1: How the True World Finally Became a Fable

In the second part of this series, we'll examine how it is that Goethe came to his conception of the Daemonic, involved as it is with Spinoza's pantheism. Goethe's introduction to Spinoza was largely through Herder, and his friendship with Herder he described as one of the most i ...  Show more

Part one of three. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe often spoke of a dangerous but invigorating life-force that he christened "the daemonic". In his conversations with Eckermann, and in his autobiography Dichtung und Wahrheit, he describes the daemonic by direct reference to Spinoza, a ...  Show more

Twilight of the Idols or How to Philosophise with a Hammer is one of Nietzsche’s last books, written in 1888.   

As Nietzsche was starting to become recognised, he felt that he needed a short text that would serve as an introduction to his thought.   In a letter, he wro ...

Thus Spoke Zarathustra: A Book For All and None was Nietzsche’s favourite of his creations. It is indeed one of the most fascinating and creative pieces of work in western philosophy.   

It presents the journey of Persian prophet Zarathustra, who spends his time in soli ...

Human, All Too Human: A Book for Free Spirits was published by Friedrich Nietzsche in 1878 and represents a “monument of a crisis” for Nietzsche, a critical turning point in his life and thought.

The book marks the beginning of a second period in Nietzsche’s philosophy, ...

This episode summarises Nietzsche’s On the Genealogy of Morals in 10 minutes. It is among Nietzsche’s most sustained and cohesive works consisting of three essays: “Good and Evil, Good and Bad”, “Guilt, Bad Conscience and the Like” and “What is the Meaning of Ascetic Ideals?”< ...