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Namespace move. Friedrich Nietzsche\'s writing style was \"poetical\" enough that the Creator/ namespace seems justified, and the page puts the focus on his works rather than his philosophy. (He also *did* write poetry.)
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[[caption-width-right:219:[-The Überstachenmensch. Despite the resemblance, not [[{{Mythbusters}} Jamie Hyneman]].-] ]]
->''"Gods, too, decompose. {{God is dead}}. God remains dead. And we have killed him."''
-->-- '''Friedrich Nietzsche''', ''The [[HaveAGayOldTime Gay]] Science'', Aphorism 125 ("The Madman"), 1882 [[hottip:*:Fun fact: The quote "God is dead" already appears in a text of [[DichterUndDenker G.W.F. Hegel]] from 1802, eighty years before Nietzsche's book was published.]]
%% One quote is sufficient. Please place additional entries on the quotes tab.
Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche was [[DichterAndDenker an eccentric German author who wrote lots of books]], laden with extremely provocative and controversial ideas for his time, and they made him famous. Nowadays, he is often placed among the most influential philosophers of all time. It didn't end well for him back in his day, though, as he went nuts and soon died in his fifties.
What made his books so popular? Good question. Probably, his writing style. In any event, his [[{{Koan}} aphorisms]] can be quoted often; whatever one thinks of his ideas, he is one of the unquestionable masters of the GermanLanguage. Nietzsche is one of the few philosophical writers one might conceivably read simply for the joy of reading his prose. Of course, that could very well be part of his intellectual trap. One never knows with Nietzsche. See the Analysis tab for more.
Nietzsche's influence is hard to calculate, but is indisputably immense. He founded the modern philosophical position of [[TheAntiNihilist Existentialism]] along with Søren Kierkegaard, laid the groundwork for the later philosophical position of Phenomenology, and became a precursor for the philosophical position of PostModernism. His criticism of Christianity had a profound influence on 20th century theology, especially the work of Paul Tillich. He is also famous for predicting World War I (down to the decade, and while insane, no less), the destruction of the German empire, and the role that antisemitism would have in its demise.
He is also one of the mostly unsung heroes of psychology, along with the American, William James. They contemporaneously (but separately) started treating the contents of the human mind with the nuance and seriousness we have come to expect, and in being the first to do so helped to make psychology a respectable and popular area of academic study that would later fully take off with SigmundFreud, who particularly read Nietzsche as a student[[hottip:*:although Freud denied this despite evidence on the contrary]], and his contemporaries.
Fittingly for his view that "[[PostModernism all is art]]," he also wrote a fair amount of decent [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B1_2PJCA6FQ&feature=related Romantic classical music]].
Lastly, his name is spelled with one T, one Z, ''one S'', one C, and one H. It's pronounced roughly as "Neat-chuh", though the French (who tend to be bigger-than-average fans) monosyllabically pronounce it "Neache". "Nee-chee" is generally also an acceptable pronunciation, often used by English speakers. Just, whatever you do, do not try to pronounce the "Z" and you should be alright.
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!Books by Nietzsche
Any discussion of Nietzsche's legacy tends to get really long (look no further than ThatOtherWiki's entries on it), as it is wonderfully lends itself to [[EpilepticTrees wild theorizing and rabid interpretation]], so please, please keep this list as brief as possible.
* ''The Birth of Tragedy'' (1872): Nietzsche's first book, it deals with the philosophy of art, and many other things as well. Nietzsche critiques {{Socrates}} for killing Greek {{Tragedy}} by demanding that the search for truth take primacy over art, resulting in a society that hates the creative and loves death, with the prospect of starting of a new Renaissance of tragedy through {{Opera}}, particularly RichardWagner's opera. He presents as his solution the concept of a "music-making Socrates" who embraces art even as he philosophizes.
* "On Truth and Lies in a Nonmoral Sense" (1873): The quote in NietzscheWannabe comes from this one. Not actually a book (although it's as likely as any of his books to find its way into an anthology - I'm looking at you, Norton!), but a fragment that Nietzsche himself did not publish.
* ''Untimely Meditations'' (1876): A collection of four essays, as follows:
** "David Strauss: the Confessor and the Writer" (1873)
** "On the Advantage and Disadvantage of History for Life" (1874). Also translated "On the Use and Abuse of History for Life." This one is fairly often published on its own, as it condenses into a single, fairly short essay (less than 80 pages) one of Nietzsche's fundamental concepts: the idea that while Hegel was right about the dialectic, he was ''wrong'' about the "absolute moment" at which humanity discovers the fundamental truth, because there ''is'' no fundamental truth other than constant change.
** "Schopenhauer as Educator" (1874)
** "RichardWagner in Bayreuth" (1876): One of Nietzsche's earliest critiques of Wagner, even though he and Wagner were still friends at the time.
* ''Human, All Too Human'' (1878): His first book written in an [[{{Koan}} aphoristic]] style. A few years later, Nietzsche decided that it wasn't entirely complete, and added to it...
** ''The Wanderer and His Shadow'' (1880): Unusual for Nietzsche, comes the closest to touching on matters of political philosophy, with meditations on armament and war (he doesn't like them, and thinks the first leads to the second), the state (it sucks), and economics (capitalism and socialism both dehumanize people).
* ''Daybreak'' (1881): Also translated as ''The Dawn''. One of Nietzsche's more neglected works, overshadowed as it was by the works before and after it.
* ''The Gay Science'' (1882): [[HaveAGayOldTime No, it's not about what you think.]] It's possible that the term "gay" refers more to the original definition (happiness) than homosexuality. The source of the quote in StealthParody, and the first work in which he explicitly says that GodIsDead.
* ''Thus Spoke Zarathustra'' (1883): Arguably his most popular work. Unusually for a post-{{Plato}}nic Western philosophical work, this is actually a work of fiction; specifically, it is a novel, complete with plot (although you might not notice). It features as its main character Zarathustra, a former hermit philosopher who, despite having the same name as the prophet of ancient Zoroastrianism, is really an almost-but-not-quite AuthorAvatar for Nietzsche himself. ''Thus Spoke Zarathustra'' popularized the concept of the {{Ubermensch}}. Sadly, it does not play [[AlsoSprachZarathustra epic music]] when opened.
* ''Beyond Good and Evil'' (1886): The quote "HeWhoFightsMonsters" is from here, as does the concept of being AboveGoodAndEvil. [[VideoGame/BeyondGoodAndEvil The game]] is not related. Nor [[VideoGame/XenoSaga the other game]]. As far as the actual work goes, it's his attempt to explain ''Thus Spoke Zarathustra''.
* ''On the Genealogy of Morality'' (1887): Finding that even his smarter friends found ''Beyond Good and Evil'' too difficult to understand, he wrote ''On the Genealogy of Morality'' as an explanation for ''Beyond Good and Evil'', composed of three sections ("'Good and Evil', 'Good and Bad'," "'Guilt,' 'Bad Conscience,' and Related Matters," and "What do Ascetic Ideals Mean?"). It is one of Nietzsche's few mature works written in essay/treatise form (rather than as [[{{Koan}} aphorisms]]). So essentially, it's the explanation of the explanation to ''Thus Spoke Zarathustra''.
* ''The Case of Wagner'' (1888): A polemic against RichardWagner, or rather what Wagner stood for in the minds of Germans, both in Nietzsche's own lifetime and [[NaziGermany later]].
* ''Twilight of the Idols'' (1888): Starts with a collection of bare, pithy, one-line aphorisms, and then goes into more detail. Source of the quote "[[AdaptiveAbility That which does not kill me makes me stronger]]." In the original German, the title is ''Götzen-Dämmerung'', making the pun on Wagner's ''[[DerRingDesNibelungen Götterdämmerung]]'' (meaning "Twilight of the Gods") that much more obvious.
* ''The Anti-Christ'' (1888): Not TheAntichrist itself, but an extended polemic against Christianity. The title can also be translated as ''The Antichristian'', but that would overlook Nietzsche's desire to be as provocative as possible.
* ''Ecce Homo'' (1888): An autobiographical work, albeit a highly-stylized one (Rule of Literary?), in the manner of {{Plato}}'s ''Apology''. [[{{Ecchi}} Get your mind]] [[YaoiGuys out of the gutter]], it's a reference to [[Literature/TheBible John 19:5]].
* ''Nietzsche contra Wagner'' (1888): A selection of passages from Nietzsche's earlier books, designed to show that ''The Case of Wagner'' was the culmination of ideas the author had ruminated upon for some time, rather than the product of a momentary malice.
* ''The Will to Power'': Again, not actually one of his books, but a collection of his notes; scholars to this day [[SeriousBusiness have serious debates]] whether he had intended to finish this work at all. Either way, the work covers Nietzsche's ideas about the history of nihilism in the West. The subtitle, ''An Attempt at the Revaluation of All Values'', points at the middle part of the work, in which he begins to try to point the way for anyone who might become a proper {{Ubermensch}}. Recent editions take pains to note that ''The Will to Power'' is hardly complete, and really isn't supposed to exist. See above, about his [[ThoseWackyNazis wacky]] sister, for details.
''This section is still under construction. If you've read any of the missing books on the list, please help us by writing a short summary!''
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!Tropes named after Nietzsche
Nietzsche is a prolific TropeNamer:
* AlsoSprachZarathustra
* EternalRecurrence
* GodIsDead
* HeWhoFightsMonsters
* NietzscheWannabe
* {{Ubermensch}}
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!Tropes relating Nietzsche's life and works
* AboveGoodAndEvil[=/=]WhatIsEvil[=/=]TheUnfettered: Ethics (what is "moral") is pretty much his strong point in philosophy (His contributions on other fields like metaphysics is very inconsistent on the other hand). And his criticism of conventional "good and evil" morality reaches a point where he unashamedly call the very concept of good and evil "slave morality," which is why he was not so fond of Christianity.
** He also accuses most Western philosophers of blindly trying to rehash good and evil in a secular society (e.g., Immanuel Kant's Categorial Imperative, and [[EthicalHedonism Utilitarianism]]).
* AlternativeCharacterInterpretation: Is Nietzsche one of the greatest geniuses in the History of Western philosophy, or is he just a megalomaniacal SocialDarwinist lunatic? Is his philosophy a great code to live by, or is it a (as Russell would say it) mere PowerFantasy?
** Nietzsche's character types can be alternatively interpreted as well. Is the {{Ubermensch}} a goal one can set for himself, or is it just a Nazi obsession? Needless to say, this contributed to the EditWar on that page.
* TheAntiNihilist[=/=]KnightInSourArmor: While [[TheCynic he]] is certainly famous for his {{Crapsack World}}view, Nietzsche encouraged this lifestyle as being more meaningful to life and an alternative to mindless, apathetic [[TheHedonist hedonism]].
* ApatheticCitizens: He thinks humanity is becoming this ever since Plato, and modern science is making it even worse: see ScienceIsBad below. He called such a citizen the "Last Man".
* AuthorExistenceFailure: ''Ecce Homo'', which he tried to publish but failed to.
* BadassMustache: There is no way you can argue with it.
* BedlamHouse: Which he said is an easy way to show that [[FaithHeelTurn faith proves nothing]]. He himself was eventually thrown into a mental asylum, and we know that Psychology wasn't ethically developed yet.
* BeYourself[=/=]DesperatelyLookingForAPurposeInLife: A major theme in his philosophy.
* BlueAndOrangeMorality
* BrokenPedestal: Nietzsche started his writing career as a big fan of Richard Wagner's music and the messages embedded in them, and wrote effusive praise. As time went on, however, Nietzsche became disillusioned with Wagner's bombast and lack of subtlety, and eventually broke with him on Wagner's growing anti-Semitism and German Nationalism. One of his later works is a brutal deconstruction of Wagner's works, both their aesthetic and political qualities.
** Perhaps not as sharp a break, but Nietzsche's views on Schopenhauer, who he looked on with some fondness early in his career, turned quite negative by Nietzsche's middle period.
* CardCarryingVillain: ''TheAntichrist''. How could it be more obvious?[[hottip:*:Although he might be going for shock value in this one.]] Also, in ''Beyond Good and Evil'':
-->And it is only for your AFTERNOON, you, my written and painted thoughts, for which alone I have colours, many colours, perhaps, many variegated softenings, and fifty yellows and browns and greens and reds;—but nobody will divine thereby how ye looked in your morning, you sudden sparks and marvels of my solitude, you, my old, beloved—'''EVIL''' thoughts!
* CausticCritic[=/=]AccentuateTheNegative: Not even his former best friend RichardWagner is safe.
* ContemplateOurNavels: Averted. One of his most important contributions to what would later become Psychology was the observation that introspection and self-analysis are extremely poor tools for figuring out what is actually going on in our heads. This was a complete break with the accumulated wisdom up to that point, and opened up space for Freud's idea of the unconscious mind.
* CreatorBreakdown: See below, but the syphilis certainly didn't help his mental state.
** It's unlikely that he had syphilis as knowledge of mental disorders were not as advanced in Nietzsche's time as they are today. TheOtherWiki expands on the possible causes of his insanity.
** Even when the disease does cause madness, it does it progressively over a very long time. Nietzsche went mad almost suddenly.
* DarkerAndEdgier: Nietzsche is considered to be among the Darkest and Edgiest of philosophers, thus dark and edgy works tend to have gratuitous Nietzsche quotes and philosophy in them ("that which does not kill me makes me... [[TheDarkKnight stranger]]", "[[WatchMen The Abyss Gazes Also]]", etc.), and pretentious people are prone to quoting Nietzsche and imitating his philosophical style to look dark and edgy (see also: NietzscheWannabe). Subverted on the author's part, since while Nietzsche himself had a worldview that combined strong fatalism with [[CosmicHorrorStory one's own insignificance]], he actually made a ''LighterAndSofter'' response to the depressing worldviews of Arthur Schopenhauer along with a lot of Nihilists in his time, [[TheAntiNihilist seeing the bright and more positive side to living in such a world]].
* DarkIsNotEvil
* DeadArtistsAreBetter[=/=]VindicatedByHistory: He predicted that he would be "born posthumously." He was right.
* DidNotDoTheResearch: Evolution and natural selection do not work the way Friedrich though they did, and he did a poor job at attempting to criticize it. It is clear that he mostly grasped the [[TheThemeParkVersion "Survival of the Fittest"]] part and never actually read up on CharlesDarwin's actual works.
* EitherOrTitle: ''Twilight of the Idols, or, How to Philosophize with a Hammer''
* TheFatalist[=/=]YouCantFightFate: His preaching of ''amor fati'' is one of the major reasons why he is bashed as a nihilist. Psychologically speaking, ordinary people usually react to the despair of fatalism, such as deaths caused by terminal illnesses (like genetic disorders, or the syphilis and mental illnesses he himself suffered), with the perception of life as just [[CosmicHorrorStory one big pointless]] AndIMustScream, hence causing [[DrivenToSuicide depression]], [[DarknessInducedAudienceApathy apathy]] and/or [[OmnicidalManiac rage]]. However, those extraordinary few should reject this suicidal perception, instead both accepting this fatalistic outlook and living it [[WorldOfHam as if it was an art form]] (hence a possible wordplay on "Übermensch"). His thought experiment on EternalRecurrence boils down to how confident people with strong enough willpower can accept the challenge of life over and over again, fully appreciating this AndIMustScream existence and making it joyful without any regrets. This also comes hand-in-hand with appreciating the Ancient Greeks' view on a fatalistic life (e.g., expressing it in the art form of Tragedy), and condemning modern Enlightenment philosophy because of their too much optimism in free will (despite masking it under Greek ideas).
* TheGadfly
* GoMadFromTheRevelation: "The Madman" in ''The Gay Science'' who announces the death of God seems to have done this, although it's not altogether clear. This is also one of the more poetic ways to explain what happened to Nietzsche himself for the last eleven years of his life.
