ink of himself as an aristocrat whose great virtues are fearlessness and willingness to assume leadership.(Bentley, p.85) Ironically, Nietzsche planned to study theology(to please his mother). At this time Nietzsche no longer believed in Christianity, because with maturity he lost his heavenly father(Bentley, p.86). In 1868 Nietzsche was a student in Leipzig. This is when he met Cosima and Richard Wagner. The latter was a world-renowned musical artist. Both of these individuals were crucial to Nietzsche's development as a philosopher.Theognis was a poet of the sixth century B.C. This man suppliedNietzsche with the idea that an aristocracy should be scientifically bred like horses(Bentley, p.85) When Nietzsche was twenty, he had acquired a diverse set of opinions and attitudes. He had been taught to admire strongpoliticians and to think of himself as an aristocrat whose great virtues arefearlessness and willingness to assume leadership.(Bentley, p. 85) Despitehis own personal efforts to be bad and mean, Nietzsche remained innocent andcaring. The first major school of thought that Nietzche adhered to was because of the writings of Schopenhauer. After purchasing Artur Schopenhauer's The World as Will and Idea, a book on metaphysics, Nietzsche wrote, I saw a mirror in which I espied the whole world, life and my own mind depicted in frightful grandeur. In this volume the full celestial eye of art gazed at me; here I saw illness and recovery, banishment and refuge, Hell and Heaven.(Bentley p.87) Nietzsche went back and forth with these opposites for the rest of his life. Deviant from Schopenhauer's class theory, Nietzsche's endeavor was not so much to elevate the practical man to the first rank as to merge Schopenhauer's first three ranks into one superhuman being.(Bentley, p.89) As Nietzsche did with all of his youthful inspirations, he turned against Schopenhauer. The name of Schopenhauer was the flag under which...
