The Nietzsche Podcast

Finally, we reach the conclusion of our exploration of Heidegger's lectures on Nietzsche. This time we consider another lecture on will to power, from Volume II of Heidegger's collected lectures on Nietzsche, in which will to power is considered instead as a framework for knowledge, and the principle of a new valuation.

Continuing with Heidegger, we consider his first lecture on Nietzsche, "The Will to Power as Art", in which Heidegger gives an unorthodox but very enlightening reading of will to power, then hinges the second half of his argument on a passage where Nietzsche describes art as will to power's most perspicuous manifestation.

In this episode, we begin a three-part series on Martin Heidegger and his reading of Nietzsche. The episode begins with a discussion of the background of Heidegger's life and ideas, as well as a brief tour of the content of Being & Time in which we look at Dasein, temporality, care, being-towards-death among other core concepts. In the latter half of the episode, we turn towards an introductory discussion of how Heidegger sees Nietzsche & his place within the Western philosophical tradition, as well as his comments about the necessity of the interrelation between will to power and the eternal return.

An Irishman named Stef visited Austin recently. We met for a discussion about the revaluation of values, strange brain experiments with magnets, Gnosticism and its relation to the politics of castration, the brain's threat detection matrix as creating the "hard times strong men" cycle, the possibility of neuro-physiological centrism, and how this all relates to Dionysus v/s the Crucified.

This episode is an upload to Spotify of my response to Abigail Thorn's "Was Nietzsche Woke?" video. This video was previously uploaded to Youtube.Watch me spend more time than the entire length of Abigail Thorn's video explaining why it is a superficial hit piece based on strained, bizarre arguments and outright false information. There are many "creative omissions" in Philosophy Tube's video, "Was Nietzsche Woke?": rather basic information about Nietzsche's life and his ideas is left out that would completely one's view of the information presented. In this rebuttal, we'll look at the statements in Nietzsche's own published works in Human, All Too Human (1878), Daybreak (1881), The Gay Science (1882), Beyond Good & Evil (1886) Ecce Homo (1888) & Twilight of Idols (1888) as well as selections from Nietzsche's letters, his essays, and unpublished notes assembled in Will to Power. Philosophy Tube's video relies almost entirely on secondary sources and clearly does not derive from a direct engagement with the actual texts. While I actually have read all of the primary source material, I also reference the following secondary sources in this video:The Legend of the Anti-Christ: A History by Stephen J. Vicchio (2009)Nietzsche, Philosopher, Psychologist, Antchrist by Walter Kaufmann (Fourth Edition, Princeton University Press, 1974)Nietzsche's Women: Beyond the Whip by Carol Diethe (2013, De Gruyter)I was also informed in my study by the biographies provided by Krell & Bates, as well as Curtis Cate and the work of Charlie Huenemann. Stephen Hicks' book, Nietzsche and the Nazis, while I disagree with it on many points, was also helpful in elucidating the difference between Nietzsche's view of Christianity versus that of the Nazis. Also, Robert Solomon helped contextualize the common views around eugenics in 19th century Europe.

I talk about philosophy & music, my history as a musician, my new album, and give some updates about the future direction of the podcast.Stream the album today: https://www.psychedelicbabymag.com/2025/05/slumbering-sun-on-starmony-an-interview-with-dooms-crazy-romantics.htmlAlbum comes out tomorrow, buy it here: https://slumberingsun.bandcamp.com/Listen to us on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/7znYBHw9e9cY7KKbLXpUsS

The lightning round! The final episode of The Gay Science book III. The 100 sections we cover in this episode are all rapid-fire, short aphorisms on morality, human nature, the social life, virtue, vice, really the whole panoply of human experience!

Renaissance & Reformation, the critique of saintly virtue, the color we have thrown onto life and how it differs from that of the ancient world, and Nietzsche's attempt to "untangle the knot" of his moralization of the world by returning to the style of the moral maxim. Rapid fire epigrams finish out book III, we cover a large swatch of them in this reading and will hit the remainder of the book in the final episode for book III, next week.

Discussion of the origins of Christianity as the apotheosis of sin, the Christian attack on the passions versus the Greek deification of the passions, as well as scattered remarks about German pessimism, and diet as the cause of one's metaphysics.

