Friedrich Nietzsche: First Impressions
Throughout the course of my three year academic journey, the life and works of Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche have been a continuous subject of study and interpretation. His influence goes beyond just philosophy, reaching the limits of mainstream popular culture much in the same lines of fascination and admiration of historical figures such as Albert Einstein, Leonardo da Vinci, Vincent Van Goth, and John Cleese. Films and television programs like The Sopranos, Seinfeld, Parasite, and The Lighthouse among others owe much of their themes and explorations to the works of the 19th Century German philologist-turned-philosopher.
If we expand further, we may discover he may very well be the catalyst for what would ultimately become the nihilistic outlook the modern world has come to view reality. From this perspective, it is quite apt to say Nietzsche developed the foundation of what would later become postmodernism and deconstructionism.
However, it is rather unwise to categorize Nietzsche as just the precursor of these moments. His body of work demonstrates he was intensely interested in touching upon all that can be encompassed as art. This central theme found in most of his work can be used to distinguish it from the works of other philosophers. Some have used this distinction to assert how this in turn makes him a mere theorist undeserving of the title of…
