Synopses & Reviews
Human, All-Too-Human (Parts I and II) is a collection of philosophical aphorisms by famed philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche. The first part, originally published in 1878, is a collection of 638 aphorisms in which Nietzsche discusses metaphysics, the Christian idea of good and evil, religious worship, the idea of divine inspiration in art, social Darwinism, the respective roles of men, women and children in society, the power of the state, and in a final section Man Alone with Himself. In the second part we find what were originally published as parts II (1879) and III (1880), which contains 408 and 350 aphorisms respectively. Friedrich Nietzsche is widely regarded as one the most important philosophers of all time and that impact is ever apparent in this book, an accessible volume of thoughts upon social, religious, cultural, political and psychological issues.
Synopsis
Written after Nietzsche had ended his friendship with Richard Wagner and had been forced to leave academic life through ill health, Human, All Too Human (1878) can be read as a monument to his personal crisis. It also marks the point when he matured as a philosopher, rejecting the German romanticism espoused by Wagner and Schopenhauer and instead returning to sources in the French Enlightenment. Here he sets out his unsettling views in a series of 638 stunning aphorisms - assessing subjects ranging from art to arrogance, boredom to passion, science to vanity and women to youth. This work also contains the seeds of concepts crucial to Nietzsche's later philosophy, such as the will to power and the need to transcend conventional Christian morality. The result is one of the cornerstones of his life's work.