“God is Dead, and We have Killed Him”
-Friedrich Nietzsche
This radically bold line appears in German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche’s 1882 philosophical narrative, the Gay Science. The quote is emblematic of shifting public values and criticizes the braizeness and arrogance of society, arguing that not even God is capable of quelling the human rampage. Nietzsche comments on the general erosion of religious beliefs and how the fragility of the Christian faith threatens the stability of European morality. Disgusted by the cruelties of industrial society, the Enlightenment thinkers injected reason and justifiable thought into a faith-based European world, catalyzing a shift towards secular thinking. The abandonment of traditional religious values undermined the foundation of European behavior and belief, since Christianity previously served as the basis for all Western systems, both material and abstract. The re-examination of personal values even jeopardized the stability of European politics since the political authority of leaders was thought to be invested by God. Naturally, this radical Enlightenment thought triggered a reorganization of European society, which placed an emphasis on individual liberties, secular rule, and popular sovereignty. Nietzsche’s single line summarized and predicted the transformation of the European world.
Nietzsche’s Life
Born 1884 in Saxony, Prussia, Friedrich Nietzsche was raised in a strict Lutheran household rooted in traditional Protestant values, where he was indoctrinated into the Christian faith at a young age. His faith, however, was tested when his father, a local Lutheran pastor, contracted a terminal brain disease. He died when Nietzsche was only five. Despite his father being a devout man of God, Nietzsche witnessed him suffer for years, prompting him to question the legitimacy of God and his institution. Nietzsche’s exposure to the irreconcilable and meaningless suffering of life, endured by devout, righteous people likely inspired his later work, forming the foundation of his future philosophy. In 1850, Nietsche enrolled in the private preparatory school, Domgymnasium, where he excelled academically and matured into a brilliant independent thinker. His academic excellence earned him a scholarship to Schulpforta, the most prestigious Protestant boarding school in Germany, which provided Nietzsche with a sound classical education. Upon graduating from Schulpforta, he was accepted into the University of Born, where he studied theology and philology, the study of linguistic structure and evolution. After completing his education, Nietsche was hired as a classical philology professor at Basel University in Switzerland in 1869, despite not receiving a German doctorate degree. In August of 1870, Neitsche received permission to volunteer as a medical assistant in the Franco-German War, where he contracted long term health complications that would prematurely end his teaching career, including dysentery and syphilis, as well as an STD Nietzsche contracted in a brothel.
Upon returning to Basel for his final semesters, Nietzsche published his first book in 1872, The Birth of Tragedy from the Spirit of Music, which discussed the origin, death, and rebirth of Greek Tragedy throughout history. This publication was Nietzsche's first speculative piece containing his own voice and opinion, liberated from the confines of classical scholarship and ecclesiastical interpretation. With his declining health, Nietzsche was forced to relinquish his teaching position in June of 1879. Following his retirement, Nietzsche entered a decade of isolation, during which he would question the intrinsic value of life, formulating the basis for the philosophy of existentialism. From 1879 to 1889, Nietsche lived in remote Alpine boarding homes, enduring excruciating pain, blindness, and bitter isolation. Despite his detachment from European society, Nietsche continued to publish his thoughts but received minimal recognition or reward for his work. In 1886, Nietsche wrote Beyond Good and Evil and published On the Genealogy of Morals the following year, both of which failed to secure mainstream readership. His mental faculties continued to deteriorate over the following years, finally shattering in January 1889, when he collapsed on the streets of Turin, Italy. Following his collapse, Nietzsche was admitted to a Swiss mental asylum in Basel, where he remained in complete mental darkness until his death in 1900. Medical diagnoses attributed Nietzsche’s mental decline to the erosion of cerebral blood vessels and the growth of a malignant tumor behind the right eye. Unable to enjoy the triumphant success of his work, Nietzsche lived a troubled and short life but still managed to produce some of the most profound philosophical works ever written, cementing his legacy as one of the most influential philosophers of the modern age.
The Philosophy of Friedrich Nietzsche:
In the mind of Nietzsche, the collapse of Western Christianity deprived European people of intrinsic purpose and forced them to question the inherent value of life, spiraling European society into a destructive pattern of pessimistic self-questioning and despair called nihilism. The absence of religion undermined European values and ethical standards, creating a lawless, bleak, and anarchical civilization. To cure this growing nihilistic outlook, Nietzsche urged people to recognize that there is no universal certainty or objectivity, writing that, “there are no facts, only interpretations.” Nietszsche denied the existence of foundational truth, asserting that any attempt to discover such truth is “woefully misguided” and prevents man from finding sound meaning in life. Notions of right and wrong or true and false are simply constructs of the human condition and impede the pursuit of personal value. The search for meaning beyond the present, in the form of religion or personal power, removes the inherently subjective, expressive, and independent nature from the human experience. Nietzsche formulated a philosophy which detached the individual from any societal or cultural mechanisms and systems that stifled creative expression. He believed one could not depend on the functionality of others to find meaning, rather they must focus on fulfilling their own expectation of personal greatness and harness their own inherent creative expression. Instead of allowing others to dictate personal standards and introduce their own perception of meaning, one must forge their own purpose in life, becoming an übermensch, or overman. The notion of an übermensch was first introduced in Nietzsche’s 1883 dissertation Thus Spoke Zarathustra, where an overman is described as a bold, independent individual who defies the collective and employs strategic selfishness, aggression, and vigorous fervor. Nietzsche’s work renounces the Christian values of vulnerability, modesty and humility, characteristics he viewed as contrary to the human experience, a condition defined by ambition, strength, and power. The overman embodies an idealized version of oneself who has overcome adversity and insecurity, thus serving as a goal that each individual should strive for but not necessarily achieve.
Nietzsche also proposed what he called the “Will of Power”, defined as a uniquely-human urge to manifest power and control. The power Nietzsche refers to is neither physical nor political, but power over oneself and their mind, achieved in the form of self-mastery. By striving to embody the overman, one enters a cycle of continuous growth in which they are constantly improving and refining their character. Nietzsche termed this process “self-overcoming”, by which one can finally find meaning in the face of inevitable suffering. Nietzsche contends that self-overcoming transforms life’s suffering into something personally fulfilling and redeeming, writing, “meaningless suffering, not suffering itself, was the curse that lay over man so far,” a line which conveys that in pursuit of our overman, we assign meaning to our suffering, thus overcoming it.
The philosophy of forging one’s own meaning in life is known as existentialism. Existentialism reframed the nihilistic way of thinking by framing the human situation as an opportunity for growth rather than a bleak hellscape. According to existential philosophy, since we are not tethered to a god or any other individual, we are the masters of our destiny and dictate our own value for living. And if we are not governed by a predetermined set of morals, then we are able to make completely independent decisions. The philosophy of existentialism continued to garner support throughout the 19th and 20th centuries, especially appealing to the post world war society. For many, the World Wars exposed the horrors of mankind and foretold a hellish and hopeless future. Existentialism acted as a cure to this hopeless and destructive mindset, resonating with millions around the world. The rise of existentialism during post-war society is reflected in the art, music and literature of the period, where artists like Alberto Giacometti and Francis Bacon explored the essence of life in their surrealist artwork.
Nietzsche pioneered the philosophy of existentialism, permanently altering the trajectory of modern thought, art, and literature.
- Hudson Honeybone
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