The Routledge Guidebook to Nietzsche's Thus Spoke Zarathustra is an engaging introduction to this rich and provocative philosophical text. Nietzsche is arguably one of the most influential and yet least understood philosophers of the nineteenth century. The same can be said of his self-proclaimed magnum opus, Thus Spoke Zarathustra. The work has influenced everything from poetry, literature, and music to philosophy, psychoanalysis, and soldiers on the battlefields of World War I. Its contents, however, are still far from being understood. On the one hand, the principal aims and even the genre of Zarathustra remain unclear. On the other hand, the work expresses, in poetic fashion, some of Nietzsche's most important, controversial, and enigmatic doctrines: the UEebermensch, the eternal recurrence of the same, and the will to power.

The Routledge Guidebook to Nietzsche's Thus Spoke Zarathustra is essential reading for students of nineteenth-century philosophy, German philosophy, and intellectual history and suitable for anyone studying Nietzsche's most famous text for the first time.

About the Author

Matthew Meyer is a Professor of Philosophy at The University of Scranton, USA. He is the author of Reading Nietzsche Through the Ancients: An Analysis of Becoming, Perspectivism, and the Principle of Non-Contradiction (2014) and Nietzsche's Free-Spirit Works: A Dialectical Reading (2019). With Paul Loeb, he is the co-editor of Nietzsche's Metaphilosophy: The Nature, Method and Aims of Philosophy (2019).

Reviews

"Thus Spoke Zarathustra is fascinating and beautiful, but difficult to understand. Matthew Meyer appreciates both the scientific and aesthetic dimensions of Nietzsche's philosophy, and provides a clear and helpful interpretation. He makes a convincing argument that Nietzsche structured Zarathustra like a three-act Greek tragedy followed by a satyr play. Meyer's interpretive insights will advance scholarly understanding of Zarathustra, and his accessible presentation will help ordinary readers better understand Nietzsche's masterpiece." - Neil Sinhababu, National University of Singapore

"Thus Spoke Zarathustra is fascinating and beautiful, but difficult to understand. Matthew Meyer appreciates both the scientific and aesthetic dimensions of Nietzsche's philosophy, and provides a clear and helpful interpretation. He makes a convincing argument that Nietzsche structured Zarathustra like a three-act Greek tragedy followed by a satyr play. Meyer's interpretive insights will advance scholarly understanding of Zarathustra, and his accessible presentation will help ordinary readers better understand Nietzsche's masterpiece." - Neil Sinhababu, National University of Singapore

Book Information
ISBN 9780415791076
Author Matthew Meyer
Format Paperback
Page Count 352
Imprint Routledge
Publisher Taylor & Francis Ltd