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Hiking with Nietzsche: On Becoming Who You Are
A revelatory Alpine journey in the spirit of the great Romantic thinker Friedrich Nietzsche
Hiking with Nietzsche: Becoming Who You Are is a tale of two philosophical journeys--one made by John Kaag as an introspective young man of nineteen, the other seventeen years later, in radically different circumstances: he is now a husband and father, and his wife and small child are in tow. Kaag sets off for the Swiss peaks above Sils Maria where Nietzsche wrote his landmark work Thus Spoke Zarathustra. Both of Kaag's journeys are made in search of the wisdom at the core of Nietzsche's philosophy, yet they deliver him to radically different interpretations and, more crucially, revelations about the human condition.
Just as Kaag's acclaimed debut, American Philosophy: A Love Story, seamlessly wove together his philosophical discoveries with his search for meaning, Hiking with Nietzsche is a fascinating exploration not only of Nietzsche's ideals but of how his experience of living relates to us as individuals in the twenty-first century. Bold, intimate, and rich with insight, Hiking with Nietzsche is about defeating complacency, balancing sanity and madness, and coming to grips with the unobtainable. As Kaag hikes, alone or with his family, but always with Nietzsche, he recognizes that even slipping can be instructive. It is in the process of climbing, and through the inevitable missteps, that one has the chance, in Nietzsche's words, to "become who you are."
Hiking with Nietzsche: Becoming Who You Are is a tale of two philosophical journeys--one made by John Kaag as an introspective young man of nineteen, the other seventeen years later, in radically different circumstances: he is now a husband and father, and his wife and small child are in tow. Kaag sets off for the Swiss peaks above Sils Maria where Nietzsche wrote his landmark work Thus Spoke Zarathustra. Both of Kaag's journeys are made in search of the wisdom at the core of Nietzsche's philosophy, yet they deliver him to radically different interpretations and, more crucially, revelations about the human condition.
Just as Kaag's acclaimed debut, American Philosophy: A Love Story, seamlessly wove together his philosophical discoveries with his search for meaning, Hiking with Nietzsche is a fascinating exploration not only of Nietzsche's ideals but of how his experience of living relates to us as individuals in the twenty-first century. Bold, intimate, and rich with insight, Hiking with Nietzsche is about defeating complacency, balancing sanity and madness, and coming to grips with the unobtainable. As Kaag hikes, alone or with his family, but always with Nietzsche, he recognizes that even slipping can be instructive. It is in the process of climbing, and through the inevitable missteps, that one has the chance, in Nietzsche's words, to "become who you are."
272 pages, Hardcover
First published September 25, 2018
About the author
John Kaag
16 books195 followersJohn Kaag is a Professor of Philosophy at the University of Massachusetts Lowell and author of American Philosophy: A Love Story. It is a story of lost library, a lost American intellectual tradition and a lost person--and their simultaneous recovery.
Kaag is a dispirited young philosopher at sea in his marriage and his career when he stumbles upon West Wind, a ruin of an estate in the hinterlands of New Hampshire that belonged to the eminent Harvard philosopher William Ernest Hocking. Hocking was one of the last true giants of American philosophy and a direct intellectual descendent of William James, the father of American philosophy and psychology, with whom Kaag feels a deep kinship. It is James’s question “Is life worth living?” that guides this remarkable book.
The books Kaag discovers in the Hocking library are crawling with insects and full of mold. But he resolves to restore them, as he immediately recognizes their importance. Not only does the library at West Wind contain handwritten notes from Whitman and inscriptions from Frost, but there are startlingly rare first editions of Hobbes, Descartes, and Kant. As Kaag begins to catalog and read through these priceless volumes, he embarks on a thrilling journey that leads him to the life-affirming tenets of American philosophy―self-reliance, pragmatism, and transcendence―and to a brilliant young Kantian who joins him in the restoration of the Hocking books.
Part intellectual history, part memoir, American Philosophy is ultimately about love, freedom, and the role that wisdom can play in turning one’s life around.
John lives with his daughter, Becca, and partner, Carol, outside of Boston.
