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Penguin Great Ideas : Why I Am So Wise (Paperback)

by Friedrich Nietzsche (Author) "THE fortunateness of my existence, its uniqueness perhaps, lies in its fatality: to express it in the form of a riddle, as my father I..." (more)
3.3 out of 5 stars See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
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Product details

  • Paperback: 96 pages
  • Publisher: Penguin; Rev Ed edition (2 Sep 2004)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 0141018976
  • ISBN-13: 978-0141018973
  • Product Dimensions: 17.6 x 10.4 x 0.6 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 195,510 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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    #60 in  Books > Society, Politics & Philosophy > Philosophy > Philosophers > Nietzsche, Friedrich

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Product Description

Product Description
Throughout history, some books have changed the world. They have transformed the way we see ourselves – and each other. They have inspired debate, dissent, war and revolution. They have enlightened, outraged, provoked and comforted. They have enriched lives – and destroyed them. Now Penguin brings you the works of the great thinkers, pioneers, radicals and visionaries whose ideas shook civilization, and helped make us who we are.

About the Author
Friedrich Nietzsche was born near Leipzig in 1844, the son of a Lutheran clergyman. At 24 he was appointed to the chair of classical philology at Basle University, where he stayed until forced by his health to retire in 1879. Here, he wrote all his literature, including Thus Spake Zarathustra, and developed his idea of the Superman. He became insane in 1889 and remained so until his death in 1900.
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First Sentence
THE fortunateness of my existence, its uniqueness perhaps, lies in its fatality: to express it in the form of a riddle, as my father I have already died, as my mother I still live and grow old. Read the first page
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17 of 45 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars Why I write such good reviews, 1 Nov 2005
As a philosophy student I stumbled across this book in a local bookshop and was attracted to it due to my familiarity with the name Nietzsche. I had heard a fair amount about Nietzsche's Übermensch philosophy and thought that by purchasing this book I could clue up on his ideas. The title of the book: "Why I am so Wise" is deceiving as the book contains the two works: "Ecce Homo" and "Twilight of the idols." The title "Why I am so wise" is in fact the name of chapter one chapter of the first work: "Ecce Homo." So in fact the title of the book should not be "Why I am so wise" but in my opinion an explanatory title. When I first started reading the book I was annoyed at the way in which the book was written; the words did not seem to scan well and the work did not seem to be overly coherent. I found the work overly pretentious in its linguistics meaning that I could not really fathom Nietzsche's intentions to a sufficient degree of clarity. To try and increase my understanding of the text I attempted to research Nietzsche's book titled "Why I am so wise" which I later found to be an inaccurate title as explained above. Having realised my mistake I searched for "Ecce Homo" and discovered that the book is in fact Nietzsche's autobiographical account of why people see him as so wise and "how he has become what he is." Even the title itself is a taste of things to come. (Translated into English "Ecce Homo" is equivalent to "behold the man" which were the words said by Pilate about Christ when was on trial.) Nietzsche has very controversially likened himself to Christ in this statement which creates a powerful initial impression of Nietzsche as an arrogant individual. After reading this work one can not help but see the similarities between Nietzsche's radical philosophy and the philosophy of the Nazi Party.
The main problem of this work in my opinion is the fact that although Nietzsche claims to be an optimist one can clearly see, through the way that he writes, that he has a very sad and sordid mindset. To see Nietzsche as a role model would be to seek after unhappiness and seek to follow someone who offers a very select reward, one that does not inspire me especially. Despite of this Nietzsche constantly makes biblical references; to give an example Nietzsche makes a very bold statement in the Forward of "Ecce Homo" by referring to his readers as "his disciples."
One can not help that find Nietzsche contradictory on several occasions e.g. he shows excessive hatred for Christianity and all Christians throughout his book by making subtly derisive links and derogatory jokes in an attempt to build a negative stereotype in the mind of his readers. This shows that Nietzsche is negatively disposed toward Christianity as a whole and that there is clearly a factor of personal difference. Despite this in chapter one section 7 Nietzsche states: "I only attack things where any kind of personal difference is excluded." Although later in the chapter Nietzsche does attempt to justify his hatred of Christianity as an exception to this rule I personally find his explanation inadequate as I'm sure others would.
Contrary to what it might seem I do respect Nietzsche as a philosopher and I do think that one can gain from some his philosophical ideas. I do not however see Nietzsche as an inspirational figure or someone that people would idolise and follow as he claims that they should. Nietzsche, in my opinion, does not seem to me to be an individual that would evoke a sense inspiration in the common man and so I see fault in a lot of is claims. My advice therefore is thus; by all means read this book as a philosophical text and decide for yourself whether or not you agree with Nietzsche but this probably isn't the book to go for if you fancy a bit of light reading. The book isn't easy going and I didn't find it particularly enjoyable to read if I'm honest. Nevertheless a lot of good ideas came out of it so for that I would recommend it. To sum up the book in a phrase: "A controversial and thought provoking read. Good luck!
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3 of 24 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars Why i write such good reviews, 24 Oct 2005
As a philosophy student I stumbled across this book in a local bookshop and was attracted to it due to my familiarity with the name Nietzsche. I had heard a fair amount about Nietzsche's Übermensch philosophy and thought that by purchasing this book I could clue up on his ideas. The title of the book: "Why I am so Wise" is deceiving as the book contains the two works: "Ecce Homo" and "Twilight of the idols." The title "Why I am so wise" is in fact the name of chapter one chapter of the first work: "Ecce Homo." So in fact the title of the book should not be "Why I am so wise" but in my opinion an explanatory title. When I first started reading the book I was annoyed at the way in which the book was written; the words did not seem to scan well and the work did not seem to be overly coherent. I found the work overly pretentious in its linguistics meaning that I could not really fathom Nietzsche's intentions to a sufficient degree of clarity. To try and increase my understanding of the text I attempted to research Nietzsche's book titled "Why I am so wise" which I later found to be an inaccurate title as explained above. Having realised my mistake I searched for "Ecce Homo" and discovered that the book is in fact Nietzsche's autobiographical account of why people see him as so wise and "how he has become what he is." Even the title itself is a taste of things to come. (Translated into English "Ecce Homo" is equivalent to "behold the man" which were the words said by Pilate about Christ when was on trial.) Nietzsche has very controversially likened himself to Christ in this statement which creates a powerful initial impression of Nietzsche as an arrogant individual. After reading this work one can not help but see the similarities between Nietzsche's radical philosophy and the philosophy of the Nazi Party.
The main problem of this work in my opinion is the fact that although Nietzsche claims to be an optimist one can clearly see, through the way that he writes, that he has a very sad and sordid mindset. To see Nietzsche as a role model would be to seek after unhappiness and seek to follow someone who offers a very select reward, one that does not inspire me especially. Despite of this Nietzsche constantly makes biblical references; to give an example Nietzsche makes a very bold statement in the Forward of "Ecce Homo" by referring to his readers as "his disciples."
One can not help that find Nietzsche contradictory on several occasions e.g. he shows excessive hatred for Christianity and all Christians throughout his book by making subtly derisive links and derogatory jokes in an attempt to build a negative stereotype in the mind of his readers. This shows that Nietzsche is negatively disposed toward Christianity as a whole and that there is clearly a factor of personal difference. Despite this in chapter one section 7 Nietzsche states: "I only attack things where any kind of personal difference is excluded." Although later in the chapter Nietzsche does attempt to justify his hatred of Christianity as an exception to this rule I personally find his explanation inadequate as I'm sure others would.
Contrary to what it might seem I do respect Nietzsche as a philosopher and I do think that one can gain from some his philosophical ideas. I do not however see Nietzsche as an inspirational figure or someone that people would idolise and follow as he claims that they should. Nietzsche, in my opinion, does not seem to me to be an individual that would evoke a sense inspiration in the common man and so I see fault in a lot of is claims. My advice therefore is thus; by all means read this book as a philosophical text and decide for yourself whether or not you agree with Nietzsche but this probably isn't the book to go for if you fancy a bit of light reading. The book isn't easy going and I didn't find it particularly enjoyable to read if I'm honest. Nevertheless a lot of good ideas came out of it so for that I would recommend it. To sum up the book in a phrase: "A controversial and thought provoking read. Good luck!
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0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars Why this selection is so unwise, 8 April 2009
By Samuel J. Tunnicliffe (Winchester) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
This selection is apparently constituted (according to Peter Young's review) of; 'Twighlight of the Idols', and 'Ecce Homo', and controversially, for a reviewer, I have not actually read this book.
I may as well begin by saying this, so as if you wish, you may totally disregard this review, (though I have read others of Nietzsche's books and have a knowledge of his body of work as a whole).

