sensible mind". He then printed ''Beyond Good and Evil'' at his own expense, and issued in 1886–1887 second editions of his earlier works (''The Birth of Tragedy'', ''Human, All Too Human'', ''Dawn'', and ''The Gay Science''), accompanied by new prefaces in which he reconsidered his earlier works. Thereafter, he saw his work as completed for a time and hoped that soon a readership would develop. In fact, interest in Nietzsche's thought did increase at this time, if rather slowly and in a way hardly perceived by him. During these years Nietzsche met Meta von Salis, Carl Spitteler, and also Gottfried Keller. In 1886 his sister Elisabeth married the anti-Semite Bernhard Förster and traveled to Paraguay to found Nueva Germania, a "Germanic" colony—a plan to which Nietzsche responded with mocking laughter. Through correspondence, Nietzsche's relationship with Elisabeth continued on the path of conflict and reconciliation, but they would meet again only after his collapse. He continued to have frequent and painful attacks of illness, which made prolonged work impossible. In 1887 Nietzsche wrote the polemic ''On the Genealogy of Morals''.

During the same year Nietzsche encountered the work of Fyodor Dostoevsky, with whom he felt an immediate kinship. He also exchanged letters with Hippolyte Taine, and then also with Georg Brandes. Brandes, who had started to teach the philosophy of Søren Kierkegaard in the 1870s, wrote to Nietzsche asking him to read Kierkegaard, to which Nietzsche replied that he would come to Copenhagen and read Kierkegaard with him. However, before fulfilling this undertaking, he slipped too far into sickness. In the beginning of 1888, in Copenhagen, Brandes delivered one of the first lectures on Nietzsche's philosophy.

Although Nietzsche had in 1886 announced (at the end of ''On The Genealogy of Morality'') a new work with the title ''The Will to Power: Attempt at a Revaluation of All Values'', he eventually seems to have abandoned this particular approach and instead used some of the draft passages to compose ''Twilight of the Idols'' and ''The Antichrist'' (both written in 1888).

His health seemed to improve, and he spent the summer in high spirits. In the fall of 1888 his writings and letters began to reveal a higher estimation of his own status and "fate." He overestimated the increasing response to his writings, especially to the recent polemic, ''The Case of Wagner''. On his 44th birthday, after completing ''Twilight of the Idols'' and ''The Antichrist'', he decided to write the autobiography ''Ecce Homo''. In the preface to this work—which suggests Nietzsche was well aware of the interpretive difficulties his work would generate—he declares, "Hear me! For I am such and such a person. Above all, do not mistake me for someone else." In December, Nietzsche began a correspondence with August Strindberg, and thought that, short of an international breakthrough, he would attempt to buy back his older writings from the publisher and have them translated into other European languages. Moreover, he planned the publication of the compilation ''Nietzsche Contra Wagner'' and of the poems that composed his collection ''Dionysian-Dithyrambs''.

Mental breakdown and death (1889–1900)

On January 3, 1889, Nietzsche suffered a mental collapse. Two policemen approached him after he caused a public disturbance in the streets of Turin. What happened remains unknown, but an often-repeated tale states that Nietzsche witnessed the whipping of a horse at the other end of the Piazza Carlo Alberto, ran to the horse, threw his arms up around its neck to protect it, and then collapsed to the ground.

In the following few days, Nietzsche sent short writings—known as the ''Wahnbriefe'' ("Madness Letters")—to a number of friends (including Cosima Wagner and Jacob Burckhardt). To his former colleague Burckhardt, Nietzsche wrote: "I have had Caiaphas put in fetters. Also, last year I was crucified by the German doctors in a very drawn-out manner. Wilhelm, Bismarck, and all anti-Semites abolished." Additionally, he commanded the German emperor to go to Rome to be shot, and summoned the European powers to take military action against Germany.

On January 6, 1889, Burckhardt showed the letter he had received from Nietzsche to Overbeck. The following day Overbeck received a similarly revealing letter, and decided that Nietzsche's friends had to bring him back to Basel. Overbeck traveled to Turin and brought Nietzsche to a psychiatric clinic in Basel. By that time Nietzsche appeared fully in the grip of a serious mental illness, and his mother Franziska decided to transfer him to a clinic in Jena under the direction of Otto Binswanger. From November 1889 to February 1890 the art historian Julius Langbehn attempted to cure Nietzsche, claiming that the methods of the medical doctors were ineffective in treating Nietzsche's condition. Langbehn assumed progressively greater control of Nietzsche until his secretiveness discredited him. In March 1890 Franziska removed Nietzsche from the clinic, and in May 1890 brought him to her home in Naumburg. During this process Overbeck and Gast contemplated what to do with Nietzsche's unpublished works. In January 1889 they proceeded with the planned release of ''Twilight of the Idols'', by that time already printed and bound. In February they ordered a fifty copy private edition of ''Nietzsche contra Wagner'', but the publisher C. G. Naumann secretly printed one hundred. Overbeck and Gast decided to withhold publishing ''The Antichrist'' and ''Ecce Homo'' because of their more radical content. Nietzsche's reception and recognition enjoyed their first surge.

In 1893 Nietzsche's sister Elisabeth returned from Nueva Germania (in Paraguay) following the suicide of her husband. She read and studied Nietzsche's works, and piece by piece took control of them and of their publication. Overbeck eventually suffered dismissal, and Gast finally co-operated. After the death of Franziska in 1897, Nietzsche lived in Weimar, where Elisabeth cared for him and allowed people, including Rudolf Steiner (who in 1895 had written one of the first books praising Nietzsche) to visit her uncommunicative brother. Elisabeth at one point went so far as to employ Steiner – at a time when he was still an ardent fighter against any mysticism – as a tutor to help her to understand her brother's philosophy. Steiner abandoned the attempt after only a few months, declaring that it was impossible to teach her anything about philosophy.

Nietzsche's mental illness was originally diagnosed as tertiary syphilis, in accordance with a prevailing medical paradigm of the time. Although most commentators regard his breakdown as unrelated to his philosophy, Georges Bataille drops dark hints ("'man incarnate' must also go mad") and René Girard's postmortem psychoanalysis posits a worshipful rivalry with Richard Wagner. The diagnosis of syphilis was challenged, and manic-depressive illness with periodic psychosis, followed by vascular dementia was put forward by Cybulska prior Schain's; and Sax's studies; Orth and Trimble postulate frontotemporal dementia, while other researchers propose a syndrome called CADASIL.

In 1898 and 1899 Nietzsche suffered at least two strokes, which partially paralysed him and left him unable to speak or walk. After contracting pneumonia in mid-August 1900 he had another stroke during the night of August 24–25, and died about noon on August 25. Elisabeth had him buried beside his father at the church in Röcken bei Lützen. His friend, Gast, gave his funeral oration, proclaiming: "Holy be your name to all future generations!" Nietzsche had written in ''Ecce Homo'' (at the time of the funeral still unpublished) of his fear that one day his name would be regarded as "holy".

Elisabeth Förster-Nietzsche compiled ''The Will to Power'' from Nietzsche's unpublished notebooks, and published it posthumously. Because his sister arranged the book based on her own conflation of several of Nietzsche's early outlines, and took great liberties with the material, the consensus holds that it does not reflect Nietzsche's intent. Indeed, Mazzino Montinari, the editor of Nietzsche's ''Nachlass'', called it a forgery in ''The 'Will to Power' Does Not Exist''. For example, Elisabeth removed aphorism 35 of ''The Antichrist'', where Nietzsche rewrote a passage of the Bible (see ''The Will to Power'' and Nietzsche's criticism of anti-Semitism and nationalism).

Citizenship, nationality, ethnicity

General commentators and Nietzsche scholars, whether emphasizing his cultural background or his language, overwhelmingly label Nietzsche as a "German philosopher". Others do not assign him a national category. Germany had not yet been unified into a nation-state but Nietzsche was born a citizen of Prussia, which was then part of the German Confederation. His birthplace, Röcken, is in the modern German state of Saxony-Anhalt. When he accepted his post at Basel, Nietzsche applied for the annulment of his Prussian citizenship. The official response confirming the revocation of his citizenship came in a document dated April 17, 1869, and for the rest of his life he remained officially stateless.

A common myth is that Nietzsche's ancestors ''were'' Polish. Nietzsche himself subscribed to this story toward the end of his life. He wrote in 1888, "My ancestors were Polish noblemen (Nietzky); the type seems to have been well preserved despite three generations of German mothers." At one point Nietzsche becomes even more adamant about his Polish identity. "I am a pure-blooded Polish nobleman, without a single drop of bad blood, certainly not German blood." On yet another occasion Nietzsche stated "Germany is a great nation only because its people have so much Polish blood in their veins [...] I am proud of my Polish descent." Nietzsche believed his name might have been Germanized, in one letter claiming, "I was taught to ascribe the origin of my blood and name to Polish noblemen who were called Niëtzky and left their home and nobleness about a hundred years ago, finally yielding to unbearable suppression: they were Protestants."

Most scholars dispute Nietzsche's account of his family's origins. Hans von Müller debunked the genealogy put forward by Nietzsche's sister in favor of a Polish noble heritage. Max Oehler, the curator of Nietzsche Archive at Weimar, argued that all of Nietzsche's ancestors bore German names, even the wives' families. Oehler claims that Nietzsche came from a long line of German Lutheran clergymen on both sides of his family, and modern scholars regard the claim of Nietzsche's Polish ancestry as a "pure invention". Colli and Montinari, the editors of Nietzsche's assembled letters, gloss Nietzsche's claims as a "mistaken belief" and "without foundation." The name ''Nietzsche'' itself is not a Polish name, but an exceptionally common one throughout central Germany, in this and cognate forms (such as ''Nitsche'' and ''Nitzke''). The name derives from the forename ''Nikolaus'', abbreviated to ''Nick''; assimilated with the Slavic ''Nitz'', it first became ''Nitsche'' and then ''Nietzsche''.

It is not known why Nietzsche wanted to be thought of as Polish nobility. According to biographer R. J. Hollingdale, Nietzsche's propagation of the Polish ancestry myth may have been part of the latter's "campaign against Germany".

Philosophy

Nietzsche is known for his use of poetry and prose (sometimes together in poetic prose style) in his writings. This, combined with the fact that he disdained any kind of system, has made several aspects of his philosophy seemingly lacking coherent meaning or being paradoxical. A few of the themes in Nietzsche that have received the most attention include his view of morality, his statement "God is dead" (and along with it the rejection of any sort of God's-eye view), his idea of the will to power and perspectivism, the Übermensch, and his theory of eternal return. He is also known for being very critical of the Western belief in egalitarianism and rationality.

Nietzsche's works remain controversial, due to interpretations and misinterpretations of his work. Common misinterpretations of Nietzsche include the notion that he rejected religious spirituality in its entirety, that he was anti-Semitic, that he preferred master over slave morality or that he was entirely opposed to Christian beliefs. Nietzsche's concept that "God is dead" applies to the doctrines of Christendom, though not to all other faiths: he claimed that Buddhism is a successful religion that he compliments for fostering critical thought. While Nietzsche attacked the principles of Judaism, Nietzsche was not anti-Semitic: in his work ''On the Genealogy of Morality'', he explicitly condemns anti-Semitism, and pointed out that his attack on Judaism was not an attack on Jews as a people but specifically an attack upon the ancient Jewish priesthood whom he claims anti-Semitic Christians paradoxically based their views upon. Nietzsche claimed that the Christian faith as practiced was not a proper representation of Jesus' teachings, as it forced people merely to believe in the way of Jesus but not to act as Jesus did, in particular his example of refusing to judge people, something that Nietzsche claimed Christians had deliberately done the opposite of. He condemned institutionalized Christianity for emphasizing a morality of pity, which assumes an inherent illness in society:

Christianity is called the religion of pity. Pity stands opposed to the tonic emotions which heighten our vitality: it has a depressing effect. We are deprived of strength when we feel pity. That loss of strength which suffering as such inflicts on life is still further increased and multiplied by pity. Pity makes suffering contagious.

Morality and Ethics

In ''Daybreak'' Nietzsche begins his "Campaign against Morality". He calls himself an "immoralist" and harshly criticizes the prominent moral schemes of his day: Christianity, Kantianism, and utilitarianism. In ''Ecce Homo'' Nietzsche called the establishment of moral systems based on a dichotomy of good and evil a "calamitous error", and wished to initiate a re-evaluation of the values of the Judeo-Christian world. He indicates his desire to bring about a new, more naturalistic source of value in the vital impulses of life itself.

In Beyond Good And Evil and On the Genealogy of Morality, Nietzsche's genealogical account of the development of master-slave morality occupies a central place. He begins by examining dualistic morality (type of morality he argues was dominant in ancient civilizations) and belief that there are good and evil forces in constant conflict with each other. For Nietzsche, aristocrats and other ruling castes of ancient civilizations held a form of dual preference for what they considered to be "good" and "evil." These were not moral laws per se, but values that coincided with their relationship to lower castes such as slaves. Nietzsche therefore presents master-morality as the original system of morality—perhaps best associated with Homeric Greece. Here, value arises as a contrast between good and bad, or between 'life-affirming' and 'life-denying': wealth, strength, health, and power while bad is associated with the poor, weak, sick, and pathetic, the sort of traits conventionally associated with slaves in ancient times.

