Nietzsche's Zarathustra

Friedrich Nietzsche is one of the most profound and influential thinkers in the history of philosophy, but also one of the most misunderstood. In particular, the work Nietzsche himself considered his magnum opus – Thus Spoke Zarathustra – has been the subject of intense debate and speculation owing to its literary style and evocative, cryptic imagery. In this course, we will spend the semester reading Thus Spoke Zarathustra. Together we will attempt to answer key questions such as “Who is Zarathustra, and what does he represent?”, and explore some of Nietzsche’s most famous ideas, including eternal recurrence and the overman (Übermensch).