Tag Archives | Friedrich NIETZSCHE

THE DAWN OF DAY Thoughts on the Prejudices of Morality

THE DAWN OF DAY

Thoughts on the Prejudices of Morality

By Friedrich Nietzsche
Read by Michael Lunts
11 hours 29 minutes

Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900) is one of the towering intellectual figures of the nineteenth century, a philologist, philosopher and poet of profound complexity and range whose writings in moral philosophy continue to resonate in the present day. ‘The Dawn of Day’, (Morgenröte) first published in 1881 marked a clear shift in his thinking and prefigures many of the ideas that would be further developed in his later writings. Continue Reading →

TWILIGHT OF THE IDOLS TRUTH AND LIES IN THE NONMORAL SENSE

TWILIGHT OF THE IDOLS

TRUTH AND LIES IN THE NONMORAL SENSE

By Friedrich Nietzsche
Read by Michael Lunts
4 hours 22 minutes

Though ‘Twilight of the Idols’ (written in a week in 1888 and subtitled ‘How to Philosophize with a Hammer’) came near the end of Nietzsche’s creative life he actually recommended it as a starting point for the study of his work. This was because from the beginning he viewed it as an introduction to his wide-ranging views. After an opening chapter of aphorisms – ‘Maxims and Arrows’ – he takes a challenging look at ‘The Problem of Socrates’, continues to buck the trend with ‘Morality as Anti-Nature’, and ‘The Four Great Errors’ (starting with ‘The Error of Confusing Cause and Effect’). He makes a scathing attack on conventional morality in ‘The Improvers of Mankind’, and finishes with a critical look at his own nation in ‘What Germans Lack’. Continue Reading →

THE WILL TO POWER

By Friedrich Nietzsche
Read by Michael Lunts
23 hours 23 minutes

Nietzsche never recovered from his breakdown in 1889 and therefore was unable to further any plans he had for the ‘magnum opus’ he had once intended, bringing together in a coherent whole his mature philosophy. Continue Reading →

UNTIMELY CONSIDERATIONS

By Friedrich Nietzsche
Read by Michael Lunts
• 12 hours 57 minutes

Untimely Considerations contain four essays: David Strauss – Writer and Confessor; On the Use and Abuse of History for Life; Schopenhauer as Educator; and Richard Wagner at Bayreuth. Continue Reading →

THUS SPOKE ZARATHUSTRA

THUS SPOKE ZARATHUSTRA
A Book for All and None

By Friedrich Nietzsche
Read by Christopher Oxford
11 hours 56 minutes

Thus Spoke Zarathustra is one of the most extraordinary – and important – texts in Western philosophy. It was written by Friedrich Nietzsche between 1883 and 1885. He cast it in the form of a novel in the hope that his urgent message of the ‘death of God’ and the rise of the superman (übermensch) would have greater emotional as well as intellectual impact. Though tarnished somewhat by inappropriate adoption by the Nazi movement in the mid-20th century, Zarathustra remains an immensely important and influential work, particularly as it exhorts the individual to question standard conventions of society, in order to pursue a truly ethical and spiritual path. After ten years in solitude in the mountains, Zarathustra decides it is time to return to the world so that people could benefit from the fruits of his pondering: ‘ I would like to bestow and distribute, until the wise have once more become joyous in their folly, and the poor happy in their riches.’Thus Spoke Zarathustra is a challenging text, but once encountered, and absorbed, cannot be forgotten both for its content and style.Translation: Thomas Common – revised and updated

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“Best Narration of this book thus far!”

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

Yes, if you’ve ever wondered if the prose of this book could ever been properly and well delivered. Then this is it! Christopher Oxford gives maximum effort and does a magnificent job of really paying attention to the text and appears to fully appreciate and understand it. This culminates in a listening experience that is enjoyable and helps get across some of the nuances of the text. I don’t believe this has been as well as this before. If you want to hear this book with a different perspective on delivery – then look no further and get this version without hesitation!

– Audible Review

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THE ANTICHRIST ECCE HOMO

THE ANTICHRIST • ECCE HOMO

By Friedrich Nietzsche
Read by Christopher Oxford
8 hours 57 minutes

The Antichrist and Ecce Homo were two of the last works written by Friedrich Nietzsche just before his mental collapse in 1889. Though both written in 1888, they are very different in content and style. In The Antichrist, Nietzsche expands on his view that the submissive nature of Christianity undermined Western society, depressing and sapping energy. Using a challenging, aphoristic style, he considers ‘good’ and ‘bad’, Buddhism and Christianity, and criticises the concepts of ‘sin’, ‘faith’, and ‘pity’ as proposed in the Christian tradition declaring that they undermined a zest for life. Ecce Homo is effectively Nietzsche’s autobiography. Writing in his idiosyncratic, urgent manner, he focuses on carefully chosen topics as he reviews his life and work: among the chapter headings are: ‘Why I am so wise’ and ‘Why I am so clever’. But like so much of Nietzsche, the effect is not quite as bombastic as might be expected – it is a fascinating document. Translation: Anthony M. Ludovici Continue Reading →

THE GAY SCIENCE

THE GAY SCIENCE (The Joyful Wisdom)

By Friedrich Nietzsche
Read by Michael Lunts
10 hours 55 minutes

The Gay Science (The Joyful Wisdom) is one of Nietzsche’s greatest books. His wonderfully fertile mind roams over mankind, his thoughts, his emotions, his behaviour and his weaknesses with remarkable clarity, with insight – but also with humour! In this work are 383 separate paragraphs, some short, some long, but all singular observations – the epitome of his famous aphoristic style. ‘Morality is the herd instinct in the individual.’ Continue Reading →

HUMAN ALL TOO HUMAN • MISCELLANEOUS MAXIMS AND OPINIONS • THE WANDERER AND HIS SHADOW

HUMAN ALL TO HUMAN • MISCELLANEOUS MAXIMS AND OPINIONS • THE WANDERER AND HIS SHADOW

By Friedrich Nietzsche
Read by Michael Lunts
15 hours 26 minutes

It was with Human, All Too Human, first published in 1878, that Nietzsche developed the aphoristic style that so suited his challenging views and uncompromising style. The text is divided into three main sections: Of the First and Last Things; History of the Moral Feelings and The Religious Life. But the style remains the same: he declares the subjects – Dream and Civilisation; Private Ethics and World Ethics; Gratitude and Revenge; Well-Wishing; Vanity – and then discusses them in a few sentences, or sometimes in a longer passage. This style enables him to cover an extraordinarily wide range of topics as his fertile and lively mind wandered over man in his element. This audiobook also contains the two parts of Volume II: Miscellaneous Maxims and The Wanderer and His Shadow. These two collections are less well known, – unjustly so as they are packed with Nietzsche’s wonderfully uncompromising views and observation on a lucky dip of topics including Debauchery, Bach, Danger in Admiration, Deception in Love, Dishonest Praise. Here is an example: ‘End and Goal. Not every end is the goal. The end of a melody is not its goal, and yet if a melody has not reached its end, it has also not reached its goal. A parable.’ All in all, this 11-hour collection in an appropriately conversational reading by Michael Lunts, is a fascinating, at times infuriating, yet always entertaining discovery.Translation: Alexander Harvey Continue Reading →