Footnotes to Plato from the foothills of the Superstition Mountains

Category: Nietzsche

  • Nietzsche and National Socialism

    Was Nietzsche a proto-Nazi? Did he lay the philosophical foundations for Nazi ideology? That would be a hard case to make given the elements in Nietzsche's thinking that are antithetical to National Socialism. To mention one such element, there is Nietzsche's oft-expressed hostility to socialism. There are, however, passages in Nietzsche which aid and abet…

  • For the New Year: Looking Away Shall Be My Only Negation

    One of the elements in my personal liturgy is a reading of the following passage every January 1st. I must have begun the practice in the mid-70s. My copy of The Gay Science was purchased in Boston and is dated 15 September 1974. (You mean to tell me that when you buy books, you do…

  • The Transitoriness of Things

    Friedrich Nietzsche to Franz Overbeck: "I am grieved by the transitoriness of things." Me too, Fritz; but some transitions are good such as the Maverick Philosopher’s move to Typepad.