Friedrich NietzscheTransaction Publishers, 1. jaan 1993 - 304 pages The decisive influence of Friedrich Nietzsche on H.L. Mencken is readily acknowledged in the vast literature on the great American journalist and social critic. However, Mencken's 1908 study of the philosopher has been relegated to footnote status by Mencken's critics and biographers and has been largely ignored by Nietzsche scholars. There are good reasons for reversing this judgment. Mencken's work was one of the first comprehensive and sympathetic treatments of Nietzsche's thought in the English language. It is a provocative engagement with the German philosopher's complex and elusive ideas, enhanced by a style that reverberates with a verve and dynamism approaching Nietzsche's own. Mencken presents a view of Nietzsche that elucidates the latter's complex and contentious form of the "gospel of individualism" while evincing a keen appreciation of his unrivalled capacity for critical analysis. The historical scope of Nietzsche's thought is fully evident in Mencken's analysis as is its application to modern societies and politics. In tracing the biographical and intellectual impetus for Nietzsche's relentless attacks on conventional moralities and established modes of thought, Mencken discerned both an ideal and a method for grappling with social and cultural issues that remain salient in our own time. |
From inside the book
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... Nietzsche himself , the specificities of Mencken's use of Nietzschian ideas in criticizing America may well help them better to appreciate the depth and force of Nietzsche's ... saw more closely personal as well as more specifically ...
... see authority as something ever finite , variable and all - too - human ... he will fly precipitately toward the intellectual wailing places , to think his own thoughts in his own way and to worship his own gods beneath the open sky ...
... saw it , Nietzsche did the same . And Mencken's intense admiration for Nietzsche was due in no small part to his judgment that the abiding and even controlling element in the latter's work was a commitment that Mencken himself prized ...
... saw it the complex ideal for which Nietzsche stood was provided by the " best days " of Greek culture , the days " when Apollo and Dionysus were properly balanced , one against the other " ( 71 ) . It is arguable that in Mencken's view ...
... Nietzsche's gospel of individ- ualism was in important part a product of the ... Nietzsche is no mere critic and cer- tainly not a passive nihilist . If the ... see 33 ) , Nietzsche trans- formed Schopenhauer's will in itself into the ...
Contents
I | 3 |
II | 74 |
III | 88 |
IV | 100 |
ETERNAL RECURRENCE | 117 |
VI | 126 |
VII | 147 |
VIII | 162 |
X | 192 |
XI | 208 |
XII | 216 |
XIII | 226 |
XIV | 242 |
NIETZSCHE AND HIS CRITICS | 268 |