Why I Am So Wise

One of the most iconoclastic thinkers of all time, Friedrich Nietzsche continues to challenge the boundaries of conventional religion and morality with his subversive theories of the 'superman', the individual will, the death of God and the triumph of an all-powerful human life force.

About the Author

The philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche was born in the Kingdom of Prussia in 1844. After the death of his father, a Lutheran minister, Nietzsche was raised from the age of five by his mother in a household of women. In 1869 he was appointed Professor of Classical Philology at the University of Basel, where he taught until 1879 when poor health forced him to retire. He never recovered from a nervous breakdown in 1889 and died eleven years later.

Known for saying that "God is dead" in Thus Spoke Zarathustra, Nietzsche propounded his metaphysical construct of the superiority of the disciplined individual (Übermensch or "superman") living in the present over traditional values derived from Christianity and its emphasis on heavenly rewards. After his death, his works influenced many thinkers including the early Zionist movement before his ideas were co-opted by the Fascists and Nazis, who turned his theories into social realities that he had never intended. However, he remains a widely-read and influential thinker to this day.