# 10 Nietzche and Human Suffering

     Friedrich Nietzche is one of the big names in philosophers when it comes to the philosophy of human suffering. He has contributed many ideas to the topic of human suffering, and he has some very interesting ideas, but I will cover more of that in the second installment of this assignment. In this first installment I would like to cover Nietzche's life and examine what may have guided his thought process to begin thinking about the causes and reasons behind human suffering and the other topics he has discussed.
    Nietzche was born in 1844 in Prussia, which is now a part of present-day Germany. He attended private preparatory schools as a child and went to University. At university, he studied philology which is a combination of literature, history, and linguistics. He was highly influenced by the works of Arthur Schopenhaur, a philosopher. At the age of 24 he became a professor at the University of Basel. At around this time, he began distancing himself from classical literature, and his interest shifted more towards the values that are under-lying society. His health began to decline and he left Basel University because of this.
     After he left the University, Nietzche mostly lived in seclusion. Even though he had distanced himself from the rest of the world, this was a very productive period for him. He had written one of his most significant works in four volumes in a two year span. This work is called Thus Spoke Zarathustra. He also wrote many more books after finishing Thus Spoke Zarathustra. In these works, he developed one of the major points of his philosophy, "God is dead." He also developed his ideas of a "super-man" and self-perfection. After this time of immense production of philosophical literature, he had a major decline in his mental health. The reason for this is still unknown, but many historians have guessed at what it could be, such as and inherited brain disease, syphilis, or even a tumor.
     Nietzche has certainly left his mark in the field of philosophy. He produced a great amount of work, and made many bold statements about theology. He made a great legacy as a philosopher, even though the later years of his life he was unable to produce any works. His reputation was tarnished for awhile because the Nazi party in the 1930s and 40s used his works as justifications for their actions. This was done by them specifically choosing certain parts of his works and creating misleading information this way. Even with this darkened reputation, his works are still studied to this day.
     His idea that God was dead was one of his most notable ideas because without God, there is no set system in place when it comes to morality, so it was something that had to be built from the ground up. This was a controversial statement, especially during his time period, but it got a lot of people talking about this and creating the types of conversations is immensely important.
     In the next installment, I will be focusing more on his works and ideas rather than his life to see what exactly he contributed to philosophical conversation.