Extended discussion of The Madman passage (#125), including analysis of the metaphysical and moral implications, the surrounding context, and other interpreters - Girard, Freud, Jung, Heidegger, and Deleuze; then, discussion of half a dozen more aphorisms that follow.

Gnostic Informant on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/We discussed the following topics: why the Torah is probably younger than commonly believed; the influence of Hellenism on Judaism as well as the New Testament; the Carpocratians (syncretists of Greek philosophy & Christian religion); the link between Platonism & Christianity; Nietzsche's argument that the Epicureans struggled against "latent Christianity"; Christianity as a hyper-rationalist religion set against the more sophisticated theologies of the pagan world; the possibility that extinguishing the Vestal fires actually brought down the Roman Empire. We also talked about Neal's personal journey through the Christian faith into his own idiosyncratic spirituality, and an attitude that he describes as a balance of Gnosticism & agnosticism; he views a life of Gnosis (knowing) as essentially a life of skepticism in which one demands to know for oneself and reject all inherited dogma. At the end we discuss his upcoming journey to Greece & film project, during which he will interview the group setting up a new temple to Pan in Greece, and the Orthodox figures opposing them.

The text proceeds from epistemology to morality. Nietzsche suggests that value judgments are at the foundation of perception. Exploration of herd instinct & herd conscience. Suggestion that the moral skepticism of Christianity was turned against Christianity. Preparation for the Madman passage.

Continuing with The Gay Science readthrough, and begin with book III. This book begins with the first passage to contain the saying, "God is dead", and Nietzsche then uses the metaphor of "the shadow of God" to refer to the falsification of our understanding of reality as a result of thousands of years of metaphysical error. These errors may in fact be essential for life itself, but Nietzsche's project is to find a way to philosophize that penetrates beyond them. This is, paradoxically, an experiment with the "will to truth", a more sincere valuation of truth-in-itself than has ever before been risked, and at the same time an attempt to entangle philosophy with art, deception, feeling, subjectivity & physiology.

This is a special episode before we get into The Gay Science walkthrough analysis, and it is something of an experiment. I know the video is not perfect, I would have formatted it a bit differently, plus the my audio is quieter than I wanted it to be. But, I may do more videos like this in the future and plan to up my game. In any case, I think the meat of the video, the critique, is pretty strong.

I released a song today! Go check it out on Invisible Oranges: https://www.invisibleoranges.com/slumbering-sun-together-forever/ The new single is also live anywhere that you stream music, including spotify, apple, etc. You can also visit our bandcamp to pre-order the album or purchase the single now: https://slumberingsun.bandcamp.com/album/starmonyThis episode is a discussion of my favorite essay by Tolstoy, the contents of which factored heavily into my book (The Ritual Madness of Rock & Roll) as one of my major influences on the topic of aesthetics. Tolstoy poses the problem of art, the reason why art must justify itself. Criticizing the existing conceptions of art's value, he puts forward his own theory as to art as communicative, then attacks what he considers to be the self-absorbed art of the upper class and the counterfeit art that has captured European culture. Eventually, Tolstoy comes to the conclusion that true art is aimed at the Christian vision of the unification of man. This is the conclusion of the second leg of season five.

In this episode, we consider some of the philosophically insightful sections of Nietzsche's lectures on rhetoric & the Sophists. In particular, we examine the figure of Protagoras, of whom we have little information, but who is credited with establishing the Sophists as a philosophical school focused on rhetoric. The latter half of the episode concerns the Platonic dialogue named for Protagoras, the "great speech" of Protagoras contained within, and the somewhat puzzling dispute between Protagoras and Socrates on whether or not virtue can be taught.

Short form episode; audio version of a Youtube release. Additional content coming on Thursday!Creating a listicle of Nietzsche's ideas is always problematic, but thankfully Nietzsche occasionally provides us with one. In his notes, collected in Will to Power, Nietzsche records his "Five Nos": five ideas that he roundly rejects, and positions his philosophy as a struggle against. You will not find a more straightforward statement of Nietzsche's philosophy anywhere in his corpus. This passage remains fairly obscure, so join me in exploring this hidden gem that explains Nietzsche's philosophy in negative terms.

