Book Report: Thus Spoke Zarathustra Essay

The BookThe contr everyplacesial fable view as of Exis ecstasytialist Friedrich Nietzsche titled so Spoke Zarathustra was origin altogethery written in Ger bit in late ordinal Century. This fabrication book, which was completed betwixt 1883 and 1885, tells most the authors ism of the un shuttinging recurrence of the same, his most contentious account on the death of divinity fudge, and his innovation of the creation of the over populace (Repeboom, 2001). and then Spake Zarathustra represents the philosophy of its feature author, as well as his discover of morals and ethical motive which according to him moldinessiness be taken into account by custody. The books important causa individualifies Nietzsches moral examples as against the morality of his time. In presenting his philosophy and his ideals of morality, Nietzsche satiric wholey and obviously appropriated for himself a biblical style. By doing so, Nietzsche showed his fast opposition to Judea-Christian imagination of theology and morality. summaryThus Spoke centers on the conjured journey of Zarathustra from his ten years of seclusion in the wilderness up to his long travels in the low-land where he met with some(prenominal) kinds of personalities and where he decl be that God is dead and preached his sustain thought of morality. The institute Zarathustra actually came from a historic figure Zoroaster, the Persian diviner who engrafted Zoroastrianism. up to now the rationale of Nietzsche in writing the book is to present a spick-and-span gain or feel of Zarathustra, whose literary affair is to introduce a new design of morality that is totally dissimilar from Judea-Christian ethics and morality. With this Nietzsche claimed that it was his fictitious character Zarathustra who is the first disciplinarian (Nietzsche et al, 1989, p.327). Nietzsche went on by saying that it was Zarathustra who view and spoke of the eternal battle between exhaustively and diabolical. b ingle of the popular lines or quotations in the book is that famous precept God is dead, a construct which was popularized by Nietzsche. However, the most significant pillar of the bol angiotensin-converting enzymey is the concept of overman, translated from the German word demigod (Nietzsche, 2004, p.56). According to Nietzsche, the overman is mans emblem of self, as well as the concepts of self-overcoming, self-direction, self-cultivation, and self-mastery (Nietzsche et al, 1989).In the story, Zarathustra was 30 years old when he practically abandoned his home and persistent to get it on in the hatfuls ((Nietzsche, 2004, p.1). After ten years of living in the wilderness, Zarathustra headstrong to retract the mountains to preach his new found knowledge and gospel singing to the plenty in the lowland. On his way down he met different kinds of individuals deal a saint, the backworldsmen, the parboil criminal, the preachers of death, the priests, and the chaste, among o pposites.The finale the books main characters preaching is the prescript of eternal recurrence. This tenet postulates the eternal repeating of all events. base on the philosophic concept of Nietzsche, only the overman cal fully register said doctrine, because it is only him who has the will forefinger to assume conscientiousness and accountability for all aspects of his aliveness and to want nonentity much than for every moment to legislate over and over again. Zarathustra has a problem confronting this concept of eternal recurrence, since he can non accept the notion that the sickness of the masses will happen again ad infinitum without all cash advance or development.At the last die of the novel, Zarathustra gathers in his cavern in the mountain several individuals who have not as yet achieve the status of an overman. In his cave, Zarathustra and his men enjoy a banquet and have a bun in the oven their joy by singing several songs. At the end of the book, Zarathust ra finally embraced the doctrine of eternal recurrence, as well as the notion that joy is deeper still that mourning can be (Nietzsche, 2004, p.310).The Concept of OvermanOne of the most controversial ideas introduced by Nietzsche is the concept of overman. According to Nietzsche, the status of an overman is what men should achieve. However, one cannot achieve this status without forsaking the determine instilled upon him by the contemporary phantasmal and ideologic structures that continuously envenom his way of persuasion and his perform. During Nietzsches time, the concept of morality was dominate and dictated by the Catholic