Friedrich Nietzsche as a leader

Nietzsche is the leader I chose to write about, Friedrich Nietzsche was a philosopher who managed to challenge the foundations of Christianity and traditional morality. He emphasized in life, creativity, health and the realities of the world. He was one of the first existential philosophers and he lived in Germany of the late 19^th century. I propose him as a leader because his work and theory has inspired other leading figures such as dancers, poets, novelists, painters, psychologists, philosophers, sociologists and social revolutionaries.

BIOGRAPHY

Nietzsche was born in the small village of Rocken bei Lutzen on October 15, 1844. His father was a protestant scholar and died when Nietzsche was 4 years old, then Nietzsche’s family moved to Nauburg an der Saale and lived with his mother.

At the age of 14 he attended a boarding school which prepared him for university studies. Nietzsche created a literature club called Germania and identified with Wagner’s music. Also as a teenager admired the writings of Friedrich Holderlin ,Jean-Paul Richter and David Strauss (Wicks, 2008).

In 1864 he entered the University of Bonn where he studied theology and philosophy, then his understood that he is interested in philosophy. Nietzsche was inspired by his lecturer Friedrich Wilhelm Ritschl and followed him to the university of Leipzig where he founded his own academic character through his essays on Aristotle, Theognis, Simonides. There he became a friend with Erwin Rohde and later he discovered Arthur Schopenhauer and he was inspired by him  (Wicks, 2008).

Later he met Richard Wagner and shared with him his enthusiasm for Schopenhauer. Their relationship affected Nietzsche deeply. Wagner suggested Nietzsche to work on a position on the classical philosophy at the university of Basel and he began to teach there at the age of 24  (Wicks, 2008).

Nietzsche’s admiration for Schopenhauer and his frustration with the German culture forced him to write his first book called ‘The birth of tragedy’ in 1872. In 1877 he wrote another book called ‘On the origin of moral feelings’ and during this period he finished his studies on contemporary German culture (Unfashionable observations). In 1878, at the end of his university career he wrote the book ‘Human, all-too human’ which introduced his philosophical style. That time his health was worsened as an effect of an injury in the military service that led to headaches, eyesight problems and vomiting. These problems led him to leave the university at age 34   (Wicks, 2008).

From 1880 until 1889 when he collapsed he lived a gypsy like life. In 1882 he visited Rome where he met Lou von Salome, a Russian girl who was studying philosophy and theology in Zurich. He felt in love with her and he asked her to marry him, she declined and moved to Berlin where she worked with Sigmund Freud. This period inspired Nietzsche to write most of his books which were the following: Daybreak (1881), The gay science (1882-87), Thus spoke Zarathustra (1883-85), Beyond good and evil (1886), On the genealogy of morals (1887), The case of Wagner (1888), Twilight of idols (1888), The antichrist (1888), Ecce Homo (1888) and Nietzsche Contra Wagner (1888)  (Wicks, 2008).

On 1889 Nietzsche experienced a mental breakdown which left him incapable for the rest of his life. Some assumed that he was afflicted by a syphilitic infection, other argue that he was using a drug called chloral hydrate as a sedative, other claim that he has an inherited brain disease. The exact cause of his collapse remains unclear. On August 25, 1900 Nietzsche died from pneumonia in combination with a stroke at the age of 56.  (Wicks, 2008).

Nietzsche’s theory

Nietzsche believed that human nature is divided in two major parts, the apollonian and the Dionysian part. The apollonian side of the human nature is considered to be the logical side, our desire for a peaceful life, stability. The Dionysian side of the human nature represents the illogical component of the psyche, the attraction towards the creative chaos, passion and dynamic experiences. Art and literature represent release these two tendencies. Nietzsche believed that failures that result fro taking risks may reinforce the personal development. This theory is very similar to the Freud’s theory that talks about personality structure and divides personality in three components the id which reflects the Dionysian side of the human nature, the ego which reflects the apollonian side and ego, a new component created by Freud and reflects the moral side of the human personality  (Heirgenhaun 2005),.

Nietzsche considered his self as a psychologist, he believed that each person is a unique miracle. He suggested that we are responsible toward ourselves for our existence and our liberty makes us responsible for our personality in the same way artists are responsible for their creations (Heirgenhaun 2005) .

Nietzsche announced that God is dead. Philosophers and scientists killed him. Philosophers and scientists killed God and destroyed universe’s purpose. Darwinian theory for example showed that people have the same origin with other living organisms and have the same destiny which is death. Also astronomy suggests that earth has no special position in the universe, it is a planet of a small size that turns around of the sun and there are millions suns in the universe(Heirgenhaun 2005) .

Nietzsche suggested that there is no God who cares about us and without religion humans are alone in a universal tabula rasa without supernatural principles and powers to drive them(Heirgenhaun 2005) .

Nietzsche believed that people have to gain knowledge about them and act according to this knowledge. The most important human motive is the desire for power. Like Schopenhauer, Neitzsche believed that people are mainly illogical. He believed that insticts should not be repressed but they have to be expressed. The desire for power can be satisfied only when a human being acts according to her feelings. Agains this theory reflects Freud’s theory, Freud believed that people are savage beasts motivated by insticts, insticts should be expressed otherwise the person will be supressed and unhappy (Heirgenhaun 2005).

The desire for power is to gain governance over ourselves and our destiny. The desire for power makes humans to search for new experiences and move towards their full potential. People that move towards their full potential are considered to be supermen because morality does not govern their life, their life is independent and creative. Neitzsche believed that Jesus, Dostojevsky and Goethe were supermen.

Nazi’s borrowed the theory of Neitzsche and they believed that German were supermen. For Nazi’s supermen was synonymous to superior people. Neitzsche did not believed that there are nations that are superior or inferior, he ended his relationship with Wagner because he had very intense nationalistic views. According to Nietzsche every person has the ability to become a superman. Only passion self knowledge and courage differentiate men for supermen. Freud suggested that Neitzsche should have included himself in the catalogues of the supermen because he had an extremely filtering knowledge about himself (Heirgenhaun 2005) .

Nietzsche as a leader

I believe that the trait approach is the approach that fits to Friedrich Nietzsche ‘s case. This approach is also called ‘’the great man’’ approach as it emphasizes on the innate qualities that characterize the leading figures. This approach identifies some leadership traits such as intelligence, self-confidence, determination, integrity and sociability. The trait approach includes only the leader and not other people or the situation. I assume that Nietzsche had the appropriate traits to do what he did, to develop his theory and write all these books. Off course he was influenced by other people such as Wagner and Schopenhauer but if he was not born with all these personality traits that led him to become a great philosopher he could not managed to reach that point. Nietzsche influenced many other leading figures especially in psychology, his theories were used as a basis for later theories to be developed or inspired future theorists to develop their own theories.

Freud was the first person that was influenced from Neizsche, another well-known psychologist that was influenced too by this bright mind was Alfred Adler. Carl Jung was another famous theorist who was influenced by Neitsche. Jung believed that people are either introverted ot extroverted. He believed that introverted people are governed by the apollonian tendency of the human nature and extroverted are governed by the dionysian tendency (Heirgenhaun 2005).

Neitzsche is considered to be either an existential philosopher or romantic philosopher. The topics of both philosophies focus on human feelings, the importance of subjective experience, the respect towards individuality and a reaction towards the theories of rationalists, empricalists and physical scientists. He believed that these theories eliminate the importance of the human being. Romantism and Existentialism have shaped the third power of Psychology which is called Humanistic psychology. Rogers, Maslow, May and Kelly were some of the theorists influenced by romantic and existential philosophy (Heirgenhaun 2005) .