Ecce Homo: How To Become What You Are

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OUP Oxford, May 10, 2007 - Philosophy - 176 pages
'I am not a man, I am dynamite.' Ecce Homo is an autobiography like no other. Deliberately provocative, Nietzsche subverts the conventions of the genre and pushes his philosophical positions to combative extremes, constructing a genius-hero whose life is a chronicle of incessant self-overcoming. Written in 1888, a few weeks before his descent into madness, the book sub-titled 'How To Become What You Are' passes under review all Nietzsche's previous works so that we, his 'posthumous' readers, can finally understand him aright, on his own terms. He reaches final reckonings with his many enemies - Richard Wagner, German nationalism, 'modern men' in general - and above all Christianity, proclaiming himself the Antichrist. Ecce Homo is the summation of an extraordinary philosophical career, a last great testament to Nietzsche's will.
 

Contents

Foreword
3
I Why I Am So Wise
7
II Why I Am So Clever
19
III Why I Write Such Good Books
36
IV Why I Am a Destiny
88
Explanatory Notes
97
Glossary of Names
117
Index
121
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About the author (2007)

Formerly Chairman of the Friedrich Nietzsche Society, Duncan Large is currently Joint Secretary of the Conference of University Teachers of German in Great Britain and Ireland. His forthcoming books include The Nietzsche Reader (Blackwell, 2003), ed. with Keith Ansell-Pearson.

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