* GratuitousForeignLanguage: Frequently [[AltumVidetur Latin]] or sometimes [[GratuitousGreek Greek]], as was common with most intellectual fields at that time, although he was just as likely to use GratuitousFrench or GratuitousEnglish when quoting something or other. In fairness, it usually wasn't terribly gratuitous; he probably had some philosophical purpose in every instance. Indeed, his purpose could, at times, be downright practical: his use of the French word ''ressentiment'' (resentment) in ''On the Genealogy of Morality'' and afterward was basically because German doesn't have a word that could really translate to "resentment."
** Additionally, people citing Nietzsche are liable to use GratuitousGerman; even [[MainPage this very wiki]] is not immune, by titling the article on the overman "{{Ubermensch}}."
* HedonismTropes: Subverted hard. He starts his career in philosophy with the description of the Apollonian (cerebral, classicist, [[TheSpock logical]], restrained) and Dionysian (wild, visceral, hammy, {{hotblooded}}, hedonistic) archetypes in the Birth of Tragedy (and recommending a Dionysian lifestyle), but ends it by condemning utilitarianism and other hedonistic lifestyles.
-->Man does not strive for pleasure; only the Englishman does.
* HeWhoFightsMonsters: His reaction to Socrates. Before Socrates the proper way to prevail in any enterprise is to just *do* things. After Socrates, the proper way to win was to *talk* (or more accurately, argue and {{wangst}}) about doing things. Once arguing became the way business is done, [[FlameWar bad arguments become unavoidable, and equally bad arguments tend to spur from their opponents]]. And it was all a waste of time. This shift was profound and, in Nietzsche's mind, devastating.
** This also sums up his view on the future of Secular philosophy and science: see the part about NotSoDifferent and ScienceIsBad below.
* InsistentTerminology: Sort of. As he gradually grew disillusioned of German culture, he started emphasizing his descent from Polish nobility; by the end of his (sane) life, he insisted that he was entirely Polish.
* {{Irony}}: He was fond of this, to the point that [[MindScrew his works made no sense]]. Also forms the basis of HeWhoFightsMonsters.
* {{Koan}}: One of the great Western practitioners of the art.
* LargeHam: Particularly in his AuthorAvatar Zarathustra.
* MindScrew
* MisaimedFandom[=/=]MisBlamed[=/=]{{Flanderization}}: [[HitlerAteSugar The Nazis' adulation of him and the corresponding misconception (now highly discredited) that he would have supported them]]. His works reflect the opposite of anti-semitism, statism, and Germanic nationalism amongst other things, but they seemed to agree on matters like WarIsGlorious (sort of- see below), [[SocialDarwinist men are not equal, possibly eugenics,]] [[HobbesWasRight anti-democracy]]/anti-communism etc, and that a strong, perhaps even brutal, leadership is desirable, albeit for slightly different reasons.
** Some of the blame for this can be laid at the feet of his sister, a supporter of the Nazi party who edited some of his works to present a pro-Nazi slant.
** The Trope NietzscheWannabe sums up his MisaimedFandom as well.
* MiseryBuildsCharacter
* MonsterClown: THE JESTER!!
* NietzscheWannabe: [[UnbuiltTrope Deconstructed]]. While he was a Cynic who did subscribe to a nihilistic ''worldview'', he despised the nihilistic ''lifestyle'', which he called out as simply unproductive and pathetic {{wangst}}.
* NotSoDifferent: His view on religion and science, at least insofar as they both attempt to calculate a metaphysical framework to explain how and why the world functions; the latter is simply secular. See also the part on ScienceIsBad below.
* OneOfUs: Quite literally. "Tropes are not something that can be added or abstracted from language at will—-they are its truest nature. There is no real knowing apart from metaphor, and the drive toward the formation of such is the fundamental human drive."
* PostModernism: One of the great precursors for the movement.
* PreachersKid[=/=]TheCobblersChildrenHaveNoShoes: His father was a Lutheran minister, as was his maternal grandfather. He grew up to be an atheist and a critic of Christianity.
* RealMenEatMeat: He very clearly believed that vegetarianism was bad for the human spirit (which of course did not just include men, but his philosophy definitely emphasized manliness); he specifically calls vegetarianism a cause of "physiological inhibition" in ''On the Genealogy of Morality''.
* {{Reconstruction}}: Now that Nihilism {{deconstruct|ion}}ed the idealistic and rationalist philosophies of his time, he deconstructed the nihilistic lifestyle and created [[TheAntiNihilist The Übermensch]] as a response.
* {{Retraux}}[=/=]InTheStyleOf: Some of his works were deliberately written in Biblical style, possibly for additional irony. ''Thus Spoke Zarathustra'' is a particularly good example.
* {{Romanticism}}[=/=]ScienceIsBad: Not exactly. While his poetic, hammy and caustic criticism of modernity heavily influenced Postmodernism, he did understand the importance of modern science, and the unquestionable truth of its discoveries, and definitely approved of its methods as superior to religious or philosophical ones for investigation of reality. However, [[RomanticismVersusEnlightenment he regarded scientists' (and Enlightenment philosophers in general) relentless obsession for objective truth--and in particular, the extension of the scientific method to the study of human beings--as a dangerous development which makes people too dependent on objective truth while downplaying or outright destroying individuals' own perspectives, and obscures important elements of the human condition that cannot be quantified]], that which will eventually lead to a {{Dystopia}}n future.
* ShrugOfGod: Many of works make it clear that the reader is urged to make up their own mind on certain things, most obviously when there are self-contradictory statements. Too bad they didn't have [[SincerityMode pot]] [[SarcasmMode holes]] back then.
* SocialDarwinist[=/=]MightMakesRight: Whenever the terms "Übermensch," "Will-To-Power," "Master-slave morality," Nietzsche's rejection of egalitarianism/democracy and such comes up, distinctions between Nietzsche and Social Darwinism are severely blurred, hence Nietzsche's frequent misassociation with notable Social Darwinists like ThoseWackyNazis. Note that Nietzsche wasn't really that much of a ''social'' Darwinist; his philosophy is rather different.
** While he can be excused as going insane, he almost went overboard and took a stance to KillThePoor when he wrote ''The Antichrist''.\\
[-''The weak and the botched shall perish: first principle of our charity. And one should help them to it.''-]
** He did try to criticize (evolutionary) Darwinism, although what he criticized was actually TheThemeParkVersion rather than Darwin's actual theory (see DidNotDoTheResearch above).
* TheSociopath: Not himself, of course, but he predicted some of the Sociopath's personality traits, like LackOfEmpathy, incapability to feel remorse/guilt, unfettered behaviour, and occasional inhuman charisma. Also, if understood badly, Nietzsche's philosophy can look like it was praising a self-centered version of MoralSociopathy. Especially The Anti-Christ, where he actually goes on to condemn empathy itself.
* TemptingFate[=/=]WhatCouldPossiblyGoWrong: In ''Ecce Homo'', Nietzsche wrote about his fear that he would be [[MisaimedFandom pronounced holy by future readers]], therefore he wanted to publish the book before anyone would make the mistake. Due to his mental breakdown, his book was published years after his death. You can guess what happened on the day of his funeral.
* TheThemeParkVersion: [[NietzscheWannabe Sadly very common]].
* TheUbermensch: While this character was originally his idea (and it's actually even more complex than what could be described in that trope page), it's subverted because Nietzsche never considered himself as this, even considering himself to be more of the Last Man, because in his original works the Ubermensch is supposed to be "healthy" and his sickliness rendered him incapable of doing anything truly Ubermensch-related. He did not even bother defining this character archetype well, thus the flame wars here on the internet and in the academic world.
** He did, however, point out a few historical figures who were either Ubermenschen or very close; for the most part, they tend to be prophet-lawgivers and the founders of influential schools of thought. Chief among them were {{Socrates}} and {{Jesus}}. He regarded them both as something of a mixed bag: the former started a trend in Western culture that Nietzsche did not like but on the other hand did have some good ideas; he regarded what he considered to be the original teaching of Christianity (which he understood to be rather like Buddhism) to be excellent to apply for the poor, sheepish masses in a healthy society, but also considered Jesus an "idiot" (by which he meant "CloudCuckoolander"), and didn't like that Jesus' teaching was so easily twisted by the Apostle Paul (whom he despised). He also seemed to regard both Gautama Buddha and Muhammad as Ubermenschen or near-Ubermenschen. He liked what he saw in Buddhism (having studied it fairly extensively), but has little to say about Islam (although what he does have to say is quite complimentary), as it seems he hadn't really gotten around to a detailed treatment of the subject.
* WarIsGlorious: Inverted, subverted, deconstructed, played straight, zigzagged and played with relentlessly. As mentioned above he is critical of war in one sense, and especially for how it was used and abused by the state for petty reasons, but he regards conflict (in a general sense) as the great mover of history and ideas, and the fount of creativity. He also saw war as a way that a broken society might find renewed purpose, though he notes that a healthy society has no need for war. He admires numerous men who were soldiers and conquerors like JuliusCaesar, Cesare Borgia, NapoleonBonaparte and Alexander the Great, and frequently invoked war imagery in his writings especially when he was attacking someone (ie. more often than not). He is strongly opposed to pacifism and after forming TheUbermensch he changed his mind about war, praising it. In his insane period he declared that Germany would fall shortly due to its war-making; he was dead on right. In other words- inconclusive.
* WorthyOpponent: {{Jesus}} and {{Socrates}}. He regarded both as {{Ubermensch}}en who changed the course of history, although he didn't like where they went with it, or even more sharply what other people did with it after they died. On the other hand, in ''The Antichrist'' he tried to describe St. Paul (the actual saint, not the capital of Minnesota, of which he was dimly aware at best) as a contemptible NietzscheWannabe who encouraged HappinessInSlavery.
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!References to Nietzsche in media
Nietzsche and his books are mostly used in media to convey [[WhatDoYouMeanItsNotSymbolic metaphysical connotations where they could have easily been avoided]].
[[foldercontrol]]
[[folder: Anime and Manga ]]
* Rare non-symbolic reference to Nietzsche in ''MagicalGirlLyricalNanoha'', where one of [[TheBeastmaster Caro's]] [[OurDragonsAreDifferent dragons]] is named Friedrich as part of their ThemeNaming. Her other dragon is named [[Creator/FrancoisMarieArouet Voltaire]].
* The new opening of ''SuzumiyaHaruhi'' contains the phrase "Gott ist tot." You may now take this in whichever way you want.
** Some people have pointed out that Haruhi going to all the clubs and then leaving when they're empty of what she wants happens to be almost exactly what The Madman does in Nietzsche's ''The Gay Science'', which is where "Gott ist tot" comes from.
* [[SayonaraZetsubouSensei Arai Chie]]'s name is a direct Nietzsche reference...for ''some'' reason.
* In the ''Anime/YuGiOh'' anime, Seto Kaiba is seen reading Also Sprach Zarathustra in the very first scene we meet him in. This may be subtle [[LampshadeHanging lampshade hanging]] to his [[NietzscheWannabe personality type.]]
[[/folder]]
[[folder: Comic Books ]]
* Nietzschean philosophy is flirted with all throughout ''{{Watchmen}}'', but it's especially evident in the Rorschach-centric chapter, which is titled "The Abyss Gazes Also" and ends with [[HeWhoFightsMonsters the rest of the quote]].
** Moore used the concept of the real 'superman' on one of his most famous (and darkest) works, his reintepretation of Miracleman. At the end of the first chapter, on issue one, a chilling page which shows us a close up of Miracleman's face and eye, quotes "Behold... I teach you the superman! He is this lightning! He is this madness!".
* Garth Ennis' {{Preacher}} has a lot of Nietzschean influenced ideas sprinkled around in it. This becomes most obvious at the end of the series, when the God Is Death philosophy is taken literally.
* Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster named Their character ''{{Superman}}'' after the Nietzschean term coined in ''Thus Spoke Zarathustra''.
[[/folder]]
[[folder: Film ]]
* In ''TheDayAfterTomorrow'' by RolandEmmerich, the people who were trapped in the [[BigAppleSauce New York]] Central Library start burning books in the fire pit (as New York is hot my a ice storm). Not long after an argument breaks loose whether to burn Nietzsche's collected works (who was, as one person argues, a chauvinist and an [[BrotherSisterIncest Incestier]]). They soon decide to burn the tax payers' rights registry instead.
* In ''[[DarkKnightTrilogy The Dark Knight]]'', Joker uses the variation of that which does not kill me can only make me stronger quote, by replacing stronger with stranger, although the quote probably wasn't an intentional reference.
* "That which does not kill you, makes you stronger" was also quoted at the beginning of the ''Conan the Barbarian'' film.
* Otto, the [[LargeHam Bombastic]] {{Jerkass}} NietzscheWannabe [[{{Eagleland}} American]] psychopath in ''AFishCalledWanda''. He does not really understand Nietzsche's, or anyone else's, philosophy.
--> '''Wanda''': But you think you're an intellectual, don't you, ape?
--> '''Otto''': Apes don't read philosophy.
--> '''Wanda''': Yes they do, Otto. They just don't understand it.
* Although Nietzsche himself wasn't a nihilist, that philosophy has been associated with him. The scene in TheBigLebowski where [[HairTriggerTemper Walter]] misconstrues German nihilists as Nazis probably alludes to Nietzsche's undeserved reputation in that area.
** He doesn't misconstrue them as Nazis at all. He confuses them for Nazis because they are German and says that they can take them because [[AmericaWinsTheWar they have done it before]]. When the Dude corrects him and clarifies that they are nihilists, explaining that means they don't believe in anything, he has an OhCrap moment and realizes this could make them ''worse' than Nazis, because at least Nazism was an ethos. [[spoiler: Of course, once they found out these nihilists had not actually kidnapped, harmed or killed anyone, and were basically a bunch of [[NietzscheWannabe Nietszche Wannabes]] of the HarmlessVillain variety, he loses his respect for them.]]
* In the Live Action Adaptation of [[Manga/DeathNote Death Note]] Light Yagami reads ''Beyond Good and Evil'' in German.
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[[folder: Literature ]]
* AynRand was a serious student of Nietzsche's ideas, leading to her development of the philosophy of Objectivism, which is basically similar to Nietzsche's own philosophy except it rejected the premise that the Ubermensch can use force on others for his own ends. By the time of ''TheFountainhead'', however, she was willing to ''deconstruct'' the traditional Nietzschean Ubermensch.
** YourMileageMayVary on whether Rand should be considered a serious student of Nietzsche or whether their philosophies are similar. On a rhetorical level there seem to be some parallels, but beneath the surface they are profoundly different. Rand deified reason and rationality and actively hated anti-rationalism, while Nietzsche was deeply suspicious of privileging reason over other modes of analysis, to the point that many philosophers consider Nietzsche an anti-rationalist himself. Nietzsche was critical of market economics and wealth generation as an end in itself, as well as attacking the moral root of property rights. Beyond the superficial, perhaps the only thing they completely agreed upon was their analysis of aesthetics.
** Rand appears to instead be an Aristotlean (she attacked modern physics and non-Euclidean geometry because they didn't fit in an Aristotlean framework) in Nietzsche's skin.
* If you know what to look for, you can sometimes spot alterations of the book titles in PerryRhodan novels. There's no philosophical and/or thematic connection but apparently, at least one author is a Nietzsche fan.
* Reversed by the works of FyodorDostoevsky: Nietzsche was a ''huge'' Dostoevsky fan (although they couldn't be more different on their views on Christianity), reading Dostoevsky's novels as soon as they came out in French or German (Nietzsche didn't speak Russian). The influence of Dostoevsky's ideas shows up in Nietzsche's work. To give you an idea how similarly they analyzed the problem of nihilism, Dostoevsky's [[Literature/CrimeAndPunishment Raskolnikov]] is remarkably like (though not identical to) the Nietzschean {{Ubermensch}}...but Nietzsche hadn't read ''Literature/CrimeAndPunishment'' when he wrote ''Thus Spoke Zarathustra'', and ''Crime and Punishment'' predates ''Zarathustra'' by fifteen years.
** Of course, one need only to reach the end of the works to realize that the two then came to very different conclusions. A little wild to think about.
* Francis is a fan of Nietzsche in 'Felidae' and 'Felidae on the Road'.
