Nietzsche's Thus Spoke Zarathustra 1.3 (part 1): The Revolution Begins

Athens Corner

This is the trailer of a discussion for the series I'm doing on the entire text of Nietzsche's Thus Spoke Zarathustra (the entire discussion is available on my AthensCorner.com website for subscribers). At issue in Zarathustra's speech here is everything encompassed in the phrase "the transvaluation of all values" (or "the revaluation of all values"). That is to say that this speech by Zarathustra marks the beginning of Nietzsche's experiment as a political founder in postmodernity. I emphasize how the issue of Zarathustra's understanding of "the hinterworldly" is the question of the possibility of another "Enlightenment," and it is precisely this question that constitutes the ultimate status of the teaching on the Overman in the text. Specifically, this speech by Zarathustra is the true beginning of the possibility of "Enlightenment," which is itself the possibility of the Overman. Accordingly, it marks the true beginning of Zarathustra's fundamentally political project, which is to say the possibility of what man as such can become.

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