Should we dare to summarise Friedrich Nietzsche in one word, it would be loneliness. This great mind discarded in one blow 2,500 years of philosophy and stamped out, single-handedly or rather single-mindedly a brand new philosophy that was like nothing the world had ever seen before, and that was hence never recognised in every sense of the word during his lifetime. Brilliant but misunderstood, heroic but frail, a poetic soul but deeply resented in his time, it was inevitable for Nietzsche to enter into deep conflict with the world.
Other Zweig biographies tell a story (Tolstoy, Casanova, Erasmus, …). When it comes to Nietzsche, there is no story to tell. As a lonely soul, without a family, without friends, without colleagues, without peers, without supporters, even without an audience, Nietzsche survives through his ideas. But what an inheritance it is! Continue reading Zweig’s Nietzsche
Brussels Circle for General Semantics 