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[[folder: Live Action TV ]]
* ''{{Andromeda}}'' has a whole alien race named after him, the Nietzscheans, who wholeheartedly adhere to a [[ThemeParkVersion particular vision of his beliefs]].
* The Bruces from ''MontyPythonsFlyingCircus'' know "there's nothing Nietzsche couldn't teach ya 'bout the raising of the wrist."
* There is a quote at the beginning and the ending of every ''Series/CriminalMinds'' episode. At least six of the quotes have been from Friedrich Nietzsche. The "HeWhoFightsMonsters" quote was used in the first episode and the one hundredth episode and is a central theme throughout the whole show. It was also referenced in the season four finale:
-->'''Hotch''': ''(final voiceover)'' ...And what about my team? How many more times will they be able to look into the abyss? How many more times before they won’t ever recover the pieces of themselves that this job takes?...
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[[folder: Music ]]
* The Music/BlindGuardian song "Punishment Divine" is about Nietzsche going insane.
* ''AlsoSprachZarathustra'' by Richard Strauss of course.
* The song ''What Doesn't Kill You(Stronger)'' by KellyClarkson, who ironically, is very Christian, with a tattoo of a cross on her wrist.
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[[folder: Video Games ]]
* ''VideoGame/{{Xenosaga}}'' just '''runneth over''' with Nietzsche symbolism. Not to mention every game in the series is named after one of his books (except ''Der Wille zur Macht'' - ''The Will to Power'' - which, as mentioned above, is a collection of unpublished scribblings from his notebooks).
* Lucas Kane in ''{{Fahrenheit}}'' is especially fond of ''Thus Spoke Zarathustra'', a copy of which he keeps near his bed.
* The original ''BaldursGate'' opens with the "HeWhoFightsMonsters" quote, hinting at [[spoiler:the dangers of Bhaal's legacy (probably)]].
* HeWhoFightsMonsters was used in the advertising for ''TooHuman''. Which, as you might have guessed, is ''also'' named after one of his books.
* Despite its title, ''VideoGame/BeyondGoodAndEvil'' really has nothing to do with Nietzsche. ''That'' LiteraryAllusionTitle was a product of ExecutiveMeddling.
* In ''TheNamelessMod'', an insane AI running the player through an obstacle course ([[VideoGame/{{Portal}} sounds familiar]]) refers to one room as "The Nietzsche Room" because "it makes you realize" that there is "no god". If the correct alliance and reasons choices are given, Kashue will use HeWhoFightsMonsters in the final level.
* Kreia from ''KnightsOfTheOldRepublic 2'' provides us with a Cliff Notes version of some part of Nietzsche's philosophy every time she opens her mouth. Just replace 'God' with 'The Force' and 'Jedi/Sith' with 'priest', and Kreia basically becomes an {{Ubermensch}}, or (even more likely) she fills the role of Nietzsche trying to mold the main character into one.
* FarCry 2 BigBad The Jackal quotes from Beyond Good and Evil quite a bit in the game, from the first time you meet him and through his audio diaries.
* The recent ''Persona'' games of the ShinMegamiTensei franchise - that is, ''{{Persona 3}}'' and ''{{Persona 4}}'' - seem to be based on Nietzschean philosophy... ''actual'' Nietzschean philosophy, and not the stuff [[NietzscheWannabe people usually try to pin on him]].
** ''Persona 3'' seems to ape quite a bit from ''Thus Spake Zarathustra''' (particularly [[spoiler: the idea of the Protagonist becoming a ''proper'' Ubermensch, unafraid to face death, and someone worthy of being an actual Messiah to humanity]]).
** ''Persona 4'' more or less cribs ''On Truth And Lies In A Nonmoral Sense'' wholesale; the entire concept of a "fog of pride and ''thinking'' you know something" is lifted from the book, and the game hammers home the idea that you must look beyond yourself to understand the objective nature of things (going so far as to [[spoiler:attempt to trick you with ''several'' fake ending sequences, the second of which will ''actively attempt to dissuade you'' from the true ending to the game.]]) Nearly all of the playable characters also are forced to face down the fact that they've been lying to themselves about certain aspects of their psyches.
* ''SidMeiersAlphaCentauri'' makes several references to Nietzsche, the most obvious of which are the technologies "Homo Superior" (which is essentially Latin for {{Ubermensch}}) and "The Will to Power" (which is straight from Nietzsche). The blurbs read out upon acquiring these technologies are both from the prologue to ''Thus Spoke Zarathustra''. The bit of EncyclopediaExposita attached to them indicates that they involve creating and using {{Cyborg}}s who are both perfectly human and perfectly machine (and thus capable, potentially, of being actual Ubermenschen), and "The Will to Power" enables the [[MindControl Thought Control]] social choice.
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[[folder: Web Original ]]
* Several stories in the ''DarwinsSoldiers'' canon [[VillainEpisode focus on the antagonists]], and are summarily renamed ''Nietzsche's Soldiers.''
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[[caption-width-right:219:[-The Überstachenmensch. Despite the resemblance, not [[{{Mythbusters}} Jamie Hyneman]].-] ]]
->''"Gods, too, decompose. {{God is dead}}. God remains dead. And we have killed him."''
-->-- '''Friedrich Nietzsche''', ''The [[HaveAGayOldTime Gay]] Science'', Aphorism 125 ("The Madman"), 1882 [[hottip:*:Fun fact: The quote "God is dead" already appears in a text of [[DichterUndDenker G.W.F. Hegel]] from 1802, eighty years before Nietzsche's book was published.]]
%% One quote is sufficient. Please place additional entries on the quotes tab.
Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche was [[DichterAndDenker an eccentric German author who wrote lots of books]], laden with extremely provocative and controversial ideas for his time, and they made him famous. Nowadays, he is often placed among the most influential philosophers of all time. It didn't end well for him back in his day, though, as he went nuts and soon died in his fifties.
What made his books so popular? Good question. Probably, his writing style. In any event, his [[{{Koan}} aphorisms]] can be quoted often; whatever one thinks of his ideas, he is one of the unquestionable masters of the GermanLanguage. Nietzsche is one of the few philosophical writers one might conceivably read simply for the joy of reading his prose. Of course, that could very well be part of his intellectual trap. One never knows with Nietzsche. See the Analysis tab for more.
Nietzsche's influence is hard to calculate, but is indisputably immense. He founded the modern philosophical position of [[TheAntiNihilist Existentialism]] along with Søren Kierkegaard, laid the groundwork for the later philosophical position of Phenomenology, and became a precursor for the philosophical position of PostModernism. His criticism of Christianity had a profound influence on 20th century theology, especially the work of Paul Tillich. He is also famous for predicting World War I (down to the decade, and while insane, no less), the destruction of the German empire, and the role that antisemitism would have in its demise.
He is also one of the mostly unsung heroes of psychology, along with the American, William James. They contemporaneously (but separately) started treating the contents of the human mind with the nuance and seriousness we have come to expect, and in being the first to do so helped to make psychology a respectable and popular area of academic study that would later fully take off with SigmundFreud, who particularly read Nietzsche as a student[[hottip:*:although Freud denied this despite evidence on the contrary]], and his contemporaries.
Fittingly for his view that "[[PostModernism all is art]]," he also wrote a fair amount of decent [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B1_2PJCA6FQ&feature=related Romantic classical music]].
Lastly, his name is spelled with one T, one Z, ''one S'', one C, and one H. It's pronounced roughly as "Neat-chuh", though the French (who tend to be bigger-than-average fans) monosyllabically pronounce it "Neache". "Nee-chee" is generally also an acceptable pronunciation, often used by English speakers. Just, whatever you do, do not try to pronounce the "Z" and you should be alright.
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!Books by Nietzsche
Any discussion of Nietzsche's legacy tends to get really long (look no further than ThatOtherWiki's entries on it), as it is wonderfully lends itself to [[EpilepticTrees wild theorizing and rabid interpretation]], so please, please keep this list as brief as possible.
* ''The Birth of Tragedy'' (1872): Nietzsche's first book, it deals with the philosophy of art, and many other things as well. Nietzsche critiques {{Socrates}} for killing Greek {{Tragedy}} by demanding that the search for truth take primacy over art, resulting in a society that hates the creative and loves death, with the prospect of starting of a new Renaissance of tragedy through {{Opera}}, particularly RichardWagner's opera. He presents as his solution the concept of a "music-making Socrates" who embraces art even as he philosophizes.
* "On Truth and Lies in a Nonmoral Sense" (1873): The quote in NietzscheWannabe comes from this one. Not actually a book (although it's as likely as any of his books to find its way into an anthology - I'm looking at you, Norton!), but a fragment that Nietzsche himself did not publish.
* ''Untimely Meditations'' (1876): A collection of four essays, as follows:
** "David Strauss: the Confessor and the Writer" (1873)
** "On the Advantage and Disadvantage of History for Life" (1874). Also translated "On the Use and Abuse of History for Life." This one is fairly often published on its own, as it condenses into a single, fairly short essay (less than 80 pages) one of Nietzsche's fundamental concepts: the idea that while Hegel was right about the dialectic, he was ''wrong'' about the "absolute moment" at which humanity discovers the fundamental truth, because there ''is'' no fundamental truth other than constant change.
** "Schopenhauer as Educator" (1874)
** "RichardWagner in Bayreuth" (1876): One of Nietzsche's earliest critiques of Wagner, even though he and Wagner were still friends at the time.
* ''Human, All Too Human'' (1878): His first book written in an [[{{Koan}} aphoristic]] style. A few years later, Nietzsche decided that it wasn't entirely complete, and added to it...
** ''The Wanderer and His Shadow'' (1880): Unusual for Nietzsche, comes the closest to touching on matters of political philosophy, with meditations on armament and war (he doesn't like them, and thinks the first leads to the second), the state (it sucks), and economics (capitalism and socialism both dehumanize people).
* ''Daybreak'' (1881): Also translated as ''The Dawn''. One of Nietzsche's more neglected works, overshadowed as it was by the works before and after it.
* ''The Gay Science'' (1882): [[HaveAGayOldTime No, it's not about what you think.]] It's possible that the term "gay" refers more to the original definition (happiness) than homosexuality. The source of the quote in StealthParody, and the first work in which he explicitly says that GodIsDead.
* ''Thus Spoke Zarathustra'' (1883): Arguably his most popular work. Unusually for a post-{{Plato}}nic Western philosophical work, this is actually a work of fiction; specifically, it is a novel, complete with plot (although you might not notice). It features as its main character Zarathustra, a former hermit philosopher who, despite having the same name as the prophet of ancient Zoroastrianism, is really an almost-but-not-quite AuthorAvatar for Nietzsche himself. ''Thus Spoke Zarathustra'' popularized the concept of the {{Ubermensch}}. Sadly, it does not play [[AlsoSprachZarathustra epic music]] when opened.
* ''Beyond Good and Evil'' (1886): The quote "HeWhoFightsMonsters" is from here, as does the concept of being AboveGoodAndEvil. [[VideoGame/BeyondGoodAndEvil The game]] is not related. Nor [[VideoGame/XenoSaga the other game]]. As far as the actual work goes, it's his attempt to explain ''Thus Spoke Zarathustra''.
* ''On the Genealogy of Morality'' (1887): Finding that even his smarter friends found ''Beyond Good and Evil'' too difficult to understand, he wrote ''On the Genealogy of Morality'' as an explanation for ''Beyond Good and Evil'', composed of three sections ("'Good and Evil', 'Good and Bad'," "'Guilt,' 'Bad Conscience,' and Related Matters," and "What do Ascetic Ideals Mean?"). It is one of Nietzsche's few mature works written in essay/treatise form (rather than as [[{{Koan}} aphorisms]]). So essentially, it's the explanation of the explanation to ''Thus Spoke Zarathustra''.
* ''The Case of Wagner'' (1888): A polemic against RichardWagner, or rather what Wagner stood for in the minds of Germans, both in Nietzsche's own lifetime and [[NaziGermany later]].
* ''Twilight of the Idols'' (1888): Starts with a collection of bare, pithy, one-line aphorisms, and then goes into more detail. Source of the quote "[[AdaptiveAbility That which does not kill me makes me stronger]]." In the original German, the title is ''Götzen-Dämmerung'', making the pun on Wagner's ''[[DerRingDesNibelungen Götterdämmerung]]'' (meaning "Twilight of the Gods") that much more obvious.
* ''The Anti-Christ'' (1888): Not TheAntichrist itself, but an extended polemic against Christianity. The title can also be translated as ''The Antichristian'', but that would overlook Nietzsche's desire to be as provocative as possible.
* ''Ecce Homo'' (1888): An autobiographical work, albeit a highly-stylized one (Rule of Literary?), in the manner of {{Plato}}'s ''Apology''. [[{{Ecchi}} Get your mind]] [[YaoiGuys out of the gutter]], it's a reference to [[Literature/TheBible John 19:5]].
* ''Nietzsche contra Wagner'' (1888): A selection of passages from Nietzsche's earlier books, designed to show that ''The Case of Wagner'' was the culmination of ideas the author had ruminated upon for some time, rather than the product of a momentary malice.
* ''The Will to Power'': Again, not actually one of his books, but a collection of his notes; scholars to this day [[SeriousBusiness have serious debates]] whether he had intended to finish this work at all. Either way, the work covers Nietzsche's ideas about the history of nihilism in the West. The subtitle, ''An Attempt at the Revaluation of All Values'', points at the middle part of the work, in which he begins to try to point the way for anyone who might become a proper {{Ubermensch}}. Recent editions take pains to note that ''The Will to Power'' is hardly complete, and really isn't supposed to exist. See above, about his [[ThoseWackyNazis wacky]] sister, for details.
''This section is still under construction. If you've read any of the missing books on the list, please help us by writing a short summary!''
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!Tropes named after Nietzsche
Nietzsche is a prolific TropeNamer:
* AlsoSprachZarathustra
* EternalRecurrence
* GodIsDead
* HeWhoFightsMonsters
* NietzscheWannabe
* {{Ubermensch}}
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!Tropes relating Nietzsche's life and works
* AboveGoodAndEvil[=/=]WhatIsEvil[=/=]TheUnfettered: Ethics (what is "moral") is pretty much his strong point in philosophy (His contributions on other fields like metaphysics is very inconsistent on the other hand). And his criticism of conventional "good and evil" morality reaches a point where he unashamedly call the very concept of good and evil "slave morality," which is why he was not so fond of Christianity.
** He also accuses most Western philosophers of blindly trying to rehash good and evil in a secular society (e.g., Immanuel Kant's Categorial Imperative, and [[EthicalHedonism Utilitarianism]]).
* AlternativeCharacterInterpretation: Is Nietzsche one of the greatest geniuses in the History of Western philosophy, or is he just a megalomaniacal SocialDarwinist lunatic? Is his philosophy a great code to live by, or is it a (as Russell would say it) mere PowerFantasy?
** Nietzsche's character types can be alternatively interpreted as well. Is the {{Ubermensch}} a goal one can set for himself, or is it just a Nazi obsession? Needless to say, this contributed to the EditWar on that page.
* TheAntiNihilist[=/=]KnightInSourArmor: While [[TheCynic he]] is certainly famous for his {{Crapsack World}}view, Nietzsche encouraged this lifestyle as being more meaningful to life and an alternative to mindless, apathetic [[TheHedonist hedonism]].
* ApatheticCitizens: He thinks humanity is becoming this ever since Plato, and modern science is making it even worse: see ScienceIsBad below. He called such a citizen the "Last Man".
* AuthorExistenceFailure: ''Ecce Homo'', which he tried to publish but failed to.
* BadassMustache: There is no way you can argue with it.
* BedlamHouse: Which he said is an easy way to show that [[FaithHeelTurn faith proves nothing]]. He himself was eventually thrown into a mental asylum, and we know that Psychology wasn't ethically developed yet.
* BeYourself[=/=]DesperatelyLookingForAPurposeInLife: A major theme in his philosophy.