A rhizomatic discussion. Craig tells us his history with philosophy, and his journey through the work of Jung, Hillman, Deleuze and others. We then discuss Anti-Oedipus and some of the core concepts, such as the Deleuzian reinterpretation of desire and the unconscious, and the body without organs. Then, as a tribute to the late, great David Lynch, we attempt a Deleuzian intepretation of Eraserhead, which of course is impossible, because both Deleuze and Lynch would agree that the interpretation of signs and symbols as a theater of the unconscious is always a misinterpretation; or, as Lynch puts it, the talking is all up there on the screen.Visit Acid Horizon: https://www.acidhorizonpodcast.com/Lepht Hand Podcast on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/1E9kBe72ce15ZcqaPT8uBOCraig's Philosopher's Tarot Deck: https://www.penguinrandomhouseretail.com/book/?isbn=9781914420917

This episode is a polemic. While I have addressed Jordan Peterson's misunderstandings of the "God is dead" aphorism, or his bungling of Nietzsche's view of truth, here we address one of his most often repeated distortions of Nietzsche's philosophy. According to Jordan, Nietzsche said we can create our own values, but, in fact, this is impossible.I break down Jordan's misreading into four sections: 1) Jordan doesn't understand what Nietzsche means by "values"; 2) Jordan doesn't understand what Nietzsche means by "creating" values, 3) Jordan's problems with the "creation of values" fail, largely due to these misunderstandings, 4) Values do not need to be created by the Overman.

Today we continue with Psychology & Alchemy. This week, we'll spend the beginning of the episode considering the parallel between the lapis philosophorum and Christ, and the unusual claim of the alchemists that man can redeem God. The rest of the episode concerns Carl Jung's extended dream analysis of a single patient, which he found to be laden with alchemical imagery and symbolism. Episode art: The Anthropos with the Four Elements

The alchemists claimed that they explained "the obscure by the more obscure, the unknown by the more unknown", and accordingly, the secrets of the alchemical work have remained largely a mystery to the public consciousness. While most think of alchemy as charlatanism, the promise to "turn lead into gold", this is far from the truth, and fails to grapple with the immense scientific, spiritual and cultural impact that alchemy has had on Western civilization. The psychologist Carl Jung was perhaps an unexpected figure to attempt to unriddle the symbols and imagery of the alchemical texts. Nevertheless, Carl Jung's volume, Psychology & Alchemy attempts to do just that, putting forward the idea that the alchemical texts are a treasure trove of psychic projection, and unconscious communication with the self. Join me for part one of our deep dive into the Jungian interpretation of alchemy, where we will learn the basic concepts of alchemy, the stages of the alchemical work, the alchemical correspondence thinking as regards the substances they worked with, and the psychological interpretation by which Jung makes sense of it all. Episode art: Henry Waniek - Alchemy

Very pleased to finally be joined by Gregory Sadler on the podcast! Greg is one of the more popular teachers of philosophy in the modern age, and given his recent courses on Stoicism, we decided to make that the focus. I hope you all enjoy our conversation: about philosophy as a guide to life, Stoicism versus Epicureanism, distortions of Stoicism and Nietzsche, whether philosophy is self-help, and the relevance of Stoicism to modern life. Sadler's Lectures on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/0lGAsuWNmAfVKL4KDLDO6v Greg's Youtube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCEtxsMx4qsoitFwjBdLU_gA

Among the 19th century forerunners of existentialism are Friedrich Nietzsche and Søren Kierkegaard. While there is much that divides these two thinkers - one is atheist and the other a Christian, one seeks faith in Fate and the other in God - there are some curious similarities between these two great minds. Kierkegaard is a Christian against Christianity, critiquing the easy optimism or sordid resignation that passed for the Christian faith during his time. Kierkegaard was driven by a desire to become a missionary within Christendom, to make everything harder, and push the ordinary Christian to see faith a paradoxical struggle. The Christian is called to live an absurd life, with impossible hopes, out of the knowledge that nothing is impossible with God. In this episode we discuss Kierkegaard's life, the background of his ideas during the first authorship, and the analysis of Abraham in Fear & Trembling.

Cioran is notorious as the depressive philosopher par excellence. While figures such as Schopenhauer, Ligotti and Benatar have advanced logical arguments for their pessimistic outlook, Cioran's work is completely missing any such justification for his depressive feeling for life. Instead, his work is a lyrical outpouring of his inner life. In this episode we're taking a look at his first and most infamous book, "On the Heights of Despair", written during a bout of insomnia. As his translator, Zarifopol-Johnston argues, the book was an attempt to preserve Cioran's real self by "killing" a literary version of himself. We explore this interpretation of Cioran's work: that it is a means of coping with the madness and sorrow he finds within himself, through lyricism. Ironically, a text that was rumored to have caused many suicides may have preserved Cioran's life.

