What ideas did the German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche have to say about Western ideas?

Answer 1

The famous existentialist philosopher, Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche seemed to have no kind words for the so-called Judaeo-Christian world and its ideals and ideas. In fact, when reading Nietzsche, one can easily come to the conclusion he hated everything about the world. In this he was a fore-runner of a later day existentialist Jean-Paul Sartre. After all, we are all thrown into this world without our consent, and have no obligation to honor anything but oneself. With that said, his view of Western values can be misleading and difficult to understand. Like Hegel, Nietzsche thinks aloud and his writings display his thinking and rethinking of a multitude of ideas. In Europe, he recalls the "Enlightenment" . To him nothing but nonsense. This is best seen in one of his famous quotes ( he is quoted perhaps more with the exceptions of Aristotle and Plato ) For Nietzsche, it can be seen that throughout immense expanses of time, the intellect has produced nothing but errors.

He had no use for other philosophers or Western leaders. He was an apocalyptic thinker and in this way he had an influence on Adolph Hitler. He too was in the school of apocalyptic thinkers. For him and for Nietzsche, all the world came to naught. This is seen in Hitler's ideas as his early military successes showed the valor of Germans. And, later after military disasters in the Soviet Union, he demanded no retreat. If his armies failed, it was because they were not true Germans.

To carry this a bit further, one can recall the "no surrender" edict for Japanese forces besieged on Iwo Jima. No surrender possible resulting in 22,000 plus Japanese soldiers being killed.

Answer 2

Nietzsche wrote that western ideas such as reason, democracy, and progress had stifled people's creativity and actions.