Kaag is a dispirited young philosopher at sea in his marriage and his career when he stumbles upon West Wind, a ruin of an estate in the hinterlands of New Hampshire that belonged to the eminent Harvard philosopher William Ernest Hocking. Hocking was one of the last true giants of American philosophy and a direct intellectual descendent of William James, the father of American philosophy and psychology, with whom Kaag feels a deep kinship. It is James’s question “Is life worth living?” that guides this remarkable book.
The books Kaag discovers in the Hocking library are crawling with insects and full of mold. But he resolves to restore them, as he immediately recognizes their importance. Not only does the library at West Wind contain handwritten notes from Whitman and inscriptions from Frost, but there are startlingly rare first editions of Hobbes, Descartes, and Kant. As Kaag begins to catalog and read through these priceless volumes, he embarks on a thrilling journey that leads him to the life-affirming tenets of American philosophy―self-reliance, pragmatism, and transcendence―and to a brilliant young Kantian who joins him in the restoration of the Hocking books.
Part intellectual history, part memoir, American Philosophy is ultimately about love, freedom, and the role that wisdom can play in turning one’s life around.
John lives with his daughter, Becca, and partner, Carol, outside of Boston.
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October 20, 2020
While reading this book I had the very uncomfortable feeling that I was being taken for a ride by the author. In his American Philosophy (which I haven’t read) Mr. Kaag seemed to have hit upon a winning formula that meshed autobiography with the lives and ideas of Transcendentalist philosophers. Perhaps his agent thought this home run was worth repeating. And so they zoomed in on Nietzsche, a thinker about whom Kaag had been writing a thesis as a student and on which he had been teaching to undergraduates. But composing an autobiographical narrative that meaningfully echoes the very highs and lows of Nietzsche's life seemed to have been too much of a stretch. At least that is my conclusion after reading this book.
Kaag’s personal reminiscences in ‘Hiking with Nietzsche' center on three episodes (of which I will only discuss two). First there is a visit to the Swiss Alps when he was a rather naive student and got himself into trouble on a long hike from Splügen to Sils-Maria in the Engadin. Impossible to figure out whether this ever really happened, but the cavalier way in which Kaag handles the geographical details makes this reader somewhat suspicious. Indeed, when you take a map and draw a straight line between Splügen and Sils then somewhere halfway down the line will cross the 3400m high summit of Piz Platta, where allegedly the young Kaag got into trouble. But a hiker would have no reason at all to walk up this mountain. Rather, it would be very natural to follow the trails through valleys and across mountain passes into the Engadin. And neither is it very likely that “this peak can be seen on a clear day from a plane two hundred miles away”. (What Wikipedia mentions is that from the summit of Platta it is possible to see conspicuous and much higher Alpine summits about 150 kms away). Maybe I’m overdoing the forensic bit, but the story is emblematic for the highly strung and somewhat adolescent tone that pervades the whole book.
The second and most extensively documented episode is Kaag’s more recent visit to Sils-Maria, where Nietzsche lived an extraordinarily creative episode, accompanied by his wife and daughter. Avowedly, the point of the trip was to exorcise some personal demons. Kaag confesses that he had misgivings about the state of marriage and about parenthood that were difficult to put to rest. He had been married before. His second marriage came with the blessing of a young daughter. Nevertheless he kept harbouring doubts. His second wife, Carol Hay, is a professional philosopher in her own right who is advancing an intriguing research agenda that links Kantian philosophy and political liberalism to a radical feminist agenda. Easy to understand that she holds Nietzsche - a-rationalist and misogynist par excellence - in very low esteem. And yet she nudges her husband to travel back to Switzerland to pick up the thread of his life where he left it 16 years earlier. Here the story modulates to a more comical register. The family checks into the famous Waldhaus hotel, pitched on a rock high above Sils. Standard double rooms are sold for around 500 euro per night in the high season. The irony of using this luxury hotel as a base camp for an alpine journey that seeks clarity in existential and marital questions, particularly from a Nietzschean frame of mind, is not lost on the author. What follows is a comedy of errors in which misjudgements and misunderstandings, pent-up frustrations, and willful risk-taking propel the story forward. And this is laid out in such a way that the anxieties and conflicts dovetail nicely with the key episodes, works and ideas in Nietzsche’s biographical trajectory. But, honestly, I’m not really buying it.
