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Summary: A can't miss for anybody remotely interested in Nietzsche.
Review: "GOD IS DEAD" These words are perhaphs the most famous and most misunderstood words uttered by any modern philosopher. Friedrich Nietzsche is one of the most overlooked and underestimated philosophers in recent memory. He embodies the great ideas of Kierkegaard and Schopenhauer who proceeded him in the founding of the school of existentialism. The difference between them and Nietzsche? Nietzsche can write, his prose and poetry are beautifully written and an excellent alternative to the drab and dull writings of other philosophers of his era. He expresses his ideas with power and emotion that is unmatched in philosophical writings. The Portable Nietzsche is a comprensive collection of not only his writings but also facts about his life. The general understanding of his background and his life that is provided in this book sheds much needed light on his strange take of his modern day world. This volume of Nietzsche gives the reader the overall esence of his thoughts which are not not given with other versions of his text. This is can't lose book for anybody who has any interest in the life and writings of Friedrich Nietzsche. If you read this book, your perception of the world and your understanding of people who inhabit it will if nothing else be expanded and introduced to a new way of thinking.
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Summary: An excellent introduction to Nietzsche
Review: "The Portable Nietzsche" contains four complete works, including Nietzsche's most famous - Thus Spoke Zarathustra - along with excerpts from his other books and writings, painting a detailed portrait of the life of this intriguing genius. The translation is wonderful, as the fury and passion that makes Nietzsche's philosophy so popular bursts through in Kaufmann's words.Obviously, this work is a challenge to understand, and even after several readings one will still be finding new insights hidden within Nietzsche's words. The works contained within this book are decidely anti-Christian, so be forewarned. Overall, this is a great introduction to Nietzsche, contained in a compact and reasonably-priced single volume.
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Summary: Yup, it's a classic
Review: "The Portable Nietzsche" is, along with "The Portable Blake," indispensible. Four major books (true, read "Zarathustra" last) and choice bits from everything else Nietzsche wrote. Kaufmann is Nietzsche's best translator. I like everything about this book; the typeface, the layout, everything. Essential.
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Summary: Great
Review: A great translation of a great man. I would definitly recommend this book for someone getting into Nietzsche. It has his great works (The Antichrist being my favorite), as well as excerpts from other's. Best if followed by Kaufmann's Nietzsche - Philosopher, Psychologist, Antichrist.
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Summary: Great
Review: A great translation of a great man. I would definitly recommend this book for someone getting into Nietzsche. It has his great works (The Antichrist being my favorite), as well as excerpts from other's. Best if followed by Kaufmann's Nietzsche - Philosopher, Psychologist, Antichrist.
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Summary: Thought provoking.
Review: After attempting a few summaries of what philosophy is all about, it is great to be able to be able to come back to a book like this and see how so many people got started in this puzzling field. Nietzsche wrote so much, and other philosophers have done everything that they could to be competitive with whatever thoughts they have considered insipid, that this summary is always relevant for those who understand that "Whoever thinks much is not suitable as a party member: he soon thinks himself right through the party." (p. 63). Most Americans are sure to think that it should read "thinks too much," but they have been easy prey for all those who expect them to be insipidly faithful to the expectation, also expressed by Nietzsche in the form of the commandment, "Thou shalt not think." From a paragraph on page 532 called "The Right To Stupidity" to the end of this book, Nietzsche increasingly attacks what he considers "pure foolishness." Walter Kaufmann, the translater of the selections included in this volume, might prefer to be remembered as a philosopher who questioned guilt more than anything else. Among the selections here: "The bite of conscience, like the bite of a dog into a stone, is a stupidity." (p. 68). There is also something on pages 96-7 about the guilt of witches, which we now see as fictitious, and Nietzsche wanted all guilt to be considered equally false. "It is thus with all guilt." This book does not have an index. Anyone who is serious about philosophy deserves to have some book which lists items that are considered important alphabetically in the back of the book so that what has been read does not disappear forever, but can be located and reread when it might be useful. Early readers of this book might have thought that Nietzsche's philosophy was mainly THUS SPOKE ZARATHUSTRA, with a before and after. Actually, a lot of Nietzsche's works could be studied for major significance in great detail beyond what is included in this book, and Zarathustra might be considered an alter ego which speaks for an individual good spirit that has to laugh to maintain whatever sense it wishes most strongly. A short section of THE GAY SCIENCE called "Kant's Joke" is included on page 96, just above the section on "Guilt," and "the secret joke of his soul" might be how right he was, or even how right Nietzsche was going to be. In this book, that is only seven pages before Walter Kaufmann's preface to THUS SPOKE ZARATHUSTRA, which calls Nietzsche "shy, about five-foot-eight, but a little stooped, almost blind," and "an utterly lonely man." (p. 103). A lot in this book is too true.
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Summary: The genius that is Friedrich Nietzsche
Review: Before I read the book, I considered Friedrich Nietzsche to be one of the greatest philosophers of the nineteenth century. The book reaffirmed this view. The Portable Nietzsche, which contains the following works, Thus Spoke Zarathustra, The Twilight of the Idols, The Antichrist, and Nietzsche Contra Wagner; displays the genius that is Friedrich Nietzsche. Nietzsche shows his uncanny ability to see past the surface and to reveal the truth, no matter how abhorrent it is. One should also be aware of the Nietzschean philosophy, it does not ask how man can be moral, it asks what are morals. It does not ask how man can improve himself, it asks how man can be conquered. That is the beauty and uniqueness of Nietzsche, it is not a philosophical rehash, but a brand new philosophy. I recommend this book to those who consider themselves intellectuals, for this group is the only one that could understand and grow from the works of Nietzsche. I am fortunate that I know the truths that Nietzsche annunciated, and wish for the world to discover them as well. That is why I gave the book five stars.
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Summary: Quite comprehensive of Nietzsche's thought.
Review: By containing some of his work on aesthetics,and a good deal of his attack on standard morals, this book more than anything you could possible carry around with you portrays the essense of the greatest mind in German philosophy; he is the man who puts the "exist" in existentialism.Thus Spoke Zarathustra, where he cries the motto, "God is dead!", is the most powerful work I have ever read.Also good to carry around and look "tres" intellectual. That's what I plan on doing this fall in Europe..
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Summary: Superb
Review: Excellent ... containing one of the greatest books of all time: Thus Spoke Zarathustra. The Portbale Nietzsche contains an excellent overviw of his work with three can't miss books. But do NOT read Thus Spoke Zarathustra first. It is way to complex and symbolic to serve as an introduction.
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Summary: The Place to Start
Review: Far from being difficult to read (to understand is another matter), Nietzsche is simply fun! His aphorisms sparkle and, as Kaufmann points out in the introduction, his writings are so pregnant with ideas that one wants to return to them again and again. This particular collection is an excellent introduction to Nieztsche, yet substantial in that it contains four complete works. Kaufmann's introduction is very useful, and his editorial commentary serves to orient the reader without being intrusive.
Nietztsche challenges the reader to keep up with him as his ideas crackle like lightning from peak to peak (to steal an image from Zarathustra). The enemy, says Nietzsche, is the spirit of gravitas. If you want a companion who will amuse, challenge, and thrill you, start with the Protable Nietzsche.
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