Slave-morality, in contrast, comes about as a reaction to master-morality. Nietzsche associates slave-morality with the Jewish and Christian traditions. Here, value emerges from the contrast between good and evil: good being associated with other-worldliness, charity, piety, restraint, meekness, and submission; evil seen as worldly, cruel, selfish, wealthy, and aggressive. Nietzsche sees slave-morality born out of the ressentiment of slaves. It works to overcome the slave's own sense of inferiority before the (better-off) masters. It does so by making out slave weakness to be a matter of choice, by, e.g., relabeling it as "meekness."

Nietzsche sees the slave-morality as a source of the nihilism that has overtaken Europe. In Nietzsche's eyes, modern Europe and Christianity, exists in a hypocritical state due to a tension between master and slave morality, both values contradictorily determining, to varying degrees, the values of most Europeans (who are "motley"). Nietzsche calls for exceptional people to no longer be ashamed of their uniqueness in the face of a supposed morality-for-all, which Nietzsche deems to be harmful to the flourishing of exceptional people. However, Nietzsche cautions that morality, per se, is not bad; it is good for the masses, and should be left to them. Exceptional people, on the other hand, should follow their own "inner law." A favorite motto of Nietzsche, taken from Pindar, reads: "Become what you are."

Death of God and Nihilism

The statement "God is dead", occurring in several of Nietzsche's works (notably in ''The Gay Science''), has become one of his best-known remarks. On the basis of it, most commentators regard Nietzsche as an atheist; others (such as Kaufmann) suggest that this statement reflects a more subtle understanding of divinity. In Nietzsche's view, recent developments in modern science and the increasing secularization of European society had effectively 'killed' the Abrahamic God, who had served as the basis for meaning and value in the West for more than a thousand years.

Alternatively, the death of God may lead beyond bare perspectivism to outright nihilism, the belief that nothing has any inherent importance and that life lacks purpose. As Heidegger put the problem, "If God as the suprasensory ground and goal of all reality is dead, if the suprasensory world of the Ideas has suffered the loss of its obligatory and above it its vitalizing and upbuilding power, then nothing more remains to which man can cling and by which he can orient himself." Nietzsche approaches the problem of nihilism as a deeply personal one, stating that this problem of the modern world is a problem that has "become conscious" in him. Furthermore, he emphasises both the danger of nihilism and the possibilities it offers, as seen in his statement that "I praise, I do not reproach, [nihilism's] arrival. I believe it is one of the greatest crises, a moment of the deepest self-reflection of humanity. Whether man recovers from it, whether he becomes master of this crisis, is a question of his strength!" According to Nietzsche, it is only when nihilism is ''overcome'' that a culture can have a true foundation upon which to thrive. He wished to hasten its coming only so that he could also hasten its ultimate departure.

Perspectivism

Nietzsche claimed the death of God would eventually lead to the loss of any universal perspective on things, and along with it any coherent sense of objective truth. Nietzsche himself rejected the idea of objective reality arguing that knowledge is contingent and conditional, relative to various fluid perspectives or interests. This leads to constant reassessment of rules (i.e., those of philosophy, the scientific method, etc.) according to the circumstances of individual perspectives. This view has acquired the name ''perspectivism''.

In Thus Spoke Zarathustra, Nietzsche proclaims that a table of values hangs above every great people. He points out that what is common among different peoples is the act of esteeming, of creating values, even if the values are different from one people to the next. Nietzsche asserts that what made people great was not the content of their beliefs, but the act of valuing. Thus the values a community strives to articulate are not as important as the collective will to see those values come to pass. The willing is more essential than the intrinsic worth of the goal itself, according to Nietzsche. "A thousand goals have there been so far," says Zarathustra, "for there are a thousand peoples. Only the yoke for the thousand necks is still lacking: the one goal is lacking. Humanity still has no goal." Hence, the title of the aphorism, "On The Thousand And One Goals". The idea that one value-system is no more worthy than the next, although it may not be directly ascribed to Nietzsche, has become a common premise in modern social science. Max Weber and Martin Heidegger absorbed it and made it their own. It shaped their philosophical and cultural endeavor, as well as their political understanding. Weber for example, relies on Nietzsche's perspectivism by maintaining that objectivity is still possible -- but only after a particular perspective, value, or end has been established.

Among his critique of traditional philosophy of Kant, Descartes and Plato in Beyond Good and Evil, Nietzsche attacked ''thing in itself'' and ''cogito ergo sum'' (''I think, therefore I am'') as unfalsifiable beliefs based on naive acceptance of previous notions and fallacies.

Will to power

A basic element in Nietzsche's philosophical outlook is the ''will to power'' (''der Wille zur Macht''), which provides a basis for understanding human behavior — more so than competing explanations, such as the ones based on pressure for adaptation or survival. As such, according to Nietzsche, the drive for conservation appears as the major motivator of human or animal behavior only in exceptions, as the general condition of life is not one of emergency, of 'struggle for existence'. More often than not, self-conservation is but a consequence of a creature's will to exert its strength on the outside world.

In presenting his theory of human behavior, Nietzsche also addressed, and attacked, concepts from philosophies popularly embraced in his days, such as Schopenhauer's notion of an aimless will or that of utilitarianism. Utilitarianists claim that what moves people is mainly the desire to be happy, to accumulate pleasure in their lives. But such a conception of happiness Nietzsche rejected as something limited to, and characteristic of, the bourgeois lifestyle of the English society, and instead put forth the idea that happiness is not an aim per se — it is instead a consequence of a successful pursuit of one's aims, of the overcoming of hurdles to one's actions — in other words, of the fulfillment of the will.

Related to his theory of the will to power, is his speculation, which he did not deem final, regarding the reality of the physical world, including inorganic matter — that what holds true for man's affections and impulses, may also apply to the external world. At the core of his theory is a rejection of what he called "atomism" — the idea that matter is composed of stable, indivisible units (atoms). Instead, he seems to have accepted the conclusions of Ruđer Bošković, who explained the qualities of matter as a result of an interplay of forces. One study of Nietzsche defines his fully developed concept of the will to power as "the element from which derive both the quantitative difference of related forces and the quality that devolves into each force in this relation" revealing the will to power as "the principle of the synthesis of forces." Of such forces Nietzsche said they could perhaps be viewed as a primitive form of the will. Likewise he rejected as a mere interpretation the view that the movement of bodies is ruled by inexorable laws of nature, positing instead that movement was governed by the power relations between bodies and forces.

Übermensch

Another concept important to an understanding of Nietzsche's thought is the ''Übermensch''. Developing the idea of nihilism, Nietzsche wrote ''Thus Spoke Zarathustra'', therein introducing the concept of a value-creating Übermensch. According to Lampert, "the death of God must be followed by a long twilight of piety and nihilism (II. 19; III. 8). [...] Zarathustra's gift of the overman is given to a mankind not aware of the problem to which the overman is the solution."

While interpretations of Nietzsche's overman vary wildly, here is one of his quotations from ''Thus Spoke Zarathustra'' (Prologue, §§3–4):

Eternal return

Eternal return (also known as "eternal recurrence") is a concept which posits that the universe has been recurring, and will continue to recur, in a self-similar form an infinite number of times across infinite time or space. The idea of eternal return occurs in a parable in Section 341 of ''The Gay Science'', and also in the chapter "Of the Vision and the Riddle" in ''Thus Spoke Zarathustra'', among other places. Nietzsche contemplates the idea as potentially "horrifying and paralyzing", and says that its burden is the "heaviest weight" imaginable ("''das schwerste Gewicht''"). The wish for the eternal return of all events would mark the ultimate affirmation of life, a reaction to Schopenhauer's praise of denying the will‐to‐live. To comprehend eternal recurrence in his thought, and to not merely come to peace with it but to embrace it, requires ''amor fati'', "love of fate".

Reading and influence

As a philologist, Nietzsche had a thorough knowledge of Greek philosophy. He read Immanuel Kant, Plato, John Stuart Mill, Arthur Schopenhauer and African Spir, who became his main opponents in his philosophy, and later Spinoza, whom he saw as his "precursor" in some respects but as a personification of the "ascetic ideal" in others. However, Nietzsche referred to Kant as a "moral fanatic", Plato as "boring", Mill as a "blockhead", and of Spinoza he said: "How much of personal timidity and vulnerability does this masquerade of a sickly recluse betray?"

Nietzsche's philosophy, while highly innovative and revolutionary, was indebted to many predecessors. While at Basel, Nietzsche offered lecture courses on the "Pre-Platonic Philosophers" for several years, and the text of this lecture series has been characterized as a "lost link" in the development of his thought. "In it concepts such as the will to power, the eternal return of the same, the overman, gay science, self-overcoming and so on receive rough, unnamed formulations and are linked to specific pre-Platonics, especially Heraclitus, who emerges as a pre-Platonic Nietzsche." The pre-Socratic Greek thinker Heraclitus was known for the rejection of the concept of being as a constant and eternal principle of universe, and his embrace of "flux" and incessant change. His symbolism of the world as "child play" marked by amoral spontaneity and lack of definite rules was appreciated by Nietzsche. From his Heraclitean sympathy Nietzsche was also a vociferous detractor of Parmenides, who opposed Heraclitus and believed all world is a single Being with no change at all.

In his ''Egotism in German Philosophy'', Santayana claimed that Nietzsche's whole philosophy was a reaction to Schopenhauer. Santayana wrote that Nietzsche's work was "an emendation of that of Schopenhauer. The will to live would become the will to dominate; pessimism founded on reflection would become optimism founded on courage; the suspense of the will in contemplation would yield to a more biological account of intelligence and taste; finally in the place of pity and asceticism (Schopenhauer's two principles of morals) Nietzsche would set up the duty of asserting the will at all costs and being cruelly but beautifully strong. These points of difference from Schopenhauer cover the whole philosophy of Nietzsche."

Nietzsche expressed admiration for 17th century French moralists such as La Rochefoucauld, Jean de La Bruyère and Vauvenargues, as well as for Stendhal. The organicism of Paul Bourget influenced Nietzsche, as did that of Rudolf Virchow and Alfred Espinas. Nietzsche wrote in a letter in 1867 that he was trying to improve his German style of writting with the help of Lessing, Lichtenberg and Schopenhauer. It was probably Lichtenberg (along with Paul Rée) whose aphoristic style of writing contributed to Nietzsche's own use of aphorism instead of an essay.. Nietzsche early learned of Darwinism through Friedrich Albert Lange. Hippolyte Taine influenced Nietzsche's view on Rousseau and Napoleon. Notably, he also read some of the posthumous works of Charles Baudelaire, Tolstoy's ''My Religion'', Ernest Renan's ''Life of Jesus'' and Fyodor Dostoyevsky's ''The Possessed''. Nietzsche called Dostoevsky "the only psychologist from whom I have anything to learn." Harold Bloom has often claimed, particularly in ''Where Shall Wisdom Be Found?'', that the essays of Ralph Waldo Emerson had a profound and favourable influence on Nietzsche. While Nietzsche never mentions Max Stirner, the similarities in their ideas have prompted a minority of interpreters to suggest a relationship between the two. In 1861 Nietzsche wrote an enthusiastic essay on his "favorite poet", Friedrich Hölderlin, mostly forgotten at that time. He also expressed deep appreciation for Adalbert Stifter's ''Indian Summer'',Lord Byron's'' Manfred and ''Mark Twain's'' The Adventures of Tom Sawyer.

Reception

Nietzsche's works did not reach a wide readership during his active writing career. However, in 1888 Georg Brandes (an influential Danish critic) aroused considerable excitement about Nietzsche through a series of lectures he gave at the University of Copenhagen. Then in 1894 Lou Andreas-Salomé published her book, ''Friedrich Nietzsche in seinen Werken'' (''Friedrich Nietzsche in His Works''). Andreas-Salomé had known Nietzsche well in the early 1880s, and she returned to the subject of Nietzsche, years later, in her work ''Lebensrückblick – Grundriß einiger Lebenserinnerungen'' (''Looking Back: Memoirs'') (written in 1932), which covered her intellectual relationships with Nietzsche, Rilke, and Freud. Nietzsche himself had acquired the publication-rights for his earlier works in 1886 and began a process of editing and re-formulation that placed the body of his work in a more coherent perspective.

In the years after his death in 1900, Nietzsche's works became better known, and readers have responded to them in complex and sometimes controversial ways. Many Germans eventually discovered his appeals for greater individualism and personality development in ''Thus Spoke Zarathustra'', but responded to those appeals divergently. He had some following among left-wing Germans in the 1890s; in 1894–1895 German conservatives wanted to ban his work as subversive. During the late 19th century Nietzsche's ideas were commonly associated with anarchist movements and appear to have had influence within them, particularly in France and the United States. The poet W.B. Yeats helped to raise awareness of Nietzsche in Ireland. H.L. Mencken produced translations of Nietzsche's works that helped to increase knowledge of his philosophy in the United States. Nietzsche's influence on Herman Hesse is evident in ''Narcissus and Goldmund'', while Thomas Mann acknowledges his debt to Nietzsche in ''The Magic Mountain''. In Russia, Nietzsche has influenced Russian symbolism and figures such as Dmitry Merezhkovsky, Andrei Bely and Alexander Scriabin have all incorporated or discussed parts of Nietzsche philosophy in their works.