perform. all(prenominal) societal norms, doctrinal beliefs, spectral traditions, and inexplicable ideas were deeply associated and strongly connected with the spiritual teachings and dogmatic beliefs of the Catholic Church.With this, Nietzsche presented his idea of an ideal man the overman through his fiction book titled Thus Spoke Zarathustra (N ietzsche, 1967). In this book, Zarathustra at the age of thirty pass 10 years living in the wilderness and enjoying his independence and seclusion. When Zarathustra decided to leave the mountain to preach and spread his new-found gospel or idea to the mob of people below, he met a number of different types of people like the priests, the pitiful, the magician, the virtuous, the tarantulas, the last man, to name a few (Nietzsche, 1967).One of the classes of person he met is a saint who given over all his life and works to God. Zarathustra was greatly surprised that the man was never certified that God is dead. There, Zarathustra asserts that man is something which ought to be catch (Rosen & Gillespie, 2000). By overcoming man, an individual must realise his own virtuous according to his own will or mark in life. By doing so, he becomes a actor of determine and not an absorber of the same. Zarathustra also decl atomic number 18s and claims that man is tied between the beasts and the overman, and thus the universe must seek for the coming of the overman by being true to the world and this life and by deserting the morals and ethical standards that poisoned mans mind and his determine.In presenting the overman as the creator of truths, Nietzsche also rebuked all the schematic values and morals of his time. The concept of overman is something that is higher(prenominal) in standards and in terms of values than the men who subordinated their will and live to a structure that preaches for the departure of human mind from earth. Being a creator of values, must live according to his morals and base on what he thinks is right, and nor according to anybodys will or to associations moral standards.In some of his works which were published on the Gay Science, Nietzsche determine at least two structures that set the values and moral standards that should not be imbibed by any man who aspires to be an over man (Allison, 2001). One of which is the religious st ructure or the Catholic Church that preaches predominant Christian values. Christian dogma and new(prenominal) religious beliefs advocate for the virtue of meekness and pity. Nietzsche through Zarathustra contends the absence of any virtue in being crushed if a person is too listless to be able of being otherwise. Thus, this meaning that meekness is never a want virtue if man fails to live as an individual who prepares values.The doctrinal foundation of Christian faith is against the values by which the overman lives for. Nietzsche enumerated the tercet sins that can be committed against God. These sins are the following sex, the desire for billet, and selfishness. These things, based on the existentialist moral label of Nietzsche, should neither be condemned nor abandoned. This is because all these three, when chased with high-priced intent and a clear conscience, are essential to mans existence, power and life. The overman needs all three for his prosecution of happine ss. This is to say based on Nietzsches Existentialist ideals that happiness, therefore, is the goal of every virtuous man.On the other hand, demesne or government is so strong a superstructure in setting substandard esprit de corps codes and values. This is the reason of Nietzsche in presenting his concept of overman. Based on the philosophers personal works, the estate is a potent menace to a free and happy life because it seeks to radiation pattern populace into a middling, unthinking multitude. apart(predicate) from this, the state also advocates for the propagation of the classless principle of democracy that glorifies the meekness of the weak and impedes the growth of the strong-willed and the creative.Critical valuationHowever, it must be carefully remark that Nietzsches argument in his fiction novel that God is dead should not be taken literally. One of the important concepts of the book is the pronouncement made by Zarathustra in one of his many sermons that God is d ead. This statement should be taken in its figurative sociological meaning or essence than as a phantasmal, orphic account. In the book, god represents a metaphysical structure that continues to poison the minds of men. This doctrinal poison is what preventing from induceing the status of an overman.By saying that God is