Thus Spoke Zarathustra
The ancient Persian prophet Zarathustra descends from the mountains to tell the world that God is dead and that Superman, the human embodiment of divinity, is his successor. Nietzsche argues that the meaning of existence is not religious.
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- Thinly veiled 'I despise stupid people', this one.
They'd be boozing (more than they already are) if there wasn't such variety of cheap and available entertainment, the author doesn't seem to realize?
It's not what stupid people do in their free time - it's what capable and smart people value and pursue that makes all the difference.
Nietzsche laid this out quite beautifully in Thus Spoke Zarathustra. Huxley and Orwell are kindergarten philosophy by comparison.
- Almost every book by Nietzsche. For example:
Thus Spoke Zarathustra The Gay Science Human All Too Human
- My favorite, and what I still think is the best Benjamin essay, is On the Concept of History[0], but that one is a bit tough as a first essay, perhaps a better starting place (and where most people start with him) is Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction[1]. There's a pretty big gap between those two essays, not intellectually but theoretically, as in it will take you a while, probably, before you understand how they're related.
In general, if you want an actual "start" to studying any modern philosophy, you've got to go with Kant's Critique of Pure Reason (go with the NK Smith or Guyer-Woods translations, though I prefer the former). Then you can start reading forward, Hegel's Phenomenology of Spirit, then, of course, Marx's Capital, vol 1. Then from there, I think you would do well to read Nietzsche's Geneaology of Morals and/or Thus Spoke Zarathustra, and after that really you should read Freud, at the very least the Interpretation of Dreams, and Heidegger, either the Origin of the Work of Art or The Question Concerning Technology. And from there, you can basically just read whatever you want and you'll understand it.
My only further advice is to study all those texts first, before trying anything else, otherwise you'll end up like the people in this comments section.
[0]https://www.sfu.ca/~andrewf/CONCEPT2.html [1]https://web.mit.edu/allanmc/www/benjamin.pdf
- Thus Spoke Zarathustra, The Tao Te Ching, or Meditations.
As for stories, Greek or Norse mythology. Many of the concepts in the book above come from these myths.
- This is very basic but I read both at a young age and I'm massively happy I did.
1st one being "Thinking fast and slow" by Daniel Kahneman - completely reshaped my model of how much we are in control of our thought process.
2nd one was "Thus spoke Zarathustra" by Nietzsche - which is a very difficult read. Overall Nietzsche's approach to philosophy just immediately resonated with me and sent me down a path of thought that's still the foundation of my world model today. The whole approach of seeing life as inherently meaningless so meaning can be chosen at will was a great thing to have growing up. You definitely don't need to read the book to get there though - just reading a summary of what Nietzsche is about will probably be enough.
- Any good books you can recommend in connection with this way of life? Fiction, nonfiction, biographies. Anything that, in your view, reflects that spirit, or has a chance to give the reader an experience of it.
(Am primarily interested because I like Nietzsche’s Thus Spoke Zarathustra, which does borrow at least the name.)
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