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Neitzsche books - reading order?

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Neitzsche books - reading order?

Devon8822
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Posted 12/14/08 - 03:35 PM: Subject: Neitzsche books - reading order?	#1
I am wondering about a good order for reading Neitzsche's books, or at least which one should I read first. The order that they were written makes the most sense I guess, but I would rather read a great one first.

A_Krich
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Posted 12/14/08 - 04:01 PM:	#2
Hmmmm. I'm not sure which would be the best way to get through them all. Initially I read Thus Spoke Zarathustra and from there picked up Twilight of the Idols. Thats just the way I went around doing it, not sure how effective it was though. What do others think?

Devon8822
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Posted 12/14/08 - 05:03 PM:	#3
Also, I should ask, which are the best editions/translations?

makerowner
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Posted 12/14/08 - 09:06 PM:	#4
I suppose it depends on your interests and how many you intend to read. If you only read one, I'd make it Twilight of the Idols, which is probably his best-written book and was intended to some extent as an introduction or overview of his philosophy. To be honest though, he tends to deal with most of the same topics in all his mature books; it probably won't make much difference what order you read them in, except for Zarathustra, a kind of pseudo-Biblical/poetic book that I definitely wouldn't recommend you start with, and The Will to Power, which isn't really a book at all, but a posthumous collection of his notes. As for translations, I think Walter Kaufmann's are the standard; his translations of most of Nietzsche's mature works are available in The Basic Writings of Nietzsche and The Portable Nietzsche.
For philosophy, Socrates, if pursued in moderation and at the proper age, is an elegant accomplishment, but too much philosophy is the ruin of human life. Even if a man has good parts, still, if he carries philosophy into later life, he is necessarily ignorant of all those things which a gentleman and a person of honour ought to know.

SixShotsByMoonlight
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Posted 12/15/08 - 06:57 PM:	#5
Walter Kaufmann's are the generally respected translations. He is also the guy who made Nietzsche respectable in academic circles. I started with Twilight of the Idols, then The Anti-christ, then Genealogy of Morals, then Zarathustra. It is sort of a progression of his philosophy in a way. Twilight knocks down the other traditions, the AntiChrist sets up some of his underlying opinions, Genealogy sets about what he wants to do with his ideas of the Ubermensche and then Zarathustra truly describes what the Ubermensche is, not Napoleon or Hitler but the ascetic who rise above the fray.

180 Proof
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1 of 1 people found this post helpful Posted 12/16/08 - 06:52 AM:	#6
makerowner wrote: I suppose it depends on your interests and how many you intend to read. If you only read one, I'd make it Twilight of the Idols, which is probably his best-written book and was intended to some extent as an introduction or overview of his philosophy. To be honest though, he tends to deal with most of the same topics in all his mature books; it probably won't make much difference what order you read them in, except for Zarathustra, a kind of pseudo-Biblical/poetic book that I definitely wouldn't recommend you start with, and The Will to Power, which isn't really a book at all, but a posthumous collection of his notes. As for translations, I think Walter Kaufmann's are the standard; his translations of most of Nietzsche's mature works are available in The Basic Writings of Nietzsche and The Portable Nietzsche. I more or less second these recommendations as this is how I read N. In hindsight, though, I've always felt that his protean works should be studied in chronological order (W. Kaufmann's translations wherever possible) in order to thread the exquisite labyrinth which they compose. To think N's thoughts with him as he leaps from penetrating insights to brilliant witticisms to the mad edge of his reasoning deepens understanding of his project from heights of his ringing rhetoric. N is a systematic thinker without system-building; you've gotta plunge lucidly into his "chaos" to decipher his subtle order. N rewards many many rereadings, and did not want to be understood by the casual reader & intellectual dilettante but by the philologically astute & finessed thinker. Edited by 180 Proof on 12/20/08 - 01:15 PM. Reason: ???
The question isn't "Which explanations do I believe?" but rather "Which explanations do I least disbelieve?" Absence of evidence THAT MUST BE THERE (i.e. implied by any claim, concept, or (its) predicates, that affects changes in/to the world) entails evidence of absence. [What cannot be done?[What cannot be hoped?[What cannot be known?]]]

Devon8822
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Posted 01/05/09 - 06:06 PM:	#7
I cannot find Kaufmann's translation of Twilight of the Idols anywhere... I checked and he did indeed make a translation for it. Does anybody know where I can locate one of these?

F.W.Nietzsche

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0 of 1 people found this post helpful Posted 01/05/09 - 07:41 PM:	#8
Read them in the order that he wrote them. You can see his lamentable psychosis develop, culminating in the complete breakdown that marks, Ecce Homo.

thedrowningman
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Posted 01/07/09 - 08:39 AM:	#9
I never saw 'Ecce Homo' as a breakdown, just a jaunty jape. Put into context, Nietzsche was dissilusioned with how few readers he had. He'd created these brilliant, life affirming books but nobody seemed to give a damn. 'Ecce Homo' loooks like a reaction to that, a 'If you wont read me being serious I may as well be a bit daft and self indulgent' mentality. There's some good stuff in there but a lot of it is a case of what I call 'NTTP' ('Nietzsche taking the piss'). This self mockery through self aggrandisement would seem intentional and systematic rather than the loud wooping of a lunatic. Any the hoo, the heavens, the betsy: I am surprised that nobody has suggested 'Beyond Good and Evil' as an opening text. It is the most noticably Philosophical of his works (ie, the arguments aren't as well hidden as in, say, the 'antiChrist or Daybreak')and is pretty representative of his concerns through his career (the modern malaises, the contradictions in ethics, the a-priori prejudice etc). If you do follow this line I'd recomend you also looking at Burnham's 'Reading Nietzsche' which is an excellent commentary on 'BGE'. After that try 'Twilight' and 'The Gay Science' As for translations I'm going to go against the grain and suggest Hollingdale. Kauffman occasionally makes Nietzsche that bit too dry for my taste. Hollingdale also has the benefit of being contemporary to us which means that the language he uses for Nietzsche's already difficult text does need to be translated by us into our normal modes of speech in quite the same way as Kauffman's does

dwilljo
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Posted 01/12/09 - 02:45 PM:	#10
I just took a class on nietzsche with a brilliant lecturer, barry allen. Here is the order we learned 5 books: birth of tragedy the gay science beyond good and evil genealogy of morality twilight of the idols One semester could do a semi adequate job of one of the smaller of the books, perhaps twilight. These are very deep pieces of writing, and there is so much contextual knowledge the average reader will not have that makes it all the more difficult. good luck!

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