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Originally Posted by Tree Hugger
My reading of Nietzsche is pretty limited. I've read Beyond Good & Evil and bits and pieces of other books, particularly Thus Spake Zarathustra, but I've yet to read all of it.
Where should I start to really get a better grasp on his philosophy?
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IMO a minimum would be 'Beyond good and evil', 'The Genealogy of Morals', 'Also sprach Zarathustra' and 'Ecce Homo'. In that order.
If you like him, you'll end up reading everything anyway.
Which gives me the occasion to make a few comments on the personality of FN. It's often said that he is anti-Semitic. That is nonsense as reading his works wil show you. In fact FN is less critical of Jews than the average 19th century writer. Even against today's standards the argument isn't tenable as each critical remark about Jews can be countered by an appreciative one.
What is much more troublesome is that throughout his work he is very disrespectful of women. (e.g. Beyond good and evil; 232 ff). Except for an ornamental role they have little value to him. He dismisses them as 'degenerating'. Offcourse, a contemporary reader can extend his philosophy easily by including women in mankind and thus making up for FN's fault
I'm already having 2nd thoughts about my reading suggestion. "Twilight of the Idols" and "Human, all too human" are also crucial. In fact, all his works, except maybe for "The Birth of Tragedy" are extremely rich and condensed, reading all of them doesn't take that long. It's very unlikely though that from a single read you'll experience the full range of his ideas. After reading enough to reach the 'click' where one gets the primary ideas, one should reread the lot to really appreciate the quality.
Oh, and take extreme care to get a good translation. Walter Kaufmann would definitely be my suggestion.
2 cents an'all.