Introduction: Why I Am So Wise by Friedrich Nietzsche
Why I Am So Wise (Penguin Great Ideas)
Written in 1888, and published a decade later, Why I Am So Wise by Friedrich Nietzsche, is his autobiography, which was his final book. He wrote his autobiography so that he would not be taken the wrong way. Gerta Valentine who translated Why I Am So Wise writes,
“Nietzsche saw himself as a missionary and a prophet; he did not write for personal gain or fame. He wanted to confront the world with the truth – his truth: ‘I am no man, I am dynamite,’ he exclaimed. In Why I Am So Wise he looks back on his literary output and tells why he wrote these books, where they came from, and whether his position had changed at all over the course of the years: overall his answer is ‘No’.”
Why I Am So Wise by Friedrich Nietzsche is a small book in size and only 128 pages in length. Friedrich Nietzsche spends nearly 60 pages, close to half of the book dedicated to the books he had written. At the time of writing his autobiography, he hadn’t had critical acclaim for his work and set about to change that.
Content: Why I Am So Wise by Friedrich Nietzsche
It takes a bold person to title his book Why I Am So Wise, and it takes an even bolder person to name his chapters in the same vein. The book has four chapters in addition to an introduction, Translator’s notes and a preface. The four chapter headings:
Chapter 1. Why I am so wise
Chapter 2. Why I am so clever
Chapter 3. Why I am such excellent books
Chapter 4. Why I am destiny
Friedrich Nietzsche suffered from a crippling illness all his adult life, which forced him to retire at the young age of 35. He did not allow his illness to shut him down, and in fact, he believed that it set him free and allowed him to return to his “self.” This forced retirement gave him the time he needed to think and write. Shortly are completing Why I Am So Wise, Nietzsche had a complete mental collapse which he never recovered from – he died in 1900.
I do not know what to make of Why I Am So Wise by Friedrich Nietzsche. Sometimes I found myself laughing while reading the book, and at other times I experienced consternation. I was shocked by his brutal honesty because these days we are socialized to act a certain way, and we often try to cushion what we have to say so that we do not offend others.
A German philosopher of the late 19th century, Friedrich Nietzsche was born on October 15, 1844 in a small German village in Prussian Saxony. He was born to a family from a Protestant background. Nietzsche’s father, Carl Ludwig Nietzsche died when his first son was only five years old so he was brought up being surrounded by females, “his mother Franziska, his younger sister Elisabeth, his maternal grandmother and two maiden aunts.”
In my opinion, Nietzsche often had some very unflattering views of women. “Woman is inexpressibly more wicked than man, but also cleverer….The struggle for equal rights is actually a symptom of disease, every doctor knows it.” It also appears that there was disharmony between Nietzsche and his mother and sister. For instance, Nietzsche writes, “If I search for the most shocking contrast to myself, the unfathomable pettiness of the instincts, I always find my mother and sister – to believe myself kindred to such bitches would be blaspheming my divinity. The treatment that I have received from my mother and sister fills me with unutterable horror to this very day; there is a totally hellish machine at work here, operating with infallible certainty at the precise moment when I am most vulnerable – at my loftiest moment.”
Friedrich Nietzsche is also a very misunderstood persons, thanks to his sister Elisabeth. After his death, his sister, an anti-semitic, edited his work without permission and twisted the meaning of what he originally wrote. Hitler used this edited work to support his cause, so many believe that Nietzsche was an anti-semite, though he despised anti-semitism.
It is worthy to note that when Nietzsche grew up, he challenged Christianity and traditional morality which is apparent throughout his autobiography, and he saw himself as a prophet. He became an atheist and believed that religion thrived on people’s weaknesses. In addition to being a philosopher, Nietzsche was also a poet, composer and classical philologist.
In Why I Am So Wise by Friedrich Nietzsche, to me, he often sounded like an unbalanced person. However, there were a few things that I found interesting. He wrote about war tactics, but he used it as a metaphor. See what I mean below.
Friedrich Nietzsche’s Four War Tactics
- Engage in causes that are winnable. To me this means to pick your battles.
- Engage in causes where he stands alone, where he can only compromise himself – that is his criterion for doing right. I interpret that as being not to get into situations where others cause you to compromise your values.
- Never attack people. A person may do something wrong, so focus on the action and not the person.
- Attack things from which all personal differences are excluded, where any background of bad experience is lacking. This appears to more of an extension of the tactic above, and also means to remove the emotions before you respond in a “charged” situation.
Nietzsche devotes several pages where he discusses the following four choices in life. Some of what he says about nutrition makes no sense to me. “No snacking in between [meals], no coffee, coffee is depressing…Tea is only good in the morning, in small quantities but strong.”
Why I Am So Wise by Friedrich Nietzsche: Important Choices in Life
- To attain maximum power, what you eat matters. Nietzsche had a poor diet until he figured this out. He warns against lengthy meals and snacking in between meals.
- Location and climate matter. Nietzsche believed that Genius depended on dry air, on clear skies.
- Recreation is important: For him, reading was a big part of his recreation because, “it allows me to escape from myself, that lets me stroll through alien sciences and souls.”
- Instinct for self-preservation. You are not here by chance but out of necessity so you develop an instinct for self-defence.
Why I Am So Wise by Friedrich Nietzsche: 5 Great Ideas & Quotables
- Life became easiest for me whenever it demanded the most from me.
- I do not wish to be taken for someone else – and I too must not take myself for someone else.
- Every accomplishment, every step forward in knowledge is a consequence of courage.
- It was during those years when my life-force was at its lowest ebb that I ceased being a pessimist: the instinct of self-recovery forbade me to adopt a philosophy of poverty and discouragement.
- It is not doubt, but certainty that drives you mad.
Throughout Why I Am So Wise, Nietzsche writes about Zarathustra, which is his alter ego. Thus Spake Zarathustra was his most popular book, which he considered to be his masterpiece. In Why I Am So Wise, he was saying some of the same things. One of the most explosive things that Nietzsche says which ignited a lot of discussion is God Is Dead! Brian Johnson in his commentary on Thus Spake Zarathustra
wrote, “Nietzsche’s philosophy paints the portrait of his ideal man, the ‘Uberman’ or ‘Overman’: an individual who, through self-discipline and his ‘will to power’ has overcome his social conditioning and is, in Nietzsche’s words, ‘beyond good and evil’ and no longer needs God (or anyone else for that matter) to tell him what is moral. Hence, the Overman lives. God is dead.”
Conclusion: Why I Am So Wise by Friedrich Nietzsche
I am a book lover, and I am often changed by the books I read because I learn so much. There were a few interesting things in Why I Am So Wise by Friedrich Nietzsche, however, with the time I invested in reading it, it doesn’t quite balance out for me. While reading Nietzsche’s autobiography, I often found the experience quite grating. Despite that, I think it’s important for us to read a variety of books to get a more rounded view on life, and we can discard the pieces that do not work for us. I am learning to appreciate even the books that I do not enjoy.
Why I Am So Wise (Penguin Great Ideas)Beyond Good and EvilThus Spoke Zarathustra: A Book for Everyone and No One (Penguin Classics)The Genealogy of Morals (Dover Thrift Editions)Human, All Too HumanThe Antichrist by Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche Unabridged 1888 Original VersionThe Portable Nietzsche (Portable Library)The Anti-ChristBasic Writings of Nietzsche (Modern Library Classics)
