Nietzsche in 90 Minutes

by Paul Strathern

Book Overview

In Nietzsche in 90 Minutes, Paul Strathern offers a concise, expert account of Nietzsche's life and ideas, and explains their influence on man's struggle to understand his existence in the world. The book also includes selections from Nietzsche's work; a brief list of suggested reading for those who wish to push further; and chronologies that place Nietzsche within his own age and in the broader scheme of philosophy.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1566631211
• ISBN13: 9781566631211
• Release Date: September 1996
• Publisher: Rlpg/Galleys
• Length: 85 Pages
• Weight: 0.25 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.3" x 5.1" x 8.0"

Customer Reviews

The brilliance of Nietzsche and the distortion done to it

In this small work Strathern tells the story of the lonely life of Nietzsche. He also presents a brief introduction to his thought, analyzing and demolishing some of the key concepts such as 'Ubermensch- Superman' and ' the Eternal Return'. Nietzsche like so many of the great philosophers was orphaned as a child. In his case he lost his father and was raised by a household of women which perhaps explain one very ugly side of his thought, his misogyny. The famous aphorism about women loving to be beaten is truly a black mark on a thinker and person who most likely never beat anyone and in fact whose last sane act outside the loony bin was rushing to kiss in the street a horse that had just been beaten by its master. Strathern conjectures that Nietzsche's syphillis was contracted early and was responsible for the extraordinarily pain- filled life he led. He did not make it to a real love relationship , and his life after he left the university world was largely long walks by himself thinking. Strathern tells the story of the Wagner connection well, and underlines Nietzsche's courage and integrity in breaking with the substitute- father who turned out to be a pathetically bogus half- rate thinker and vicious anti- Semite. Nietzsche understand that systematic philosophy in the Kantian- Hegelian form was dead. His own brilliant works of aphorisms and apercus live in a way the monstrous systematic works do not. Nietzsche is without question one of the great literary stylists of the philosophers and perhaps the most supreme aphorist of all. Strathern does not really go into a major theme of Nietzsche the whole re-evaluation of values, the whole effort to undermine Christian ethics and replace them with an aesthetic of hard demanding excellence and superior powers. Unfortunately the Nietzschean rhetoric is tainted by contempt and arrogance. And the total distortion of his thought wrought on it by his Nazi- sister and heir , and the Nazis themselves mean his misinterpretation contributed to the greatest crimes in human history. This is not a distinction any philosopher would want, and especially Nietzsche who by and large despised the anti- Semites of his own time. The most famous of all of Nietzsche's remarks and parables is of course the 'God is dead' one. The famous graffiti reply,( " Nietzsche is dead" God) does reflect the truth that we are in a historical period in which return to religion , even fundamentalist religion has seemed to sweep the Nietzschean nay away. As to the lasting significance of the thought of Nietzsche Strathern focuses on the ' will to power' as important contribution. About this I also have my doubts and it seems to me that Nietzsche's place is assured in the history of Western thought, in what might be called the genre of poetic thought- but that there is little of lasting value in the thought itself. But that is only one reader's judgment and certainly not a superhuman one or one that should be taken as if came from the

Fair Mini-Biography of Nietzsche

I bought this book because I wanted a brief biographical overview of Nietzsche. To this extent, the book was very pleasing. The large type and low number pages made it a very quick read (less than 90 minutes). It was worth purchasing (to me) for these points A portion of the book is dedicated to a brief synopsis of Nietzsche's philosophy. I found this to be useless. I don't feel the coverage in this area was unbiased. There are a lot of points where the author offers his own opinions which are typically contradictory to Nietzsche. Having an opinion is fine but it doesn't belong in an overview text. With all of this, it was worth reading for the mini-biography. Certainly, this won't be the only book you will need to read on Nietzsche if you are interested in learning about him. Aside from Nietzsche's own works Walter Kaufmann is a good area to start.

Got me an 'A' in philosophy

This is really not a good book if you are really interested in what Nietzsche was all about. If you are trying to throw together a paper that needs a bunch of quotes, however...I wanted an idea of what I was getting myself into before I clawed my way thru "Thus Spake Zarathustra" and this was just the book to get my attention. Some of my favorite quotes by Nietzsche aren't included, but they really aren't that important for achieving a basic understanding.If you are really into philosophy, you probably aren't buying the "90 Minute" books. If you are doing graduate level work, you'd better not be in the "90 Minute" books. If you're taking philosophy at a community college just because you like taking classes, this book may save you a lot of time.I liked it, I still use it, but I don't rely on it!

A great way to learn the basics of Nietzsche's philosophy

Strathern's book on Nietzsche provides a nice, easily readable summary of Nietzsche's life and work. Much of the book is devoted to his personal life, which brings the man to life. But his main philosophical ideas are also covered. Strathern also shows how Nietzsche's work fits into the bigger picture of philosophy. It is a great read for someone who wants to learn the basics of Nietzsche but who doesn't have much time.

Better than Cliff's Notes

I had to do a project on Nietzschie and found just diving into his work confusing. This book made better starting point, it gave me some background. It's written in a very entertaining way. However, the point of view is very biased, so I would just use this as a jumping off point before reading some real (and objective) literature about Nietzsche.