Welcome to the PhilosophyForum.com Niemand! While you may have a hammer and sickle, you'll find the members on this forum actually communicating and gaining insight on the various fields of philosophy.

Your post actually led me to read a little about Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche and a rather interesting character indeed. After reading this it seems that Nietzsche was overly critical of everyone else but himself. With this, it seems as though he suffered severely and his life ended accordingly.

Although everyone has their own perception of life, this one seems rather destructive. I too am critical of many of the same stuff as Nietzsche but have found that my being a critic of others is an addiction within myself... besides, it's never produced any positive results, at least not for myself or my family.

To each their own though. I respect the fact that you have come in here to introduce yourself and sincerely hope that you are able to identify with some of the positive things that this forum and community offers. There's much to read and we should certainly open a discussion on Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche.

We look forward to your participation in the discussions!

And what exactly is that supposed to mean?


Nietzsche was indeed very critical of others, but he did in fact practise what he preached, despite what Wikipedia may say. Of course, he certainly was a hypocrite, but his philosophy was a very complex one and anyone would fail if they were to try to follow it to a 't' as he did. For instance, in Human, All Too Human he said that Free Spirits would prefer to fly alone instead of marry or date. Nietzsche himself actually proposed to several women in his lifetime, but never claimed to be anything other than a hypocrite.

More or less, Nietzsche went mad due to his incredible genius, although I'm sure his somewhat neglectful attitude towards people played a part too.


Well, I'm a bit different from Nietzsche. I obviously view economic issues differently than he and also the whole deal about war. However, I do make a point to be as critical of myself as I am of other people so as to be fair and avoid my ego inflating more than it already has. I think that's one of the only ways one can utilise Nietzschean criticism is by turning such an observant eye onto oneself every now and then.

Means peace brother.

I thought you were trying to make some reference to Stalinism, which I'm vehemently opposed to, which is obvious due to my Trotskyist past.

Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche sounds as if he is one of the most cynical figures in history! Although he really didn't contribute anything in the direction of resolving social issues, he surely did point out many of the problems existing within it. Please don't think for a moment that this world is hopeless, because there also exists within society moral attributes that could be applied universally. Although there are many horrible realities within society, there is nothing that is better than multi-national assistance in a natural disaster like hurricane Katrina. There are priceless values that exist within the hearts of any decent human being. Suffering is a result of pessimistic ideologies and self-righteous infallible religions. I believe if we tear down these stumbling blocks then the good attributes of human nature will shine through and prevail. I hope that this forum will maybe give you some hope and better intentions. The general purpose of philosophy is to induce enlightened thinking. I welcome you to the philosophy forum, and hope you enjoy the many prestigious threads and topics you can find here!

I've read a lot of Nietzsche. To single him out as critical of others is not a particularly useful way of looking at him -- he was more abrasive and comical in his criticisms, but keep in mind that Plato ridiculed most of pre-Socratic philosophy in his works, and Aristotle was highly critical of Plato. This is nothing new.

Nietzsche's best writing, in my opinion, is in Genealogy of Morals, which shows how so many of our values are simply culturally inherited -- but not necessarily grounded in anything other than this inheritance.

I do have a question about calling one's self a "Trotskyist" or linking one's self (for that matter) with any other historical political movement. Trotsky has been dead for a good 3/4 of a century, and he was central to a political movement that arose from the collapse of Tsarist Russia, the needless slaughter in WWI and worse slaughter in the Russian Civil War, and an idealogy put forth my Marx in the 19th century that has proven not quite so "inevitable" as Marx (and Lenin) thought. We're now in a different context, a different time, and with a lot of experiments in Marxism to reflect upon. So are you really a Trotskyist, or would it be more accurate to say that you're something else but with influences by Trotsky?

It's kind of like how the Republicans call themselves the "Party of Lincoln". Yes, that's true -- in 1860 the Republicans were liberal and generally abolitionist, and the Democrats were southern aristocratic slaveholders. But a lot changes in different contexts and different times...