I stand on the dangerous rock/clothes wrap me in the dark/from this bare height/I overlook a prosperous country/I see an eagle hovering/summon up the courage of youth/rush to the golden light/rise to the eternal flame. -Nietzsche: "I stand on the dangerous rock of * * *" Nietzsche is a huge and prophetic existence of modern western philosophy. When he was alive, few people could understand his theory; But after his death, his influence grew day by day. Karl Lowith, the author of Nietzsche, pointed out: "He first influenced one of his most congenial followers, namely Gabriele Dannunzio, and influenced many Italian young people through him. In France, he aroused andre gide's deep sympathy. In Germany, for followers like Stephen George, he became the supreme justice of the19th century. He gave people like R. Pannwitz, Oswald Bingler and thomas mann a basic influence. Thomas mann said in his comment 1924 that anyone who believes in the future of Europe is convinced of the name Nietzsche. He decided the thoughts of L. klages, A. Baumler and E. Jungle, and finally he became the supreme authority of German youth fighting all over Europe. Although many researchers believe that Nietzsche's philosophy promoted the formation of the Nazis, he is still regarded as one of the undisputed most important founders of modern western philosophy. At the beginning of the 20th century, Nietzsche's philosophy was introduced into China, which had a wide influence. Lu Xun once wrote to him in a sarcastic tone in an article: "Nietzsche boasted that he was the sun, with infinite light and heat, but he just gave and didn't want it." "However, Nietzsche is not the sun after all. He is crazy. " Because this article was included in the textbook, people who first knew Lu Xun through his words generally had a bad impression: Nietzsche was just a madman! In the upsurge of western philosophy in 1980s, Nietzsche was introduced to China again, and people once again realized that Nietzsche was a madman. 1. Crazy Nietzsche: He paid a huge price for becoming a genius. Nietzsche's life is relatively simple: he was born in a Protestant family in Germany from 65438 to 0844. In college, he showed his talent by studying classical literature and linguistics. Before he got the degree of 1869, university of basel offered him a position as a professor of linguistics. He accepted the position. However, Nietzsche was in poor health and suffered from diseases all his life. In addition to encephalopathy, he inherited his father's "chronic headache and visual fatigue". During the Franco-Prussian War, he served for a period of time and was infected with dysentery and diphtheria in the army. After several days and nights of headache and phlegm obstruction, Nietzsche lost three quarters of his sight. Later, when he fell ill again on 1879, he had to resign as a teacher in university of basel. Since then, he has been living in Switzerland and Italy to recuperate. 1889, that is, at the age of 45, Nietzsche had a schizophrenic attack. One day, while walking in the street, he suddenly hugged a beaten horse and burst into tears, crying and shouting, "My suffering brother!" " "He was sent to a mental hospital, first taken care of by his mother; After his mother died, he was taken care of by his sister. -His sister is very important to him and is said to have something to do with him (see Radium Cheung: Who said Nietzsche was crazy? The key point is that after his death in 1900, his sister sorted out his legacy, including the very important book Will to Power. The inducement of Nietzsche's madness is not only his wandering life and his body suffering from diseases, but also his melancholy and withdrawn character and his unsuccessful fate in his life. He worked hard to write and put forward ideas far beyond the times, which were not understood by his contemporaries. This made him arrogant and indifferent. Look at the title of his autobiography "Look at this man", and you will know how narcissistic this man is: 1, why am I so smart, why am I so smart, and why did I write such a good book? ........................................................................................................... Nietzsche is a revolutionary in philosophy. When he was born, German classical philosophy, which likes to create a huge philosophical system, had ended. Karl Marx had already started his philosophical exploration and wrote the Manuscript of Philosophical Economics 1844, thus leading philosophy to practical revolution. Nietzsche made a subversive reform of system philosophy in his philosophical research. Instead of trying to establish an independent philosophical system, he used epigrams to write. He believes that in the era in which he lives, philosophy has lost its wisdom, and the language of philosophy has to try proverbs and fables. Aware of his originality, Nietzsche is very ambitious about his works, saying that he "hopes to tell what others can't tell in a book in ten sentences". When Nietzsche was alive, few people understood him and books could not be sold. But he is confident in himself. He wrote in 1884: "There is still time in my works-I don't want to be confused at all about what contemporary people regard as their own task and what they want to solve. In 50 years, some people may ... realize my achievements. But it is not only difficult but also impossible to openly discuss what I am doing now, without falling behind the truth indefinitely. "-have you ever experienced the pride of a prophet far ahead of his time? However, less than fifty years later, shortly after his death, his influence began to appear. In the tenth year of his death, Karl Lowith, a German Jewish boy who was only 13 years old at that time, picked up Zarathustra and began his decades-long career of interpreting Nietzsche. 