This is a revision and re-recording of Episode 04 of the podcast, "Love Never Faileth". I felt that it wasn't my best work in terms of execution, but one of the best episode concepts. As a New Year's special, enjoy this redux of a classic episode. Some parts have been added, some have been removed, and overall I think the lecture flows better and better gets across the ideas I'd originally hoped to convey. We return to regular episodes of the podcast next week.

Is this an anti-Christian screed? Far from it. Today we take a deep dive into one of Nietzsche's core concepts from the Antichrist: the reversal of our understanding of the terms "soul" and "spirit". While many Christians do not even give much thought to the difference between these terms, this was, historically, a key distinction. Nietzsche's great subversion is in critiquing the spirit as a false world, and redefining the soul as a chaotic multiplicity. This radical attack culminates in a suspicion of not only all theology, but all philosophy, all dialectic. Merry Christmas!

Finishing book 2 of TGS! This coming Tuesday, a Wandering Above a Sea of Fog episode, then a break for a week. Episode art: Priestess at Delphi by John Collier

Continuing with The Gay Science readthrough! More sections on art, the eternal war between prose and poetry, the Apollinian and Dionysian, and more. Episode art: The Human Condition by Rene Magritte.

Patrons: "Have you ever said Yes to a single joy?" Salts: "Yes"

"Many lies tell the poets" - Homer. Nietzschean exploration of art, of truth and appearance in the artistic world, the way that madness, art and ritual relate, and the translation of artistic expression into different cultural contexts. Join me for this continuation of our The Gay Science readthrough!

In this episode, Mynaa and I discuss The Repairer of Reputations, the first story in Robert Chambers' collection, The King in Yellow. Concepts in Chambers work contributed to the creation of the 'weird fiction' genre, and remain influential on media today - including the King in Yellow, the notion of a book that can drive you mad, and names such as Carcossa and the Hyades. We've delved into the topic of madness quite thoroughly on the podcast recently, so it only seemed fitting to continue the discussion through to the Halloween episode. Our topics include a broader discussion of madness and society, the unreliable narration of the protagonist, how his delusional fantasies reflect his political madness, the "lethal chamber" and its meaning, and much more. HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Samhain is fast approaching, and this week we're going to have two spooky episodes of the podcast. This episode will be a philosophical exploration of the significance of Arthur Machen's weird fiction/horror novella, "The Great God Pan". While I'd originally planned this for the second leg of the season, we're interrupting The Gay Science readthrough for the sake of the holiday, and because this story brings together many of the elements that we've discussed so far this season, namely: madness, the horror of science, the gulf between appearance and reality, and the Dionysian reaching out from ages past to disturb the modern world. Join me for a romp through the woods with our new friends Helen, and The Great God Pan!

Welcome back to The Gay Science! In this episode we commence with book II, which begins with an exploration of perspectivism and the pitfalls of scientific realism, and quickly moves into ruminations on women and relationships. It's no one's favorite part of Nietzsche, but in this talk we'll clean all of the philosophical meat off of the bone, because Nietzsche actually has some genuinely valuable insights in these sections. Cheers!

Donna Tartt's novel The Secret History is a loveletter to Greek tragedy, that begins with a dedication from Nietzsche and Plato. Central to the story is the concept of the Dionysian, and the attempt of the main characters to experience the Dionysian. Richard Papen's fatal flaw is his "morbid longing for the picturesque at all costs". His undying quest for a beautiful aesthetic life leads him to become part of an elite clique of students at Hampden College in Vermont. All six of them are under the sway of a charismatic and mysterious professor named Julian Morrow. After his friends accidentally kill someone while attempting a modern-day bacchanalia, Richard finds himself drawn into their crime, as he does everything he can to help them cover it up. This year becomes the defining event of Richard's life, and the story is his retelling of this 'secret history' of how he became what he is. We will examine the novel's use of truth and appearance, and how the Dionysian in this story serves as a "pure fire of being" which burns away the false appearances of the characters in order to unify their appearance and essence, and force each person's nature to draw its final consequences.