Two observations sadden me. First, I feel that Prof. Kaag, maybe gratuitously, risks his status and standing as a husband and mentor in this book. Either he is commendably courageous or vainly stupid to share his doubts about his ability to sustain a companionship marriage and a positive, empowering outlook on life (with or without the aid of anti-depressants). In light of his confessions his wife, daughter, professional peers, employers and students may start to look askance at him.
And then I also regret that the Nietzsche that emerges from this book is not the one that I have come to love. Agreed, there is no point in reading books if one merely seeks to reconfirm one’s own ideas. But this Nietzsche seems to hark back to an older stereotype, shrill and resentful, and misses the deep humanity that lies at the heart of his life and work. There are interesting observations in the book. I particularly appreciated the chapters on Nietzsche's middle-period which shed an interesting light on his relationship with Wagner and with Lou Salomé. But as the book advances the pitch rises in sync with the alpine anxieties that are playing out around the Waldhaus and it all becomes a bit blurry.
A few final qualms with this book: first, Kaag copiously cites from Nietzsche’s work but there are no notes that refer to the original sources. Also, apparently Kaag has to rely on the Kaufmann translations. It would obviously have been better to consult the German critical edition. As a result it is very hard to verify how close Kaag stays to the original text. At one point it is obvious that he takes considerable liberties. At the end of the book the author cites a letter written by Nietzsche, after his collapse, to Cosima Wagner: “I am Buddha.” The original would sound like this: “It is a mere prejudice that I am a human being. Yet I have dwelled among human beings and I know the things human beings experience, from the lowest to the highest. Among the Hindus I was Buddha, in Greece Dyonisus - Alexander and Caesar were incarnations of me, as well as the poet of Shakespeare, Lord Bacon, etc.” The shortened quote to my mind does not do justice to the idea expressed in the letter.
Finally, there is one episode in the book that irritated me because of the juvenile sense of resentment that it expressed. While visiting Sils-Maria, the Kaag-Hay family resided at the Waldhaus. But Kaag had a backup room at the Nietzsche Haus nearby. He had stayed at the house during his earlier sojourn and found it rather quaint and depressing. During their stay, the author and his wife spend one night in the Red Room (while the daughter is in the hands of a babysit at the hotel). Rather than to be appreciative of the hospitality extended to an (absent) guest, Kaag sees a reason to lambaste the refurbished Nietzsche Haus as ‘an abysmal hotel’ - sterile and sedate - that caters to a coterie of would-be creatives. A few years ago I stayed for a week in the very same room Kaag resided in and I must say that I appreciated the rustic charm of the house, the expansive library and the pleasures of meeting in the communal kitchen with the other residents.
I’m going to cut short this review because I could go on for a while. For me, neither the ‘hiking’ nor the ‘Nietzsche’ layer of the book strikes me as particularly authentic and incisive. I think it would have been a much more interesting book if John Kaag had co-authored it with his wife, Carol Hay. It would have been fascinating to have the story on Nietzsche told through their diametrically opposed perspectives.
Kaag’s personal reminiscences in ‘Hiking with Nietzsche' center on three episodes (of which I will only discuss two). First there is a visit to the Swiss Alps when he was a rather naive student and got himself into trouble on a long hike from Splügen to Sils-Maria in the Engadin. Impossible to figure out whether this ever really happened, but the cavalier way in which Kaag handles the geographical details makes this reader somewhat suspicious. Indeed, when you take a map and draw a straight line between Splügen and Sils then somewhere halfway down the line will cross the 3400m high summit of Piz Platta, where allegedly the young Kaag got into trouble. But a hiker would have no reason at all to walk up this mountain. Rather, it would be very natural to follow the trails through valleys and across mountain passes into the Engadin. And neither is it very likely that “this peak can be seen on a clear day from a plane two hundred miles away”. (What Wikipedia mentions is that from the summit of Platta it is possible to see conspicuous and much higher Alpine summits about 150 kms away). Maybe I’m overdoing the forensic bit, but the story is emblematic for the highly strung and somewhat adolescent tone that pervades the whole book.
