A 19th-century literary masterpiece, tremendously influential in the arts and in philosophy, uses the Persian religious leader Zarathustra to voice the author’s views, including the introduction of the controversial doctrine of the Übermensch, or "superman," a term later perverted by Nazi propagandists. A passionate, quasi-biblical style is employed to inspire readers to become more than they have been and to transcend the limitations of conventional morality. A provocative work that remains a fixture of college reading lists.
Zoroaster, Founder Zoroastrianism
Zoroaster was a religious reformer of ancient Persia (now Iran) and the founder of the pre-Islamic religion of Zoroastrianism. Thought to have lived about 300 years befor...
Friedrich Nietzsche
Nietzsche sharply criticized the Greek tradition's over-emphasis on reason in his Die Götzendämmerung (Twilight of the Idols) (1889). Reliance on abstract concepts in a q...