1923 obtained the doctoral thesis with the paper "Nietzsche's self-interpretation and Nietzsche's interpretation"; Later, he wrote a monograph and more than a dozen papers, expounding a philosophical concept of Nietzsche-"the eternal reincarnation of the same person." This Nietzsche is a collection of monographs and articles. A key to understanding Nietzsche's theory. In this book, readers will find that Karl Lowith attaches great importance to Nietzsche's concept of eternal reincarnation. Why? Karl Lowith thinks that the theory of eternal samsara is the basic problem of Nietzsche's philosophy: "The theory of eternal samsara is the key to Nietzsche's philosophy, whether it is stupid or wise. This theory first appeared in the book The Science of Happiness. 34 1 and 342), entitled "The heaviest burden" and the corresponding announcement "Death of God" (para. 1 1). 343). Nietzsche describes the theory of eternal reincarnation like this: "Your present and past life is your future life. Will be repeated, nothing new. Every pain, joy, thought, sigh and all unspeakable things in your life will be valued by you and will come in the same order. There will be spiders and moonlight in the tree at this moment, and there will be demons like me at this moment. " ""Do you know what this world is to me? May I show it to you in my mirror? The world is: a tremendous force with no beginning and no end; A permanent force, it will never become bigger and smaller, it will never be consumed, but it is easy to flow, and the total amount remains unchanged. Nietzsche's theory of eternal samsara is an empirical hypothesis. He took the theory of immortality of matter and conservation of energy scientifically determined at that time as the basis of the theory of eternal reincarnation, and thought that this theory would inevitably lead to the conclusion of "eternal reincarnation". The main purpose of Nietzsche's theory of eternal reincarnation is to deny his so-called rationalist philosophy and Christianity's pursuit of an absolute and other goals, and to affirm the real world and life. In the Christian era, people think that one end of a "progressive history" is determined by absolute beginning and end, creation and original sin, and the other end is determined by perfection and final judgment. This modern illusion led to The Last Man. On the contrary, Nietzsche declared through Zarathustra that life is an eternal cycle "in moral perfection unrelated to creation and destruction, in happiness and pain, in good and evil". Everything in the universe is an eternal cycle of the will to power, and their activities are bound to be cyclical. Any point is both the starting point and the end point, and everything is also in the cycle. This excludes any purpose and existence beyond the other shore. So Nietzsche thinks that the meaning and value of life are in the real world, not in another world. "Eternal samsara" constructs a basic world outlook framework for Nietzsche's theory. Third, how to understand Nietzsche: a core goal, three basic concepts Karl Lowith believes that to understand Nietzsche's philosophy, we must grasp his overall goal, that is, "reassess all values"; Around this goal, Nietzsche's ideological system can be summarized into three basic concepts: the death of God, nihilism and the will to power. 1. Why "revalue everything"? Lovett pointed out that Nietzsche's philosophical goal is to "re-evaluate all values", which is also the subtitle of Will to Power. Revaluation has two connotations: on the one hand, it devalues the existing Christian spirit, which is embodied in the concept of "the death of God"; On the other hand, it is to rebuild the classical value, that is, to revive the Dionysian spirit symbolized by the pagan god Dionysus. Why re-evaluate everything? This should be understood from his background. Nietzsche's philosophy was formed in the 1970s and 1980s of19th century, when social contradictions in major western countries began to be exposed. There are many drawbacks in the rational order and moral concepts that were sacred in the past, and they are in sharp conflict with reality. The times urgently need to reevaluate all past values and point out a new path for future development. Nietzsche was keenly aware of this change and clearly pointed out that the era of19th century was characterized by the degeneration and nihilism of people's spiritual life. People lost faith in their vitality, were imprisoned in the power of dissidents, and became numb and powerless. He thought all this was the fault of metaphysics, so he raised the banner of criticizing metaphysics. 