By World War I, Nietzsche had acquired a reputation as an inspiration for right-wing German militarism. German soldiers received copies of ''Thus Spoke Zarathustra'' as gifts during World War I. The Dreyfus Affair provides another example of his reception: the French anti-semitic Right labelled the Jewish and Leftist intellectuals who defended Alfred Dreyfus as "Nietzscheans". Nietzsche had a distinct appeal for many Zionist thinkers at the turn of the century. It has been argued that his work influenced Theodore Herzl,, while some disagree and Martin Buber went so far as to extoll Nietzsche as a "creator" and "emissary of life". Israel Eldad, the ideological chief of the Stern Group that fought the British in Palestine in the 1940s, wrote about Nietzsche in his underground newspaper and later translated most of Nietzsche's books into Hebrew. Bertrand Russell, in his ''History of Western Philosophy'' was scathing about Nietzsche, calling his work the "mere power-phantasies of an invalid", referring to him as a "megalomaniac", and writing that he was a philosophical progenitor of the Nazis and fascists.

Nietzsche's growing prominence suffered a severe setback when his works became closely associated with Adolf Hitler and the German Reich. Many political leaders of the twentieth century were at least superficially familiar with Nietzsche's ideas, although it is not always possible to determine whether or not they actually read his work. Hitler, for example, probably never read Nietzsche, and if he did, his reading was not extensive, although he was a frequent visitor to the Nietzsche museum in Weimar and did use expressions of Nietzsche's, such as "lords of the earth" in Mein Kampf. The Nazis made selective use of Nietzsche's philosophy. Mussolini and Charles de Gaulle read Nietzsche. It has been suggested that Theodore Roosevelt read Nietzsche and was profoundly influenced by him, and in more recent years, Richard Nixon read Nietzsche with "curious interest".

A decade after World War II, there was a revival of Nietzsche's philosophical writings thanks to exhaustive translations and analyses by Walter Kaufmann and R.J. Hollingdale. Others, well known philosophers in their own right, wrote commentaries on Nietzsche's philosophy, including Martin Heidegger, who produced a four-volume study. Many 20th century thinkers (particularly in the tradition of continental philosophy) cite him as an important influence, including Martin Heidegger, Theodor Adorno, Jean-Paul Sartre, Leo Strauss, Oswald Spengler, Emil Cioran, Albert Camus, Michel Foucault, Jacques Derrida, and Gilles Deleuze. Foucault's later writings, for example, adopt Nietzsche's genealogical method to develop anti-foundationalist theories of power that divide and fragment rather than unite polities (as evinced in the liberal tradition of political theory). Paul Ricœur called Nietzsche one of the masters of the "school of suspicion", alongside Karl Marx and Sigmund Freud. In the Anglo-American tradition he has had a profound influence on Bernard Williams and Allan Bloom due to the scholarship of Walter Kaufmann and R. J. Hollingdale, which rehabilitated Nietzsche as a philosopher, and American philosophers such as Alexander Nehamas, Judith Butler, William E. Connolly, Stanley Rosen, Ruth Abbey and Michael Allen Gillespie continue to study him today.

|style="text-align: left;" |Hermann Hesse, ''Steppenwolf''}}

Works

''The Greek State'' (1871)

''The Birth of Tragedy'' (1872)

''On Truth and Lies in a Nonmoral Sense'' (1873)

. .

''Human, All Too Human'' (1878; additions in 1879, 1880)

. . . .

''The Case of Wagner'' (1888)

. . .

''Nietzsche contra Wagner'' (1888)

''The Will to Power'' (unpublished manuscripts edited by Elisabeth Förster-Nietzsche)

. . .

References

Footnotes

Bibliography

Emilio Carlo Corriero, ''Nietzsche olter l'abisso. Declinazioni italiane della 'morte di Dio''', Marco Valerio, Torino, 2007

. . .

Magnus and Higgins, "Nietzsche's works and their themes", in ''The Cambridge Companion to Nietzsche'', Magnus and Higgins (ed.), University of Cambridge Press, 1996, pp. 21–58. ISBN 0-521-36767-0

O'Flaherty, James C., Sellner, Timothy F., Helm, Robert M., "Studies in Nietzsche and the Classical Tradition" (University of North Carolina Press) 1979 ISBN 0-8078-8085-X

O'Flaherty, James C., Sellner, Timothy F., Helm, Robert M., "Studies in Nietzsche and the Judaeo-Christian Tradition" (University of North Carolina Press) 1985 ISBN 0-8078-8104-X

Porter, James I. "Nietzsche and the Philology of the Future" (Stanford University Press, 2000). ISBN 0-8047-3698-7

. . . . .

Seung, T.K. ''Nietzsche's Epic of the Soul: Thus Spoke Zarathustra''. Lanham, Maryland: Lexington Books, 2005. ISBN 0-7391-1130-2

.

Young, Julian. ''Friedrich Nietzsche: A Philosophical Biography'' (Cambridge University Press; 2010) 649 pp.

External links

Audio link Pronounciation (English and German) for ''Friedrich Nietzsche''

Lexido: Searchable Database index of Public Domain editions of all Nietzsche's major works

Nietzsche from the radio program Philosophy Talk

BBC (1999). "Beyond Good and Evil". ''Human, All Too Human''.

Timeline of German Philosophers

Walter Kaufmann 1960 Prof. Nietzsche and the Crisis in Philosophy Audio

Brian Leiter's Nietzsche Blog: News, polls, and discussion about Nietzsche and current events in Nietzsche scholarship from Brian Leiter (University of Chicago).

Nietzsche Source: Digital version of the German critical edition of the complete works and Digital facsimile edition of the entire Nietzsche estate

Category:1844 births Category:1900 deaths Category:People from Lützen Category:19th-century German people Category:19th-century philosophers Category:Critics of religions Category:Aphorists Category:Atheist philosophers Category:Atheist existentialism Category:Continental philosophers Category:Deaths from pneumonia Category:Determinists Category:Existentialists Category:German atheists Category:German classical philologists Category:German composers Category:German philologists Category:German philosophers Category:Hellenists Category:People from the Province of Saxony Category:Philosophers of art Category:Postmodernists Category:Romantic composers Category:Stateless persons Category:University of Bonn alumni Category:University of Leipzig alumni Category:Former Lutherans

af:Friedrich Nietzsche als:Friedrich Nietzsche am:ኒሺ ar:فريدرخ نيتشه an:Friedrich Nietzsche az:Fridrix Nitsşe bn:ফ্রিড্‌রিশ নিচে zh-min-nan:Friedrich Nietzsche be:Фрыдрых Вільгельм Ніцшэ be-x-old:Фрыдрых Ніцшэ bg:Фридрих Ницше bar:Friedrich Nietzsche bs:Friedrich Nietzsche br:Friedrich Nietzsche ca:Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche cv:Ницше Фридрих cs:Friedrich Nietzsche cy:Friedrich Nietzsche da:Friedrich Nietzsche de:Friedrich Nietzsche et:Friedrich Nietzsche el:Φρειδερίκος Νίτσε es:Friedrich Nietzsche eo:Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche ext:Friedrich Nietzsche eu:Friedrich Nietzsche fa:فریدریش نیچه hif:Friedrich Nietzsche fr:Friedrich Nietzsche fy:Friedrich Nietzsche ga:Friedrich Nietzsche gl:Friedrich Nietzsche gan:尼采 ko:프리드리히 니체 hy:Ֆրիդրիխ Նիցշե hi:फ्रेडरिक नीत्शे hr:Friedrich Nietzsche io:Friedrich Nietzsche ilo:Friedrich Nietzsche id:Friedrich Nietzsche ia:Friedrich Nietzsche is:Friedrich Nietzsche it:Friedrich Nietzsche he:פרידריך ניטשה jv:Friedrich Nietzsche ka:ფრიდრიხ ნიცშე kk:Фридрих Ницше sw:Friedrich Nietzsche ku:Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche mrj:Ницше, Фридрих Вильгельм la:Fridericus Nietzsche lv:Frīdrihs Nīče lb:Friedrich Nietzsche lt:Friedrich Nietzsche hu:Friedrich Nietzsche mk:Фридрих Ниче ml:ഫ്രീഡ്രിക്ക് നീച്ച mt:Friedrich Nietzsche mr:फ्रीडरिक नित्ची arz:فريدريك نيتشه ms:Friedrich Nietzsche mwl:Friedrich Nietzsche mn:Фридрих Ницше nl:Friedrich Nietzsche ne:फ्रेडरिक नीत्शे ja:フリードリヒ・ニーチェ no:Friedrich Nietzsche nn:Friedrich Nietzsche oc:Friedrich Nietzsche uz:Friedrich Nietzsche pag:Friedrich Nietzsche pnb:نطشے ps:فرېدرېک وېلهېلم نېتشي pms:Friedrich Nietzsche pl:Friedrich Nietzsche pt:Friedrich Nietzsche kaa:Friedrich Nietzsche ro:Friedrich Nietzsche rm:Friedrich Nietzsche qu:Friedrich Nietzsche rue:Фрідріх Ніцше ru:Ницше, Фридрих sah:Фридрих Ницше sco:Friedrich Nietszche sq:Friedrich Nietzsche scn:Friedrich Nietzsche simple:Friedrich Nietzsche sk:Friedrich Nietzsche sl:Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche ckb:فرێدریش نیچە sr:Фридрих Ниче sh:Friedrich Nietzsche su:Friedrich Nietzsche fi:Friedrich Nietzsche sv:Friedrich Nietzsche tl:Friedrich Nietzsche ta:பிரீட்ரிக் நீட்சே th:ฟรีดริช นีทเชอ tr:Friedrich Nietzsche uk:Фрідріх Ніцше ur:نطشے vi:Friedrich Nietzsche vo:Friedrich Nietzsche wa:Friedrich Nietzsche zh-classical:尼采 war:Friedrich Nietzsche yi:פרידריך ניצשע yo:Friedrich Nietzsche zh-yue:尼采 diq:Friedrich Nietzsche bat-smg:Frīdrėks Nīčė zh:弗里德里希·尼采

Joseph Peter Stern, in full: Joseph Peter Maria Stern (December 25, 1920 — November 18, 1991), was an authority on German literature. He was Professor at University College London from 1972 to 1986.

He was born in Prague, and died in Cambridge, England.

Works

Leibniz and the Seventeenth-Century Revolution by R.W. Meyer (1952) translator

Ernst Jünger (1953)

Lichtenberg. A Doctrine of Scattered Occasions Reconstructed from His Aphorisms and Reflections (1959)

Re-interpretations : Seven Studies in Nineteenth-Century German Literature (1964)

Liebelei/Leutnant Gustl/Die Letzten Masken by Arthur Schnitzler (1966) editor

Thomas Mann (1967)

Idylls & Realities. Studies in Nineteenth - Century German Literature (1971) editor

Hitler: the Führer and the people (1975)

Nietzsche (Fontana Modern Masters, 1978)

Nietzsche - His Life, Work, Writings and Ideas (1978)

A Study of Nietzsche (1979)

The World of Franz Kafka (1980) editor

Nietzsche on Tragedy (1981).with MS Silk

Nietzsche - Die Moralität der äußeren Anstrengung (1982)

Paths and Labyrinths. Nine Papers read at a Kafka Symposium (1985) editor with J. J. White

The Dear Purchase: A Theme in German Modernism (1995)

References

Ritchie Robertson, ''An appreciation of the work of Siegbert Prawer, J. P. Stern and George Steiner'', in Stephen D. Dowden and Meike G. Werner (eds), German Literature, Jewish Critics: The Brandeis Symposium (Rochester, NY: Camden House, 2002), pp. 237–61

M. Beddow, ''J. P. Stern: a memoir'', Proceedings of the British Academy

Notes

Category:1920 births Category:1991 deaths Category:British academics Category:People from Prague Category:Academics of University College London

Paul Strathern (born 1940) is a British writer and academic. He was born in London, and studied at Trinity College, Dublin, after which he served in the Merchant Navy over a period of two years. He then lived on a Greek island. In 1966 he travelled overland to India and the Himalayas. His novel ''A Season in Abyssinia'' won a Somerset Maugham Award in 1972.

Besides five novels, he has also written numerous books on science, philosophy, history, literature, medicine and economics. He is the author of two successful series of short introductory books: ''Philosophers in 90 Minutes'' and ''The Big Idea: Scientists Who Changed the World''. His book on the history of chemistry entitled ''Mendeleyev's Dream'' (2001) was short-listed for the Aventis Prize, and his works have been translated into over two dozen languages. He is the author of the best-selling ''The Medici: Godfathers of the Renaissance'', ''Napoleon in Egypt'', and ''The Artist, the Philosopher and the Warrior: Leonardo, Machiavelli and Borgia - a fateful collusion'' His most recent work 'Death in Florence: The Medici, Savonarola and the Battle for the Soul of the Renaissance City' came out in May 2011.

Strathern was a lecturer at Kingston University where he taught philosophy and science. He lives in London, and has three grandchildren who live in Vienna: Tristan, Julian and Opajoke.

