“God is dead . . . and we have killed him.” These words are perhaps the most famous—and misunderstood—of many provocative aphorisms penned by the 19th-century German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche. Within those terse words lies a massive claim concerning the entirety of the philosophical and theological tradition of the West, a 2,500-year tradition dating back to the works of Plato that Nietzsche sought to displace. After all, he claimed, “since Plato, philosophy has been in exile.”
Join Georgetown professor Joseph Hartman in considering this electric, controversial, and provocative modern thinker. Hartman examines—and encourages discussion—about some of the central questions raised by Nietzsche’s work: How can we understand (or do we misunderstand) ethics and morality? How might we confront the civilizational catastrophe evinced by the death of God—if we accept such a claim in the first place? What does the term “last man” signify? What does “God is dead” even mean? How would Nietzsche counsel us to live in the 21st century?
Note this program is a mixture of lecture and discussion.
Recommended reading: the first essay in Nietzsche’s Genealogy of Morals.
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