Product Description

Friedrich Nietzsche is one of the most popular and controversial philosophers of the last 150 years. Narcissistic, idiosyncratic, hyperbolic, irreverent - never has a philosopher been appropriated, deconstructed, and scrutinized by such a disparate array of groups, movements, and schools of thought. Adored by many for his passionate ideas and iconoclastic style, he is also vilified for his lack of rigor, apparent cruelty, and disdain for moral decency. In "Living with Nietzsche", Solomon suggests that we read Nietzsche from a very different point of view, as a provocative writer who means to transform the way we view our lives. This means taking Nietzsche personally. Rather than focus on the "true" Nietzsche or trying to determine "what Nietzsche really meant" by his seemingly random and often contradictory pronouncements about "the Big Questions" of philosophy, Solomon reminds us that Nietzsche is not a philosopher of abstract ideas but rather of the dazzling personal insight, the provocative challenge, the incisive personal probe. He does not try to reveal the eternal verities but he does powerfully affect his readers, goading them to see themselves in new and different ways. It is Nietzsche's compelling invitation to self-scrutiny that fascinates us, engages us, and guides us to a "rich inner life." Ultimately, Solomon argues, Nietzsche is an example as well as a promulgator of "passionate inwardness," a life distinguished by its rich passions, exquisite taste, and a sense of personal elegance and excellence.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #630631 in Books
• Published on: 2004-01-15
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 256 pages

About the Author
Robert C. Solomon is Quincy Lee Centennial Professor of Philosophy and Business and Distinguished Teaching Professor at the University of Texas at Austin. He is the author of more than twenty-five books including Passion for Wisdom (OUP, 1999), The Joy of Philosophy (OUP, 1999), What Nietzsche Really Said (2000), Introducing Philosophy (OUP, 2002), What is an Emotion? (OUP, 2002), Spirituality for the Skeptic
(OUP, 2002), and Not Passion's Slave (OUP, 2002).

Customer Reviews

A very helpful book
This is an unusual book about Nietzsche in that it doesn't consist of pages & pages of biographical information coupled with trite academic questions about the death of God, the eternal return....etc. Instead Solomon approaches Nietzsche as a potential guiding spirit, a philosopher whose work may provide us with a comprehensive guide to a richer, worthier life.

I particularly liked Solomon's comprehensive deconstruction of Nietzsche's concept of virtues, even going so far as to list and explicate the 'Distinctly Nietzschean Virtues' (exuberance, aestheticism, playfulness, solitude...etc)

This is the third book i've bought by Robert Solomon and it's as brilliantly lucid and informative as the others. I'm certain that this book will prove invaluable to any undergraduate or scholar who wishes to gain a better understanding the woefully misunderstood German giant.