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Nietzsche Reloaded

Nietzsche, Our Contemporary

Eric Walther introduces the infamous iconoclast.

Friedrich Nietzsche, who was born in 1844, fell silent in 1889, and died eleven years later, was the first great philosopher of the twentieth century. What made, and makes, him so important, is that he recognized with great clarity and impressive foresight the most troubling and persistent problem of modernity, the problem of values. His attempts to resolve this problem were not successful, but they did uncover depths of issues that still defeat our best efforts today.

Let’s begin with his notorious declaration that “God is dead” (first in The Gay Science, 1872).

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