Reading and writing about Nietzsche

Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900) is the world's most controversial philosopher. He is also the world's most relentlessly interesting philosopher. There is no other philosopher who writes as beautifully about as many topics as does Nietzsche, and no other philosopher whose ideas are more notorious. For all his notoriety, however, Nietzsche is increasingly remembered for his trenchant criticisms of the Western philosophical and theological traditions, for his celebration of creativity and flourishing, and for his tireless campaign to replace woolly-minded metaphysics with a philosophical view that is naturalistic and closely aligned with science. This change is welcome. For a century, Nietzsche has reigned as the one philosopher whose work should perhaps be banned, the one philosopher the mere mention of whose name is likely to raise the hackles on most of those within earshot. We shall, in due course, uncover the reasons why Nietzsche has this effect on otherwise reasonable people. In the vast majority of cases his villainous reputation is not deserved, and in the one case where it is deserved – his scathing criticism of Christianity – his reputation misleads by focusing attention away from the substance of his concerns, which have, in some cases, been raised by Christians themselves.

In writing a book of this sort I bear the double burden of introducing the reader to this controversial and interesting philosopher and showing that his bad reputation, even where deserved, should not be a reason not to read him.