* BlueAndOrangeMorality
* BrokenPedestal: Nietzsche started his writing career as a big fan of Richard Wagner's music and the messages embedded in them, and wrote effusive praise. As time went on, however, Nietzsche became disillusioned with Wagner's bombast and lack of subtlety, and eventually broke with him on Wagner's growing anti-Semitism and German Nationalism. One of his later works is a brutal deconstruction of Wagner's works, both their aesthetic and political qualities.
** Perhaps not as sharp a break, but Nietzsche's views on Schopenhauer, who he looked on with some fondness early in his career, turned quite negative by Nietzsche's middle period.
* CardCarryingVillain: ''TheAntichrist''. How could it be more obvious?[[hottip:*:Although he might be going for shock value in this one.]] Also, in ''Beyond Good and Evil'':
-->And it is only for your AFTERNOON, you, my written and painted thoughts, for which alone I have colours, many colours, perhaps, many variegated softenings, and fifty yellows and browns and greens and reds;—but nobody will divine thereby how ye looked in your morning, you sudden sparks and marvels of my solitude, you, my old, beloved—'''EVIL''' thoughts!
* CausticCritic[=/=]AccentuateTheNegative: Not even his former best friend RichardWagner is safe.
* ContemplateOurNavels: Averted. One of his most important contributions to what would later become Psychology was the observation that introspection and self-analysis are extremely poor tools for figuring out what is actually going on in our heads. This was a complete break with the accumulated wisdom up to that point, and opened up space for Freud's idea of the unconscious mind.
* CreatorBreakdown: See below, but the syphilis certainly didn't help his mental state.
** It's unlikely that he had syphilis as knowledge of mental disorders were not as advanced in Nietzsche's time as they are today. TheOtherWiki expands on the possible causes of his insanity.
** Even when the disease does cause madness, it does it progressively over a very long time. Nietzsche went mad almost suddenly.
* DarkerAndEdgier: Nietzsche is considered to be among the Darkest and Edgiest of philosophers, thus dark and edgy works tend to have gratuitous Nietzsche quotes and philosophy in them ("that which does not kill me makes me... [[TheDarkKnight stranger]]", "[[WatchMen The Abyss Gazes Also]]", etc.), and pretentious people are prone to quoting Nietzsche and imitating his philosophical style to look dark and edgy (see also: NietzscheWannabe). Subverted on the author's part, since while Nietzsche himself had a worldview that combined strong fatalism with [[CosmicHorrorStory one's own insignificance]], he actually made a ''LighterAndSofter'' response to the depressing worldviews of Arthur Schopenhauer along with a lot of Nihilists in his time, [[TheAntiNihilist seeing the bright and more positive side to living in such a world]].
* DarkIsNotEvil
* DeadArtistsAreBetter[=/=]VindicatedByHistory: He predicted that he would be "born posthumously." He was right.
* DidNotDoTheResearch: Evolution and natural selection do not work the way Friedrich though they did, and he did a poor job at attempting to criticize it. It is clear that he mostly grasped the [[TheThemeParkVersion "Survival of the Fittest"]] part and never actually read up on CharlesDarwin's actual works.
* EitherOrTitle: ''Twilight of the Idols, or, How to Philosophize with a Hammer''
* TheFatalist[=/=]YouCantFightFate: His preaching of ''amor fati'' is one of the major reasons why he is bashed as a nihilist. Psychologically speaking, ordinary people usually react to the despair of fatalism, such as deaths caused by terminal illnesses (like genetic disorders, or the syphilis and mental illnesses he himself suffered), with the perception of life as just [[CosmicHorrorStory one big pointless]] AndIMustScream, hence causing [[DrivenToSuicide depression]], [[DarknessInducedAudienceApathy apathy]] and/or [[OmnicidalManiac rage]]. However, those extraordinary few should reject this suicidal perception, instead both accepting this fatalistic outlook and living it [[WorldOfHam as if it was an art form]] (hence a possible wordplay on "Übermensch"). His thought experiment on EternalRecurrence boils down to how confident people with strong enough willpower can accept the challenge of life over and over again, fully appreciating this AndIMustScream existence and making it joyful without any regrets. This also comes hand-in-hand with appreciating the Ancient Greeks' view on a fatalistic life (e.g., expressing it in the art form of Tragedy), and condemning modern Enlightenment philosophy because of their too much optimism in free will (despite masking it under Greek ideas).
* TheGadfly
* GoMadFromTheRevelation: "The Madman" in ''The Gay Science'' who announces the death of God seems to have done this, although it's not altogether clear. This is also one of the more poetic ways to explain what happened to Nietzsche himself for the last eleven years of his life.
* GratuitousForeignLanguage: Frequently [[AltumVidetur Latin]] or sometimes [[GratuitousGreek Greek]], as was common with most intellectual fields at that time, although he was just as likely to use GratuitousFrench or GratuitousEnglish when quoting something or other. In fairness, it usually wasn't terribly gratuitous; he probably had some philosophical purpose in every instance. Indeed, his purpose could, at times, be downright practical: his use of the French word ''ressentiment'' (resentment) in ''On the Genealogy of Morality'' and afterward was basically because German doesn't have a word that could really translate to "resentment."
** Additionally, people citing Nietzsche are liable to use GratuitousGerman; even [[MainPage this very wiki]] is not immune, by titling the article on the overman "{{Ubermensch}}."
* HedonismTropes: Subverted hard. He starts his career in philosophy with the description of the Apollonian (cerebral, classicist, [[TheSpock logical]], restrained) and Dionysian (wild, visceral, hammy, {{hotblooded}}, hedonistic) archetypes in the Birth of Tragedy (and recommending a Dionysian lifestyle), but ends it by condemning utilitarianism and other hedonistic lifestyles.
-->Man does not strive for pleasure; only the Englishman does.
* HeWhoFightsMonsters: His reaction to Socrates. Before Socrates the proper way to prevail in any enterprise is to just *do* things. After Socrates, the proper way to win was to *talk* (or more accurately, argue and {{wangst}}) about doing things. Once arguing became the way business is done, [[FlameWar bad arguments become unavoidable, and equally bad arguments tend to spur from their opponents]]. And it was all a waste of time. This shift was profound and, in Nietzsche's mind, devastating.
** This also sums up his view on the future of Secular philosophy and science: see the part about NotSoDifferent and ScienceIsBad below.
* InsistentTerminology: Sort of. As he gradually grew disillusioned of German culture, he started emphasizing his descent from Polish nobility; by the end of his (sane) life, he insisted that he was entirely Polish.
* {{Irony}}: He was fond of this, to the point that [[MindScrew his works made no sense]]. Also forms the basis of HeWhoFightsMonsters.
* {{Koan}}: One of the great Western practitioners of the art.
* LargeHam: Particularly in his AuthorAvatar Zarathustra.
* MindScrew
* MisaimedFandom[=/=]MisBlamed[=/=]{{Flanderization}}: [[HitlerAteSugar The Nazis' adulation of him and the corresponding misconception (now highly discredited) that he would have supported them]]. His works reflect the opposite of anti-semitism, statism, and Germanic nationalism amongst other things, but they seemed to agree on matters like WarIsGlorious (sort of- see below), [[SocialDarwinist men are not equal, possibly eugenics,]] [[HobbesWasRight anti-democracy]]/anti-communism etc, and that a strong, perhaps even brutal, leadership is desirable, albeit for slightly different reasons.
** Some of the blame for this can be laid at the feet of his sister, a supporter of the Nazi party who edited some of his works to present a pro-Nazi slant.
** The Trope NietzscheWannabe sums up his MisaimedFandom as well.
* MiseryBuildsCharacter
* MonsterClown: THE JESTER!!
* NietzscheWannabe: [[UnbuiltTrope Deconstructed]]. While he was a Cynic who did subscribe to a nihilistic ''worldview'', he despised the nihilistic ''lifestyle'', which he called out as simply unproductive and pathetic {{wangst}}.
* NotSoDifferent: His view on religion and science, at least insofar as they both attempt to calculate a metaphysical framework to explain how and why the world functions; the latter is simply secular. See also the part on ScienceIsBad below.
* OneOfUs: Quite literally. "Tropes are not something that can be added or abstracted from language at will—-they are its truest nature. There is no real knowing apart from metaphor, and the drive toward the formation of such is the fundamental human drive."
* PostModernism: One of the great precursors for the movement.
* PreachersKid[=/=]TheCobblersChildrenHaveNoShoes: His father was a Lutheran minister, as was his maternal grandfather. He grew up to be an atheist and a critic of Christianity.
* RealMenEatMeat: He very clearly believed that vegetarianism was bad for the human spirit (which of course did not just include men, but his philosophy definitely emphasized manliness); he specifically calls vegetarianism a cause of "physiological inhibition" in ''On the Genealogy of Morality''.
* {{Reconstruction}}: Now that Nihilism {{deconstruct|ion}}ed the idealistic and rationalist philosophies of his time, he deconstructed the nihilistic lifestyle and created [[TheAntiNihilist The Übermensch]] as a response.
* {{Retraux}}[=/=]InTheStyleOf: Some of his works were deliberately written in Biblical style, possibly for additional irony. ''Thus Spoke Zarathustra'' is a particularly good example.
* {{Romanticism}}[=/=]ScienceIsBad: Not exactly. While his poetic, hammy and caustic criticism of modernity heavily influenced Postmodernism, he did understand the importance of modern science, and the unquestionable truth of its discoveries, and definitely approved of its methods as superior to religious or philosophical ones for investigation of reality. However, [[RomanticismVersusEnlightenment he regarded scientists' (and Enlightenment philosophers in general) relentless obsession for objective truth--and in particular, the extension of the scientific method to the study of human beings--as a dangerous development which makes people too dependent on objective truth while downplaying or outright destroying individuals' own perspectives, and obscures important elements of the human condition that cannot be quantified]], that which will eventually lead to a {{Dystopia}}n future.
* ShrugOfGod: Many of works make it clear that the reader is urged to make up their own mind on certain things, most obviously when there are self-contradictory statements. Too bad they didn't have [[SincerityMode pot]] [[SarcasmMode holes]] back then.
* SocialDarwinist[=/=]MightMakesRight: Whenever the terms "Übermensch," "Will-To-Power," "Master-slave morality," Nietzsche's rejection of egalitarianism/democracy and such comes up, distinctions between Nietzsche and Social Darwinism are severely blurred, hence Nietzsche's frequent misassociation with notable Social Darwinists like ThoseWackyNazis. Note that Nietzsche wasn't really that much of a ''social'' Darwinist; his philosophy is rather different.
** While he can be excused as going insane, he almost went overboard and took a stance to KillThePoor when he wrote ''The Antichrist''.\\
[-''The weak and the botched shall perish: first principle of our charity. And one should help them to it.''-]
** He did try to criticize (evolutionary) Darwinism, although what he criticized was actually TheThemeParkVersion rather than Darwin's actual theory (see DidNotDoTheResearch above).
* TheSociopath: Not himself, of course, but he predicted some of the Sociopath's personality traits, like LackOfEmpathy, incapability to feel remorse/guilt, unfettered behaviour, and occasional inhuman charisma. Also, if understood badly, Nietzsche's philosophy can look like it was praising a self-centered version of MoralSociopathy. Especially The Anti-Christ, where he actually goes on to condemn empathy itself.
* TemptingFate[=/=]WhatCouldPossiblyGoWrong: In ''Ecce Homo'', Nietzsche wrote about his fear that he would be [[MisaimedFandom pronounced holy by future readers]], therefore he wanted to publish the book before anyone would make the mistake. Due to his mental breakdown, his book was published years after his death. You can guess what happened on the day of his funeral.
* TheThemeParkVersion: [[NietzscheWannabe Sadly very common]].
* TheUbermensch: While this character was originally his idea (and it's actually even more complex than what could be described in that trope page), it's subverted because Nietzsche never considered himself as this, even considering himself to be more of the Last Man, because in his original works the Ubermensch is supposed to be "healthy" and his sickliness rendered him incapable of doing anything truly Ubermensch-related. He did not even bother defining this character archetype well, thus the flame wars here on the internet and in the academic world.
** He did, however, point out a few historical figures who were either Ubermenschen or very close; for the most part, they tend to be prophet-lawgivers and the founders of influential schools of thought. Chief among them were {{Socrates}} and {{Jesus}}. He regarded them both as something of a mixed bag: the former started a trend in Western culture that Nietzsche did not like but on the other hand did have some good ideas; he regarded what he considered to be the original teaching of Christianity (which he understood to be rather like Buddhism) to be excellent to apply for the poor, sheepish masses in a healthy society, but also considered Jesus an "idiot" (by which he meant "CloudCuckoolander"), and didn't like that Jesus' teaching was so easily twisted by the Apostle Paul (whom he despised). He also seemed to regard both Gautama Buddha and Muhammad as Ubermenschen or near-Ubermenschen. He liked what he saw in Buddhism (having studied it fairly extensively), but has little to say about Islam (although what he does have to say is quite complimentary), as it seems he hadn't really gotten around to a detailed treatment of the subject.
* WarIsGlorious: Inverted, subverted, deconstructed, played straight, zigzagged and played with relentlessly. As mentioned above he is critical of war in one sense, and especially for how it was used and abused by the state for petty reasons, but he regards conflict (in a general sense) as the great mover of history and ideas, and the fount of creativity. He also saw war as a way that a broken society might find renewed purpose, though he notes that a healthy society has no need for war. He admires numerous men who were soldiers and conquerors like JuliusCaesar, Cesare Borgia, NapoleonBonaparte and Alexander the Great, and frequently invoked war imagery in his writings especially when he was attacking someone (ie. more often than not). He is strongly opposed to pacifism and after forming TheUbermensch he changed his mind about war, praising it. In his insane period he declared that Germany would fall shortly due to its war-making; he was dead on right. In other words- inconclusive.
* WorthyOpponent: {{Jesus}} and {{Socrates}}. He regarded both as {{Ubermensch}}en who changed the course of history, although he didn't like where they went with it, or even more sharply what other people did with it after they died. On the other hand, in ''The Antichrist'' he tried to describe St. Paul (the actual saint, not the capital of Minnesota, of which he was dimly aware at best) as a contemptible NietzscheWannabe who encouraged HappinessInSlavery.
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!References to Nietzsche in media
Nietzsche and his books are mostly used in media to convey [[WhatDoYouMeanItsNotSymbolic metaphysical connotations where they could have easily been avoided]].
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[[folder: Anime and Manga ]]
* Rare non-symbolic reference to Nietzsche in ''MagicalGirlLyricalNanoha'', where one of [[TheBeastmaster Caro's]] [[OurDragonsAreDifferent dragons]] is named Friedrich as part of their ThemeNaming. Her other dragon is named [[Creator/FrancoisMarieArouet Voltaire]].
* The new opening of ''SuzumiyaHaruhi'' contains the phrase "Gott ist tot." You may now take this in whichever way you want.
** Some people have pointed out that Haruhi going to all the clubs and then leaving when they're empty of what she wants happens to be almost exactly what The Madman does in Nietzsche's ''The Gay Science'', which is where "Gott ist tot" comes from.
* [[SayonaraZetsubouSensei Arai Chie]]'s name is a direct Nietzsche reference...for ''some'' reason.
* In the ''Anime/YuGiOh'' anime, Seto Kaiba is seen reading Also Sprach Zarathustra in the very first scene we meet him in. This may be subtle [[LampshadeHanging lampshade hanging]] to his [[NietzscheWannabe personality type.]]
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[[folder: Comic Books ]]
* Nietzschean philosophy is flirted with all throughout ''{{Watchmen}}'', but it's especially evident in the Rorschach-centric chapter, which is titled "The Abyss Gazes Also" and ends with [[HeWhoFightsMonsters the rest of the quote]].
** Moore used the concept of the real 'superman' on one of his most famous (and darkest) works, his reintepretation of Miracleman. At the end of the first chapter, on issue one, a chilling page which shows us a close up of Miracleman's face and eye, quotes "Behold... I teach you the superman! He is this lightning! He is this madness!".