References

External links

Category:British writers Category:Academics of Kingston University Category:1940 births Category:Living people

fa:پل استراترن pt:Paul Strathern tr:Paul Strathern

region	Western philosophy
era	20th century philosophy
name	Bertrand Arthur William Russell, 3rd Earl Russell
birth date	May 18, 1872
birth place	Trellech, Monmouthshire, UK
death date	February 02, 1970
death place	Penrhyndeudraeth, Wales, UK
school tradition	Analytic philosophy
main interests
Influences	MillPeanoFregeSantayanaLeibnizHumeLockeWittgensteinSpinozaWhitehead
Influenced	WittgensteinAyerCarnapGödelPopperQuineChomskyAustinKripkeSchlickTarskiWaismannDavidsonEddingtonTuringVuilleminMcDowellKumarAlbert Ellis
notable ideas	Analytic philosophyLogical atomismtheory of descriptionsknowledge by acquaintance and knowledge by descriptionRussell's paradoxRussell's teapot
signature	BetrandRussell Autograph.jpg ‎ }}

Bertrand Arthur William Russell, 3rd Earl Russell, OM, FRS (18 May 1872 – 2 February 1970) was a British philosopher, logician, mathematician, historian, and social critic. At various points in his life he considered himself a liberal, a socialist, and a pacifist, but he also admitted that he had never been any of these in any profound sense. He was born in Monmouthshire, into one of the most prominent aristocratic families in Britain.

Russell led the British "revolt against idealism" in the early 20th century. He is considered one of the founders of analytic philosophy along with his predecessor Gottlob Frege and his friend Ludwig Wittgenstein, and is widely held to be one of the 20th century's premier logicians. He co-authored, with A. N. Whitehead, ''Principia Mathematica'', an attempt to ground mathematics on logic. His philosophical essay "On Denoting" has been considered a "paradigm of philosophy." His work has had a considerable influence on logic, mathematics, set theory, linguistics, computer science (see type theory and type system), and philosophy, especially philosophy of language, epistemology, and metaphysics.

Russell was a prominent anti-war activist; he championed free trade and anti-imperialism and went to prison for his pacifism during World War I. Later, he campaigned against Adolf Hitler, then criticised Stalinist totalitarianism, attacked the United States of America's involvement in the Vietnam War, and was an outspoken proponent of nuclear disarmament.

A prolific commentator on religion, Russell—along with others such as Karl Marx, Sigmund Freud, and Friedrich Nietzsche—advanced a "new school of thought" that Greg Epstein calls "antagonistic atheism", which was "the view that religion was a thing of the past and ought to be brought hastily toward a point of declining influence". In 1950 Russell was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature, "in recognition of his varied and significant writings in which he champions humanitarian ideals and freedom of thought."

Biography

Ancestry

Bertrand Russell was born on 18 May 1872 at Ravenscroft, Trellech, Monmouthshire, Wales, into an influential and liberal family of the British aristocracy. His paternal grandfather, John Russell, 1st Earl Russell, was the third son of John Russell, 6th Duke of Bedford, and had twice been asked by Queen Victoria to form a government, serving her as Prime Minister in the 1840s and 1860s. The Russells had been prominent in England for several centuries before this, coming to power and the peerage with the rise of the Tudor dynasty. They established themselves as one of Britain's leading Whig families, and participated in every great political event from the Dissolution of the Monasteries in 1536–40 to the Glorious Revolution in 1688–89 and the Great Reform Act in 1832.

Russell's mother, Katharine Louisa (1844–1874), was the daughter of Edward Stanley, 2nd Baron Stanley of Alderley, and the sister of Rosalind Howard, Countess of Carlisle. Kate and Rosalind's mother was one of the founders of Girton College, Cambridge.

Russell's parents were radical for their times. Russell's father, Viscount Amberley, was an atheist and consented to his wife's affair with their children's tutor, the biologist Douglas Spalding. Both were early advocates of birth control at a time when this was considered scandalous. John Russell's atheism was evident when he asked the philosopher John Stuart Mill to act as Russell's secular godfather. Mill died the year after Russell's birth, but his writings had a great effect on Russell's life.

Childhood and adolescence

Russell had two siblings: Frank (nearly seven years older than Bertrand), and Rachel (four years older). In June 1874 Russell's mother died of diphtheria, followed shortly by Rachel's death. In January 1876, his father died of bronchitis following a long period of depression. Frank and Bertrand were placed in the care of their staunchly Victorian grandparents, who lived at Pembroke Lodge in Richmond Park. His grandfather, who had been Prime Minister, died in 1878, and was remembered by Russell as a kindly old man in a wheelchair. His grandmother, the Countess Russell (née Lady Frances Elliot), was the dominant family figure for the rest of Russell's childhood and youth.

The countess was from a Scottish Presbyterian family, and successfully petitioned the Court of Chancery to set aside a provision in Amberley's will requiring the children to be raised as agnostics. Despite her religious conservatism, she held progressive views in other areas (accepting Darwinism and supporting Irish Home Rule), and her influence on Bertrand Russell's outlook on social justice and standing up for principle remained with him throughout his life—her favourite Bible verse, 'Thou shalt not follow a multitude to do evil' (Exodus 23:2), became his motto. The atmosphere at Pembroke Lodge was one of frequent prayer, emotional repression, and formality; Frank reacted to this with open rebellion, but the young Bertrand learned to hide his feelings.

Russell's adolescence was very lonely, and he often contemplated suicide. He remarked in his autobiography that his keenest interests were in religion and mathematics, and that only the wish to know more mathematics kept him from suicide. He was educated at home by a series of tutors. His brother Frank introduced him to the work of Euclid, which transformed Russell's life.

During these formative years he also discovered the works of Percy Bysshe Shelley. In his autobiography, he writes: "I spent all my spare time reading him, and learning him by heart, knowing no one to whom I could speak of what I thought or felt, I used to reflect how wonderful it would have been to know Shelley, and to wonder whether I should meet any live human being with whom I should feel so much sympathy." Russell claimed that beginning at age 15, he spent considerable time thinking about the validity of Christian religious dogma, and by 18 had decided to discard the last of it.

University and first marriage

Russell won a scholarship to read for the Mathematical Tripos at Trinity College, Cambridge, and commenced his studies there in 1890. He became acquainted with the younger George Edward Moore and came under the influence of Alfred North Whitehead, who recommended him to the Cambridge Apostles. He quickly distinguished himself in mathematics and philosophy, graduating as a high Wrangler in 1893 and becoming a Fellow in the latter in 1895.

Russell first met the American Quaker Alys Pearsall Smith when he was 17 years old. He became a friend of the Pearsall Smith family—they knew him primarily as 'Lord John's grandson' and enjoyed showing him off—and travelled with them to the continent; it was in their company that Russell visited the Paris Exhibition of 1889 and was able to climb the Eiffel Tower soon after it was completed.

He soon fell in love with the puritanical, high-minded Alys, who was a graduate of Bryn Mawr College near Philadelphia, and, contrary to his grandmother's wishes, married her on 13 December 1894. Their marriage began to fall apart in 1901 when it occurred to Russell, while he was cycling, that he no longer loved her. She asked him if he loved her and he replied that he didn't. Russell also disliked Alys's mother, finding her controlling and cruel. It was to be a hollow shell of a marriage and they finally divorced in 1921, after a lengthy period of separation. During this period, Russell had passionate (and often simultaneous) affairs with a number of women, including Lady Ottoline Morrell and the actress Lady Constance Malleson.

Early career

Russell began his published work in 1896 with ''German Social Democracy'', a study in politics that was an early indication of a lifelong interest in political and social theory. In 1896 he taught German social democracy at the London School of Economics, where he also lectured on the science of power in the autumn of 1937. He was a member of the Coefficients dining club of social reformers set up in 1902 by the Fabian campaigners Sidney and Beatrice Webb.

He now started an intensive study of the foundations of mathematics at Trinity, during which he discovered Russell's paradox, which challenged the foundations of set theory. In 1903 he published his first important book on mathematical logic, ''The Principles of Mathematics'', showing that mathematics could be deduced from a very small number of principles, a work which contributed significantly to the cause of logicism.

In 1905 he wrote the essay "On Denoting", which was published in the philosophical journal ''Mind''. Russell became a fellow of the Royal Society in 1908. The first of three volumes of ''Principia Mathematica'', written with Whitehead, was published in 1910, which, along with the earlier ''The Principles of Mathematics'', soon made Russell world famous in his field.

In 1910 he became a lecturer in the University of Cambridge, where he was approached by the Austrian engineering student Ludwig Wittgenstein, who became his PhD student. Russell viewed Wittgenstein as a genius and a successor who would continue his work on logic. He spent hours dealing with Wittgenstein's various phobias and his frequent bouts of despair. This was often a drain on Russell's energy, but Russell continued to be fascinated by him and encouraged his academic development, including the publication of Wittgenstein's ''Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus'' in 1922. Russell delivered his lectures on Logical Atomism, his version of these ideas, in 1918, before the end of the First World War. Wittgenstein was still a prisoner of war.

First World War

During the First World War, Russell was one of the very few people to engage in active pacifist activities, and in 1916, he was dismissed from Trinity College following his conviction under the Defence of the Realm Act.

He was charged a fine of £100, which he refused to pay, hoping that he would be sent to prison, However, his books were sold at auction to raise the money. The books were bought by friends; he later treasured his copy of the King James Bible that was stamped "Confiscated by Cambridge Police."

Russell was released from prison in September 1918. He was reinstated in 1919, resigned in 1920, was Tarner Lecturer 1926, and became a Fellow again 1944–1949. A later conviction for publicly lecturing against inviting the US to enter the war on Britain's side resulted in six months' imprisonment in Brixton prison (see ''Bertrand Russell's views on society'').

Between the wars and second marriage

In August 1920 Russell travelled to Russia as part of an official delegation sent by the British government to investigate the effects of the Russian Revolution. He met Vladimir Lenin and had an hour-long conversation with him. In his autobiography, he mentions that he found Lenin rather disappointing, sensing an "impish cruelty" in him and comparing him to "an opinionated professor". He cruised down the Volga on a steamship. Russell's lover, Dora Black, visited Russia independently at the same time—she was enthusiastic about the revolution, but Russell's experiences destroyed his previous tentative support for it. He wrote a book ''The Practice and Theory of Bolshevism'' about his experiences on this trip, taken with a group of 24 others from Britain, all of whom came home thinking well of the regime, despite Russell's attempts to change their minds. For example, he told them that he heard shots fired in the middle of the night and was sure these were clandestine executions, but the others maintained that it was only cars backfiring.

Russell subsequently lectured in Beijing on philosophy for one year, accompanied by Dora. He went there with optimism and hope, as China was then on a new path. Other scholars present in China at the time included Rabindranath Tagore, the Nobel laureate Indian poet. While in China, Russell became gravely ill with pneumonia, and incorrect reports of his death were published in the Japanese press. When the couple visited Japan on their return journey, Dora notified the world that "Mr. Bertrand Russell, having died according to the Japanese press, is unable to give interviews to Japanese journalists." The press, not appreciating the sarcasm, were not amused.

Dora was six months pregnant when the couple returned to England on 26 August 1921. Russell arranged a hasty divorce from Alys, marrying Dora six days after the divorce was finalised, on 27 September 1921. Their children were John Conrad Russell, 4th Earl Russell, born on 16 November 1921, and Katharine Jane Russell (now Lady Katharine Tait), born on 29 December 1923. Russell supported himself during this time by writing popular books explaining matters of physics, ethics, and education to the layman. Some have suggested that at this point he had an affair with Vivienne Haigh-Wood, first wife of T. S. Eliot.

Together with Dora, he founded the experimental Beacon Hill School in 1927. The school was run from a succession of different locations, including its original premises at the Russells' residence, Telegraph House, near Harting, West Sussex. On 8 July 1930 Dora gave birth to her third child, a daughter, Harriet Ruth. After he left the school in 1932, Dora continued it until 1943.

Upon the death of his elder brother Frank, in 1931, Russell became the 3rd Earl Russell. He once said that his title was primarily useful for securing hotel rooms.

Russell's marriage to Dora grew increasingly tenuous, and it reached a breaking point over her having two children with an American journalist, Griffin Barry. They separated in 1932 and finally divorced. On 18 January 1936, Russell married his third wife, an Oxford undergraduate named Patricia ("Peter") Spence, who had been his children's governess since 1930. Russell and Peter had one son, Conrad Sebastian Robert Russell, 5th Earl Russell, who became a prominent historian and one of the leading figures in the Liberal Democratic party.

During the 1930s, Russell became a close friend and collaborator of V.K. Krishna Menon, then secretary of the India League, the foremost lobby for Indian independence in Great Britain.

Second World War

Russell opposed rearmament against Nazi Germany, but in 1940 changed his view that avoiding a full scale world war was more important than defeating Hitler. He concluded that Adolf Hitler taking over all of Europe would be a permanent threat to democracy. In 1943, he adopted a stance toward large-scale warfare, "Relative Political Pacifism": war was always a great evil, but in some particularly extreme circumstances, it may be the lesser of two evils.

