Unmodern Observations (Unzeitgemässe Betrachtungen) (Unzeitgemasse Betrachtungen)

This translation of Nietzsche's early Unzeitgemässe Betrachtungen consists of four long essays and notes for a fifth. Nietzsche planned these works as part of an extremely ambitious critique of German culture. Although the project was never completed, the essays thematically linked and should be considered as a whole. This book, which presents these important works together in English for the first time, unifies the essays, provides introductions and annotations to each, and translates them in a way that does justice to the brilliance and versatility of Nietzsche's style. The dominant idea of Nietzsche's project is the regeneration of culture through a radical reshaping of modern educational institutions. Nietzsche believed that philosophy, the arts, and the ennobling study of antiquity had all been corrupted by systematic miseducation, the work of so-called educators, who, as culture-philistines, had disgraced the highest of vocations. In response to this fragmented modern world, Nietasche argues for the creation of a "manworthy" culture with a single unifying style-a style that integrated theology, philosophy, education, classical scholarship, journalism, and art in a seamless, dynamic whole. This style, Nietzsche contends, can best be realized by heeding the great creative examples of the pre-Socratic philosophers, Schopenhauer, and Wagner, and by reforming education, above all the study of history and the archaic culture of Greece, so that it serves, rather than obstructs, the needs of human life. The four short works in Untimely Meditations were published by Nietzsche between 1873 and 1876. They deal with such broad topics as the relationship between popular and genuine culture, strategies for cultural reform, the task of philosophy, the nature of education, and the relationship between art, science and life. They also include Nietzsche's earliest statement of his own understanding of human selfhood as a process of endlessly 'becoming who one is'. As Daniel Breazeale shows in his introduction to this new edition of R.J. Hollingdale's translation of the essays, these four early texts are key documents for understanding the development of Nietzsche's thought and clearly anticipate many of the themes of his later writings. Nietzsche himself always cherished his Untimely Meditations and believed that they provide valuable evidence of his 'becoming and self-overcoming' and constitute a 'public pledge' concerning his own distinctive task as a philosopher. Foreword by William Arrowsmith David Strauss: Writer and Confessor Introduction by Herbert Golder David Strauss: Writer and Confessor History in the Service and Disservice of Life Introduction by Werner Dannhauser History in the Service and Disservice of Life Schopenhauer as Educator Introduction by Richard Schacht Schopenhauer as Educator Richard Wagner in Bayreuth Introduction by Gary Brown Richard Wagner in Bayreuth We Classicists Introduction by William Arrowsmith We Classicists About the Contributors Index