Stephen Hicks - Nietzsche and the Nazis (DVD Preview)

Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900) is famous for his statement that "God is dead" and his provocative account of Master and Slave moralities - and for the fact that Adolf Hitler and the Nazis claimed that Nietzsche was one of their great inspirations.

How did the Nazis succeed in coming to power in a nation as educated and civilized as Germany? What was Friedrich Nietzsche's philosophy?

Hicks begins by delving deeply into the National Socialist philosophy and determines that the Nazi movement was truly a philosophical--rather than a political--movement, with leaders motivated by a strong ideological commitment. He show how they clearly stated their goals from the beginning and pursued those goals when they achieved power.

Contrary to the common perception that the Nazis somehow tricked the German people into handing them power, through charismatic or other manipulations, Hicks shows how the Nazi philosophy appealed to a large percentage of Germans.

http://www.objectivismstore.com

http://www.stephenhicks.org

Category:

Education

Tags:

• collectivism
• socialism
• philosophy
• history
• individualism
• trailer

[losse5656]

Also, I highly recommend T. K. Seung's excellent books Goethe, Nietzsche, and Wagner: Their Spinozan Epics of Love and Power, and Nietzsche's Epic of the Soul: Thus Spoke Zarathustra. Remember, Nietzsche said Zarathustra was his most important book. I believe Nietzsche has an exoteric and an esoteric side.

[losse5656]

Uh, maybe it was the radical questioning and light of reason and philosophy which led to this. What makes you so sure that reason can justify a liberal society? Take away the holocaust from the nazis, and they were not far from the romans. Besides the treaty of versailles, which was horrible to the Germans, germany was delving deeply into ancient greek philosophy and questioning modernity. Reason breeds anthropology, skepticism and science. It also discredits values and can't justify itself.

[tylerbugh1]

but the saddest thing about hicks is even though he has a phd in this shit, a 21 year old high-school college dropout stoner kid (me) can clearly see his extreme and slightly moronic desire to completely over simplify everything. he wants to narrow everything down to singularities and dualities as to make it easier for him to systemize a very chaotic and complex time in history.

[tylerbugh1]

and nietzsche even referrs to himself as one of the many sacrifices that will lead to the rise of the few supermen, its reminiscent of blakes line "to put another before oneself is the most sublime act"...i dont get how hicks can really think that nietszche, when talking of this mass sacrifice, was referring to the holocaust.

[cavaleer]

The Age of Pericles was based on the vision of one man- Themistokles....and the backbreaking labor and spirit of the Greek sailor. Everything was built on their backs and his vision.

[TheSlimySeconds]

@NORMANGODS I think you are thinking more on the lines of Wagner. Nietzsche never hated the Jews.

[eduardorenato]

This movie is one of the worst examples of bad scholarship I've ever seen, which in the background of early 20th century scholarship on Nietzsche (this film's intellectual milieu) says a lot. It's a tired question that has been rightly abandoned as an object of serious academic efforts, an abusive reduction of the complex and rich thought of an amazing mind (Nietzsche's), and a shameless, triumphalist plug for US neo-liberalism and exceptionalism. Who the fuck gave this guy a phd?