* Garth Ennis' {{Preacher}} has a lot of Nietzschean influenced ideas sprinkled around in it. This becomes most obvious at the end of the series, when the God Is Death philosophy is taken literally.
* Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster named Their character ''{{Superman}}'' after the Nietzschean term coined in ''Thus Spoke Zarathustra''.
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[[folder: Film ]]
* In ''TheDayAfterTomorrow'' by RolandEmmerich, the people who were trapped in the [[BigAppleSauce New York]] Central Library start burning books in the fire pit (as New York is hot my a ice storm). Not long after an argument breaks loose whether to burn Nietzsche's collected works (who was, as one person argues, a chauvinist and an [[BrotherSisterIncest Incestier]]). They soon decide to burn the tax payers' rights registry instead.
* In ''[[DarkKnightTrilogy The Dark Knight]]'', Joker uses the variation of that which does not kill me can only make me stronger quote, by replacing stronger with stranger, although the quote probably wasn't an intentional reference.
* "That which does not kill you, makes you stronger" was also quoted at the beginning of the ''Conan the Barbarian'' film.
* Otto, the [[LargeHam Bombastic]] {{Jerkass}} NietzscheWannabe [[{{Eagleland}} American]] psychopath in ''AFishCalledWanda''. He does not really understand Nietzsche's, or anyone else's, philosophy.
--> '''Wanda''': But you think you're an intellectual, don't you, ape?
--> '''Otto''': Apes don't read philosophy.
--> '''Wanda''': Yes they do, Otto. They just don't understand it.
* Although Nietzsche himself wasn't a nihilist, that philosophy has been associated with him. The scene in TheBigLebowski where [[HairTriggerTemper Walter]] misconstrues German nihilists as Nazis probably alludes to Nietzsche's undeserved reputation in that area.
** He doesn't misconstrue them as Nazis at all. He confuses them for Nazis because they are German and says that they can take them because [[AmericaWinsTheWar they have done it before]]. When the Dude corrects him and clarifies that they are nihilists, explaining that means they don't believe in anything, he has an OhCrap moment and realizes this could make them ''worse' than Nazis, because at least Nazism was an ethos. [[spoiler: Of course, once they found out these nihilists had not actually kidnapped, harmed or killed anyone, and were basically a bunch of [[NietzscheWannabe Nietszche Wannabes]] of the HarmlessVillain variety, he loses his respect for them.]]
* In the Live Action Adaptation of [[Manga/DeathNote Death Note]] Light Yagami reads ''Beyond Good and Evil'' in German.
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[[folder: Literature ]]
* AynRand was a serious student of Nietzsche's ideas, leading to her development of the philosophy of Objectivism, which is basically similar to Nietzsche's own philosophy except it rejected the premise that the Ubermensch can use force on others for his own ends. By the time of ''TheFountainhead'', however, she was willing to ''deconstruct'' the traditional Nietzschean Ubermensch.
** YourMileageMayVary on whether Rand should be considered a serious student of Nietzsche or whether their philosophies are similar. On a rhetorical level there seem to be some parallels, but beneath the surface they are profoundly different. Rand deified reason and rationality and actively hated anti-rationalism, while Nietzsche was deeply suspicious of privileging reason over other modes of analysis, to the point that many philosophers consider Nietzsche an anti-rationalist himself. Nietzsche was critical of market economics and wealth generation as an end in itself, as well as attacking the moral root of property rights. Beyond the superficial, perhaps the only thing they completely agreed upon was their analysis of aesthetics.
** Rand appears to instead be an Aristotlean (she attacked modern physics and non-Euclidean geometry because they didn't fit in an Aristotlean framework) in Nietzsche's skin.
* If you know what to look for, you can sometimes spot alterations of the book titles in PerryRhodan novels. There's no philosophical and/or thematic connection but apparently, at least one author is a Nietzsche fan.
* Reversed by the works of FyodorDostoevsky: Nietzsche was a ''huge'' Dostoevsky fan (although they couldn't be more different on their views on Christianity), reading Dostoevsky's novels as soon as they came out in French or German (Nietzsche didn't speak Russian). The influence of Dostoevsky's ideas shows up in Nietzsche's work. To give you an idea how similarly they analyzed the problem of nihilism, Dostoevsky's [[Literature/CrimeAndPunishment Raskolnikov]] is remarkably like (though not identical to) the Nietzschean {{Ubermensch}}...but Nietzsche hadn't read ''Literature/CrimeAndPunishment'' when he wrote ''Thus Spoke Zarathustra'', and ''Crime and Punishment'' predates ''Zarathustra'' by fifteen years.
** Of course, one need only to reach the end of the works to realize that the two then came to very different conclusions. A little wild to think about.
* Francis is a fan of Nietzsche in 'Felidae' and 'Felidae on the Road'.
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[[folder: Live Action TV ]]
* ''{{Andromeda}}'' has a whole alien race named after him, the Nietzscheans, who wholeheartedly adhere to a [[ThemeParkVersion particular vision of his beliefs]].
* The Bruces from ''MontyPythonsFlyingCircus'' know "there's nothing Nietzsche couldn't teach ya 'bout the raising of the wrist."
* There is a quote at the beginning and the ending of every ''Series/CriminalMinds'' episode. At least six of the quotes have been from Friedrich Nietzsche. The "HeWhoFightsMonsters" quote was used in the first episode and the one hundredth episode and is a central theme throughout the whole show. It was also referenced in the season four finale:
-->'''Hotch''': ''(final voiceover)'' ...And what about my team? How many more times will they be able to look into the abyss? How many more times before they won’t ever recover the pieces of themselves that this job takes?...
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[[folder: Music ]]
* The Music/BlindGuardian song "Punishment Divine" is about Nietzsche going insane.
* ''AlsoSprachZarathustra'' by Richard Strauss of course.
* The song ''What Doesn't Kill You(Stronger)'' by KellyClarkson, who ironically, is very Christian, with a tattoo of a cross on her wrist.
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[[folder: Video Games ]]
* ''VideoGame/{{Xenosaga}}'' just '''runneth over''' with Nietzsche symbolism. Not to mention every game in the series is named after one of his books (except ''Der Wille zur Macht'' - ''The Will to Power'' - which, as mentioned above, is a collection of unpublished scribblings from his notebooks).
* Lucas Kane in ''{{Fahrenheit}}'' is especially fond of ''Thus Spoke Zarathustra'', a copy of which he keeps near his bed.
* The original ''BaldursGate'' opens with the "HeWhoFightsMonsters" quote, hinting at [[spoiler:the dangers of Bhaal's legacy (probably)]].
* HeWhoFightsMonsters was used in the advertising for ''TooHuman''. Which, as you might have guessed, is ''also'' named after one of his books.
* Despite its title, ''VideoGame/BeyondGoodAndEvil'' really has nothing to do with Nietzsche. ''That'' LiteraryAllusionTitle was a product of ExecutiveMeddling.
* In ''TheNamelessMod'', an insane AI running the player through an obstacle course ([[VideoGame/{{Portal}} sounds familiar]]) refers to one room as "The Nietzsche Room" because "it makes you realize" that there is "no god". If the correct alliance and reasons choices are given, Kashue will use HeWhoFightsMonsters in the final level.
* Kreia from ''KnightsOfTheOldRepublic 2'' provides us with a Cliff Notes version of some part of Nietzsche's philosophy every time she opens her mouth. Just replace 'God' with 'The Force' and 'Jedi/Sith' with 'priest', and Kreia basically becomes an {{Ubermensch}}, or (even more likely) she fills the role of Nietzsche trying to mold the main character into one.
* FarCry 2 BigBad The Jackal quotes from Beyond Good and Evil quite a bit in the game, from the first time you meet him and through his audio diaries.
* The recent ''Persona'' games of the ShinMegamiTensei franchise - that is, ''{{Persona 3}}'' and ''{{Persona 4}}'' - seem to be based on Nietzschean philosophy... ''actual'' Nietzschean philosophy, and not the stuff [[NietzscheWannabe people usually try to pin on him]].
** ''Persona 3'' seems to ape quite a bit from ''Thus Spake Zarathustra''' (particularly [[spoiler: the idea of the Protagonist becoming a ''proper'' Ubermensch, unafraid to face death, and someone worthy of being an actual Messiah to humanity]]).
** ''Persona 4'' more or less cribs ''On Truth And Lies In A Nonmoral Sense'' wholesale; the entire concept of a "fog of pride and ''thinking'' you know something" is lifted from the book, and the game hammers home the idea that you must look beyond yourself to understand the objective nature of things (going so far as to [[spoiler:attempt to trick you with ''several'' fake ending sequences, the second of which will ''actively attempt to dissuade you'' from the true ending to the game.]]) Nearly all of the playable characters also are forced to face down the fact that they've been lying to themselves about certain aspects of their psyches.
* ''SidMeiersAlphaCentauri'' makes several references to Nietzsche, the most obvious of which are the technologies "Homo Superior" (which is essentially Latin for {{Ubermensch}}) and "The Will to Power" (which is straight from Nietzsche). The blurbs read out upon acquiring these technologies are both from the prologue to ''Thus Spoke Zarathustra''. The bit of EncyclopediaExposita attached to them indicates that they involve creating and using {{Cyborg}}s who are both perfectly human and perfectly machine (and thus capable, potentially, of being actual Ubermenschen), and "The Will to Power" enables the [[MindControl Thought Control]] social choice.
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[[folder: Web Original ]]
* Several stories in the ''DarwinsSoldiers'' canon [[VillainEpisode focus on the antagonists]], and are summarily renamed ''Nietzsche's Soldiers.''
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to:
[[caption-width-right:219:[-The Überstachenmensch. Despite the resemblance, not [[{{Mythbusters}} Jamie Hyneman]].-] ]]
->''"Gods, too, decompose. {{God is dead}}. God remains dead. And we have killed him."''
-->-- '''Friedrich Nietzsche''', ''The [[HaveAGayOldTime Gay]] Science'', Aphorism 125 ("The Madman"), 1882 [[hottip:*:Fun fact: The quote "God is dead" already appears in a text of [[DichterUndDenker G.W.F. Hegel]] from 1802, eighty years before Nietzsche's book was published.]]
%% One quote is sufficient. Please place additional entries on the quotes tab.
Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche was [[DichterAndDenker an eccentric German author who wrote lots of books]], laden with extremely provocative and controversial ideas for his time, and they made him famous. Nowadays, he is often placed among the most influential philosophers of all time. It didn't end well for him back in his day, though, as he went nuts and soon died in his fifties.
What made his books so popular? Good question. Probably, his writing style. In any event, his [[{{Koan}} aphorisms]] can be quoted often; whatever one thinks of his ideas, he is one of the unquestionable masters of the GermanLanguage. Nietzsche is one of the few philosophical writers one might conceivably read simply for the joy of reading his prose. Of course, that could very well be part of his intellectual trap. One never knows with Nietzsche. See the Analysis tab for more.
Nietzsche's influence is hard to calculate, but is indisputably immense. He founded the modern philosophical position of [[TheAntiNihilist Existentialism]] along with Søren Kierkegaard, laid the groundwork for the later philosophical position of Phenomenology, and became a precursor for the philosophical position of PostModernism. His criticism of Christianity had a profound influence on 20th century theology, especially the work of Paul Tillich. He is also famous for predicting World War I (down to the decade, and while insane, no less), the destruction of the German empire, and the role that antisemitism would have in its demise.
He is also one of the mostly unsung heroes of psychology, along with the American, William James. They contemporaneously (but separately) started treating the contents of the human mind with the nuance and seriousness we have come to expect, and in being the first to do so helped to make psychology a respectable and popular area of academic study that would later fully take off with SigmundFreud, who particularly read Nietzsche as a student[[hottip:*:although Freud denied this despite evidence on the contrary]], and his contemporaries.
Fittingly for his view that "[[PostModernism all is art]]," he also wrote a fair amount of decent [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B1_2PJCA6FQ&feature=related Romantic classical music]].
Lastly, his name is spelled with one T, one Z, ''one S'', one C, and one H. It's pronounced roughly as "Neat-chuh", though the French (who tend to be bigger-than-average fans) monosyllabically pronounce it "Neache". "Nee-chee" is generally also an acceptable pronunciation, often used by English speakers. Just, whatever you do, do not try to pronounce the "Z" and you should be alright.
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!Books by Nietzsche
Any discussion of Nietzsche's legacy tends to get really long (look no further than ThatOtherWiki's entries on it), as it is wonderfully lends itself to [[EpilepticTrees wild theorizing and rabid interpretation]], so please, please keep this list as brief as possible.
* ''The Birth of Tragedy'' (1872): Nietzsche's first book, it deals with the philosophy of art, and many other things as well. Nietzsche critiques {{Socrates}} for killing Greek {{Tragedy}} by demanding that the search for truth take primacy over art, resulting in a society that hates the creative and loves death, with the prospect of starting of a new Renaissance of tragedy through {{Opera}}, particularly RichardWagner's opera. He presents as his solution the concept of a "music-making Socrates" who embraces art even as he philosophizes.
* "On Truth and Lies in a Nonmoral Sense" (1873): The quote in NietzscheWannabe comes from this one. Not actually a book (although it's as likely as any of his books to find its way into an anthology - I'm looking at you, Norton!), but a fragment that Nietzsche himself did not publish.
* ''Untimely Meditations'' (1876): A collection of four essays, as follows:
** "David Strauss: the Confessor and the Writer" (1873)
** "On the Advantage and Disadvantage of History for Life" (1874). Also translated "On the Use and Abuse of History for Life." This one is fairly often published on its own, as it condenses into a single, fairly short essay (less than 80 pages) one of Nietzsche's fundamental concepts: the idea that while Hegel was right about the dialectic, he was ''wrong'' about the "absolute moment" at which humanity discovers the fundamental truth, because there ''is'' no fundamental truth other than constant change.
** "Schopenhauer as Educator" (1874)
** "RichardWagner in Bayreuth" (1876): One of Nietzsche's earliest critiques of Wagner, even though he and Wagner were still friends at the time.
* ''Human, All Too Human'' (1878): His first book written in an [[{{Koan}} aphoristic]] style. A few years later, Nietzsche decided that it wasn't entirely complete, and added to it...
** ''The Wanderer and His Shadow'' (1880): Unusual for Nietzsche, comes the closest to touching on matters of political philosophy, with meditations on armament and war (he doesn't like them, and thinks the first leads to the second), the state (it sucks), and economics (capitalism and socialism both dehumanize people).
* ''Daybreak'' (1881): Also translated as ''The Dawn''. One of Nietzsche's more neglected works, overshadowed as it was by the works before and after it.
* ''The Gay Science'' (1882): [[HaveAGayOldTime No, it's not about what you think.]] It's possible that the term "gay" refers more to the original definition (happiness) than homosexuality. The source of the quote in StealthParody, and the first work in which he explicitly says that GodIsDead.
* ''Thus Spoke Zarathustra'' (1883): Arguably his most popular work. Unusually for a post-{{Plato}}nic Western philosophical work, this is actually a work of fiction; specifically, it is a novel, complete with plot (although you might not notice). It features as its main character Zarathustra, a former hermit philosopher who, despite having the same name as the prophet of ancient Zoroastrianism, is really an almost-but-not-quite AuthorAvatar for Nietzsche himself. ''Thus Spoke Zarathustra'' popularized the concept of the {{Ubermensch}}. Sadly, it does not play [[AlsoSprachZarathustra epic music]] when opened.
* ''Beyond Good and Evil'' (1886): The quote "HeWhoFightsMonsters" is from here, as does the concept of being AboveGoodAndEvil. [[VideoGame/BeyondGoodAndEvil The game]] is not related. Nor [[VideoGame/XenoSaga the other game]]. As far as the actual work goes, it's his attempt to explain ''Thus Spoke Zarathustra''.
