Friedrich Nietzche

EP #6 | Nietzsche’s Sister and The Will to Power

The story of the The Will to Power has the makings of a dramatic documentary film. It has a tormented genius, Friedrich Nietzsche, already recognized as one of the great minds of his generation, but forced to retire early for health problems. Living an itinerant life wandering Europe on a meager pension, he nonetheless working vigorously on his iconoclastic philosophy, to culminate in a work he suggested would be his greatest. But he collapses on the streets of Turin — only 44 years old — losing his mental faculties and most of his grip on reality. It’s speculated that he caught syphilis from consorting with prostitutes, but more likely he has a slow-developing brain tumor. Nonetheless, the damaged philosopher is confined to an institution for the last decade of his life. But what of his final work, the unfinished manuscript he’d been working on — maybe his magnum opus? What would be its fate?

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EP #4 | Dim Ruins

The post modernist British thinker John Gray wrote in his book, Enlightenment’s Wake: “We live today amid the dim ruins of the Enlightenment project, which was the ruling project of the modern period.” Our culture as a failure, ruins, nadir. Did the enlightenment not live up to its promises? What is the standard for this claim? What does the data show us? Are we indeed living amongst dim ruins?

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