Friedrich Nietzsche was immensely influential and, counter to most expectations, also very well read. An essential new reference tool for those interested in his thinking, Nietzsche's Philosophical Context identifies the chronology and huge range of philosophical books that engaged him. Rigorously examining the scope of this reading, Thomas H. Brobjer consulted over two thousand volumes in Nietzsche's personal library, as well as his book bills, library records, journals, letters, and publications. This meticulous investigation also considers many of the annotations in his books. In arguing that Nietzsche's reading often constituted the starting point for, or counterpoint to, much of his own thinking and writing, Brobjer's study provides scholars with fresh insight into how Nietzsche worked and thought; to which questions and thinkers he responded; and by which of them he was influenced. The result is a new and much more contextual understanding of Nietzsche's life and thinking.| Contents Preface Notes on References Acknowledgments Introduction 1. Nietzsche As Reader 2. The Major Philosophical Influences on Nietzsche's Thinking 3. The Young Nietzsche: 1844-69 4. The Early Nietzsche: 1869-74 5. The Middle Nietzsche: 1875-82 6. The Later Nietzsche: 1883-88 Epilogue Notes Table 1. Chronological Listing of Nietzsche's Philosophical Reading Table 2. Philosophical Titles in Nietzsche's Library: Unknown If and When Read Table 3. Alphabetical Listing of Nietzsche's Philosophical Reading Index | "This tremendously useful resource will be consulted by every scholar concerned with Nietzche's philosophical context for years to come."—British Journal for the History of Philosophy
|Thomas H. Brobjer is an associate professor in the department of the history of science and ideas at Uppsala University, Sweden, and the author of Nietzsche's Ethics of Character: A Study of Nietzsche's Ethics and Its Place in the History of Moral Thinking.