* ''On the Genealogy of Morality'' (1887): Finding that even his smarter friends found ''Beyond Good and Evil'' too difficult to understand, he wrote ''On the Genealogy of Morality'' as an explanation for ''Beyond Good and Evil'', composed of three sections ("'Good and Evil', 'Good and Bad'," "'Guilt,' 'Bad Conscience,' and Related Matters," and "What do Ascetic Ideals Mean?"). It is one of Nietzsche's few mature works written in essay/treatise form (rather than as [[{{Koan}} aphorisms]]). So essentially, it's the explanation of the explanation to ''Thus Spoke Zarathustra''.
* ''The Case of Wagner'' (1888): A polemic against RichardWagner, or rather what Wagner stood for in the minds of Germans, both in Nietzsche's own lifetime and [[NaziGermany later]].
* ''Twilight of the Idols'' (1888): Starts with a collection of bare, pithy, one-line aphorisms, and then goes into more detail. Source of the quote "[[AdaptiveAbility That which does not kill me makes me stronger]]." In the original German, the title is ''Götzen-Dämmerung'', making the pun on Wagner's ''[[DerRingDesNibelungen Götterdämmerung]]'' (meaning "Twilight of the Gods") that much more obvious.
* ''The Anti-Christ'' (1888): Not TheAntichrist itself, but an extended polemic against Christianity. The title can also be translated as ''The Antichristian'', but that would overlook Nietzsche's desire to be as provocative as possible.
* ''Ecce Homo'' (1888): An autobiographical work, albeit a highly-stylized one (Rule of Literary?), in the manner of {{Plato}}'s ''Apology''. [[{{Ecchi}} Get your mind]] [[YaoiGuys out of the gutter]], it's a reference to [[Literature/TheBible John 19:5]].
* ''Nietzsche contra Wagner'' (1888): A selection of passages from Nietzsche's earlier books, designed to show that ''The Case of Wagner'' was the culmination of ideas the author had ruminated upon for some time, rather than the product of a momentary malice.
* ''The Will to Power'': Again, not actually one of his books, but a collection of his notes; scholars to this day [[SeriousBusiness have serious debates]] whether he had intended to finish this work at all. Either way, the work covers Nietzsche's ideas about the history of nihilism in the West. The subtitle, ''An Attempt at the Revaluation of All Values'', points at the middle part of the work, in which he begins to try to point the way for anyone who might become a proper {{Ubermensch}}. Recent editions take pains to note that ''The Will to Power'' is hardly complete, and really isn't supposed to exist. See above, about his [[ThoseWackyNazis wacky]] sister, for details.
''This section is still under construction. If you've read any of the missing books on the list, please help us by writing a short summary!''
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!Tropes named after Nietzsche
Nietzsche is a prolific TropeNamer:
* AlsoSprachZarathustra
* EternalRecurrence
* GodIsDead
* HeWhoFightsMonsters
* NietzscheWannabe
* {{Ubermensch}}
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!Tropes relating Nietzsche's life and works
* AboveGoodAndEvil[=/=]WhatIsEvil[=/=]TheUnfettered: Ethics (what is "moral") is pretty much his strong point in philosophy (His contributions on other fields like metaphysics is very inconsistent on the other hand). And his criticism of conventional "good and evil" morality reaches a point where he unashamedly call the very concept of good and evil "slave morality," which is why he was not so fond of Christianity.
** He also accuses most Western philosophers of blindly trying to rehash good and evil in a secular society (e.g., Immanuel Kant's Categorial Imperative, and [[EthicalHedonism Utilitarianism]]).
* AlternativeCharacterInterpretation: Is Nietzsche one of the greatest geniuses in the History of Western philosophy, or is he just a megalomaniacal SocialDarwinist lunatic? Is his philosophy a great code to live by, or is it a (as Russell would say it) mere PowerFantasy?
** Nietzsche's character types can be alternatively interpreted as well. Is the {{Ubermensch}} a goal one can set for himself, or is it just a Nazi obsession? Needless to say, this contributed to the EditWar on that page.
* TheAntiNihilist[=/=]KnightInSourArmor: While [[TheCynic he]] is certainly famous for his {{Crapsack World}}view, Nietzsche encouraged this lifestyle as being more meaningful to life and an alternative to mindless, apathetic [[TheHedonist hedonism]].
* ApatheticCitizens: He thinks humanity is becoming this ever since Plato, and modern science is making it even worse: see ScienceIsBad below. He called such a citizen the "Last Man".
* AuthorExistenceFailure: ''Ecce Homo'', which he tried to publish but failed to.
* BadassMustache: There is no way you can argue with it.
* BedlamHouse: Which he said is an easy way to show that [[FaithHeelTurn faith proves nothing]]. He himself was eventually thrown into a mental asylum, and we know that Psychology wasn't ethically developed yet.
* BeYourself[=/=]DesperatelyLookingForAPurposeInLife: A major theme in his philosophy.
* BlueAndOrangeMorality
* BrokenPedestal: Nietzsche started his writing career as a big fan of Richard Wagner's music and the messages embedded in them, and wrote effusive praise. As time went on, however, Nietzsche became disillusioned with Wagner's bombast and lack of subtlety, and eventually broke with him on Wagner's growing anti-Semitism and German Nationalism. One of his later works is a brutal deconstruction of Wagner's works, both their aesthetic and political qualities.
** Perhaps not as sharp a break, but Nietzsche's views on Schopenhauer, who he looked on with some fondness early in his career, turned quite negative by Nietzsche's middle period.
* CardCarryingVillain: ''TheAntichrist''. How could it be more obvious?[[hottip:*:Although he might be going for shock value in this one.]] Also, in ''Beyond Good and Evil'':
-->And it is only for your AFTERNOON, you, my written and painted thoughts, for which alone I have colours, many colours, perhaps, many variegated softenings, and fifty yellows and browns and greens and reds;—but nobody will divine thereby how ye looked in your morning, you sudden sparks and marvels of my solitude, you, my old, beloved—'''EVIL''' thoughts!
* CausticCritic[=/=]AccentuateTheNegative: Not even his former best friend RichardWagner is safe.
* ContemplateOurNavels: Averted. One of his most important contributions to what would later become Psychology was the observation that introspection and self-analysis are extremely poor tools for figuring out what is actually going on in our heads. This was a complete break with the accumulated wisdom up to that point, and opened up space for Freud's idea of the unconscious mind.
* CreatorBreakdown: See below, but the syphilis certainly didn't help his mental state.
** It's unlikely that he had syphilis as knowledge of mental disorders were not as advanced in Nietzsche's time as they are today. TheOtherWiki expands on the possible causes of his insanity.
** Even when the disease does cause madness, it does it progressively over a very long time. Nietzsche went mad almost suddenly.
* DarkerAndEdgier: Nietzsche is considered to be among the Darkest and Edgiest of philosophers, thus dark and edgy works tend to have gratuitous Nietzsche quotes and philosophy in them ("that which does not kill me makes me... [[TheDarkKnight stranger]]", "[[WatchMen The Abyss Gazes Also]]", etc.), and pretentious people are prone to quoting Nietzsche and imitating his philosophical style to look dark and edgy (see also: NietzscheWannabe). Subverted on the author's part, since while Nietzsche himself had a worldview that combined strong fatalism with [[CosmicHorrorStory one's own insignificance]], he actually made a ''LighterAndSofter'' response to the depressing worldviews of Arthur Schopenhauer along with a lot of Nihilists in his time, [[TheAntiNihilist seeing the bright and more positive side to living in such a world]].
* DarkIsNotEvil
* DeadArtistsAreBetter[=/=]VindicatedByHistory: He predicted that he would be "born posthumously." He was right.
* DidNotDoTheResearch: Evolution and natural selection do not work the way Friedrich though they did, and he did a poor job at attempting to criticize it. It is clear that he mostly grasped the [[TheThemeParkVersion "Survival of the Fittest"]] part and never actually read up on CharlesDarwin's actual works.
* EitherOrTitle: ''Twilight of the Idols, or, How to Philosophize with a Hammer''
* TheFatalist[=/=]YouCantFightFate: His preaching of ''amor fati'' is one of the major reasons why he is bashed as a nihilist. Psychologically speaking, ordinary people usually react to the despair of fatalism, such as deaths caused by terminal illnesses (like genetic disorders, or the syphilis and mental illnesses he himself suffered), with the perception of life as just [[CosmicHorrorStory one big pointless]] AndIMustScream, hence causing [[DrivenToSuicide depression]], [[DarknessInducedAudienceApathy apathy]] and/or [[OmnicidalManiac rage]]. However, those extraordinary few should reject this suicidal perception, instead both accepting this fatalistic outlook and living it [[WorldOfHam as if it was an art form]] (hence a possible wordplay on "Übermensch"). His thought experiment on EternalRecurrence boils down to how confident people with strong enough willpower can accept the challenge of life over and over again, fully appreciating this AndIMustScream existence and making it joyful without any regrets. This also comes hand-in-hand with appreciating the Ancient Greeks' view on a fatalistic life (e.g., expressing it in the art form of Tragedy), and condemning modern Enlightenment philosophy because of their too much optimism in free will (despite masking it under Greek ideas).
* TheGadfly
* GoMadFromTheRevelation: "The Madman" in ''The Gay Science'' who announces the death of God seems to have done this, although it's not altogether clear. This is also one of the more poetic ways to explain what happened to Nietzsche himself for the last eleven years of his life.
* GratuitousForeignLanguage: Frequently [[AltumVidetur Latin]] or sometimes [[GratuitousGreek Greek]], as was common with most intellectual fields at that time, although he was just as likely to use GratuitousFrench or GratuitousEnglish when quoting something or other. In fairness, it usually wasn't terribly gratuitous; he probably had some philosophical purpose in every instance. Indeed, his purpose could, at times, be downright practical: his use of the French word ''ressentiment'' (resentment) in ''On the Genealogy of Morality'' and afterward was basically because German doesn't have a word that could really translate to "resentment."
** Additionally, people citing Nietzsche are liable to use GratuitousGerman; even [[MainPage this very wiki]] is not immune, by titling the article on the overman "{{Ubermensch}}."
* HedonismTropes: Subverted hard. He starts his career in philosophy with the description of the Apollonian (cerebral, classicist, [[TheSpock logical]], restrained) and Dionysian (wild, visceral, hammy, {{hotblooded}}, hedonistic) archetypes in the Birth of Tragedy (and recommending a Dionysian lifestyle), but ends it by condemning utilitarianism and other hedonistic lifestyles.
-->Man does not strive for pleasure; only the Englishman does.
* HeWhoFightsMonsters: His reaction to Socrates. Before Socrates the proper way to prevail in any enterprise is to just *do* things. After Socrates, the proper way to win was to *talk* (or more accurately, argue and {{wangst}}) about doing things. Once arguing became the way business is done, [[FlameWar bad arguments become unavoidable, and equally bad arguments tend to spur from their opponents]]. And it was all a waste of time. This shift was profound and, in Nietzsche's mind, devastating.
** This also sums up his view on the future of Secular philosophy and science: see the part about NotSoDifferent and ScienceIsBad below.
* InsistentTerminology: Sort of. As he gradually grew disillusioned of German culture, he started emphasizing his descent from Polish nobility; by the end of his (sane) life, he insisted that he was entirely Polish.
* {{Irony}}: He was fond of this, to the point that [[MindScrew his works made no sense]]. Also forms the basis of HeWhoFightsMonsters.
* {{Koan}}: One of the great Western practitioners of the art.
* LargeHam: Particularly in his AuthorAvatar Zarathustra.
* MindScrew
* MisaimedFandom[=/=]MisBlamed[=/=]{{Flanderization}}: [[HitlerAteSugar The Nazis' adulation of him and the corresponding misconception (now highly discredited) that he would have supported them]]. His works reflect the opposite of anti-semitism, statism, and Germanic nationalism amongst other things, but they seemed to agree on matters like WarIsGlorious (sort of- see below), [[SocialDarwinist men are not equal, possibly eugenics,]] [[HobbesWasRight anti-democracy]]/anti-communism etc, and that a strong, perhaps even brutal, leadership is desirable, albeit for slightly different reasons.
** Some of the blame for this can be laid at the feet of his sister, a supporter of the Nazi party who edited some of his works to present a pro-Nazi slant.
** The Trope NietzscheWannabe sums up his MisaimedFandom as well.
* MiseryBuildsCharacter
* MonsterClown: THE JESTER!!
* NietzscheWannabe: [[UnbuiltTrope Deconstructed]]. While he was a Cynic who did subscribe to a nihilistic ''worldview'', he despised the nihilistic ''lifestyle'', which he called out as simply unproductive and pathetic {{wangst}}.
* NotSoDifferent: His view on religion and science, at least insofar as they both attempt to calculate a metaphysical framework to explain how and why the world functions; the latter is simply secular. See also the part on ScienceIsBad below.
* OneOfUs: Quite literally. "Tropes are not something that can be added or abstracted from language at will—-they are its truest nature. There is no real knowing apart from metaphor, and the drive toward the formation of such is the fundamental human drive."
* PostModernism: One of the great precursors for the movement.
* PreachersKid[=/=]TheCobblersChildrenHaveNoShoes: His father was a Lutheran minister, as was his maternal grandfather. He grew up to be an atheist and a critic of Christianity.
* RealMenEatMeat: He very clearly believed that vegetarianism was bad for the human spirit (which of course did not just include men, but his philosophy definitely emphasized manliness); he specifically calls vegetarianism a cause of "physiological inhibition" in ''On the Genealogy of Morality''.
* {{Reconstruction}}: Now that Nihilism {{deconstruct|ion}}ed the idealistic and rationalist philosophies of his time, he deconstructed the nihilistic lifestyle and created [[TheAntiNihilist The Übermensch]] as a response.
* {{Retraux}}[=/=]InTheStyleOf: Some of his works were deliberately written in Biblical style, possibly for additional irony. ''Thus Spoke Zarathustra'' is a particularly good example.
* {{Romanticism}}[=/=]ScienceIsBad: Not exactly. While his poetic, hammy and caustic criticism of modernity heavily influenced Postmodernism, he did understand the importance of modern science, and the unquestionable truth of its discoveries, and definitely approved of its methods as superior to religious or philosophical ones for investigation of reality. However, [[RomanticismVersusEnlightenment he regarded scientists' (and Enlightenment philosophers in general) relentless obsession for objective truth--and in particular, the extension of the scientific method to the study of human beings--as a dangerous development which makes people too dependent on objective truth while downplaying or outright destroying individuals' own perspectives, and obscures important elements of the human condition that cannot be quantified]], that which will eventually lead to a {{Dystopia}}n future.
* ShrugOfGod: Many of works make it clear that the reader is urged to make up their own mind on certain things, most obviously when there are self-contradictory statements. Too bad they didn't have [[SincerityMode pot]] [[SarcasmMode holes]] back then.
* SocialDarwinist[=/=]MightMakesRight: Whenever the terms "Übermensch," "Will-To-Power," "Master-slave morality," Nietzsche's rejection of egalitarianism/democracy and such comes up, distinctions between Nietzsche and Social Darwinism are severely blurred, hence Nietzsche's frequent misassociation with notable Social Darwinists like ThoseWackyNazis. Note that Nietzsche wasn't really that much of a ''social'' Darwinist; his philosophy is rather different.
** While he can be excused as going insane, he almost went overboard and took a stance to KillThePoor when he wrote ''The Antichrist''.\\
[-''The weak and the botched shall perish: first principle of our charity. And one should help them to it.''-]
** He did try to criticize (evolutionary) Darwinism, although what he criticized was actually TheThemeParkVersion rather than Darwin's actual theory (see DidNotDoTheResearch above).
* TheSociopath: Not himself, of course, but he predicted some of the Sociopath's personality traits, like LackOfEmpathy, incapability to feel remorse/guilt, unfettered behaviour, and occasional inhuman charisma. Also, if understood badly, Nietzsche's philosophy can look like it was praising a self-centered version of MoralSociopathy. Especially The Anti-Christ, where he actually goes on to condemn empathy itself.
* TemptingFate[=/=]WhatCouldPossiblyGoWrong: In ''Ecce Homo'', Nietzsche wrote about his fear that he would be [[MisaimedFandom pronounced holy by future readers]], therefore he wanted to publish the book before anyone would make the mistake. Due to his mental breakdown, his book was published years after his death. You can guess what happened on the day of his funeral.
