Download Frederich Nietzsche: Knowledge Products (Giants of Philosophy) (Audio Classics: The Giants of Philosophy) fb2

In 1999, I first came across the tape version of this in a library and being curious about Mr. N, took it home.

It was a revelation. I listened to it four times, each time getting more and more out of it.

(And Charlton Heston's voice is to die for.)

I felt I still hadn't extracted everything out of this and went looking for a written transcript of the recording, but I could not find any. I even tracked down and wrote to Richard Schact, but (naturally) he did not reply. I found some huge TOMES by him on Amazon, but did not pay them too much attention.

Time passed and in 2005, I wanted to listen to it again for some reason and this time found that the library had the CD version, identical otherwise in content to the tape version. Again, I was spellbound and listened to it another 3 times!

Finally I bought it from Amazon and now in 2011 have just listened to it again! Now I feel I have understood almost all of it. I also found that what the CD creators had done was to use Richard Schact's book Nietzsche (Nietzsche (Arguments of the Philosophers)) as the basis of this recording. (BTW, this was one of the aforementioned "TOMES" that I had previously paid no heed to.) For the CD, they used actors (great ones) for quotes that Schact uses in his book, and got rid of the detailed references and annotations that Schact provides in his book, but otherwise, it closely follows the book with a fidelity that is very, very impressive.

I bought the book as now I can go to it and find the quotes from the CD, together with the references.

All in all, these works by Schact on Nietzsche have profoundly impacted my thinking and work in AI.

good first intro to this great philosopher

Freddie one of the greatest philosophers in history and owning this cd is like having an interview with the man himself on his life, beliefs, works, and impact on history.

I LIKED THE PHILOSOPHY OF FREDERICH NIETZSCHE SINCE WHEN I WAS A BOY AT SCHOOL AND WE STUDIED THE PHILOSPY OF NIETZSCHE.

Very powerful, very under-appreciated... I purchased this in audiocassette format (has more info than do the CD and Audible versions) back in 1999 and it continues to be one of my top favorites, which I still attend 17 years later. Highly influential in my work. I'm guessing that I've listened to it in tape, CD, and now the audible versions several hundred times.

I love this whole series. I first started with the audiobook about Soren Kierkegaard. I really enjoyed it. I've become a big fan of Soren Kierkegaard over the past year. I always had heard things about Nietzsche, and I knew a little bit about his philosophy. But now I know more. I feel like I have enough knowledge of Frederick Nietzsche to understand why my Christian high school teacher referred to him as "his favorite atheist." He said this because he thought Nietzsche was a "consistent atheist," where is he believes that many atheists do not follow their philosophies to their logical conclusions. I was raised in a traditional Christian, and I found it difficult to maintain the faith of my childhood. Through delving into deep philosophers, Christian and non-Christian, I feel that I have come to a passionate theism/humanism, which is not Christianity, but it is a religious viewpoint that owes much to Christianity. Soren Kierkegaard, a Christian philosopher, helped me to get past the "agnostic quagmire." His thoughts on faith and the limitations of objective truth help me to regain faith in "subjective truths" that I, an existing human being, desire to hold fast to. Truths that I felt in my heart, that could never be objectively proven or disproven. For example, I feel that there is a God and that there is a purpose to human existence. Kierkegaard helped me to understand that there is no way to prove this nor disprove this, with objectivity alone. This question had plagued me for so long. I could see the world from the atheist, evolutionary perspective, and everything could fit in this paradigm (even religion). And yet, not everything. He could explain the "how", but not the "why". A doctrinaire atheist will say, "Why ask why? It is a violation of Occam's razor." In reply, I will say, "Why can we ask why?" I know there are Freudian explanations for how religion developed, and I don't doubt that they are true, in the sense that science can explain everything in the physical universe. But still, why would mindless matter produce minds that can come up with a metaphysical universe? I know how it can do it. But why?! It seems like a legitimate question to me, and reading Kierkegaard has further convinced me that subjective truths are not worthless personal conclusions.

I've been talking a lot about Kierkegaard, but this is supposed to be a review of audiobook about Frederick Nietzsche. Nietzsche to me is a brilliant person who came to a different subjective truth than I come to. I do not think that all subjective truths are equally valid, but we must all begin with axioms, and though all axioms are not equally valid, we cannot use objectivity purely to decide between particular axioms which conflict. Nietzsche was of course an atheist. He is famous for declaring that "God is dead." Interestingly, he was a stalwart anti-nihilist. Of course, raised in an intellectually rigorous fundamentalist Christian environment, I was always taught that (a) atheism leads to nihilism, and (b) atheism comes from man desiring total autonomy from God. I never knew that Frederick Nietzsche's drive came partly from his opposition to Schopenhauer's atheistic nihilism. He worried that Europe would descend into pessimistic nihilism, because Christianity could not satisfy the intellect, and Schopenhauer's atheism could not satisfy the soul. So Nietzsche sought to be an anti-nihilist atheist philosopher. It is interesting to me that he was concerned about the welfare of Europe, though he is famous for being "beyond good and evil," and promulgating elitism, aristocracy, and the questioning of traditional ethics. But he believes that the "philosophers of the future," the "supermen", would put aside traditional ethics for some greater good, not merely to please their own egos. So he even had an ethic. And yet, it is not hard to see how this philosophy inspired Nazism. I do believe there are certain presuppositions about God and about his basic moral law for man that we got to hold fast to. I don't think this is us "kidding ourselves." I really think these are transcendent things that are above us. I believe that when Nietzsche rejected these things, he was "overstepping his bounds," and I think pride and the desire for total autonomy were involved in this rejection. If you can also see how Hitler was inspired by Nietzsche, you may make some sober minded conclusions from this audiobook. You may conclude that pure atheism is a violation of a subjective truth which may in fact be a universal truth, which may lead to a return of man to being an animal. I hold fast to the historical fact of Adam and Eve eating of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. I do not believe that this "literally happened." But still, I think it happened, in some important sense. We have a realization that we are more than animals, though we came from animals. If we go "beyond good and evil," like Nietzsche prescribed, we may find that we are actually going backwards and forwards. We are going back in time to before man ate of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. If we insist that we are only animals, only intelligent animals, why do we protest when one tribe of animals destroys another tribe of animals? It happens in the animal kingdom all the time. But the serpent said, "For God does know that in the day you eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and you shall be as gods, knowing good and evil." Our eyes are opened. Let's admire Nietzsche's intellect and his passion, let's not take his advice and close our eyes to this knowledge we've gained.

I am also enjoying the audiobooks in this series about Hume and Augustine, which I am listening to now. The series is a nice mix of great non-Christian and Christian Western philosophers, ancient and modern. I plan on going through the whole series. I highly recommend it.

Godspeed!

I have studied Hitler and the Nazi movement and through that learned of Schopenhauer and then Nietzsch. I have to say I really enjoy Nietzsche. I would recommend getting a course like this ON him before reading works BY him. It makes it easier to understand. His ideas about morality is amazing. I do not agree with everything but 90% of what he has to say is so right on that I can't imagine studying philosophy without reading him.

Get this set plus get the Learning Company course on him. It shows up on online auction sites and may be here on amazon.

I couldnt believe Charleton Heston narrated this!

Cons: It could be longer and more in depth. The history about his sister was great to know too and also his mother and how they competed. Great stuff and well worth listening to.