[Joshua]

Hi all,

So I've always had an interest in Nietzsche and his ideas. I picked up an Audiobook that I enjoyed about his life. Now I'd like to read some of his books, but haven't a clue as to where to start. I'd like to get something geared towards his criticism of Christianity, but it really doesn't matter I guess.

But Googling his books is like Googling anti-spyware programs, good luck sorting through all the hits.

So I was hoping one of you guys here who are familiar with Nietzsche could give me some recommendations on a good starter book.

Thanks.

[jdcfsu]

As a part of my religion minor I took a religious critisizm class and, IIRC, this is the Nietzsche book that we read: On the Genealogy of Morals. Might be what you're looking for.

[Dorian Gray]

He's an incoherent, ranting kook! Let me tempt you with an altogether more sensible proposition: Kant's categorical imperative. Read all about it in Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals.



(This post courtesy of Kant's influence. )

[herodian]

my friend owns a band merch company and he sells Neitzsche inspired t-shirts (well, 1 at the moment).

http://cvltvs.com/merchandise/fwn-ubermensch/

[InactionMan]

I had to read my fair share of Nietzsche in school. I don't miss reading his stuff. I don't miss Kant either.

If you really feel the need to read Nietzsche start with Ecce Homo. At least it was kind of funny.

[Xaqtly]

I can't recommend any reading, but I felt that I had to include this.

-----

Immanuel Kant was a real pissant
Who was very rarely stable.

Heidegger, Heidegger was a boozy beggar
Who could think you under the table.

David Hume could out-consume
Schopenhauer and Hegel,

And Wittgenstein was a beery swine
Who was just as schloshed as Schlegel.

There's nothing Nietzsche couldn't teach ya
'Bout the raising of the wrist.
Socrates, himself, was permanently pissed.

John Stuart Mill, of his own free will,
On half a pint of shandy was particularly ill.

Plato, they say, could stick it away--
Half a crate of whisky every day.

Aristotle, Aristotle was a bugger for the bottle.
Hobbes was fond of his dram,

And René Descartes was a drunken fart.
'I drink, therefore I am.'

Yes, Socrates, himself, is particularly missed,
A lovely little thinker,
But a bugger when he's pissed.

[Dorian Gray]

Kant's moral philosophy is amazing: very logical and theoretically defensible, yet simultaneously eminently practicable. This combination had a fatal appeal to me, and my objection to Nietzsche is largely shaped by his rabid ranting against Kant.

[Marcellus Wallace]

I do respect Nietzsche for attacking not only the ideas of others, but also his own. Philosophy is a form of art; a game with words. Kant also liked to play chess.

I think it might be nice to also read some works of Richard Rorty while reading Nietzsche; they mix like Bacardi and cola.

I quite enjoyed 'Nietzsche contra Wagner'.

[Matsu]

It's a phase, you'll get over it.

[Franz Josef]

Jeez, a Nietzsche thread, who would have thought!

For what it's worth, I spent my undergraduate years reading the lit of the period and as well as being the ultra-smart-misogynist-naysayer who caught the mood of the age, I think Nietszche was a great (and sensitive) poet. I'd really recommend starting with "Thus Spoke Zarathustra - it also has the benefit of being short and easy to read

If you're keen to pursue it, there's a really rich vein which runs through Kierkegaard, Nietzsche to the likes of Sartre etc on why, in Europe at least, people started to question the value of religion.