* TheThemeParkVersion: [[NietzscheWannabe Sadly very common]].
* TheUbermensch: While this character was originally his idea (and it's actually even more complex than what could be described in that trope page), it's subverted because Nietzsche never considered himself as this, even considering himself to be more of the Last Man, because in his original works the Ubermensch is supposed to be "healthy" and his sickliness rendered him incapable of doing anything truly Ubermensch-related. He did not even bother defining this character archetype well, thus the flame wars here on the internet and in the academic world.
** He did, however, point out a few historical figures who were either Ubermenschen or very close; for the most part, they tend to be prophet-lawgivers and the founders of influential schools of thought. Chief among them were {{Socrates}} and {{Jesus}}. He regarded them both as something of a mixed bag: the former started a trend in Western culture that Nietzsche did not like but on the other hand did have some good ideas; he regarded what he considered to be the original teaching of Christianity (which he understood to be rather like Buddhism) to be excellent to apply for the poor, sheepish masses in a healthy society, but also considered Jesus an "idiot" (by which he meant "CloudCuckoolander"), and didn't like that Jesus' teaching was so easily twisted by the Apostle Paul (whom he despised). He also seemed to regard both Gautama Buddha and Muhammad as Ubermenschen or near-Ubermenschen. He liked what he saw in Buddhism (having studied it fairly extensively), but has little to say about Islam (although what he does have to say is quite complimentary), as it seems he hadn't really gotten around to a detailed treatment of the subject.
* WarIsGlorious: Inverted, subverted, deconstructed, played straight, zigzagged and played with relentlessly. As mentioned above he is critical of war in one sense, and especially for how it was used and abused by the state for petty reasons, but he regards conflict (in a general sense) as the great mover of history and ideas, and the fount of creativity. He also saw war as a way that a broken society might find renewed purpose, though he notes that a healthy society has no need for war. He admires numerous men who were soldiers and conquerors like JuliusCaesar, Cesare Borgia, NapoleonBonaparte and Alexander the Great, and frequently invoked war imagery in his writings especially when he was attacking someone (ie. more often than not). He is strongly opposed to pacifism and after forming TheUbermensch he changed his mind about war, praising it. In his insane period he declared that Germany would fall shortly due to its war-making; he was dead on right. In other words- inconclusive.
* WorthyOpponent: {{Jesus}} and {{Socrates}}. He regarded both as {{Ubermensch}}en who changed the course of history, although he didn't like where they went with it, or even more sharply what other people did with it after they died. On the other hand, in ''The Antichrist'' he tried to describe St. Paul (the actual saint, not the capital of Minnesota, of which he was dimly aware at best) as a contemptible NietzscheWannabe who encouraged HappinessInSlavery.
----
!References to Nietzsche in media
Nietzsche and his books are mostly used in media to convey [[WhatDoYouMeanItsNotSymbolic metaphysical connotations where they could have easily been avoided]].
[[foldercontrol]]
[[folder: Anime and Manga ]]
* Rare non-symbolic reference to Nietzsche in ''MagicalGirlLyricalNanoha'', where one of [[TheBeastmaster Caro's]] [[OurDragonsAreDifferent dragons]] is named Friedrich as part of their ThemeNaming. Her other dragon is named [[Creator/FrancoisMarieArouet Voltaire]].
* The new opening of ''SuzumiyaHaruhi'' contains the phrase "Gott ist tot." You may now take this in whichever way you want.
** Some people have pointed out that Haruhi going to all the clubs and then leaving when they're empty of what she wants happens to be almost exactly what The Madman does in Nietzsche's ''The Gay Science'', which is where "Gott ist tot" comes from.
* [[SayonaraZetsubouSensei Arai Chie]]'s name is a direct Nietzsche reference...for ''some'' reason.
* In the ''Anime/YuGiOh'' anime, Seto Kaiba is seen reading Also Sprach Zarathustra in the very first scene we meet him in. This may be subtle [[LampshadeHanging lampshade hanging]] to his [[NietzscheWannabe personality type.]]
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[[folder: Comic Books ]]
* Nietzschean philosophy is flirted with all throughout ''{{Watchmen}}'', but it's especially evident in the Rorschach-centric chapter, which is titled "The Abyss Gazes Also" and ends with [[HeWhoFightsMonsters the rest of the quote]].
** Moore used the concept of the real 'superman' on one of his most famous (and darkest) works, his reintepretation of Miracleman. At the end of the first chapter, on issue one, a chilling page which shows us a close up of Miracleman's face and eye, quotes "Behold... I teach you the superman! He is this lightning! He is this madness!".
* Garth Ennis' {{Preacher}} has a lot of Nietzschean influenced ideas sprinkled around in it. This becomes most obvious at the end of the series, when the God Is Death philosophy is taken literally.
* Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster named Their character ''{{Superman}}'' after the Nietzschean term coined in ''Thus Spoke Zarathustra''.
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[[folder: Film ]]
* In ''TheDayAfterTomorrow'' by RolandEmmerich, the people who were trapped in the [[BigAppleSauce New York]] Central Library start burning books in the fire pit (as New York is hot my a ice storm). Not long after an argument breaks loose whether to burn Nietzsche's collected works (who was, as one person argues, a chauvinist and an [[BrotherSisterIncest Incestier]]). They soon decide to burn the tax payers' rights registry instead.
* In ''[[DarkKnightTrilogy The Dark Knight]]'', Joker uses the variation of that which does not kill me can only make me stronger quote, by replacing stronger with stranger, although the quote probably wasn't an intentional reference.
* "That which does not kill you, makes you stronger" was also quoted at the beginning of the ''Conan the Barbarian'' film.
* Otto, the [[LargeHam Bombastic]] {{Jerkass}} NietzscheWannabe [[{{Eagleland}} American]] psychopath in ''AFishCalledWanda''. He does not really understand Nietzsche's, or anyone else's, philosophy.
--> '''Wanda''': But you think you're an intellectual, don't you, ape?
--> '''Otto''': Apes don't read philosophy.
--> '''Wanda''': Yes they do, Otto. They just don't understand it.
* Although Nietzsche himself wasn't a nihilist, that philosophy has been associated with him. The scene in TheBigLebowski where [[HairTriggerTemper Walter]] misconstrues German nihilists as Nazis probably alludes to Nietzsche's undeserved reputation in that area.
** He doesn't misconstrue them as Nazis at all. He confuses them for Nazis because they are German and says that they can take them because [[AmericaWinsTheWar they have done it before]]. When the Dude corrects him and clarifies that they are nihilists, explaining that means they don't believe in anything, he has an OhCrap moment and realizes this could make them ''worse' than Nazis, because at least Nazism was an ethos. [[spoiler: Of course, once they found out these nihilists had not actually kidnapped, harmed or killed anyone, and were basically a bunch of [[NietzscheWannabe Nietszche Wannabes]] of the HarmlessVillain variety, he loses his respect for them.]]
* In the Live Action Adaptation of [[Manga/DeathNote Death Note]] Light Yagami reads ''Beyond Good and Evil'' in German.
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[[folder: Literature ]]
* AynRand was a serious student of Nietzsche's ideas, leading to her development of the philosophy of Objectivism, which is basically similar to Nietzsche's own philosophy except it rejected the premise that the Ubermensch can use force on others for his own ends. By the time of ''TheFountainhead'', however, she was willing to ''deconstruct'' the traditional Nietzschean Ubermensch.
** YourMileageMayVary on whether Rand should be considered a serious student of Nietzsche or whether their philosophies are similar. On a rhetorical level there seem to be some parallels, but beneath the surface they are profoundly different. Rand deified reason and rationality and actively hated anti-rationalism, while Nietzsche was deeply suspicious of privileging reason over other modes of analysis, to the point that many philosophers consider Nietzsche an anti-rationalist himself. Nietzsche was critical of market economics and wealth generation as an end in itself, as well as attacking the moral root of property rights. Beyond the superficial, perhaps the only thing they completely agreed upon was their analysis of aesthetics.
** Rand appears to instead be an Aristotlean (she attacked modern physics and non-Euclidean geometry because they didn't fit in an Aristotlean framework) in Nietzsche's skin.
* If you know what to look for, you can sometimes spot alterations of the book titles in PerryRhodan novels. There's no philosophical and/or thematic connection but apparently, at least one author is a Nietzsche fan.
* Reversed by the works of FyodorDostoevsky: Nietzsche was a ''huge'' Dostoevsky fan (although they couldn't be more different on their views on Christianity), reading Dostoevsky's novels as soon as they came out in French or German (Nietzsche didn't speak Russian). The influence of Dostoevsky's ideas shows up in Nietzsche's work. To give you an idea how similarly they analyzed the problem of nihilism, Dostoevsky's [[Literature/CrimeAndPunishment Raskolnikov]] is remarkably like (though not identical to) the Nietzschean {{Ubermensch}}...but Nietzsche hadn't read ''Literature/CrimeAndPunishment'' when he wrote ''Thus Spoke Zarathustra'', and ''Crime and Punishment'' predates ''Zarathustra'' by fifteen years.
** Of course, one need only to reach the end of the works to realize that the two then came to very different conclusions. A little wild to think about.
* Francis is a fan of Nietzsche in 'Felidae' and 'Felidae on the Road'.
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[[folder: Live Action TV ]]
* ''{{Andromeda}}'' has a whole alien race named after him, the Nietzscheans, who wholeheartedly adhere to a [[ThemeParkVersion particular vision of his beliefs]].
* The Bruces from ''MontyPythonsFlyingCircus'' know "there's nothing Nietzsche couldn't teach ya 'bout the raising of the wrist."
* There is a quote at the beginning and the ending of every ''Series/CriminalMinds'' episode. At least six of the quotes have been from Friedrich Nietzsche. The "HeWhoFightsMonsters" quote was used in the first episode and the one hundredth episode and is a central theme throughout the whole show. It was also referenced in the season four finale:
-->'''Hotch''': ''(final voiceover)'' ...And what about my team? How many more times will they be able to look into the abyss? How many more times before they won’t ever recover the pieces of themselves that this job takes?...
[[/folder]]
[[folder: Music ]]
* The Music/BlindGuardian song "Punishment Divine" is about Nietzsche going insane.
* ''AlsoSprachZarathustra'' by Richard Strauss of course.
* The song ''What Doesn't Kill You(Stronger)'' by KellyClarkson, who ironically, is very Christian, with a tattoo of a cross on her wrist.
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[[folder: Video Games ]]
* ''VideoGame/{{Xenosaga}}'' just '''runneth over''' with Nietzsche symbolism. Not to mention every game in the series is named after one of his books (except ''Der Wille zur Macht'' - ''The Will to Power'' - which, as mentioned above, is a collection of unpublished scribblings from his notebooks).
* Lucas Kane in ''{{Fahrenheit}}'' is especially fond of ''Thus Spoke Zarathustra'', a copy of which he keeps near his bed.
* The original ''BaldursGate'' opens with the "HeWhoFightsMonsters" quote, hinting at [[spoiler:the dangers of Bhaal's legacy (probably)]].
* HeWhoFightsMonsters was used in the advertising for ''TooHuman''. Which, as you might have guessed, is ''also'' named after one of his books.
* Despite its title, ''VideoGame/BeyondGoodAndEvil'' really has nothing to do with Nietzsche. ''That'' LiteraryAllusionTitle was a product of ExecutiveMeddling.
* In ''TheNamelessMod'', an insane AI running the player through an obstacle course ([[VideoGame/{{Portal}} sounds familiar]]) refers to one room as "The Nietzsche Room" because "it makes you realize" that there is "no god". If the correct alliance and reasons choices are given, Kashue will use HeWhoFightsMonsters in the final level.
* Kreia from ''KnightsOfTheOldRepublic 2'' provides us with a Cliff Notes version of some part of Nietzsche's philosophy every time she opens her mouth. Just replace 'God' with 'The Force' and 'Jedi/Sith' with 'priest', and Kreia basically becomes an {{Ubermensch}}, or (even more likely) she fills the role of Nietzsche trying to mold the main character into one.
* FarCry 2 BigBad The Jackal quotes from Beyond Good and Evil quite a bit in the game, from the first time you meet him and through his audio diaries.
* The recent ''Persona'' games of the ShinMegamiTensei franchise - that is, ''{{Persona 3}}'' and ''{{Persona 4}}'' - seem to be based on Nietzschean philosophy... ''actual'' Nietzschean philosophy, and not the stuff [[NietzscheWannabe people usually try to pin on him]].
** ''Persona 3'' seems to ape quite a bit from ''Thus Spake Zarathustra''' (particularly [[spoiler: the idea of the Protagonist becoming a ''proper'' Ubermensch, unafraid to face death, and someone worthy of being an actual Messiah to humanity]]).
** ''Persona 4'' more or less cribs ''On Truth And Lies In A Nonmoral Sense'' wholesale; the entire concept of a "fog of pride and ''thinking'' you know something" is lifted from the book, and the game hammers home the idea that you must look beyond yourself to understand the objective nature of things (going so far as to [[spoiler:attempt to trick you with ''several'' fake ending sequences, the second of which will ''actively attempt to dissuade you'' from the true ending to the game.]]) Nearly all of the playable characters also are forced to face down the fact that they've been lying to themselves about certain aspects of their psyches.
* ''SidMeiersAlphaCentauri'' makes several references to Nietzsche, the most obvious of which are the technologies "Homo Superior" (which is essentially Latin for {{Ubermensch}}) and "The Will to Power" (which is straight from Nietzsche). The blurbs read out upon acquiring these technologies are both from the prologue to ''Thus Spoke Zarathustra''. The bit of EncyclopediaExposita attached to them indicates that they involve creating and using {{Cyborg}}s who are both perfectly human and perfectly machine (and thus capable, potentially, of being actual Ubermenschen), and "The Will to Power" enables the [[MindControl Thought Control]] social choice.
[[/folder]]
[[folder: Web Original ]]
* Several stories in the ''DarwinsSoldiers'' canon [[VillainEpisode focus on the antagonists]], and are summarily renamed ''Nietzsche's Soldiers.''
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-->-- '''Friedrich Nietzsche''', ''The [[HaveAGayOldTime Gay]] Science'', Aphorism 125 ("The Madman"), 1882 [[hottip:*:Fun fact:The quote "God is dead" already appears in a text of [[DichterUndDenker G.W.F. Hegel]] from 1802, eighty years before Nietzsche's book was published.]]
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-->-- '''Friedrich Nietzsche''', ''The [[HaveAGayOldTime Gay]] Science'', Aphorism 125 ("The Madman"), 1882 [[hottip:*:Fun fact:The fact: The quote "God is dead" already appears in a text of [[DichterUndDenker G.W.F. Hegel]] from 1802, eighty years before Nietzsche's book was published.]]
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* Rare non-symbolic reference to Nietzsche in ''MagicalGirlLyricalNanoha'', where one of [[TheBeastmaster Caro's]] [[OurDragonsAreDifferent dragons]] is named Friedrich as part of their ThemeNaming. Her other dragon is named [[FrancoisMarieArouet Voltaire]].
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* Rare non-symbolic reference to Nietzsche in ''MagicalGirlLyricalNanoha'', where one of [[TheBeastmaster Caro's]] [[OurDragonsAreDifferent dragons]] is named Friedrich as part of their ThemeNaming. Her other dragon is named [[FrancoisMarieArouet [[Creator/FrancoisMarieArouet Voltaire]].
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That\'s actually not a creditable way to discredit someone see Logical Fallacies
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** Even when the disease does cause madness, it does it progressively over a very long time. Nietzsche went mad almost suddenly. But it was a pretty credible way of discrediting him.
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** Even when the disease does cause madness, it does it progressively over a very long time. Nietzsche went mad almost suddenly. But it was a pretty credible way of discrediting him.