The reason however (if you wish still to read on) I am giving this book a bad review without even having read it is because, fundamentally, it is a poor combination and reduction of texts into one single document on behalf of Penguin.

Fistly, Amazon claims that 'Why I am so Wise', and also 'Man Alone with Himself' (the same book published under a different title) are both about 94 pages long. 'Twightlight', and 'Ecce Homo', in the versions I have got, add up to around 170 pages. I deduce from this that it is virtually impossible for 'Why I am so Wise' to contain both of these texts in full, thus whatever is printed inside this book is unlikely to be represented to the public in the manner in which it was intended by Nietzsche to be shown; parts will invariably be shortened, or cut out altogether, lending the reader to confusion, especially if they decide to buy more of Nietzsche's books - which ones do you have in full, and which are left?

Even if penguin acheived the mammoth feat of combining these two works into 94 pages, what those who are unaccustomed to Nietzsche's works will be unaware of is that these books were not intended to be bound together. Ecce Homo is a semi-autobiographical work of a very different nature to the rest of Nietzsche's books, and the titles of the sections, 'why I write such excellent books', and 'why I am so clever' were intended ironically, and humourously, something a first time reader of Nietzsche will perhaps not grasp.

Thirdly, Ecce Homo requires a knoledge of at least a few of Nietzsche's previous works, such as 'Beyond Good and Evil', 'On the Genealogy of Morals', and 'Thus Spoke Zarathustra', amongst others, such as 'Dawn of the Day', and 'The Gay Science' (this is not a polemical pseudo science of homosexuality, Gay is used in its original meaning), which curiously, Penguin have neglected to print... a fact which as of yet, is not rectified. Again, if unacquainted with Nietzsche, I would definitely recommend reading a few of these first.

One final, and crucial point however, is that if you truly want to read these works as intended by Nietzsche, then I would seriously reccomend the Wordsworth classics of World Literature version of Twilight of the Idols/Antichrist/Ecce Homo (Wordsworth Classics of World Literature): WITH Antichrist AND Ecce Homo This comes with 'Antichrist', so has an extra book effectively free, when compared with 'Why I am so Wise', on top of the fact that it has the books listed in the order they were written, and certainly has both 'Twighlight', and 'Ecce Homo' in full. Plus it is cheaper...

If you can avoid buying 'Why I am so Wise', I certainly would. Producing mass market selections of his work which are 'accessible' to the public, is certainly not to Nietzsche's taste... which explains a great deal why Mr. Young's review is not the most helpful, in fact, it only constitutes a particularly unneccesary and drawn out opinion of the text itself, rather than a review. But perhaps this can be forgiven, as it is Penguin's blame to accept for this unseemly selection
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