Before the Second World War, Russell taught at the University of Chicago, later moving on to Los Angeles to lecture at the UCLA Department of Philosophy. He was appointed professor at the City College of New York in 1940, but after a public outcry, the appointment was annulled by a court judgement: his opinions (especially those relating to sexual morality, detailed in ''Marriage and Morals'' ten years earlier) made him "morally unfit" to teach at the college. The protest was started by the mother of a student who would not have been eligible for his graduate-level course in mathematical logic. Many intellectuals, led by John Dewey, protested against his treatment. Albert Einstein's often-quoted aphorism that "Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds ... " originated in his open letter in support of Russell, during this time. Dewey and Horace M. Kallen edited a collection of articles on the CCNY affair in ''The Bertrand Russell Case''. He soon joined the Barnes Foundation, lecturing to a varied audience on the history of philosophy; these lectures formed the basis of ''A History of Western Philosophy''. His relationship with the eccentric Albert C. Barnes soon soured, and he returned to Britain in 1944 to rejoin the faculty of Trinity College.

Later life

During the 1940s and 1950s, Russell participated in many broadcasts over the BBC, particularly The Brains Trust and the Third Programme, on various topical and philosophical subjects. By this time Russell was world famous outside of academic circles, frequently the subject or author of magazine and newspaper articles, and was called upon to offer opinions on a wide variety of subjects, even mundane ones. En route to one of his lectures in Trondheim, Russell was one of 24 survivors (among a total of 43 passengers) in an aeroplane crash in Hommelvik in October 1948. He said he owed his life to smoking since the people who drowned were in the non-smoking part of the plane. ''A History of Western Philosophy'' (1945) became a best-seller, and provided Russell with a steady income for the remainder of his life.

In a speech in 1948, Russell said that if the USSR's aggression continued, it would be morally worse to go to war after the USSR possessed an atomic bomb than before it possessed one, because if the USSR had no bomb the West's victory would come more swiftly and with fewer casualties than if there were atom bombs on both sides. At that time, only the United States possessed an atomic bomb, and the USSR was pursuing an extremely aggressive policy towards the countries in Eastern Europe which it was absorbing into its sphere of influence. Many understood Russell's comments to mean that Russell approved of a first strike in a war with the USSR, including Nigel Lawson, who was present when Russell spoke. Others, including Griffin, who obtained a transcript of the speech, have argued that he was merely explaining the usefulness of America's atomic arsenal in deterring the USSR from continuing its domination of Eastern Europe.

In 1948, Russell was invited by the BBC to deliver the inaugural Reith Lectures—what was to become an annual series of lectures, still broadcast by the BBC. His series of six broadcasts, titled ''Authority and the Individual'', explored themes such as the role of individual initiative in the development of a community and the role of state control in a progressive society. Russell continued to write about philosophy. He wrote a foreword to ''Words and Things'' by Ernest Gellner, which was highly critical of the later thought of Ludwig Wittgenstein and of Ordinary language philosophy. Gilbert Ryle refused to have the book reviewed in the philosophical journal ''Mind'', which caused Russell to respond via ''The Times''. The result was a month-long correspondence in ''The Times'' between the supporters and detractors of ordinary language philosophy, which was only ended when the paper published an editorial critical of both sides but agreeing with the opponents of ordinary language philosophy.

In the King's Birthday Honours of 9 June 1949, Russell was awarded the Order of Merit, and the following year he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature. When he was given the Order of Merit, King George VI was affable but slightly embarrassed at decorating a former jailbird, saying that "You have sometimes behaved in a manner that would not do if generally adopted." Russell merely smiled, but afterwards claimed that the reply "That's right, just like your brother" immediately came to mind.

In 1952 Russell was divorced by Spence, with whom he had been very unhappy. Conrad, Russell's son by Spence, did not see his father between the time of the divorce and 1968 (at which time his decision to meet his father caused a permanent breach with his mother).

Russell married his fourth wife, Edith Finch, soon after the divorce, on 15 December 1952. They had known each other since 1925, and Edith had taught English at Bryn Mawr College near Philadelphia, sharing a house for 20 years with Russell's old friend Lucy Donnelly. Edith remained with him until his death, and, by all accounts, their marriage was a happy, close, and loving one. Russell's eldest son, John, suffered from serious mental illness, which was the source of ongoing disputes between Russell and John's mother, Russell's former wife, Dora. John's wife Susan was also mentally ill, and eventually Russell and Edith became the legal guardians of their three daughters (two of whom were later found to have schizophrenia).

In 1962 Russell played a public role in the Cuban Missile Crisis: in an exchange of telegrams with Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev, Khrushchev assured him that the Soviet government would not be reckless. Russell also wrote to President Kennedy, who returned his telegram unopened.

According to historian Peter Knight, after the John F. Kennedy assassination, Russell, "prompted by the emerging work of the lawyer Mark Lane in the US ... rallied support from other noteworthy and left-leaning compatriots to form a ''Who Killed Kennedy Committee'' in June 1964, members of which included Michael Foot MP, the wife of Tony Benn MP, the publisher Victor Gollancz, the writers John Arden and J. B. Priestley, and the Oxford history professor Hugh Trevor-Roper. Russell published a highly critical article weeks before the Warren Commission Report was published, setting forth ''16 Questions on the Assassination'' and equating the Oswald case with the Dreyfus affair of late 19th century France, in which the state wrongly convicted an innocent man. Russell also criticized the American press for failing to heed any voices critical of the official version.

Political causes

Russell spent the 1950s and 1960s engaged in various political causes, primarily related to nuclear disarmament and opposing the Vietnam war (see also Russell Vietnam War Crimes Tribunal). The 1955 Russell–Einstein Manifesto was a document calling for nuclear disarmament and was signed by 11 of the most prominent nuclear physicists and intellectuals of the time. He wrote a great many letters to world leaders during this period. He was in contact with Lionel Rogosin while the latter was filming his anti-war film ''Good Times, Wonderful Times'' in the 1960s. He became a hero to many of the youthful members of the New Left. In early 1963, in particular, Russell became increasingly vocal about his disapproval of what he felt to be the US government's near-genocidal policies in South Vietnam. In 1963 he became the inaugural recipient of the Jerusalem Prize, an award for writers concerned with the freedom of the individual in society. In October 1965 he tore up his Labour Party card because he suspected the party was going to send soldiers to support the US in the Vietnam War.

Final years and death

Russell published his three-volume autobiography in 1967, 1968, and 1969. On 23 November 1969 he wrote to ''The Times'' newspaper saying that the preparation for show trials in Czechoslovakia was "highly alarming". The same month, he appealed to Secretary General U Thant of the United Nations to support an international war crimes commission to investigate alleged torture and genocide by the US in South Vietnam. The following month, he protested to Alexei Kosygin over the expulsion of Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn from the Writers Union.

On 31 January 1970 Russell issued a statement which condemned Israeli aggression in the Middle East and called for Israeli withdrawal from the Israeli-occupied territories. This was Russell's final political statement or act. It was read out at the International Conference of Parliamentarians in Cairo on 3 February 1970, the day after his death.

Russell died of influenza on 2 February 1970 at his home, Plas Penrhyn, in Penrhyndeudraeth, Merionethshire, Wales. His body was cremated in Colwyn Bay on 5 February 1970. In accordance with his will, there was no religious ceremony; his ashes were scattered over the Welsh mountains later that year.

In 1980 a memorial to Russell was commissioned by a committee including the philosopher A. J. Ayer. It consists of a bust of Russell in Red Lion Square in London sculpted by Marcelle Quinton.

Titles and honours from birth

Russell held throughout his life the following styles and honours:

from birth until 1908: The Honourable Bertrand Arthur William Russell

from 1908 until 1931: The Honourable Bertrand Arthur William Russell, FRS

from 1931 until 1949: The Right Honourable The Earl Russell, FRS

from 1949 until death: The Right Honourable The Earl Russell, OM, FRS

Views

Views on philosophy

Russell is generally credited with being one of the founders of analytic philosophy. He was deeply impressed by Gottfried Leibniz (1646–1716), and wrote on every major area of philosophy except aesthetics. He was particularly prolific in the field of metaphysics, the logic and the philosophy of mathematics, the philosophy of language, ethics and epistemology. When Brand Blanshard asked Russell why he didn't write on aesthetics, Russell replied that he didn't know anything about it, "but that is not a very good excuse, for my friends tell me it has not deterred me from writing on other subjects."

Views on religion

Russell described himself both as an agnostic and an atheist. For most of his adult life Russell maintained that religion is little more than superstition and, despite any positive effects that religion might have, it is largely harmful to people. He believed religion and the religious outlook (he considered communism and other systematic ideologies to be forms of religion) serve to impede knowledge, foster fear and dependency, and are responsible for much of the war, oppression, and misery that have beset the world. He was a member of the Advisory Council of the British Humanist Association and President of Cardiff Humanists until his death.

Views on society

Political and social activism occupied much of Russell's time for most of his life, which makes his prodigious and seminal writing on a wide range of technical and non-technical subjects all the more remarkable. Russell remained politically active almost to the end of his life, writing to and exhorting world leaders and lending his name to various causes. He was noted for saying "No one can sit at the bedside of a dying child and still believe in God."

Russell determined man to be "the product of causes ... his origin, his growth, his hopes and fears, his loves and his beliefs, are but the outcome of accidental collocations of atoms, that no fire, no heroism, no intensity of thought and feeling, can preserve an individual life beyond the grave; that all the labors of the ages, all the inspiration, all the noonday brightness of human genius are destined to extinction in the vast death of the solar system, that the whole temple of man's achievement must inevitably be buried beneath the debris of a universe in ruins—all these things, if not quite beyond dispute, are so nearly certain, that no philosophy which rejects them can hope to stand ... "

Selected works

Selected bibliography of Russell's books

This is a selected bibliography of Russell's books in English sorted by year of first publication.

1896. ''German Social Democracy''. London: Longmans, Green.

1897. ''An Essay on the Foundations of Geometry''. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

1900. ''A Critical Exposition of the Philosophy of Leibniz''. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

1903. ''The Principles of Mathematics'', Cambridge University Press.

1905. ''On Denoting'', Mind, vol. 14. ISSN: 00264425. Basil Blackwell.

1910. ''Philosophical Essays''. London: Longmans, Green.

1910–1913. ''Principia Mathematica">Principia Mathematica'' (with Alfred North Whitehead). 3 vols. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

1912. The Problems of Philosophy''">''The Problems of Philosophy''. London: Williams and Norgate.

1914. ''Our Knowledge of the External World as a Field for Scientific Method in Philosophy''. Chicago and London: Open Court Publishing.

1916. ''Why Men Fight''. New York: The Century Co.

1916. ''Justice in War-time''. Chicago: Open Court.

1917. ''Political Ideals''. New York: The Century Co.

1918. ''Mysticism and Logic and Other Essays''. London: Longmans, Green.

1918. ''Proposed Roads to Freedom: Socialism, Anarchism, and Syndicalism''. London: George Allen & Unwin.

1919. ''Introduction to Mathematical Philosophy''. London: George Allen & Unwin. (ISBN 0-415-09604-9 for Routledge paperback) (''Copy at Archive.org'').

1920. ''The Practice and Theory of Bolshevism''. London: George Allen & Unwin.

1921. ''The Analysis of Mind''. London: George Allen & Unwin.

1922. ''The Problem of China''. London: George Allen & Unwin.

1923. ''The Prospects of Industrial Civilization'', in collaboration with Dora Russell. London: George Allen & Unwin.

1923. ''The ABC of Atoms'', London: Kegan Paul. Trench, Trubner.

1924. ''Icarus; or, The Future of Science''. London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner.

1925. ''The ABC of Relativity''. London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner.

1925. ''What I Believe''. London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner.

1926. ''On Education, Especially in Early Childhood''. London: George Allen & Unwin.

1927. ''The Analysis of Matter''. London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner.

1927. ''An Outline of Philosophy''. London: George Allen & Unwin.

1927. ''Why I Am Not a Christian">Why I Am Not a Christian''. London: Watts.

1927. ''Selected Papers of Bertrand Russell''. New York: Modern Library.

1928. ''Sceptical Essays''. London: George Allen & Unwin.

1929. ''Marriage and Morals''. London: George Allen & Unwin.

1930. The Conquest of Happiness. London: George Allen & Unwin.

1931. ''The Scientific Outlook''. London: George Allen & Unwin.

1932. ''Education and the Social Order'', London: George Allen & Unwin.

1934. ''Freedom and Organization, 1814–1914''. London: George Allen & Unwin.

1935. ''In Praise of Idleness''. London: George Allen & Unwin. (on refusal of work)

1935. ''Religion and Science''. London: Thornton Butterworth.

1936. ''Which Way to Peace?''. London: Jonathan Cape.

1937. ''The Amberley Papers: The Letters and Diaries of Lord and Lady Amberley'', with Patricia Russell, 2 vols., London: Leonard & Virginia Woolf at the Hogarth Press.

1938. ''Power: A New Social Analysis''. London: George Allen & Unwin.

1940. ''An Inquiry into Meaning and Truth''. New York: W. W. Norton & Company.

1945. A History of Western Philosophy and Its Connection with Political and Social Circumstances from the Earliest Times to the Present Day''">''A History of Western Philosophy and Its Connection with Political and Social Circumstances from the Earliest Times to the Present Day''. New York: Simon and Schuster.

1948. ''Human Knowledge: Its Scope and Limits''. London: George Allen & Unwin.