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* There is a quote at the beginning and the ending of every ''Series/CriminalMinds'' episode. At least six of the quotes have been from Friedrich Nietzsche. The "HeWhoFightsMonsters" quote was used in the first episode and the one hundredth episode and is a central theme throughout the whole show. It was also referenced in the season four finale:
-->'''Hotch''': ''(final voiceover)'' ...And what about my team? How many more times will they be able to look into the abyss? How many more times before they won’t ever recover the pieces of themselves that this job takes?...
-->'''Hotch''': ''(final voiceover)'' ...And what about my team? How many more times will they be able to look into the abyss? How many more times before they won’t ever recover the pieces of themselves that this job takes?...
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* TheFatalist[=/=]YouCantFightFate: His preaching of ''amor fati'' is one of the major reasons why he is bashed as a nihilist. Ordinarily, people usually react to despairing fatalism with [[CosmicHorrorStory depression]], [[DarknessInducedAudienceApathy apathy]] and/or [[OmnicidalManiac rage]] ("we're all [[HumansAreFlawed flawed humans]] who are going to die in vain and there's nothing we can do about it so we should just kill each other right now"), but those extraordinary few should transcend this depressing outlook and live it [[WorldOfHam as if it was an art form]] (hence a possible wordplay on "Übermensch"). His thought experiment on EternalRecurrence boils down to how confident people with strong enough willpower can accept the challenge of fate over and over again, with neither bitterness nor regret. This also comes hand-in-hand with appreciating the Ancient Greeks' view on a fatalistic life (e.g., expressing it in the art form of Tragedy).
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* TheFatalist[=/=]YouCantFightFate: His preaching of ''amor fati'' is one of the major reasons why he is bashed as a nihilist. Ordinarily, Psychologically speaking, ordinary people usually react to despairing fatalism the despair of fatalism, such as deaths caused by terminal illnesses (like genetic disorders, or the syphilis and mental illnesses he himself suffered), with the perception of life as just [[CosmicHorrorStory one big pointless]] AndIMustScream, hence causing [[DrivenToSuicide depression]], [[DarknessInducedAudienceApathy apathy]] and/or [[OmnicidalManiac rage]] ("we're all [[HumansAreFlawed flawed humans]] who are going to die in vain and there's nothing we can do about it so we should just kill each other right now"), but rage]]. However, those extraordinary few should transcend reject this depressing suicidal perception, instead both accepting this fatalistic outlook and live living it [[WorldOfHam as if it was an art form]] (hence a possible wordplay on "Übermensch"). His thought experiment on EternalRecurrence boils down to how confident people with strong enough willpower can accept the challenge of fate life over and over again, with neither bitterness nor regret.fully appreciating this AndIMustScream existence and making it joyful without any regrets. This also comes hand-in-hand with appreciating the Ancient Greeks' view on a fatalistic life (e.g., expressing it in the art form of Tragedy).Tragedy), and condemning modern Enlightenment philosophy because of their too much optimism in free will (despite masking it under Greek ideas).
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* In the ''Anime/{{Yu-Gi-Oh}}'' anime, Seto Kaiba is seen reading Also Sprach Zarathustra in the very first scene we meet him in. This may be subtle [[LampshadeHanging lampshade hanging]] to his [[NietzscheWannabe personality type.]]
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* In the ''Anime/{{Yu-Gi-Oh}}'' ''Anime/YuGiOh'' anime, Seto Kaiba is seen reading Also Sprach Zarathustra in the very first scene we meet him in. This may be subtle [[LampshadeHanging lampshade hanging]] to his [[NietzscheWannabe personality type.]]
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* ApatheticCitizens: He thinks humanity is fast becoming this ever since Plato's "otherworldliness": see HeWhoFightsMonsters, NotSoDifferent and ScienceIsBad below. He called such a citizen the "Last Man".
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* ApatheticCitizens: He thinks humanity is fast becoming this ever since Plato's "otherworldliness": Plato, and modern science is making it even worse: see HeWhoFightsMonsters, NotSoDifferent and ScienceIsBad below. He called such a citizen the "Last Man".
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* TheAntiNihilist[=/=]KnightInSourArmor: While [[TheCynic he]] is certainly famous for his {{Crapsack World}}view, Nietzsche encouraged this lifestyle as being more meaningful to life and an alternative to mindless [[TheHedonist hedonism]].
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* TheAntiNihilist[=/=]KnightInSourArmor: While [[TheCynic he]] is certainly famous for his {{Crapsack World}}view, Nietzsche encouraged this lifestyle as being more meaningful to life and an alternative to mindless mindless, apathetic [[TheHedonist hedonism]].hedonism]].
* ApatheticCitizens: He thinks humanity is fast becoming this ever since Plato's "otherworldliness": see HeWhoFightsMonsters, NotSoDifferent and ScienceIsBad below. He called such a citizen the "Last Man".
* ApatheticCitizens: He thinks humanity is fast becoming this ever since Plato's "otherworldliness": see HeWhoFightsMonsters, NotSoDifferent and ScienceIsBad below. He called such a citizen the "Last Man".
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* In the Live Action Adaptation of [[DeathNote Death Note]] Light Yagami reads ''Beyond Good and Evil'' in German.
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* In the Live Action Adaptation of [[DeathNote [[Manga/DeathNote Death Note]] Light Yagami reads ''Beyond Good and Evil'' in German.
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** Of course, one need only to reach the end of the works to realize that the two then came to very different conclusions. A little wild to think about.
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** He did, however, point out a few historical figures who were either Ubermenschen or very close; for the most part, they tend to be prophet-lawgivers and the founders of influential schools of thought. Chief among them were {{Socrates}} and {{Jesus}}. He regarded them both as something of a mixed bag: the former started a trend in Western culture that Nietzsche did not like but on the other hand did have some good ideas; he regarded what he considered to be the original teaching of Christianity (which he understood to be rather like Buddhism) to be excellent to apply for the poor, sheepish masses in a healthy society, but also considered him an "idiot" (by which he meant "CloudCuckoolander"), and didn't like that Jesus' teaching was so easily twisted by the Apostle Paul (whom he despised). He also seemed to regard both Gautama Buddha and Muhammad as Ubermenschen or near-Ubermenschen. He liked what he saw in Buddhism (having studied it fairly extensively), but has little to say about Islam (although what he does have to say is quite complimentary), as it seems he hadn't really gotten around to a detailed treatment of the subject.
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** He did, however, point out a few historical figures who were either Ubermenschen or very close; for the most part, they tend to be prophet-lawgivers and the founders of influential schools of thought. Chief among them were {{Socrates}} and {{Jesus}}. He regarded them both as something of a mixed bag: the former started a trend in Western culture that Nietzsche did not like but on the other hand did have some good ideas; he regarded what he considered to be the original teaching of Christianity (which he understood to be rather like Buddhism) to be excellent to apply for the poor, sheepish masses in a healthy society, but also considered him Jesus an "idiot" (by which he meant "CloudCuckoolander"), and didn't like that Jesus' teaching was so easily twisted by the Apostle Paul (whom he despised). He also seemed to regard both Gautama Buddha and Muhammad as Ubermenschen or near-Ubermenschen. He liked what he saw in Buddhism (having studied it fairly extensively), but has little to say about Islam (although what he does have to say is quite complimentary), as it seems he hadn't really gotten around to a detailed treatment of the subject.
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Changed line(s) 119 (click to see context) from:
** He did, however, point out a few historical figures who were either Ubermenschen or very close. Chief among them were {{Socrates}} and {{Jesus}}. He regarded them both as something of a mixed bag: the former started a trend in Western culture that Nietzsche did not like but on the other hand did have some good ideas; he regarded what he considered to be the original teaching of Christianity (which he understood to be rather like Buddhism) to be excellent to apply for the poor, sheepish masses in a healthy society, but also considered him an "idiot" (by which he meant "CloudCuckoolander"), and didn't like that Jesus' teaching was so easily corrupted by the Apostle Paul (whom he despised). He also seemed to regard both Gautama Buddha and Muhammad as Ubermenschen or near-Ubermenschen. He liked what he saw in Buddhism (having studied it fairly extensively), but has little to say about Islam (although what he does have to say is quite complimentary), as it seems he hadn't really gotten around to a detailed treatment of the subject.
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** He did, however, point out a few historical figures who were either Ubermenschen or very close.close; for the most part, they tend to be prophet-lawgivers and the founders of influential schools of thought. Chief among them were {{Socrates}} and {{Jesus}}. He regarded them both as something of a mixed bag: the former started a trend in Western culture that Nietzsche did not like but on the other hand did have some good ideas; he regarded what he considered to be the original teaching of Christianity (which he understood to be rather like Buddhism) to be excellent to apply for the poor, sheepish masses in a healthy society, but also considered him an "idiot" (by which he meant "CloudCuckoolander"), and didn't like that Jesus' teaching was so easily corrupted twisted by the Apostle Paul (whom he despised). He also seemed to regard both Gautama Buddha and Muhammad as Ubermenschen or near-Ubermenschen. He liked what he saw in Buddhism (having studied it fairly extensively), but has little to say about Islam (although what he does have to say is quite complimentary), as it seems he hadn't really gotten around to a detailed treatment of the subject.
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** He did, however, point out a few historical figures who were either Ubermenschen or very close. Chief among them were {{Socrates}} and {{Jesus}}. He regarded them both as something of a mixed bag: the former started a trend in Western culture that Nietzsche did not like but on the other hand did have some good ideas; he regarded what he considered to be the original teaching of Christianity (which he understood to be rather like Buddhism) to be excellent to apply for the poor, sheepish masses in a healthy society, but also considered him an "idiot" (by which he meant "CloudCuckoolander"), and didn't like that Jesus' teaching was so easily corrupted by the Apostle Paul (whom he despised). He also seemed to regard both Gautama Buddha and Muhammad as Ubermenschen or near-Ubermenschen. He liked what he saw in Buddhism (having studied it fairly extensively), but has little to say about Islam (although what he does have to say is quite complimentary), as it seems he hadn't really gotten around to a detailed treatment of the subject.
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misspeling of \"Rand\"
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** Ran appears to instead be an Aristotlean (she attacked modern physics and non-Euclidean geometry because they didn't fit in an Aristotlean framework) in Nietzsche's skin.
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** Ran Rand appears to instead be an Aristotlean (she attacked modern physics and non-Euclidean geometry because they didn't fit in an Aristotlean framework) in Nietzsche's skin.
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-->-- '''Friedrich Nietzsche''', ''The Gay Science'', Aphorism 125 ("The Madman"), 1882 [[hottip:*:Fun fact:The quote "God is dead" already appears in a text of [[DichterUndDenker G.W.F. Hegel]] from 1802, eighty years before Nietzsche's book was published.]]
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-->-- '''Friedrich Nietzsche''', ''The Gay [[HaveAGayOldTime Gay]] Science'', Aphorism 125 ("The Madman"), 1882 [[hottip:*:Fun fact:The quote "God is dead" already appears in a text of [[DichterUndDenker G.W.F. Hegel]] from 1802, eighty years before Nietzsche's book was published.]]
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Namespacing
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* ''Ecce Homo'' (1888): An autobiographical work, albeit a highly-stylized one (Rule of Literary?), in the manner of {{Plato}}'s ''Apology''. [[{{Ecchi}} Get your mind]] [[YaoiGuys out of the gutter]], it's a reference to [[TheBible John 19:5]].
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* ''Ecce Homo'' (1888): An autobiographical work, albeit a highly-stylized one (Rule of Literary?), in the manner of {{Plato}}'s ''Apology''. [[{{Ecchi}} Get your mind]] [[YaoiGuys out of the gutter]], it's a reference to [[TheBible [[Literature/TheBible John 19:5]].
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* AboveGoodAndEvil[=/=]WhatIsEvil[=/=]TheUnfettered: Ethics (what is "moral") is pretty much his strong point in philosophy, along with psychology (His contributions on other fields like metaphysics is very inconsistent on the other hand). And his criticism of conventional "good and evil" morality reaches a point where he unashamedly call the very concept of good and evil "slave morality," which is why he was not so fond of Christianity.
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* AboveGoodAndEvil[=/=]WhatIsEvil[=/=]TheUnfettered: Ethics (what is "moral") is pretty much his strong point in philosophy, along with psychology philosophy (His contributions on other fields like metaphysics is very inconsistent on the other hand). And his criticism of conventional "good and evil" morality reaches a point where he unashamedly call the very concept of good and evil "slave morality," which is why he was not so fond of Christianity.
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Changed line(s) 58 (click to see context) from:
* AboveGoodAndEvil[=/=]WhatIsEvil[=/=]TheUnfettered: Ethics (what is "moral") is pretty much his strong point in philosophy. And his criticism of conventional "good and evil" morality reaches a point where he unashamedly call the very concept of good and evil "slave morality," which is why he was not so fond of Christianity.
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* AboveGoodAndEvil[=/=]WhatIsEvil[=/=]TheUnfettered: Ethics (what is "moral") is pretty much his strong point in philosophy.philosophy, along with psychology (His contributions on other fields like metaphysics is very inconsistent on the other hand). And his criticism of conventional "good and evil" morality reaches a point where he unashamedly call the very concept of good and evil "slave morality," which is why he was not so fond of Christianity.
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* TheFatalist[=/=]YouCantFightFate: His preaching of ''amor fati'' is one of the major reasons why he is bashed as a nihilist. Ordinarily, people usually react to despairing fatalism with [[DarknessInducedAudienceApathy depression, apathy]] and [[OmnicidalManiac rage]] ("we're all gonna die and there's nothing we can do about it so we should just kill each other right now"), but those extraordinary few should transcend this depressing outlook and live it [[WorldOfHam as if it was an art form]] (hence a possible wordplay on "Übermensch"). His thought experiment on EternalRecurrence boils down to how people with strong enough willpower can say "Yes" to fate over and over again, with neither bitterness nor regret. This also comes hand-in-hand with appreciating the Ancient Greeks' view on a fatalistic life (e.g., expressing it in the art form of Tragedy).
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* TheFatalist[=/=]YouCantFightFate: His preaching of ''amor fati'' is one of the major reasons why he is bashed as a nihilist. Ordinarily, people usually react to despairing fatalism with [[CosmicHorrorStory depression]], [[DarknessInducedAudienceApathy depression, apathy]] and and/or [[OmnicidalManiac rage]] ("we're all gonna [[HumansAreFlawed flawed humans]] who are going to die in vain and there's nothing we can do about it so we should just kill each other right now"), but those extraordinary few should transcend this depressing outlook and live it [[WorldOfHam as if it was an art form]] (hence a possible wordplay on "Übermensch"). His thought experiment on EternalRecurrence boils down to how confident people with strong enough willpower can say "Yes" to accept the challenge of fate over and over again, with neither bitterness nor regret. This also comes hand-in-hand with appreciating the Ancient Greeks' view on a fatalistic life (e.g., expressing it in the art form of Tragedy).
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* TheSociopath: Not himself, of course, but he predicted some of the Sociopath's personality traits, like LackOfEmpathy, incapability to feel remorse/guilt, unfettered behaviour, and occasional inhuman charisma. Also, if understood badly, Nietzsche's philosophy can look like it was praising sociopathy. Especially The Anti-Christ, where he actually goes on to condemn empathy itself.
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* TheSociopath: Not himself, of course, but he predicted some of the Sociopath's personality traits, like LackOfEmpathy, incapability to feel remorse/guilt, unfettered behaviour, and occasional inhuman charisma. Also, if understood badly, Nietzsche's philosophy can look like it was praising sociopathy.a self-centered version of MoralSociopathy. Especially The Anti-Christ, where he actually goes on to condemn empathy itself.
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* The song ''What Doesn't Kill You(Stronger)'' by KellyClarkson, who is ironically very Christian.
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* The song ''What Doesn't Kill You(Stronger)'' by KellyClarkson, who ironically, is ironically very Christian.
Christian, with a tattoo of a cross on her wrist.
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* The song ''What Doesn't Kill You(Stronger)'' by KellyClarkson, who is ironically very Christian.
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* Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster named Their character ''{{Superman}}'' after the Nietzschean term coined in ''Thus Spoke Zarathustra''.
