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Twilight of the Idols and Anti-Christ (book review) Friedrich Nietzsche

if you like this review, i now have website: www.michaelkamakana.com


230430: these two short works are summation of all his previous works [book:Twilight of the Idols|4182144] from 1889, [book:The Antichrist|441274] from 1895. I have now read 12 books on or about or using him, of which the most original for me are [book:The Philosophy of Nietzsche (Volume 4)|4527527], the most engaging are [book:Nietzsche and Buddhist Philosophy|22619704] and [book:Nietzsche and Philosophy|83271]. then 5 books including these as two, by him: [book:Human, All Too Human: A Book for Free Spirits|584564], [book:Beyond Good and Evil|12321], [book:Thus Spoke Zarathustra|380285] nz is intelligent, moving, comic, precise... but like? only to the extent I like Heidegger, that is, not so much. I do like him. I am not rabid fanboy because, as I mention in other reviews, I believe nz has reductionist, unsympathetic, unfair conception of human value. his conception of great, necessarily unequal, division of people into (vast majority) 'slaves' and (elite minority) hard-working, noble, leading 'masters' seems at least invention or imposition as absolute equality. aside from summarily dismissing half the human species (women) it is not clear when nz claims to be life-affirming then uses so many words, vitriolic passages, destroying others' work, and claiming he is by nature the great 'No': he refuses to 'systematise' because life must be becoming and not static pretend-perfection: he refuses 'dialogue' and offers assertions (maxims and arrows): he subtitles his work with 'how to philosophise with a hammer', and this is about how subtle he is...


yet the four is sincere...


I really like him as precursor to the existentialists I have read, I find little quotes that inspires generations of thinkers, I find his chapters concise and capacious: these are titles to encourage you to read the book: 1) forward 2) maxims and arrows 3) the problem of socrates 4) 'reason' in philosophy 5) how the 'real world' at last became a myth 6) morality as anti-nature 7) the four great errors 8) the 'improvers' of mankind 9) what the germans lack 10) expeditions of an untimely man 11) what I owe to the ancients 13) the hammer speaks...


this is followed by [book:The Antichrist|441274], short, powerful, and definitely lives up to his title. nz's thesis is basically christianity is everything bad, in inverting classical mores of Greece and Rome, in 'pity', in 'charity', in all kinds of 'womanly' emotional values. there is nothing worse for nz to say than 'just like a woman...'. rare, again, that philosophy text makes me laugh out loud...


yet the four is sincere...


perhaps because I am neither christian nor woman, his outrageous pronouncements are simply less threatening and more comic, with just enough truth in them to make listeners pause... kind of like contemporary, intellectual, philosophical stand-up comedy...


more

[book:Beyond Good and Evil|12321]

[book:Thus Spoke Zarathustra|380285]

[book:Human, All Too Human: A Book for Free Spirits|451565]

[book:What the Buddha Thought|6980500]

[book:Why Buddhism is True: The Science and Philosophy of Meditation and Enlightenment|32895535]

[book:Nietzsche and Buddhist Philosophy|22619704]

[book:Buddhist Philosophy: Essential Readings|6531274]

[book:Buddhist Philosophy: A Historical Analysis|1709074]

[book:Empty Words: Buddhist Philosophy and Cross-Cultural Interpretation|1639206]

[book:Buddhism as Philosophy: An Introduction|2487511]

[book:The Fundamental Wisdom of the Middle Way: Nāgārjuna's Mūlamadhyamakakārikā|1048288]

[book:Self, No Self?: Perspectives from Analytical, Phenomenological, and Indian Traditions|10336218]

[book:After Buddhism: Rethinking the Dharma for a Secular Age|25246817]

[book:Philosophers of Nothingness: An Essay on the Kyoto School|979829]

[book:The Kyoto School|21349529]

[book:Nishida And Western Philosophy|8274818]

[book:Buddhism: A Philosophical Approach|18443946]

[book:What the Buddha Thought|6980500]

[book:Wisdom Beyond Words: The Buddhist Vision of Ultimate Reality|4329466]

[book:An Introduction to Buddhist Philosophy|2280672]

[book:Why I Am Not a Buddhist|44439993]

[book:Why I Am a Buddhist: No-Nonsense Buddhism with Red Meat and Whiskey|6716321]

[book:Samsara, Nirvana, and Buddha Nature|40637724]

[book:Already Free: Buddhism Meets Psychotherapy on the Path of Liberation|25656467]

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