Episode Details

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OUR ANALYSES:
▶ Beyond Good and Evil: https://youtu.be/WIHXZUltfqk
▶ The Antichrist: https://youtu.be/qej1Z8Qzq_c
▶ Genealogy of Morals: https://youtu.be/6PUx4cOfFcI
▶ Twilight of the Idols: https://youtu.be/YpVr_NEvWYA
▶ The Will to Power: https://youtu.be/He6ZC7ZFBt8
▶ Daybreak: https://youtu.be/cOL2z7nuXdA
▶ The Joyful Science: https://youtu.be/U0fTBOJ-C_I

TIMESTAMPS:
00:00 Introduction
02:56 Insanity and censored works
05:24 The Law against Christianity
07:57 Philosophy of Insanity?
10:00 First proposition
14:09 Second proposition
25:53 Third proposition
26:26 Fourth proposition
32:14 Fifth proposition
34:17 Sixth proposition
40:38 Seventh proposition

Nietzsche's The Antichrist was written in 1888 but only published 6 years later. Publication was delayed because not long after writing the work, Nietzsche started writing his so-called "insanity letters" (Wahnbriefe) to friends, which caused them concern for his mental well-being. He signs these letters as either The Crucified One or Dionysus, and claims (among other things) he has created the world and that the Pope should be shot.

His friends are concerned and send him to the doctor while they take control over the manuscript of The Antichrist. The book would not see publications for over half a decade.

Ostensibly, because they thought this book was written while Nietzsche was already mentally unwell and that therefore, it shouldn't be considered a serious work of philosophy of his. But actually, the book itself is very straightforward, sets out arguments in a neat, orderly manner -- totally unlike his later insanity letters. No, the book was more than likely withheld because of its radical anti-Christian contents.

The final page of the book, a declaration of a "Law against Christianity" was initially omitted from the work because it was thought to be a separate note that wasn't necessarily intended to be included. Later scholarship has proven that this enigmatic final page should indeed be part of the Antichrist, but even today many editions lack this concluding section of the work.

It was suppressed for its radical tone and anti-Christian sentiment. Why? Nietzsche is, characteristically for this period, hyperbolic and radical. He lists seven propositions, policy proposals, that together make up his "Law against Christianity."

In summary, they are:

1) Priests should be locked up
2) Church services are an attack on public morality
3) The birthplace of Christianity should be razed to the ground
4) Chastity is anti-nature
5) Associating with priests should be a crime
6) Words like “God”, “savior” and “redeemer” should be used as insults, fit for criminals
7) All the rest follows from this.

This video takes a deeper dive into each proposition Nietzsche wrote down here, and examines them in the light of his earlier philosophy. Was this final page the work of a madman, writing on the edge of insanity, or does it follow logically from his earlier work?

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