Introduction Nietzsche Virtual Seminar Lately, there has been a lot of interest in the life and philosophy of a man who was a relatively obscure German philologist and philosopher during his lifetime. Nietzsche had to use a vanity press in order to publish most of his works. Of course, now he ranks as one of the canonical philosphers of the Western tradition. His books are everywhere, and his philosophy is taught in a wide variety of college courses. Surprisingly, Nietzsche's presence on the Web has been limited. Until recently, only Thus Spake Zarathustra has been available on-line; even still, that is the only complete work on the Internet. However, response to the Pirate Nietzsche Page and the Nietzsche Aphorism Page has been great. People have been writing expressing interest in Nietzsche's life, works, and influences. They want more information and more of his stuff to read, and they've been asking lots of questions. Questions like "What are the basic tenets of Nietzsche's philosophy?" and "What is Neitzsche's most important philosophy?" seem like they are simple to answer, as they are in the case of many Western thinkers. But Nietzsche is, somehow, different. His writings are harder to crack, and what he is trying to get at is often very difficult to decipher. What might be basic questions when asked of others like Plato or Rousseau or Kant become riddles when asked of Nietzsche. Unfortunately, certain popularizations and oversimplifications have proliferated around Nietzsche's philosophy (the Nazi appropriation of the Will to Power is only the most notably and horrific). This is compounded by the fact that few actually read Nietzsche's works themselves, content to read what others say about him (and this is not helped by the dearth of Nietzsche's writings on the Web, which is rapdily becoming many people's primary source of information). The purpose of this virtual seminar, which is an experiment in building and maintaining an electronic intellectual community, is to directly confront Nietzsche's philosophy and try to sort out the many different things he was trying to say. | |
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