The Bacchae is a parennially popular Greek tragedy that portrays the coming of Dionysus to Greece. The Dionysian strikes Hellas like a wave of madness, and the play is full of miracles, illusions and other violations of the natural order. Often interpreted as a play about the conflict between religious experience and established dogma, or between the old order and the new, The Bacchae continues to fascinate because of the many layers of meaning that belie any easy analysis. We'll briefly discuss Nietzsche's opinion of Euripedes, and the ways in which Euripedes innovated the tragic form. Then we'll dive into the text and analyze the themes of the play.

Michel Foucault is one of the most influential philosophical thinkers of the 20th century. He remains a controversial figure, but undoubtedly he had a profound impact on the way we think about mental health and mental illness up to the present day. In this episode, we take a deep dive into his work, Madness & Civilization: A History of Insanity in the Age of Reason, based on his dissertation. In this work, Foucault charts a history of how madness was perceived and experienced in the western world, exploring the changes in understanding of insanity from the Middles Ages, to the Renaissance, to the Classical period (17th & 18th centuries), to the 19th century creation of the mental asylum, and finally to the foundation of psychoanalysis.

Aeschylus' Oresteia is the only extant trilogy of Greek drama. Alongside the Parthenon, the Oresteia is considered one of the two greatest 'monuments' to the Golden Age of Athens. In this trilogy - The Agamemnon, The Libation Bearers, and The Eumenides - Aeschylus dramatizes a rite of passage from savagery to civilization. Over the course of the narrative, the ancient law of blood is overcome by a new civic law, sanctioned by the gods. The word "justice" (Dikê) is used more often in the Oresteia than in any other Greek tragedy. Through these verses, we witness a struggle from the hazy, mysterious world of archaic Greece, governed by gods who behaved capriciously and unpredictably, into the clarity of civic life, in which human beings are empowered to make the contextual decisions of governance. Michael D. Davis, lectures on Philosophy of Tragedy: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLiyEzRZtxXGU_Q5-jFqhIHJYbsahnQBNd&si=7o-LZMjQfX5Mb657 Episode art: John Singer Sergeant - Orestes Pursued by the Furies

Welcome to the ONE HUNDREDTH EPISODE of The Nietzsche Podcast. Today we're examining the speech of Peter Sloterdijk, given on the centennial of Nietzsche's death, and transcribed into the essay entitled, "Nietzsche Apostle". Sloterdijk puts forward the theory that languages are fundamentally an instrument of 'group narcissism' by which the group recognizes one another and celebrates themselves. However, with the Reversal effected by St. Paul, the function of language becomes self-lowering rather than self-celebrating. Nietzsche's radical use of language is to reclaim the prideful and self-celebratory use of language, and provide us with a 'Fifth Gospel'.

In 1956, Jung wrote the essay entitled, "Past and Future" in German, but we know it in English as "The Undiscovered Self". Having witnessed the horror of the world wars, and the ongoing apocalyptic danger of the Cold War, Jung attempted to explain why it was that societies sometimes went mad. This is how Europe experienced the outbreak of The Great War: as mass insanity. Why would free people gravitate towards cult-like tyrannies? How could ordinarily moral and reasonable people perpetrate acts of unthinkable violence? And how could our constitutional democracies remain susceptible to these outbursts, if we are so committed to principles such as freedom and human dignity? For Jung, the only answer is self-knowledge, but that is the one thing that modern society is making impossible

Yukio Mishima (born Kimitake Hiraoka, 1925-1970) wrote dozens of stories, including famous works such as Confessions of a Mask, and Patriotism. He was considered for a Nobel Prize in literature about half a dozen times, through he never won it. His works were adapted into films, which received international acclaim. He wrote modern No plays which were performed all over the world, in Europe and America. He is known for his provocative style, his romanticization of death and of warrior culture, and for his political radicalism. Mishima desired to return Japan to a pre-WWII samurai culture, ruled under the absolute authority of a divine emperor – and yet, his writing incorporates influences not only from traditional Japanese literature, but from writers from the west: Rilke, Wilde, Batailles, Klossowski, and, of course, Friedrich Nietzsche. From the time he was 19, when he first picked up a copy of Birth of Tragedy, Mishima had a lifelong fascination with Nietzsche. In this episode, we consider the major philosophical ideas in his combination of confession and criticism, Sun and Steel: the unity of art and action, the corrosive nature of words, and necessity of a 'beautiful death' to truly affirm one's existence.

