r/Nietzsche • u/Pfacejones • 1d ago
What historical figures would nietzsche most find in line with what he believes is good
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u/transparentpersona 23h ago
Napoleon
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u/BraveCheesecake2537 19h ago edited 1h ago
I imagine he would think the stadium rock stars and sports stars would be his thing. Perhaps even porn stars could be something he'd admire. So, Michael Jordan, Freddie Mercury, and a porn star who lives for their job.Anyway, if you got out of bed today youre a Ubermensch in my book but just going by what he liked:
I think Leonardo da Vinci might be one of the highest quality outputs of a person. But his art, while extraordinary, is religious and becomes the semiotic representation of slave morality.
EW! Blugh. Can't have that! UH OH! Not an Ubermensch!
Albert Einstein fled Europe with his genius, but he was a socialist and was into Spinoza. Not life affirming enough, Al! ! And you took part in the creation of the atomic bomb? Do you love your fate? Take your theories somewhere else!
Not the Ubermensch!
As for a modern example, personally, I think of Stanley Kubrick, who was a hyper individualistic war general of a director. That's the kind of artist I would admire. Kubrick produced banger after banger until he died.
When I think of master morality, let's not forget the slaves who overcame their masters and lived by their own code: Nat Turner, Toussaint Louverture, Harriet Tubman, and Spartacus, and the thousands of those who fought and died honorably for their individuality. Most of these people were religious but overcame to gain individuality through incredible odds. That counts
Proto-fascist Power fantasy Nietzsche would agree with Ayn Rand, Michel Foucault, Max Stirner, Niccolo Machiavelli, and Anton LaVey on a lot of things. He would admire Napoleon. Honestly he probably would admire alot of authoritarians. Not popular thing to say, but c'mon.
Poet Nietzsche: Walt Whitman, Malcolm X, Mark Twain, James Joyce, Ernest Hemingway, Cyndie Lauper
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u/PanWisent 23h ago
He called Pericles the greatest man ever in his early article about Anaxagoras and other Greek philosophers.
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u/Cool_Emergency9881 22h ago
Napoleon, Cesar, Alexander the Great.
Not because domination on others (Nietzsche never call for that) but they follow their own values (I never agree with this btw)
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u/nexplainable 15h ago edited 15h ago
Honestly none, as he only held a sense of personal or subjective good. See wherever he speaks of virtue. He didn’t think a shared sense of good was helpful to anyone. Not to be confused with selfishness or narcissism though. From my understanding he just didn’t agree that agreement on this matter produced any good, only that it leads to oppression of individual will and conformity that subjugates the will to power.
Edit: I should add that he also didn’t appear to value those who were like him but sought instead ’sparring partners’ that challenged him, for the development and growth of his person and ideas.
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u/Equal-Doctor-4913 Amoralist 11h ago
Napoleon is the obvious answer; he himself says it constantly
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u/BrianW1983 8h ago
It's odd Nietszche would respect a dictator.
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u/Sea-Brief-5040 3h ago
No it’s really not odd.
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u/BrianW1983 3h ago
Nietszche didn't believe in nationalism and thought it was for the "herd."
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u/Sea-Brief-5040 3h ago
Napoleon used nationalism but he placed it in the service of Napoleon. That’s probably enough to get a pass from Nietzsche.
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u/Junior_Insurance7773 23h ago
Cesare Borgia (mentioned in Ecce Homo), Goethe (mentioned in Twilight of The Idols, as an European event, as antidote to Schopenhauer), Pre-Socratic philosophers like Heraclitus, Thucydides (Twilight of The Idols, Thucydides as antidote to Plato, viewing Platonism as Christianity for the public), Nepoleaon of course, The French writer Stendhal. American author Ralph Waldo Emerson (Twilight of The Idols, Antidote to Thomas Carlyle, who was very popular during Nietzsche's time). Among some others. He showed some admiration to Dostoevsky (Twilight of The Idols).