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happea's review
Not a great first time philosophy read. Call me ignorant, but just a few pages in and there were too many paradoxes that were too confounded to interpret. I'd say the saying that less is more is extremely necessary in this case.
lucazani11's review
4.0
amor fati: that one wants nothing to be other than it is, not in the future, not in the past, not in all eternity. Not merely to endure that which happens of necessity, still less to dissemble it – all idealism is untruthfulness in the face of necessity – but to love it.
checkers09's review against another edition
2.0
Why Am I So Wise is one of German philosopher Frederich Nietzsche's final works before he spiral into insanity in 1889. This book centres around what distinguishes Nietzsche from others in his life and writings.
To start with the positives, I found his writing style very captivating, which allowed me to get through the book relatively quickly. The breadth of language from Nietzsche is very impressive and was apparently even more impressive in his German original.
with that aside I found his writings to be slightly deranged at times. maybe it's just his style, but I came away with the impression that he was already half-mad by the time of writing this book. Nietzsche refers to himself as of Polish noble blood; Something historians believe he simply made up to distance himself from his German heritage, and has a number of random insertions of things unrelated to the point that he is on which I found made his book a bit incoherent at times.
Having never read any of Nietzsche's works, I also think this curtailed my enjoyment of this book. In many instances, he refers to his previous writings, particularly Also Sprach Zarathustra, and it seems Why am I so wise looks back on his ideas from previous works instead of forwarding anything unique on it's own.
A common annoyance people have with this book is Nietzsche's egotism, talking about himself in glowing terms in almost all areas of life. I was not particularly bothered about this aspect. I'm sure this was a persona Nietzsche adopted for this book, and even if he was really that full of himself, I didn't find it took anything away from the book and could, in some cases, be quite entertaining.
I found his actual philosophical opinions quite unremarkable. It was essentially the same themes you find from almost all major philosophers from the 19th century, which is grounded in an anti-Christian, anti-traditional framework with a healthy insertion of Greek mythology. I don't have particularly strong views on these ideologies, but I just find it quite dull to hear essentially the same opinions told in slightly different ways which is the case repeatedly throughout this book.
Or perhaps I just didn’t get it? Maybe I will come back to this book sometime in the future, at which point I will hopefully possess some of the wisdom Nietzsche is so fond of.
To start with the positives, I found his writing style very captivating, which allowed me to get through the book relatively quickly. The breadth of language from Nietzsche is very impressive and was apparently even more impressive in his German original.
with that aside I found his writings to be slightly deranged at times. maybe it's just his style, but I came away with the impression that he was already half-mad by the time of writing this book. Nietzsche refers to himself as of Polish noble blood; Something historians believe he simply made up to distance himself from his German heritage, and has a number of random insertions of things unrelated to the point that he is on which I found made his book a bit incoherent at times.
Having never read any of Nietzsche's works, I also think this curtailed my enjoyment of this book. In many instances, he refers to his previous writings, particularly Also Sprach Zarathustra, and it seems Why am I so wise looks back on his ideas from previous works instead of forwarding anything unique on it's own.
A common annoyance people have with this book is Nietzsche's egotism, talking about himself in glowing terms in almost all areas of life. I was not particularly bothered about this aspect. I'm sure this was a persona Nietzsche adopted for this book, and even if he was really that full of himself, I didn't find it took anything away from the book and could, in some cases, be quite entertaining.
I found his actual philosophical opinions quite unremarkable. It was essentially the same themes you find from almost all major philosophers from the 19th century, which is grounded in an anti-Christian, anti-traditional framework with a healthy insertion of Greek mythology. I don't have particularly strong views on these ideologies, but I just find it quite dull to hear essentially the same opinions told in slightly different ways which is the case repeatedly throughout this book.
Or perhaps I just didn’t get it? Maybe I will come back to this book sometime in the future, at which point I will hopefully possess some of the wisdom Nietzsche is so fond of.
haneenoo's review against another edition
informative
fast-paced
3.0
Nietzsche does like to talk about himself!