Living with Nietzsche: what the great "immoralist" has to teach us

Abstract

Friedrich Nietzsche is one of most popular and controversial philosophers of last 150 years. Narcissistic, idiosyncratic, hyperbolic, irreverent-never has a philosopher been appropriated, deconstructed, and scrutinized by such a disparate array of groups, movements, and schools of thought. Adored by many for his ideas and iconoclastic style, he is also vilified for his lack of rigor, apparent cruelty, and disdain for moral decency. In Living with Nietzsche, Solomon suggests that we read Nietzsche from a very different point of view, as a provocative writer who means to transform way we view our lives. This means taking Nietzsche personally. Rather than focus on true Nietzsche or trying to determine what Nietzsche really meant by his seemingly random and often contradictory pronouncements about the Big Questions of philosophy, Solomon reminds us that Nietzsche is not a philosopher of abstract ideas but rather of dazzling personal insight, provocative challenge, incisive personal probe. He does not try to reveal eternal verities but he does powerfully affect his readers, goading them to see themselves in new and different ways. It is Nietzsche's compelling invitation to self-scrutiny that fascinates us, engages us, and guides us to a inner life. Ultimately, Solomon argues, Nietzsche is an example as well as a promulgator of passionate inwardness, a life distinguished by its rich passions, exquisite taste, and a sense of personal elegance and excellence.

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