1949. ''Authority and the Individual''. London: George Allen & Unwin.

1950. ''Unpopular Essays''. London: George Allen & Unwin.

1951. ''New Hopes for a Changing World''. London: George Allen & Unwin.

1952. ''The Impact of Science on Society''. London: George Allen & Unwin.

1953. ''Satan in the Suburbs and Other Stories''. London: George Allen & Unwin.

1954. ''Human Society in Ethics and Politics''. London: George Allen & Unwin.

1954. ''Nightmares of Eminent Persons and Other Stories''. London: George Allen & Unwin.

1956. ''Portraits from Memory and Other Essays''. London: George Allen & Unwin.

1956. ''Logic and Knowledge: Essays 1901–1950'', edited by Robert C. Marsh. London: George Allen & Unwin.

1957. ''Why I Am Not A Christian and Other Essays on Religion and Related Subjects'', edited by Paul Edwards. London: George Allen & Unwin.

1958. ''Understanding History and Other Essays''. New York: Philosophical Library.

1959. ''Common Sense and Nuclear Warfare''. London: George Allen & Unwin.

1959. ''My Philosophical Development">My Philosophical Development''. London: George Allen & Unwin.

1959. ''Wisdom of the West'', edited by Paul Foulkes. London: Macdonald.

1960. ''Bertrand Russell Speaks His Mind'', Cleveland and New York: World Publishing Company.

1961. ''The Basic Writings of Bertrand Russell'', edited by R.E. Egner and L.E. Denonn. London: George Allen & Unwin.

1961. ''Fact and Fiction''. London: George Allen & Unwin.

1961. ''Has Man a Future?'', London: George Allen & Unwin.

1963. ''Essays in Skepticism''. New York: Philosophical Library.

1963. ''Unarmed Victory''. London: George Allen & Unwin.

1965. ''On the Philosophy of Science'', edited by Charles A. Fritz, Jr. Indianapolis: The Bobbs-Merrill Company.

1967. ''Russell's Peace Appeals'', edited by Tsutomu Makino and Kazuteru Hitaka. Japan: Eichosha's New Current Books.

1967. ''War Crimes in Vietnam''. London: George Allen & Unwin.

1951–1969. ''The Autobiography of Bertrand Russell'', 3 vols.. London: George Allen & Unwin. Vol 2 1956

1969. ''Dear Bertrand Russell... A Selection of his Correspondence with the General Public 1950–1968'', edited by Barry Feinberg and Ronald Kasrils. London: George Allen and Unwin.

Russell also wrote many pamphlets, introductions, articles, and letters to the editor. His works can be found in anthologies and collections, perhaps most notably ''The Collected Papers of Bertrand Russell'', which McMaster University began publishing in 1983. This collection of his shorter and previously unpublished works is now up to 16 volumes, and many more are forthcoming. An additional three volumes catalogue just his bibliography. The Russell Archives at McMaster University possess over 30,000 of his letters.

See also

Cambridge University Moral Sciences Club

Notes

Additional references

Russell

1900, ''Sur la logique des relations avec des applications à la théorie des séries'', ''Rivista di matematica 7'': 115–148.

1901, ''On the Notion of Order'', ''Mind (n.s.) 10'': 35–51.

1902, (with Alfred North Whitehead), ''On Cardinal Numbers'', ''American Journal of Mathematics 23'': 367–384.

1948, BBC Reith Lectures: Authority and the Individual A series of six radio lectures broadcast on the BBC Home Service in December 1948.

Secondary references

John Newsome Crossley. ''A Note on Cantor's Theorem and Russell's Paradox'', ''Australian Journal of Philosophy 51'': 70–71.

Ivor Grattan-Guinness, 2000. ''The Search for Mathematical Roots 1870–1940''. Princeton University Press.

''Bertrand Russell: A Political Life'' by Alan Ryan 1981

Books about Russell's philosophy

''Bertrand Russell: Critical Assessments'', edited by A. D. Irvine, 4 volumes, London: Routledge, 1999. Consists of essays on Russell's work by many distinguished philosophers.

''Bertrand Russell'', by John Slater, Bristol: Thoemmes Press, 1994.

''Bertrand Russell's Ethics''. by Michael K. Potter, Bristol: Thoemmes Continuum, 2006. A clear and accessible explanation of Russell's moral philosophy.

''The Philosophy of Bertrand Russell'', edited by P.A. Schilpp, Evanston and Chicago: Northwestern University, 1944.

''Russell'', by A. J. Ayer, London: Fontana, 1972. ISBN 0-00-632965-9. A lucid summary exposition of Russell's thought.

''The Lost Cause: Causation and the Mind-Body Problem'', by Celia Green. Oxford: Oxford Forum, 2003. ISBN 0-9536772-1-4 Contains a sympathetic analysis of Russell's views on causality.

''Russell's Idealist Apprenticeship'', by Nicholas Griffin. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1991.

Biographical books

''Bertrand Russell: Philosopher and Humanist'', by John Lewis (1968)

''Bertrand Russell'', by A. J. Ayer (1972), reprint ed. 1988: ISBN 0-226-03343-0

''The Life of Bertrand Russell'', by Ronald W. Clark (1975) ISBN 0-394-49059-2

''Bertrand Russell and His World'', by Ronald W. Clark (1981) ISBN 0-500-13070-1

''Bertrand Russell: Mathematics: Dreams and Nightmares'' by Ray Monk (1997) ISBN 0-75380-190-6

'' Bertrand Russell: 1872–1920 The Spirit of Solitude'' by Ray Monk (1997) ISBN 0-09-973131-2

''Bertrand Russell: 1921–1970 The Ghost of Madness'' by Ray Monk (2001) ISBN 0-09-927275-X

''Logicomix: An Epic Search for Truth'' by Apostolos Doxiadis, and Christos Papadimitriou (2009)

Further reading

Bertrand Russell. 1967–1969, ''The Autobiography of Bertrand Russell'', 3 volumes, London: George Allen & Unwin.

Wallechinsky, David & Irving Wallace. 1975–1981, "Famous Marriages Bertrand Russell & Alla Pearsall Smith, Part 1" & "Part 3", on "Alys" Pearsall Smith, webpage content from ''The People's Almanac'', webpages: Part 1 & Part 3 (accessed 8 November 2008).

Russell B, (1944) "My Mental Development", in Schilpp, Paul Arturn "The Philosophy of Betrand Russell", New York, Tudorm 1951, pp 3–20

External links

;Other writings available online

"A Free Man's Worship" (1903)

"The Elements of Ethics" (1910)

War and Non-Resistance (1915)

The War and Non-Resistance — A Rejoinder to Professor Perry (1915)

The Ethics of War (1915)

''Justice in Wartime'' (1917)

''Why Men Fight: A Method of Abolishing the International Duel'' (1917)

"Has Religion Made Useful Contributions to Civilization?" 1930

''Legitimacy Versus Industrialism 1814–1848'' (1935)

"Am I an Atheist or an Agnostic?" (1947)

"Ideas that Have Harmed Mankind" (1950)

"What Desires Are Politically Important?" (1950)

''An Outline of Philosophy'' (1951)

''Is There a God?'' (1952)

''The Scientific Outlook'' (1954)

"16 Questions on the Assassination" (of President Kennedy) (1964)

;Audio

Works by Bertrand Russell in audio format from LibriVox

Sound clips of Bertrand Russell speaking

;Other

Pembroke Lodge — childhood home and museum

The Bertrand Russell Society Quarterly

The Bertrand Russell Peace Foundation

Bertrand Russell in Japan

Photographs at the National Portrait Gallery (London)

The Bertrand Russell Archives at McMaster University

Resource list

The First Reith Lecture given by Russell (Real Audio)

Nobel Prize

Bertrand Russell at 100 Welsh Heroes

Key Participants: Bertrand Russell — ''Linus Pauling and the International Peace Movement: A Documentary History''

PM@100: LOGIC FROM 1910 TO 1927 Conference at the Bertrand Russell Research Centre (McMaster University, Ontario, Canada), to be held on 21–24 May 2010, celebrating the 100th anniversary of the publication of Principia Mathematica.

Bertrand Russell Society Bulletin (2011–present)(Kris Notaro and David Blitz)

Category:1872 births Category:1970 deaths Category:20th-century mathematicians Category:20th-century philosophers Category:Academics of the London School of Economics Category:Fellows of Trinity College, Cambridge Category:Analytic philosophers Category:Anti–Vietnam War activists Category:Atheist philosophers Category:Atheism activists Category:British anti–nuclear weapons activists Category:English pacifists Category:English logicians Category:English prisoners and detainees Category:British republicans Category:British Nobel laureates Category:Cambridge University Moral Sciences Club Category:Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament Category:Critics of work and the work ethic Category:Deaths from influenza Category:Earls in the Peerage of the United Kingdom Category:Epistemologists Category:Fellows of the Royal Society Category:Free love advocates Category:English atheists Category:English historians of philosophy Category:Infectious disease deaths in Wales Category:Kalinga Prize recipients Category:LGBT rights activists from the United Kingdom Category:Male feminists Category:Members of the Order of Merit Category:Nobel laureates in Literature Category:Ontologists Category:People from Monmouthshire Category:Philosophers of language Category:Philosophers of mathematics Bertrand Russell Category:Set theorists Category:University of California, Los Angeles faculty Category:University of Chicago faculty Category:Utilitarians Category:Western writers about Soviet Russia Category:World federalists Category:British humanists Category:English sceptics Category:Linguistic turn Category:De Morgan Medallists Category:19th-century philosophers Category:19th-century mathematicians

af:Bertrand Russell am:በርትራንድ ረስል ar:بيرتراند راسل an:Bertrand Russell as:বাৰ্ট্ৰেণ্ড ৰাছেল az:Bertran Rassel bn:বারট্রান্ড রাসেল zh-min-nan:Bertrand Russell be:Бертран Артур Уільям Расэл be-x-old:Бэртран Расэл bg:Бъртранд Ръсел bs:Bertrand Russell ca:Bertrand Russell cs:Bertrand Russell cy:Bertrand Russell da:Bertrand Russell de:Bertrand Russell et:Bertrand Russell el:Μπέρτραντ Ράσελ es:Bertrand Russell eo:Bertrand Russell eu:Bertrand Russell fa:برتراند راسل fr:Bertrand Russell fy:Bertrand Russell ga:Bertrand Russell gd:Bertrand Russell gl:Bertrand Russell ko:버트런드 러셀 hy:Բերտրան Ռասել hi:बर्टराण्ड रसेल hr:Bertrand Russell io:Bertrand Russell ilo:Bertrand Russell id:Bertrand Russell is:Bertrand Russell it:Bertrand Russell he:ברטראנד ראסל jv:Bertrand Russell ka:ბერტრან რასელი kk:Рассел, Бертран sw:Bertrand Russell ht:Bertrand Russell ku:Bertrand Russell la:Bertrandus Russell lv:Bertrans Rasels lb:Bertrand Russell lt:Bertrand Russell hu:Bertrand Russell mk:Бертранд Расел ml:ബെര്‍ട്രാന്‍ഡ് റസ്സല്‍ mr:बर्ट्रांड रसेल arz:برتراند راسل mn:Бертранд Рассел nl:Bertrand Russell ne:बर्टेण्ड रसेल ja:バートランド・ラッセル no:Bertrand Russell nn:Bertrand Russell oc:Bertrand Russell uz:Bertrand Russell pnb:برٹرینڈ رسل pms:Bertrand Russell pl:Bertrand Russell pt:Bertrand Russell ro:Bertrand Russell ru:Рассел, Бертран sc:Bertrand Russell sco:Bertrand Russell sq:Bertrand Russell scn:Bertrand Russell simple:Bertrand Russell sk:Bertrand Russell sl:Bertrand Russell ckb:بێرتراند ڕاسێل sr:Бертранд Расел sh:Bertrand Russell fi:Bertrand Russell sv:Bertrand Russell tl:Bertrand Russell ta:பெர்ட்ரண்டு ரசல் te:బెర్ట్రాండ్ రస్సెల్ th:เบอร์ทรันด์ รัสเซลล์ tr:Bertrand Russell uk:Бертран Расселл ur:برٹرینڈ رسل vi:Bertrand Russell fiu-vro:Russelli Bertrand war:Bertrand Russell yo:Bertrand Russell diq:Bertrand Russell zh:伯特兰·罗素

{{infobox philosopher | region	Western Philosophy | era 20th-century philosophy | color #B0C4DE | image Bloom.jpg | image_size 250px | caption
Name	Allan Bloom
Birth date	September 14, 1930
Birth place	Indianapolis, Indiana, United States
Death date	October 7, 1992
Death place	Chicago, Illinois, United States | school_tradition Continental Philosophy, Platonism| main_interests Greek philosophy, History of philosophy, Political philosophy, Renaissance philosophy, Nihilism, Continental philosophy, French Literature, Shakespeare | influences Pre-Socratics, Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, Machiavelli, Montaigne, William Shakespeare, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, Friedrich Nietzsche, Martin Heidegger, Leo Strauss, Alexandre Kojève, Raymond Aron | influenced Francis Fukuyama, Thomas Pangle, Harvey C. Mansfield, Alan Keyes, Thomas G. West, Pierre Manent| notable_ideas Sublimation, Great Books, Socratic Irony }}

Allan David Bloom (September 14, 1930 – October 7, 1992) was an American philosopher, classicist, and academic. He studied under David Grene, Leo Strauss, Richard McKeon and Alexandre Kojève. He subsequently taught at Cornell University, the University of Toronto, Yale University, École Normale Supérieure of Paris, and the University of Chicago. Bloom championed the idea of 'Great Books' education and became famous for his criticism of contemporary American higher education, with his views being expressed in his bestselling 1987 book, ''The Closing of the American Mind''. Although Bloom was characterized as a conservative in the popular media, Bloom explicitly stated that this was a misunderstanding, and made it clear that he was not to be affiliated with any conservative movements. Saul Bellow wrote ''Ravelstein'', a roman à clef based on Bloom, his friend and teaching partner at the University of Chicago.