Welcome to season five of The Nietzsche Podcast! First of all, a warm thank you to all of my listeners and patrons who have helped to make this show such a phenomenal success. For our first episode in this new collection of episodes, we're diving headfirst into the Oedipus plays of Sophocles: Oedipus Rex & Oedipus at Colonus. Sophocles triumphed with the best tragedy at the Dionysia more than any other playwright, and Aristotle named Oedipus Rex the model tragedy. We will fully explore the tragic downfall of Oedipus, his redemptive last days at Colonus, and Friedrich Nietzsche's interpretation of the significance of Oedipus in Birth of Tragedy. Episode Art: Jean-Antoine-Theodore Giroust, Oedipus at Colonus (1788), Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

Concluding with our readthrough of book I of The Gay Science! We'll return with book II in a short while. In the meantime, we're going back to regular episodes of the podcast in the immediate future, covering a variety of topics. Cheers!

Join me for the next installment of our readthrough of The Gay Science. Here, we cover a number of aphorisms concerning: fame and its effect on friendship; the dying words of Roman emperors; the hidden significance of all historical events; the desacrelizing effects of market forces upon society; and the value in knowing the supposed motives of human behavior, if the professed motives happen to be 'false'.

In this episode, we discuss the way in which selfishness is the root of all selfless morality, how corruption produces greatness, why the ascetic is driven by ambition, and the age old question, "What is Life?"

Join me this week, for a discussion of significant aphorisms from The Gay Science, including Consciousness, Evil, and The Feeling of Power.

We begin our walkthrough + analysis of The Gay Science today, starting with some brief remarks on the background context of the work, a loose examination of the preface, and an intense exegesis of the first nine aphorisms. Excited to dive into this one with all of you1

Answering questions from Patrons for our tenth Q&A episode! Thank you everyone, first episode analyzing The Gay Science next week.

Updates on my life, the new direction for the podcast, revealing the next book that we're analyzing, and general thoughts on the spirit of the show, what binds the community together, and self celebration about the release of my book.

A summary of Nietzsche's teachings, examined by considering the parallel of Schopenhauer's influence on Nietzsche with how the modern person could adopt Nietzsche as a similar type of influence. I attempt to distill the central message of Nietzsche's philosophy, and explain how this interpretative framework helps elucidate new angles to many of his important ideas. This episode is my final word on Nietzsche's philosophy, considered in its totality, as the podcast transitions away from our focus on the primary sources in Nietzsche and into interpretations of Nietzsche and Nietzsche-adjacent material. A love letter to the fans and a last hurrah into exegesizing Nietzsche, incorporating topics from throughout the season and with callbacks to the earliest episodes. Celebrating three years of The Nietzsche Podcast as of this month! Episode art: Maxfield Parish - Jason and His Teacher, Chiron the Centaur

In the aphorism, "Journey to Hades" in Human All Too Human Vol 2, Nietzsche lists eight thinkers who helped to shape his thought. Each of these eight is paired with another thinker, a choice which is intentional and intended to reveal something about each pair. These eight are: Epicurus and Montaigne; Goethe and Spinoza; Plato and Rousseau; Pascal and Schopenhauer. In this episode, we will examine each one of these pairs in order to determine what similarities and what differences Nietzsche is attempting to elucidate in counterposing them. In comprehending each of these pairs, we can come to a full understanding of the early development of Nietzsche's thought, and see the way in which he was in dialogue with the ancients. The method of this passage hints at the way in which all of us can orm a relationship to Nietzsche in a similar fashion. Episode art is Johannes Stradanus - Ulysses in Hades

The second part of a two-parter we began near the beginning of this season. The completion of our analysis of Ecce Homo. In this episode, we consider Nietzsche's reviews of his own books, and argue that it presents a creative narrative of Nietzsche's life: Nietzsche as a tragic figure. Nietzsche mythologizes himself and the circumstances of his great works, dabbling in exaggerations and lacunae - but nevertheless providing an invaluable interpretation the significance of his entire career, and commentary on the development of his thought. With Nietzsche's comments, we can construe his life's work into an early period, an affirmative period that begins with his middle works and culminates with Zarathustra, and a critical period that characterizes his later work.