Masterly autobiography
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I like Muhammed Ali. I like his elan, audacity, humour and lack of humility. Nietzsche, in this autobiography is the same and not the same. I find it an extremely moving reckoning of the life that one man had so far lived; alone. Nietzshce gives us some classsic phrases: 'I am not a man, I am dynamite' and, speaking of himself in the third person, 'one is either born after him or before him'. Many readers have noted the unchained egotism as a sign of the madness that was to possess him in a few weeks time, yet there are moments in this book of truly profound and moving humility. Yes, humility, a quality not often associated with Nietzsche, despite being one of his most noticeable and endearing traits;'Perhaps I am a buffon', he writes. Never in the books of any other philosopher that I have read has such an honest admission been made. And that is what makes Nietzsch such a startling figure. He was as clever as they come, he attempted an unparalled rational/emotional assault on life, wrote books that are outstanding, was a historian, psychologist and epigrammist of genius, was continually ignored by the world, and still, summing up the his life's work thus far, knowing how he towered above so many, still he is able to admit to his reader, to himself, that, perhaps, he has got it all wrong. This book is an joyful, witty read.
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Ecce Homo is Nietzsche's testament.
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In my opinion Nietzsche's Ecce Homo is his most moving work; it is a portrait of a man celebrating his existence in the world regardless of his suffering. Perhaps Nietzsche somehow knew that the mental illness which was eventually to incapacitate him was close on the horizon and that he had little time to set the record straight and leave a personal account of his life as he lived it. In Ecce Homo Nietzsche declared 'I am dynamite' and was aware that his work could be used by those who he opposed the most. He was right. Ultimately, Ecce Homo is Nietzsche's final self-portrait and a testament to the celebration of life against diversity.
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How One Becomes What One Is
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There seems to be a common belief among Nietzsche scholars that while 'ecco homo' has interest, this interest is largely limited to the study of a man slowly succumbing to his eventual fate of mental collapse. Thus the book's ironic, perhaps parodic, and psychological/philosophical elements are ignored, and regarded as less worthy of citation and analysis than Nietzcshe's notebook jottings that constitute his nachlass. I think this is a highly suspect position, and that 'ecco homo' contains interesting philosophical insights on, for example, Nietzcshe's health as causing his perspectivism, the importance of 'little things' on great thought, as well as incredible prophetic insights concerning the history of the twentieth century. In short, don't be put off by the chapter titles or those who consider the book merely as the record of incipient madness. This isn't to deny that Nietzsche wasn't at his intellectual peak - far from it. It is true that he was past his best, and that megalomaniac tendencies are clear throughout this strange work, but i maintain that it contains insights worthy of serious attention.
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