NIETZSCHE, Friedrich.

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Menschliches, Allzumenschliches. First edition of Nietzsche's first major polemical and aphoristic work, marking his transition "from the philologist and cultural critic he had been into the kind of philosopher and writer he came to be" (Schacht, p. vii).The work, which is translated as Human, All Too Human, embraces positivist reason in opposition to the metaphysical idealism of Schopenhauer and Wagner. For Nietzsche, a naturally grounded reason was the only viable option to secure the ultimate enhancement of human life.The Menschliches reflects on religion, art, and morality, and its incisive attacks on conventional pieties foreshadowed the thought of Nietzsche's mature period. It includes early expressions of many major Nietzschian concepts, including the "will to power" and the rejection of Christian morality.Menschliches expresses Nietzsche's final, direct disillusionment with Wagner, of whom he had been a devoted admirer. He even claimed to have begun writing the work in response to the first Bayreuth production of the Ring cycle. On receiving his copy, Wagner remarked that "he would be doing the author a favor, for which the latter would one day thank him, if he did not read it" (quoted in Schaberg, p. 64).

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