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Title: What Nietzsche Really Said by Robert C. Solomon, Kathleen M. Higgins ISBN: 0-8052-1094-6 Publisher: Schocken Books Pub. Date: 30 January, 2001 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $13.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.07 (27 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: Great Great book for someone UNTRAINED in philosophy
Comment: This book is great for getting started. The book actually explains in simple terms why Nietzsche is impossible for someone with no philosophical training to read. i.e. the book explains that Nietzsche contradicts himself because he wants the reader to see the many sides of the argument and to force the reader to think for herself.
The book also tries to debunk 30 myths about Nietzsche, but this is not the key part of the book and the authors may not provide great proof when they explain away these 30 myths. But, this book is the only book I found that actually gave me (the untrained philosophy reader) the knowledge to finally begin to understand Nietzsche's books.
But the hardcore Nietzschians who criticized the book did make did make some useful criticisms that one should keep in mind (combined with the insights of this book) when reading Nietzsche's works.
Rating: 4
Summary: A good introduction and guide to Nietzsche's thought.
Comment: Robert Solomon has always been my favorite secondary source on philosophy. His works such as From Rationalism to Existentialism and Continental Philosophy since 1750: The Rise and Fall of the Self are excellent and helped me gain a solid understanding of many concepts and relations between philosophical movements. What Nietzsche Really Said is not on par with these works, but is still engaging as a lighter read. Many Nietzschean scholars will despise Solomon for taking the danger out of Nietzsche, but I think that is necessary for this work. I view this work as an attempt to clarify and make Nietzsche accessible to the uninitiated and I think it succeeds nicely. I would not recommend simply adhering to this book alone as a source of Nietzschean knowledge, but would recommend it as a tool to the new student of philosophy especially; as well as anyone else who likes Nietzsche's optimism.
Rating: 4
Summary: Setting the record straight
Comment: This book makes sense of a VERY misunderstood philosopher. Solomon and Higgins debunk thirty myths about Nietzsche--a much needed task, to say the least. Did Nietzsche hate Jews? No. Was he a Nazi? No. Did he believe in truth? Yes, but not in an "absolute" sense of the word. Did he hate Christianity? Well, that depends; he hated parts of it, especially its nihilistic morality, yet he admired Jesus.
The book then launches into Nietzsche's big ideas: The Will to Power, the Death of God, the Ubermensch. Finally, it ends on Nietzsche's importance for today.
'What Nietzsche Really Said' is a good book for someone who is coming to Neitzsche for the first time. It's also a nice summary for the seasoned reader of Nietzsce. The language is simple, and Nietzsche's ideas are broken down into mentally digestible pieces.
The book is also a corrective to religious conservatives who think Nietzsche was "evil" and wanted to "destroy" Western civilization. This is nonsense. Nietzsche cared deeply about theology and about how humans should live in the wake of God's death. If God is dead, humans aren't. Life will be scary; we won't know what to do with our lives. Consequently, we should take life more seriously and be *more* moral than we were before the death of God. Enter the Ubermensch. Nietzsche didn't want to destroy Western civilization; he wanted to save it.
Nietzsche was a good man and a good philosopher. He's not always a pleasant read, not just becasue of his difficult prose, but more becasue of what he says. Yet the man had enough honesty to face the hard facts of life and, perhaps most of all, to do something about it--that is, to live gracefully after God's funeral.
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Title: A Passion for Wisdom: A Very Brief History of Philosophy by Robert C. Solomon, Kathleen M. Higgins ISBN: 0195112091 Publisher: Oxford Press Pub. Date: January, 1999 List Price(USD): $12.95 |
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Title: Reading Nietzsche by Robert C. Solomon, Kathleen M. Higgins ISBN: 0195066731 Publisher: Oxford University Press Pub. Date: August, 1990 List Price(USD): $26.00 |
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Title: Spirituality for the Skeptic: The Thoughtful Love of Life by Robert C. Solomon ISBN: 0195134672 Publisher: Oxford Press Pub. Date: March, 2002 List Price(USD): $26.00 |
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Title: Portable Nietzsche by Walter Kaufmann, Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche ISBN: 0140150625 Publisher: Viking Press Pub. Date: January, 1977 List Price(USD): $17.00 |
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Title: The Joy of Philosophy: Thinking Thin Versus the Passionate Life by Robert C. Solomon ISBN: 0195165403 Publisher: Oxford Press Pub. Date: March, 2003 List Price(USD): $18.95 |
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