The second and most extensively documented episode is Kaag’s more recent visit to Sils-Maria, where Nietzsche lived an extraordinarily creative episode, accompanied by his wife and daughter. Avowedly, the point of the trip was to exorcise some personal demons. Kaag confesses that he had misgivings about the state of marriage and about parenthood that were difficult to put to rest. He had been married before. His second marriage came with the blessing of a young daughter. Nevertheless he kept harbouring doubts. His second wife, Carol Hay, is a professional philosopher in her own right who is advancing an intriguing research agenda that links Kantian philosophy and political liberalism to a radical feminist agenda. Easy to understand that she holds Nietzsche - a-rationalist and misogynist par excellence - in very low esteem. And yet she nudges her husband to travel back to Switzerland to pick up the thread of his life where he left it 16 years earlier. Here the story modulates to a more comical register. The family checks into the famous Waldhaus hotel, pitched on a rock high above Sils. Standard double rooms are sold for around 500 euro per night in the high season. The irony of using this luxury hotel as a base camp for an alpine journey that seeks clarity in existential and marital questions, particularly from a Nietzschean frame of mind, is not lost on the author. What follows is a comedy of errors in which misjudgements and misunderstandings, pent-up frustrations, and willful risk-taking propel the story forward. And this is laid out in such a way that the anxieties and conflicts dovetail nicely with the key episodes, works and ideas in Nietzsche’s biographical trajectory. But, honestly, I’m not really buying it.
Two observations sadden me. First, I feel that Prof. Kaag, maybe gratuitously, risks his status and standing as a husband and mentor in this book. Either he is commendably courageous or vainly stupid to share his doubts about his ability to sustain a companionship marriage and a positive, empowering outlook on life (with or without the aid of anti-depressants). In light of his confessions his wife, daughter, professional peers, employers and students may start to look askance at him.
And then I also regret that the Nietzsche that emerges from this book is not the one that I have come to love. Agreed, there is no point in reading books if one merely seeks to reconfirm one’s own ideas. But this Nietzsche seems to hark back to an older stereotype, shrill and resentful, and misses the deep humanity that lies at the heart of his life and work. There are interesting observations in the book. I particularly appreciated the chapters on Nietzsche's middle-period which shed an interesting light on his relationship with Wagner and with Lou Salomé. But as the book advances the pitch rises in sync with the alpine anxieties that are playing out around the Waldhaus and it all becomes a bit blurry.
A few final qualms with this book: first, Kaag copiously cites from Nietzsche’s work but there are no notes that refer to the original sources. Also, apparently Kaag has to rely on the Kaufmann translations. It would obviously have been better to consult the German critical edition. As a result it is very hard to verify how close Kaag stays to the original text. At one point it is obvious that he takes considerable liberties. At the end of the book the author cites a letter written by Nietzsche, after his collapse, to Cosima Wagner: “I am Buddha.” The original would sound like this: “It is a mere prejudice that I am a human being. Yet I have dwelled among human beings and I know the things human beings experience, from the lowest to the highest. Among the Hindus I was Buddha, in Greece Dyonisus - Alexander and Caesar were incarnations of me, as well as the poet of Shakespeare, Lord Bacon, etc.” The shortened quote to my mind does not do justice to the idea expressed in the letter.
Finally, there is one episode in the book that irritated me because of the juvenile sense of resentment that it expressed. While visiting Sils-Maria, the Kaag-Hay family resided at the Waldhaus. But Kaag had a backup room at the Nietzsche Haus nearby. He had stayed at the house during his earlier sojourn and found it rather quaint and depressing. During their stay, the author and his wife spend one night in the Red Room (while the daughter is in the hands of a babysit at the hotel). Rather than to be appreciative of the hospitality extended to an (absent) guest, Kaag sees a reason to lambaste the refurbished Nietzsche Haus as ‘an abysmal hotel’ - sterile and sedate - that caters to a coterie of would-be creatives. A few years ago I stayed for a week in the very same room Kaag resided in and I must say that I appreciated the rustic charm of the house, the expansive library and the pleasures of meeting in the communal kitchen with the other residents.
