Why I Am So Wise
One of the most iconoclastic thinkers of all time, Friedrich Nietzsche continues to
challenge the boundaries of conventional religion and morality with his subversive
theories of the superman, the individual will, the death of God and the triumph of an
all-powerful human life force.
Throughout history, some books have changed the world. They have transformed the way we
see ourselves - and each other. They have inspired debate, dissent, war and revolution.
They have enlightened, outraged, provoked and comforted. They have enriched lives - and
destroyed them. Now Penguin brings you the works of the great thinkers, pioneers, radicals
and visionaries whose ideas shook civilization, and helped make us who we are.
The philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche was born in Prussia in 1844. After
the death of his father, a Lutheran minister, Nietzsche was raised from the age of five by
his mother in a household of women. In 1869 he was appointed Professor of Classical
Philology at the University of Basel, where he taught until 1879 when poor health forced
him to retire. He never recovered from a nervous breakdown in 1889 and died eleven years
later.
Known for saying that 'god is dead,' Nietzsche propounded his metaphysical construct of
the superiority of the disciplined individual (superman) living in the present over
traditional values derived from Christianity and its emphasis on heavenly rewards. His
ideas were appropriated by the Fascists, who turned his theories into social realities
that he had never intended.
90 pages, Paperback