Early life and education

Allan Bloom was born in Indianapolis, Indiana in 1930 to Jewish social-worker parents. The couple had a daughter, Lucille, in 1928, and the birth of Allan two years later completed the family group. As a thirteen-year-old, he read a ''Readers Digest'' article about the University of Chicago and told his parents he wanted to attend; his parents thought it was unreasonable and did not encourage his hopes. Yet, when his family moved to Chicago in 1944, his parents met a psychiatrist and family friend whose son was enrolled in the University of Chicago’s humanities program for gifted students. In 1946 Bloom was accepted to the same program, starting his degree at the age of fifteen, and spending the next decade of his life enrolled at the university in Chicago’s Hyde Park neighborhood. This began his life-long passion for the 'idea' of the university.

In the preface to ''Giants and Dwarfs: Essays, 1960-1990'', he stated that his education "began with Freud and ended with Plato." The theme of this education was self-knowledge, or self-discovery—an idea that Bloom would later write seemed impossible to conceive of for a Midwestern American boy. He credits Leo Strauss as the teacher who made this endeavor possible for him.

Bloom graduated from Chicago with his bachelor’s degree at the age of 18. For post-graduate studies, he enrolled in the Committee on Social Thought, where he was assigned Classicist David Grene as tutor, and went on to write his thesis on Isocrates. Grene recalled Bloom as an energetic and humorous student completely dedicated to studying classics, but with no definite career ambitions. The Committee was a unique interdisciplinary program that attracted a small number of students due to its rigorous academic requirements and lack of clear employment opportunities after graduation. Bloom earned his Ph.D. from the Committee on Social Thought in 1955. He subsequently studied under the influential Hegelian philosopher Alexandre Kojève in Paris, whose lectures Bloom would later introduce to the English-speaking world. While teaching philosophy at the École Normale Supérieure in Paris, he befriended Raymond Aron amongst many other philosophers. Among the American expatriate community in Paris his friends included Susan Sontag.

Career

{|class="toccolours" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; font-size: 84%; background:#white; color:black; width:32em; max-width: 48%;" cellspacing="4" |style="text-align: left;"| "I am not a conservative — neo or paleo. Conservatism is a respectable outlook... I just do not happen to be that animal." - Allan Bloom, ''Giants and Dwarfs'' |}

Bloom studied and taught in Paris (1953–55) at the École Normale Supérieure, and Germany (1957). Upon returning to the United States in 1955, he taught adult education students at the University of Chicago with his friend Werner J. Dannhauser, author of ''Nietzsche's View of Socrates''. Bloom went on to teach at Yale from 1960 to 1963, at Cornell until 1970, and at the University of Toronto until 1979, when he returned to the University of Chicago. Among Bloom's former students are prominent journalists, government officials and political scientists such as Francis Fukuyama, Robert Kraynak, Pierre Hassner, Clifford Orwin, Janet Ajzenstat, John Ibbitson and John Milligan-Whyte.

In 1963, as a Professor at Cornell, Allan Bloom served as a faculty member of the Telluride Association, an organization focused on intellectual development and self-governance. The students received free room and board in the Telluride House on the Cornell University campus and assumed the management of the house themselves. Bloom's first book was a collection of three essays on Shakespeare's plays, ''Shakespeare's Politics''; it included an essay from Harry V. Jaffa. He translated and commented upon Rousseau's "Letter to D'Alembert On the Theater," bringing it into dialogue with Plato's Republic. In 1968, he published his most significant work of philosophical translation and interpretation, a translation of Plato's ''Republic''. Bloom strove to achieve "the first translation of Plato's Republic that attempts to be strictly literal." Although the translation is not universally accepted, Bloom said he always conceptualized the translator's role as a matchmaker between readers and the texts he translated. He repeated this effort as a professor of political science at the University of Toronto in 1978, translating Jean-Jacques Rousseau's ''Emile''. Among other publications during his years of teaching was a reading of Swift's ''Gulliver's Travels'', titled "Giants and Dwarfs"; it became the title for a collection of essays on, among others, Raymond Aron, Alexandre Kojeve, Leo Strauss, and John Rawls. Bloom was an editor for the scholarly journal ''Political Theory'' as well as a contributor to ''History of Political Philosophy'' (edited by Joseph Cropsey and Leo Strauss).

After returning to Chicago, he befriended and taught courses with Saul Bellow. In 1987 Bellow wrote the Preface to ''The Closing of the American Mind'', the book that made Bloom famous and wealthy. http://www.weeklystandard.com/print/articles/book-drove-them-crazy_634905.html?nopager=1 Bellow later immortalized his dead friend in the novel ''Ravelstein'' in which the subject is dying of AIDS just as Bloom himself was homosexual and died of AIDS. Ravelstein engages the chronicler in a discussion about philosophy and love.

Bloom's last book, which he dictated while in the hospital dying, and which was published posthumously, was ''Love and Friendship'', an offering of interpretations on the meaning of love.

Philosophy

{|class="toccolours" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 2em; font-size: 85%; background:#white; color:black; width:30em; max-width: 40%;" cellspacing="5" |style="text-align: left;"| "The substance of my being has been informed by the books I learned to care for." |} Bloom's work is not easily categorized, yet there is a thread that links all of his published material. He was concerned with preserving a philosophical way of life for future generations. He strove to do this through both scholarly and popular writing. His writings may be placed into two categories: scholarly (e.g. ''Plato's Republic'') and popular political comment (e.g. ''Closing of the American Mind''). On the surface, this is a valid distinction, yet closer examinations of Bloom’s works reveal a direct connection between the two types of expression, which reflect his view of philosophy and the role of the philosopher in political life.

''Plato's Republic''

Bloom’s translation and interpretive essay on ''Plato’s Republic'' was published in 1968. For Bloom, previous translations were lacking. In particular, Bloom was eager to sweep away the Christian Platonist layers that had coated the translations and scholarly analysis. In 1971, he wrote, "With the ''Republic'', for example, a long tradition of philosophy tells us what the issues are. [...] This sense of familiarity may be spurious; we may be reading the text as seen by the tradition rather than raising Plato's own questions. Up until the late 20th century, most English language Platonists were following a tradition that blended Christian theology with Plato. This view, named Christian Platonism, interprets Plato as prophet of the coming Christian age, a monotheist in a polytheist world. In this school, Socrates is considered a pre-Christian saint; the tradition emphasizes Socrates' 'goodness' and other-worldly attributes, such as accepting his death like a martyr. In the words of George Grant, "Straussians say that Christianity led to overextension of soul."

Yet there developed a different type of Platonism, Pagan Platonism, a type of which Bloom became aware and most certainly adopted from his teacher Leo Strauss (1899–1973), the most important representative of this thought in the past century. Adherents have a significantly different view of ''Plato’s Republic''.

Strauss developed this point of view by studying ancient Islamic and Jewish theorists, such as Al-Farabi (870-950) and Moses Maimonides (1135–1204). Each philosopher was faithful to his religion but sought to integrate classical political philosophy into Islam and Judaism. Islam has a prophet-legislator, Muhammad, and similarly, Jewish law is a function of its theology. Thus these philosophers had to write with great skill, incorporating the ideas of Plato and Aristotle, many of which contradicted or contravened Islamic or Jewish thought and practice, without being seen to challenge the theology. According to Strauss, Al-Farabi and Moses Maimonides were really writing for potential philosophers within the pious faithful. Strauss calls this the discovery of esoteric writing, and he first presents it as a possibility in ''Persecution and the Art of Writing'' (1952). Christianity differed from these faiths in that philosophy was always free to establish a foothold in Christendom, without necessarily being seen as heretical. All one has to do is think of Saint Augustine (354-430) and his ''City of God'' and ''On Free Will''.

Strauss took this insight and applied it eventually to Plato’s writings themselves. Bloom's translation and essay of the ''Republic'' takes this stance; therefore, it is radically different in many important aspects from the previous translations and interpretations of the ''Republic''. Most notable is Bloom's discussion of Socratic ironically. In fact, irony is the key to Bloom’s take on the ''Republic''. (See his discussion of Books II-VI of the ''Republic''.) Allan Bloom says a philosopher is immune to irony because he can see the tragic as comic and comic as tragic. Bloom refers to Socrates, the philosopher ''par excellence,'' in his Interpretative Essay stating, "Socrates can go naked where others go clothed; he is not afraid of ridicule. He can also contemplate sexual intercourse where others are stricken with terror; he is not afraid of moral indignation. In other words he treats the comic seriously and the tragic lightly. Thus irony in the ''Republic'' refers to the 'Just City in Speech' Bloom looks at it not as a model for future society, nor as a template for the human soul; rather, it is a city presented ironicly, an example of the distance between philosophy and every potential philosopher. Bloom follows Strauss in suggesting that the 'Just City in Speech' is not natural; it is man-made.

''Closing of the American Mind''

{|class="toccolours" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 2em; font-size: 85%; background:#white; color:black; width:30em; max-width: 40%;" cellspacing="5" |style="text-align: left;"| "Education in our times must try to find whatever there is in students that might yearn for completion, and to reconstruct the learning that would enable them autonomously to seek that completion." - Allan Bloom, ''Closing of the American Mind'' |}

''Closing of the American Mind'' was published in 1987, five years after Bloom published an essay in ''The National Review'' about the failure of universities to serve the needs of students. With the encouragement of Saul Bellow, his colleague at the University of Chicago, he expanded his thoughts into a book "about a life I've led", that critically reflected on the current state of higher education in American universities. His friends and admirers imagined the work would be a modest success, as did Bloom, who recognized his publisher’s modest advance to complete the project as a lack of sales confidence. Yet on the momentum of strong initial reviews, including one by Christopher Lehmann-Haupt in the ''New York Times'' and an op-ed piece by syndicated conservative commentator George Will titled, "A How-To Book for the Independent" it became an unexpected best seller, eventually selling close to half a million copies in hardback and remaining at number one on the ''New York Times'' Non-fiction Best Seller list for four months.

Bloom's ''Closing of the American Mind'' is a critique of the contemporary university and how Bloom sees it as failing its students. In it, Bloom criticizes the modern movements in philosophy and the humanities. Philosophy professors involved in ordinary language analysis or logical positivism disregard important "humanizing" ethical and political issues and fail to pique the interest of students. Literature professors involved in deconstructionism promote irrationalism and skepticism of standards of truth and thereby dissolve the moral imperatives which are communicated through genuine philosophy and which elevate and broaden the intellects of those who engage with them. To a great extent, Bloom's criticism revolves around his belief that the "great books" of Western thought have been devalued as a source of wisdom. Bloom's critique extends beyond the university to speak to the general crisis in American society. ''Closing of the American Mind'' draws analogies between the United States and the Weimar Republic. The modern liberal philosophy, he says, enshrined in the Enlightenment thought of John Locke—that a just society could be based upon self-interest alone, coupled by the emergence of relativism in American thought—had led to this crisis.

For Bloom, this created a void in the souls of Americans, into which demagogic radicals as exemplified by '60s student leaders could leap. (In the same fashion, Bloom suggests, that the Nazi brownshirts once filled the gap created in German society by the Weimar Republic.) In the second instance, he argued, the higher calling of philosophy and reason understood as freedom of thought, had been eclipsed by a pseudo-philosophy, or an ideology of thought. Relativism was one feature of modern liberal philosophy that had subverted the Platonic–Socratic teaching.

Bloom's critique of contemporary social movements at play in universities or society at large is derived from his classical and philosophical orientation. For Bloom, the failure of contemporary liberal education leads to the sterile social and sexual habits of modern students, and to their inability to fashion a life for themselves beyond the mundane offerings touted as success. Bloom argues that commercial pursuits had become more highly valued than love, the philosophic quest for truth, or the civilized pursuits of honor and glory.