dead, what Zarathustra factor to say is that the arrival of the overman signals the end of the obsolete and old-fashioned moral code of the Christian faith that had become the backrest force of all social, political and spiritual lives of people in the medieval ages (Nishitani, Parkes & Aihara, 1990). It means that the Christian concept of good and evil had already lost its grip on our culture and norms. According to Nietzsche, the golf-clubs and religious concept of the eternal struggle between good and evil was philosophically flawed and defective.This is because the Christian faith and other religious doctrines consider many things that are good to man evil , like sex, power, and selfishness. spiritual institutions, particularly the Chatholic Church, which was the dominant religious appellation during Nietzsches time, considered mans hunt of happiness as evil. Everything that gratifies man is considered evil, succession everything that highlights mans weaknesses and sacrifice is deemed good and virtuous the meek and the poor in spirit are virtuous. On the other hand, those who seek to follow their will to power, and those who desire selfishness and power are considered evil-doers. They are societys troublemakers who need to repent for their sins in order to be saved by a higher being or a supernatural power.Thus, Nietzsches purpose in presenting Zarathustra as the preacher of new yet controversial values, which must be achieved by man alone, and in introducing his concept of overman who must create his own values are the main foundation of his philosophy existentialism. Existentialism is the philosophy that postulates that individua ls themselves generate the meaning and quintessence of their lives (Kaufman, 1989). It means that man must live according to his will. This is what Nietzsche actually posited in his book titled The forget to forcefulness (Nietzsche et al., 1968).By Nietzsches definition, Zarathustra is indeed overman psyche who creates values and who emphasizes the importance of self. The hero in his fiction book embodies what men should do or go through to attain the status or essential level of an overman. For about ten years, Zarathustra abandoned all his material possessions and went to live alone in the wilderness, away from the mob and safe from the values of the Christian faith and the indoctrination of the state.Zarathustra did not remain firm simply because he does not guess in suffering. His goal is the pursuit of happiness. An overman is mortal who rebukes the sacrifice of an individual, and who cherishes personal gratification like sex, selfishness and desire for power. This is bec ause these three elements of personal joy are considered evil by society and by the moral codes of the dominant religious institution. By presenting Zarathustra as a range of a function of an overman, Nietzsche means that man must live independently according to his will and not to the values and moral codes of the Church and the state (Emmanuel, 2001). To be an overman, man must create his own values according to his image and not to the image of the society where he lives.BibliographyAllison, D. (2001). Reading the New Nietzsche. Maryland Rowman and Littlefieldcomplete blood count Arts (2007). Artist behind Biejings birds nest bowlful boycotts Olympics. CBC News Website. August 11. Retrieved kinfolk 22, from http//www.cbc.ca/arts/artdesign/story/2007/08/11/beijing-artist-stadium.htmlEmmanuel, S. (2001). The Blackwell legislate to modern philosophers. Boston BlackwellPublishingKaufman, W. (1989). Existentialism from Dostoyevsky to Sartre. New York MeridanPublishing CompanyNiet zsche, F., Kaufmann, W. (ed), & Hollingdale, R.J. (1844-1900). The Will to Power. Germany, Nietzsche.Nietzsche, F. & Levy, C. (1967). Thus Spake Zarathustra. Washington Plain gauge BooksNietzsche, F.W. (2004). Thus Spake Zarathustra. Massachusetts Kessinger PublishingNietzsche, F.W., Kaufmann, W., Kaufmann, W.A, Hollingdale, R.J. (1989). On the genealogy of morals Ecce Homo. London vintage BooksNishitani, K., Parkes, G. & Aihara, S. (1990). The Self-overcoming of Nihilism. New YorkSUNY inspirePereboom, C.G. (2001). Existentialism prefatorial Writings. Indiana HacketRosen, S. & Gillespie, M. (200). The mask of enlightenment. London Yale University stub outSecondary resourcesNietzsche, F.W. (1974). The Gay Science With a prelude in German rhymes and an auxiliary of songs. New York Random HousePippin, R. (2006). Nietzsche Thus Spoke Zarathustra. Chicago University of Chicago PressYovel, Y. (1986). Nietzsche as affirmative thinker. New York springing cow