About the Author

Friedrich Nietzsche was a German philosopher and a cultural critic. He was born on October 15, 1844, in Rocken, Saxony, Kingdom of Prussia. His works criticize the traditional European morality, religious values as well as conventional philosophical ideas associated with modernity. He is often seen as a predecessor to late modern thinkers like Marx and Freud, because of his psychological analyses of false consciousness. He proposed many original theories positing an alternative morality and ideas which would bring forth a cultural renewal. His notable works include The Birth of Tragedy out of the Spirit of Music (1872), The Gay Science (1882), Thus Spoke Zarathustra (1883–5), Beyond Good and Evil (1886), On the Genealogy of Morality (1887), Twilight of the Idols (1888) and The Wagner Case (1888). In 1889, Nietzsche suffered a mental breakdown. Eleven years later, he died on August 25, 1900, in Weimar, German Empire.