The literary career of Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900) spanned less than twenty
years, but no area of intellectual inquiry was left untouched by his iconoclasti
c genius. The philosopher who announced the death of God in "The Gay Science" (1
882) and went on to challenge the Christian code of morality in "Beyond Good and
Evil" (1886), grappled with the fundamental issues of the human condition in hi
s own intense autobiography, "Ecce Homo" (1888). Most notorious of all, perhaps,
his idea of the triumphantly transgressive ubermann ('superman') is developed i
n the extreme, yet poetic words of "Thus Spake Zarathustra" (1883-92).
Whethe
r addressing conventional Western philosophy or breaking new ground, Nietzsche v
astly extended the boundaries of nineteenth-century thought.
