Stranger on Earth

Twilight of the Idols, or How to Philosophize with a Hammer ( Götzendammerung, oder: Wie man mit dem Hammer philosophirt , 1889), was one of the last two philosophical works (the other being The Anti-Christ ) written by Friedrich Nietzsche at lightning speed (he completed it in a week) before he succumbed to insanity the following year. By this time Nietzsche had already established a name for himself with Thus Spoke Zarathustra in Europe’s literary-philosophical enclaves, though his incorrigible cynicism made him believe that most readers had not adequately grasped the work. In order to rectify the situation, he felt he had to simplify its main ideas and present them in a more digestible format à la Cliff Notes. The result is Twilight of the Idols , a summary of sorts of the philosophical thoughts that had preoccupied him all his life. But the book, furious and acerbic in tone, is also something else: it functions as a metaphorical hammer that seeks to destroy everything that...

There is nothing more exciting than having an ex-student writing to you expressing the wish to discuss what you have written ( http://ed-is-a-stranger-on-earth.blogspot.com/2011/01/now-learning-how-to-live-through.html ). Below is my rambling response to his rather lengthy mail. If there are any untruths or falsities, I am the one to blame... Have fun reading it! ;-) Now we are talking! Since you have taken the time to compose such a long response, which I thoroughly enjoyed reading, I will do it justice by giving you a detailed response. First off, Gaarder's Sophie's World . This is the Bible of us amateur philosophers. I read it more than ten years ago, and it still remains one of my all-time favoruites. If you feel like reading something equally thought-provoking but a lot less transparent, try Milan Kundera's The Unbearable Lightness of Being . The Empedocles argument (earth, fire, water and air being the basic elements of the world) is interesting ...