Human, All Too Human: A Book for Free SpiritsThis volume presents Nietzsche's remarkable collection of almost 1400 aphorisms in R. J. Hollingdale's distinguished translation, together with a new historical introduction by Richard Schacht. Subtitled "A Book for Free Spirits," Human, All Too Human marked for Nietzsche a new "positivism" and skepticism with which he challenged his previous metaphysical and psychological assumptions. Nearly all the themes of his later work are displayed here with characteristic perceptiveness and honesty--not to say suspicion and irony--in language of great brio. It remains one of the fundamental works for an understanding of his thought.
This remarkable collection of almost 1,400 aphorisms was originally published in three instalments. The first (now volume 1) appeared in 1878, just before Nietzsche abandoned academic life, with a first supplement--Assorted Opinions and Maxims---following in 1879, and a second entitled The Wanderer and His Shadow a year later. In 1886 Nietzsche republished them together in a two-volume edition, with new prefaces to each volume. Both volumes are presented here in R. J. Hollingdale's distinguished tradition (originally published in the series Cambridge Texts in German Philosophy), with a new introduction by Richard Schacht.
In this wide-ranging work Nietzsche first employed his celebrated aphoristic style, so perfectly suited to his iconoclastic, penetrating, and multi-faceted thought. Many themes of his later work make their first appearance here, expressed with unforgettable liveliness and subtlety. Human, All Too Human well deserves its subtitle--'A Book for Free Spirits'---and its original dedication to Voltaire, whose project of radical enlightenment here found a new champion.