In one chapter, in a style of analysis which resembles the work of the Frankfurt School, he examined the philosophical effects of popular music on the lives of students, placing pop music, or as it is generically branded by record companies "rock music", in a historical context from ''Plato’s Republic'' to Nietzsche’s Dionysian longings. Treating it for the first time with genuine philosophical interest, he gave fresh attention to the industry, its target-marketing to children and teenagers, its top performers, its place in our late-capitalist bourgeois economy, and its pretensions to liberation and freedom. Some critics, including the popular musician Frank Zappa, argued that Bloom's view of pop music was based on the same ideas that critics of pop "in 1950s held, ideas about the preservation of 'traditional' white American society." Bloom, informed by Socrates, Aristotle, Rousseau and Nietzsche, explores music’s power over the human soul. He cites the soldier who throws himself into battle at the urging of the drum corps, the pious believer who prays under the spell of a religious hymn, the lover seduced by the romantic guitar, and points towards the tradition of philosophy that treated musical education as paramount. He names the pop-star Mick Jagger as a cardinal representative of the hypocrisy and erotic sterility of pop-rock music. Pop music employs sexual images and language to enthrall the young and to persuade them that their petty rebelliousness is authentic politics, when, in fact, they are being controlled by the money-managers whom successful performers like Jagger quietly serve. Bloom claims that Jagger is a hero to many university students who envy his fame and wealth but are really just bored by the lack of options before them. Along with the absence of literature in the lives of the young and their sexual but often unerotic relationships, the first part of ''Closing'' tries to explain the current state of education in a fashion beyond the purview of an economist or psychiatrist—contemporary culture's leading umpires.

Critical reception

The book met with early critical acclaim, including positive reviews in publications including The New York Times, Time, Newsweek, the Chronicle of Higher Education, and the Washington Post.

A second round of reviews was generally more critical. Martha Nussbaum, a liberal political philosopher and classicist, and Harry V. Jaffa, a conservative, both argued that Bloom was deeply influenced by 19th-century European philosophers, especially Friedrich Nietzsche. Nussbaum wrote that, for Bloom, Nietzsche had been disastrously influential in modern American thought. Jaffa pointed out the lack of attention Bloom paid to the moral role gay rights were playing in the lives of current students. According to Jaffa, while Bloom discusses contemporary social movements, particularly those that gained ascendancy in the 1960s, he is virtually silent on the gay rights movement, which might appear odd in view of the fact that Bloom was homosexual.

In a passage of her review, Nussbaum wrote: "How good a philosopher, then, is Allan Bloom? The answer is, we cannot say, and we are given no reason to think him one at all." The outraged "assault" on the book was continued by negative and impassioned reviews by Benjamin Barber in ''Harper's''; by Alexander Nehamas, a scholar of ancient philosophy and Nietzsche, in the ''London Review of Books''; and by David Rieff in ''The Times Literary Supplement''. David Rieff called Bloom "an academic version of Oliver North: vengeful, reactionary, antidemocratic." The book, he said, was one that "decent people would be ashamed of having written." The tone of these reviews led James Atlas in the ''New York Times Magazine'' to conclude "the responses to Bloom's book have been charged with a hostility that transcends the usual mean-spiritedness of reviewers." One reviewer, the philosopher Robert Paul Wolff writing in the scholarly journal ''Academe'', reviewed the book as a work of fiction: he claimed that Bloom's friend Saul Bellow, who had written the introduction, had written a "coruscatingly funny novel in the form of a pettish, bookish, grumpy, reactionary complaint against the last two decades", with the "author" a "mid-fiftyish professor at the University of Chicago, to whom Bellow gives the evocative name 'Bloom.'" Yet some reviewers tempered that criticism with an admission of the merits of Bloom's writing: for example, Fred Matthews, a historian from York University, began an otherwise relatively critical review in the ''American Historical Review'' with the statement that Bloom's "probes into popular culture" were "both amusing and perceptive" and that the work was "a rich, often brilliant, and disturbing book".

Some critics embraced Bloom's argument. Norman Podhoretz noted that the closed-mindedness in the title refers to the paradoxical consequence of the academic "open mind" found in liberal political thought—namely "the narrow and intolerant dogmatism" that dismisses any attempt, by Plato or the Hebrew Bible for example, to provide a rational basis for moral judgments. Podhoretz continued, "Bloom goes on to charge liberalism with vulgarizing the noble ideals of freedom and equality, and he offers brilliantly acerbic descriptions of the sexual revolution and the feminist movement, which he sees as products of this process of vulgarization."

In a 1989 article (''The German Quarterly'', Vol. 62, No. 3, Focus: Literature since 1945 (Summer, 1989)), Ann Clark Fehn discusses the critical reception of the book, noting that it had eclipsed other titles that year dealing with higher education (''College'', by Ernest Boyer, and ''Cultural Literacy'', by E. D. Hirsch), and quoting ''Publishers Weekly'', which had described Bloom's book as a "best-seller made by reviews."

Camille Paglia, a decade after the book's release, called it "the first shot in the culture wars". MIT linguistics professor Noam Chomsky dismissed the book as "mind-bogglingly stupid" for its canonistic approach to education. On the other hand, an early ''New York Times'' review by Roger Kimball called the book "an unparalleled reflection on the whole question of what it means to be a student in today's intellectual and moral climate."

In an article on Bloom for ''The New Republic'' in 2000, conservative commentator Andrew Sullivan wrote that "reading [Bloom]... one feels he has not merely understood Nietzsche; he has imbibed him. But this awareness of the abyss moved Bloom, unlike Nietzsche, toward love and political conservatism. Love, whether for the truth or for another, because it can raise us out of the abyss. Political conservatism because it best restrains the chaos that modernity threatens." More recently, Bloom's book also received a more positive re-assessment from Jim Sleeper in ''The New York Times''.

Keith Botsford would later summarize:

''Love and Friendship''

Bloom's last book, which he dictated while partially paralyzed and in hospital, and which was published posthumously, was ''Love and Friendship''. The book offered interpretations on the meaning of love, through a reading of novels by Stendhal, Jane Austen, Flaubert; Tolstoy in light of Rousseau's influence on the Romantic movement; plays by William Shakespeare; Montaigne's ''Essays''; and Plato's ''Symposium''.

Describing its creation, Bellow wrote:

Of the work, Andrew Sullivan wrote "you cannot read [Bloom] on ''Romeo and Juliet'' or ''Antony and Cleopatra'' without seeing those works in a new light. You cannot read his account of Rousseau's ''La nouvelle Heloise'' without wanting to go back and read it — more closely — again... Bloom had a gift for reading reality — the impulse to put your loving face to it and press your hands against it." Recollecting his friend in an interview, Bellow said "Allan inhaled books and ideas the way the rest of us breathe air... People only want the factual truth. Well, the truth is that Allan was a very superior person, great-souled. When critics proclaim the death of the novel, I sometimes think they are really saying that there are no significant people to write about. [But] Allan was certainly one."

Selected works

Bloom, Allan, and Harry V. Jaffa. 1964. ''Shakespeare's Politics''. New York: Basic Books.

Bloom, Allan. 1968 (2nd ed 1991). ''The Republic of Plato''. (translated with notes and an interpretive essay). New York: Basic Books.

Bloom, Allan, Charles Butterworth, Christopher Kelly (Edited and translated), and Jean-Jacques Rousseau. 1968. ''Letter to d’Alembert on the theater in politics and the arts''. Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press; Agora ed.

Bloom, Allan, and Jean-Jacques Rousseau. 1979. ''Emile'' (translator) with introduction. New York: Basic Books.

Alexandre Kojève (Raymond Queneau, Allan Bloom, James H. Nichols). ''Introduction to the reading of Hegel''. Cornell, 1980.

Bloom, Allan. 1987. ''The Closing of the American Mind''. New York: Simon & Schuster. ISBN 5-551-86868-0.

Bloom, Allan, and Steven J. Kautz ed. 1991. ''Confronting the Constitution: The challenge to Locke, Montesquieu, Jefferson, and the Federalists from Utilitarianism, Historicism, Marxism, Freudism''. Washington, DC: American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research.

Bloom, Allan. 1991. ''Giants and Dwarfs: Essays, 1960-1990''. New York: Touchstone Books.

Bloom, Allan. 1993. ''Love and Friendship''. New York: Simon & Schuster.

Bloom, Allan. 2000. ''Shakespeare on Love & Friendship''. Chicago: University Of Chicago Press.

Plato, Seth Benardete, and Allan Bloom. 2001. ''Plato's Symposium: A translation by Seth Benardete with commentaries by Allan Bloom and Seth Benardete''. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Bibliography on Allan Bloom

Atlas, James. “Chicago’s Grumpy Guru: Best-Selling Professor Allan Bloom and the Chicago Intellectuals.” ''New York Times Magazine''. January 3, 1988.

"The Constitution in Full Bloom". 1990. ''Harvard Law Review'' 104, no. 2 (Dec90): 645.

Bayles, Martha. 1998. "Body and soul: the musical miseducation of youth." ''Public Interest'', no. 131, Spring 98: 36.

Beckerman, Michael. 2000. "Ravelstein Knows Everything, Almost". ''New York Times'' (May 28, 2000) .

Bellow, Adam. 2005. "Opening the American Mind". ''National Review'' 57, no. 23 (12/19/2005) : 102.

Bellow, Saul. 2000. ''Ravelstein''. New York, New York: Penguin.

Butterworth, Charles E., "On Misunderstanding Allan Bloom: The Response to The Closing of the American Mind." ''Academic Questions'' 2, no. 4: 56.

Edington, Robert V. 1990. "Allan Bloom's message to the state universities". ''Perspectives on Political Science''; 19, no. 3

Fulford, Robert. "Saul Bellow, Allan Bloom, and Abe Ravelstein." ''Globe and Mail'', November 2, 1999.

Goldstein, William. “The Story behind the Best Seller: Allan Bloom’s ''Closing of the American Mind''.” ''Publishers Weekly''. July 3, 1987.

Hook, Sidney. 1989. "Closing of the American Mind: An Intellectual Best Seller Revisited". ''American Scholar'' 58, no. Winter: 123.

Iannone, Carol. 2003. "What's Happened to Liberal Education?". ''Academic Questions'' 17, no. 1, 54.

Jaffa, Harry V. "Humanizing Certitudes and Impoverishing Doubts: A Critique of Closing of the American Mind." ''Interpretation''. 16 Fall 1988.

Kahan, Jeffrey. 2002. "Shakespeare on Love and Friendship." ''Women's Studies'' 31, no. 4, 529.

Kinzel, Till. 2002. ''Platonische Kulturkritik in Amerika. Studien zu Allan Blooms'' The Closing of the American Mind. Berlin: Duncker & Humblot.

Matthews, Fred. "The Attack on 'Historicism': Allan Bloom's Indictment of Contemporary American Historical Scholarship." ''American Historical Review'' 95, no. 2, 429.

Mulcahy, Kevin V. 1989. "Civic Illiteracy and the American Cultural Heritage." ''Journal of Politics'' 51, no. 1, 177.

Nussbaum, Martha. "Undemocratic Vistas," ''New York Review of Books'' 34, no.17 (November 5, 1987)

Orwin, Clifford. "Remembering Allan Bloom." ''American Scholar'' 62, no. 3, 423.

Palmer, Michael, and Thomas Pangle ed. 1995. ''Political Philosophy and the Human Soul: Essays in Memory of Allan Bloom''. Lanham, Maryland, U.S.A.: Rowman & Littlefield Pub.

Rosenberg, Aubrey. 1981. "Translating Rousseau." ''University of Toronto Quarterly'' 50, no. 3, 339.

Schaub, Diana. 1994. "Erotic adventures of the mind." ''Public Interest'', no. 114, 104.

Slater, Robert O. (2005) Allan Bloom. In John Shook (Ed.) ''The Dictionary of Modern American Philosophers''. (Vol 1) Bristol, England: Thoemmes Press.

Sleeper, Jim. 2005. "Allan Bloom and the Conservative Mind". ''New York Times Book Review'' (September 4, 2005) : 27.

Wrightson, Katherine M. 1998. "The Professor as Teacher: Allan Bloom, Wayne Booth, and the Tradition of Teaching at the University of Chicago." ''Innovative Higher Education'' 23, no. 2, 103.

See also

American philosophy

List of American philosophers

Notes

External links

Keith Botsford, ''Obituary: Professor Allan Bloom'', ''The Independent'', October 12, 1992

''DePauw University News'' "''Closing of the American Mind'' Author Allan Bloom Calls on DePauw Students to Seize "Charmed Years". Ubben Lecture Series: September 11, 1987, Greencastle, Indiana. (Accessed May 16, 2007).

Patner, Andrew. ''Chicago Sun-Times'', "Allan Bloom, warts and all" April 16, 2000. (Accessed May 16, 2007).

West, Thomas G. The Claremont Institute, ''The Claremont Institute Blog Writings''. "Allan Bloom and America" June 1, 2000. (Accessed May 16, 2007).

A review of ''Political Philosophy & the Human Soul: Essays in Memory of Allan Bloom'' by Michael Palmer and Thomas L. Pangle, in ''Conference Journal''.

Bloom's Lectures on Socrates, Aristotle, Machiavelli and Nietzsche at Boston University (1983)

Category:American cultural critics Category:American philosophers Category:Cornell University faculty Category:University of Chicago faculty Category:University of Toronto faculty Category:University of Chicago alumni Category:People from Indianapolis, Indiana Category:People from Chicago, Illinois Category:Jewish American writers Category:LGBT Jews Category:LGBT writers from the United States Category:Jewish philosophers Category:Scholars of Greek philosophy Category:Guggenheim Fellows Category:1930 births Category:1992 deaths Category:AIDS-related deaths in Illinois Category:National Humanities Medal recipients

de:Allan Bloom et:Allan Bloom es:Allan Bloom fr:Allan Bloom he:אלן בלום nl:Allan Bloom pl:Allan Bloom fi:Allan Bloom