"God is Dead"

[imported_Tango]

Originally posted by: Tab

Originally posted by: Tango

Originally posted by: Sentinel
This is an interesting thought:

Anyone have any input or comments?

Apart from the fact that discussing Nietzche's work on an internet forum is absurd? Let's see:

a) If you read his work in anything but the original version it's wasted time. While this is true for most philosophers, even more so in the case of Nietzche.

b) The man was one of the greatest men of genius ever. 99% of the common interpretations of his writing are just wrong.

c) They should stop teaching his work in anything but doctoral school.

d) This statement was not asking for a factual interpretation. Most people understand it in the wrong way. I have studied his work for some time, and my only serious comment can be: "I have not, and probably never will, the instruments to understand it".

Yet, here you are discussing this on a internet forum!

As for being one of the greatest men of genius ever, I've maybe heard of him a only a couple times in my life. What makes this man so great exactly?

I am not discussing his work on an internet forum. I am discussing the misinterpretation of a random quote that became famous because it sounds cool.

As I already said, I do not have the instruments to fully appreciate his writings, and even if I did this wouldn't be the right place for such a discussion.

As for being a genius: the guy actually transitioned philosophy into its contemporary age. Nothing was the same after the Gay Science was published, and the amount of philosophical debate generated by his opera is unmatched. Most of the 20th century philosophy, from Heiddeger to Sartre starts with an interpretation of Nietzche's work, or with a response to Nietzche about his view on part of the classical greek philosophy.
The depth of his language is simply amazing, and that's the reason why is useless to read Nietzche in anything but the original version. Everything comes out confused in any translation. It's like trying to translate Paul Celan, or Dante's Comedy.. you simply can't do it.

In the past 100 years everything has been said about his work. Every possible interpretation has been given, in one direction and on the opposite. In the Zarathustra he abandoned the classical rationalistic language that had always charachterized western philosophy to create a new world of images, every word blurred and sharp at the same time. Most of the people get his thought wrong just because they try to apply linear rationality to a discourse that had not been forged to be read that way.