Schopenhauer and Nietzsche

Schopenhauer's work is within the general school of German Idealism of the 19th century. This was around the same time as Hegel who he hated. He believes in immaterialism, which is to say that material things have no existence, and thus the world we live in does not exist independently of perception. He is similar to Kant in terms of deducing by reason that there is a pre-existent formless 'something' which is a necessary condition of the existence of anything. The concept of 'will' in Schopenhauer is the same according to Nietzsche, it is the will to power, or the will to be.


Birth of Tragedy 

Nietzsche's book 'The Birth of Tragedy' was published in 1872, he renamed it as Hellenism and Pessimism in 1886. It outlines the contrast between Apollonian and Dionysian, both of which are sons of Zeus. Apollo is associated with the sun, a god of light, dreams, knowledge and reason. Dionysus is considered to be a sensual god, a god of night, ecstasy, wine and intoxication. Nietzsche holds that a combination of the two god's creates a Greek tragedy.

Nietzsche is full of hate, he believes evil is better than good as it is powerful. He criticises religion, in particular Christianity. He admires the pre-Socratics apart from Pythagoras and he is close to Heraclitus, however he hates Socrates. Nietzsche has a passionate admiration towards Wagner, he wrote The Birth of Tragedy to celebrate Schopenhauer as well as Wagner and his love of both. 

Nietzsche was not an inventor of technical theories, he focused on ethics and being a historical critic. He is not a Romantic, he is more so Hellenic. Nietzsche holds two sets of values, firstly ruthlessness, war and aristocratic pride, and secondly his love for philosophy, literature arts and music. He is not a nationalist, nor a worshiper of the state.


Russell sums up Nietzsche's philosophy in a nutshell:

I will do such things,
what they are yet i know not
but they shall be the terror of the earth. 

There are two saints, the saint of nature, and the saint of fear; Nietzsche only imagines the saint of fear because he is full of hatred, and the idea of showing love to mankind is impossible to him. Nietzsche also preaches against sympathy, and is famously remembered for saying "god is dead".