2. The three basic concepts of Nietzsche's philosophy (1) and "the death of God" shocked the world. Nietzsche declared that "God is dead", which was a shocking conclusion at that time. However, according to Karl Lowith's analysis, the view of "the death of God" has been put forward several times in different forms in the history of western philosophy. First, Pascal. Pascal first expressed this concept in the form of natural philosophy: "Nature is like this, it is the loss of God and the existence and non-existence of human beings." Followed by Hegel. Hegel ended God in the form of philosophy. At the end of Faith and Knowledge, Hegel changed his belief in "God who died in Christ" to "God who died on speculative Good Friday". God's death is an abyss of nothingness, and all beings sink into this abyss in order to reappear in the generative movement. The third is Feuerbach. He simplified the "essence" of Christianity to the alienation of human nature, and fundamentally canceled the existence of God. Finally, Nietzsche put forward "the death of God" for the first time in "The Science of Happiness", which was repeated in many later works. Nietzsche's "Death of God" is actually the end of Christianity and rationalism philosophy based on the concept of God or absolute rationality. In his view, the western civilization initiated by Socrates and Christianity does not mean the progress of mankind, but the fall and degradation of mankind. By his time, it was unsustainable and had to end. (2) Nihilism: What are the consequences of the first shadow cast by the death of God in Europe? Nietzsche pointed out: "This event is too important, too far away, too beyond the understanding of many people. So, they can't understand the consequences-and what will collapse with the collapse of this belief. Nietzsche believes that "the death of God", as the origin of nihilism, reflects the situation that western traditional civilization and value system are on the verge of collapse and nihilism is on the rise in the19th century. The truly creative culture is dying out, and the bourgeois culture is flooding the city, which is followed by the suppression and strangulation of people's vitality and instinctive impulse, and people are in a state of numbness, no goal and no standard. People have been in a state of losing their dependence and ideals, thus losing their value and significance. -If you don't quite understand, you can compare the social state of our society after the end of a certain decade: before that, all kinds of grand ideas and lofty ideals seemed to be scams, and the poet Kitajima issued "Tell you, the world! I don't believe "the voice of the times, caused a wide * * *. In order to save and reaffirm people's value and significance, we need to find new reliance and ideals for people. Now that God is dead, we must find a "new God" for people. This "new god" is not a creator on the other side of the world, but a "superman" with flesh and blood in the real world. (3) Will to Power: The Nature of Superman Nietzsche said: God is dead, and now we hope that Superman will be born. "Only superman, human beings have a future. But what kind of person is Superman? Nietzsche did not give a clear and consistent answer. He mainly answered indirectly by comparing with the so-called "the last man" and other metaphors. The last person is a person who lacks a strong will to power, is dominated by rationalism philosophy, Christian tradition and slave morality, and is actually an ordinary person in daily life. On the contrary, Superman is a "will to power" fully developed, breaking through the shackles of all traditional ways of thinking and moral norms, transcending good and evil, with distinctive personality and creativity, superior intelligence, strong will, absolute autonomy and high degree of * * *. So, what is "will to power"? Nietzsche believes that people's understanding and moral value depend on people's vitality and instinctive impulse. This impulse does not come from God or other material and spiritual entities, but from human life itself. Human life is an impulse, impulse and creativity, or a tendency of constant self-expression, self-creation and self-expansion. Nietzsche regards this tendency of life as the will of life, and thinks that "where there is life, there is will". The will to life is the will to express, release, improve and increase the vitality itself, that is, the will to power. Not only human life depends on the will to power, but the essence of all living things is also the will to power. He said: "The first thing that creatures pursue is to release their own power-life itself is the will of power." From people to animals, from animals to plants to the inorganic world, everything is the expression of the will to power, and the difference between them is only the difference of the will to power. The relationship between them is that of resisting the strong and bullying the weak, and the struggle between the strong and the weak constitutes the whole process of the universe: this world is the will to power-anything else? It is very difficult to understand Nietzsche's philosophy, because he takes the form of aphorisms and essays, and it is difficult to sort out a clear logical line like other classical philosophers. But this expression also has strong vitality. Today, our cyberspace is full of Nietzsche's quotations: "Those who can't kill me make me stronger! When you stare into the abyss, the abyss stares at you. " Form is not the most important. Nietzsche's philosophy of "will to power" is really a good medicine for mediocre times, with thought-provoking and inspiring power. He encouraged people to pursue their "will to power" and encouraged depressed people to stand up straight and strive for their own living space. Today, Nietzsche's words are still so generous and powerful! -This is just in line with the mentality of the German people after World War I, so it also became the philosophy of the Germans of that era.