In 1865, Nietzsche thoroughly studied the works of Arthur Schopenhauer and, in 1866, he read Friedrich Albert Lange's "Geschichte des Materialismus" ( "History of Materialism"). Nietzsche then concentrated on philology under Professor Friedrich Wilhelm Ritschl (1806 - 1876), whom he followed to the University of Leipzig the next year, producing his first philological publications soon thereafter. After just one semester, though, (much to the dismay of his mother), he stopped his theological studies and announced that he had lost his faith (although, two years earlier, he had already argued that historical research had discredited the central teachings of Christianity). The internationally-recognized Schulpforta school admitted him as a pupil in 1858, and he continued his studies there until 1864, receiving an important introduction to literature (particularly that of the ancient Greeks and Romans) and a taste of life outside his early small-town Christian environment.Īfter graduating in 1864, Nietzsche commenced studies in theology and classical philology (the study of literary texts and linguistics) at the University of Bonn, ostensibly with a view to following his father into the priesthood. Although a solitary and taciturn youth, he showed particular talents in music and language and, paradoxically, also in religious education. Nietzsche attended a boys' school and later a private school, before beginning to attend the Domgymnasium in Naumburg in 1854. After the death of Nietzsche's grandmother in 1856, the family moved into their own house. The family then moved to Naumburg, where they lived with Nietzsche's paternal grandmother and his two unmarried aunts. These events caused Nietzsche to question why God would make good people suffer so, and were a decisive factor in his early doubts about Christianity. Nietzsche's father died from a brain ailment in 1849 (when Nietzsche was only five), after more than a year of pain and suffering, and his younger brother died soon after, in 1850. He was born with severe myopia and was always a delicate and sickly child. His father was Carl Ludwig Nietzsche (a Lutheran pastor and former teacher) and his mother was Franziska Oehler, and the couple had two other children, Elisabeth (born in 1846) and Ludwig Joseph (born in 1848). Nietzsche (pronounced NEE-cha) was born on 15 October 1844 in the small town of Röcken bei Lützen, near Leipzig in the Prussian province of Saxony (modern-day Germany). His life-affirming ideas, however, have inspired leading figures in all walks of cultural life, not just philosophy, especially in Continental Europe. Many of his works remain controversial and open to conflicting interpretations, and his uniquely provocative and aphoristic writing style, and his non-traditional and often speculative thought processes have earned him many enemies as well as great praise. He wrote prolifically and profoundly for many years under conditions of ill-health and often intense physical pain, ultimately succumbing to severe mental illness. His original notions of the "will to power" as mankind's main motivating principle, of the "Übermensch" as the goal of humanity, and of "eternal return" as a means of evaluating one's life, have all generated much debate and argument among scholars. He challenged the foundations of Christianity and traditional morality, famously asserting that "God is dead", leading to (generally justified) charges of Atheism, Moral Skepticism, Relativism and Nihilism. He is considered an important forerunner of Existentialism movement (although he does not fall neatly into any particular school), and his work has generated an extensive secondary literature within both the Continental Philosophy and Analytic Philosophy traditions of the 20th Century. By Individual Philosopher > Friedrich Nietzscheįriedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche (1844 - 1900) was a 19th Century German philosopher and philologist.