Friedrich Nietzsche Thus Spoke Zarathustra - Essence

“The self-overcoming of morality through truthfulness, the self-overcoming of the moralist into his opposite into -we - that is what the name Zarathustra means in my mouth.” Nietzsche

The essence of the Thus Spoke Zarathustra is finding the mining’s of the central concepts of life, to find the truth. Zarathustra, the main character speculates that “Jesus would have said: I am the truth.” He, on the other hand, introduces his theory that the truth is what you “yourself are”, and the truth becomes one when “you yourself give it”. Zaharustra concludes that the “truth is not something that can be proved or disproved: it is something which you determine upon, which in the language of the old psychology, you will.”

The main character Zarathustra was originally, a Greek thinker, a founder of the ancient Persian religion. The essence of this religion was a conflict between Ahara Mazda, the god of light and Angra Mainyu, the god of darkness and evil. Nietzshe uses Zarathustra’s name to metaphorically reference to roots of one of the eldest religions which Christianity is thought to have anthropologically to be connected with, ancient Apollonian representing light and logic against Dionysian with the cult of intoxication and ecstasy.

Nietzsche explained that Zarathustra the thinker, was “the first to see in the struggle between good and evil(…) the translation of morality into the realm of metaphysics, as force, cause, end-in-itself, is his work. (…)”, and added that Zarathustra was “more truthful than any other thinker”.

Main concepts that Nietzsche touches in his book are Amor Fati, Eternal recurrence, will to power, living dangerously, Great noontide and the Superman theory.

Nietasche introduces in his book theory that The God is dead for him and His successor in a Superhuman, who people eventually, fail to understand. Superhuman’s antithesis is an Ultimate Man, who sacrifices the future to his own present. He repeats numerously that human’s existence is ‘uncanny’. Zarathustra’s band of disciples display Nietzsche’s views on various subjects of questions, e.g. ‘education of the spirit’, ‘negative virtue’, ‘metaphysical world’, ‘religion between mind and body’, ’the nature of virtues’ and many others.

The University of Winchester Journalism Course
History and Context of Journalism, Part IV,
Friedrich Nietzsche, Thus Spoke Zarathustra, Part 1