I’m going to cut short this review because I could go on for a while. For me, neither the ‘hiking’ nor the ‘Nietzsche’ layer of the book strikes me as particularly authentic and incisive. I think it would have been a much more interesting book if John Kaag had co-authored it with his wife, Carol Hay. It would have been fascinating to have the story on Nietzsche told through their diametrically opposed perspectives.
May 30, 2019
Yesterday I was in the mood to read about philosophy and think DEEP THOUGHTS about our existence, so I downloaded this book and finished it in one day. I had read and liked John Kaag's previous book, "American Philosophy: A Love Story," so I already had a sense of his narrative style.
Kaag, who is a philosophy professor in Massachusetts, does a nice job of explaining the basics of the great philosophers to a layperson. Which is to say that you don't need to be a philosophy major to enjoy his books. In "Hiking with Nietzsche," the focus is on that giant of German philosophy, Friedrich Nietzsche. Before reading this book, I remembered exactly two things about Nietzsche from college: that God is Dead and his concept of the Übermensch, or superman.
Now that I've finished this book, those two concepts are still firmly in my memory, but now I have a better understanding of the man behind the philosophy, and why he can inspire such obsessive fans.
Kaag was one of those obsessive fans. When he was 19, he traveled to Switzerland to follow in Nietzsche's footsteps, and he went a bit nuts, fasting until he was gaunt and alarming his family about his state of mind. Two decades later, Kaag returns to the Swiss Alps with his family and again is inspired by Nietzsche's writings:
I enjoyed this interesting journey into Nietzsche's world, and recommend it to readers who want a dose of philosophy.
Kaag, who is a philosophy professor in Massachusetts, does a nice job of explaining the basics of the great philosophers to a layperson. Which is to say that you don't need to be a philosophy major to enjoy his books. In "Hiking with Nietzsche," the focus is on that giant of German philosophy, Friedrich Nietzsche. Before reading this book, I remembered exactly two things about Nietzsche from college: that God is Dead and his concept of the Übermensch, or superman.
Now that I've finished this book, those two concepts are still firmly in my memory, but now I have a better understanding of the man behind the philosophy, and why he can inspire such obsessive fans.
Kaag was one of those obsessive fans. When he was 19, he traveled to Switzerland to follow in Nietzsche's footsteps, and he went a bit nuts, fasting until he was gaunt and alarming his family about his state of mind. Two decades later, Kaag returns to the Swiss Alps with his family and again is inspired by Nietzsche's writings:
Nietzsche's philosophy is sometimes pooh-poohed as juvenile — the product of a megalomaniac that is perhaps well suited to the self-absorption and naïveté of the teenage years but best outgrown by the time one reaches adulthood. And it's true, many readers on the cusp of maturity have been emboldened by this "good European." But there are certain Nietzschean lessons that are lost on the young. Indeed, over the years I've come to think that his writings are actually uniquely fitted for those of us who have begun to crest middle age. At nineteen, on the summit of Corvatsch, I had no idea how dull the world could sometimes be. How easy it would be to remain in the valleys, to be satisfied with mediocrity. Or how difficult it would be to stay alert in life. At thirty-six, I am just now beginning to understand.
Being a responsible adult is, among other things, often to resign oneself to a life that falls radically short of the expectations and potentialities that one had or, indeed, still has. It is to become what one has always hoped to avoid. In midlife, the Übermensch is a lingering promise, a hope, that change is still possible.
I enjoyed this interesting journey into Nietzsche's world, and recommend it to readers who want a dose of philosophy.
June 14, 2018
https://msarki.tumblr.com/post/174308...
A really wonderful book. Very much enjoyed reading it. Here are some notes lifted from the text:
…At nineteen, on the summit of Corvatsch, I had no idea how dull the world could sometimes be. How easy it would be to remain in the valleys, to be satisfied with mediocrity. Or how difficult it would be to stay alert to life…
… The project of the Übermensch—is not to arrive at any fixed destination or to find some permanent room with a view.
…Nietzsche insists, “if thou gaze long into the abyss, the abyss will also gaze into thee.”
…Life goes only one way, into ever-steeper decline…
…According to Nietszche, there are two forms of health: the futile type that tries to keep death at bay as long as possible, and the affirming type that embraces life, even its deficiencies and excesses.
To be well-adjusted, for Nietzsche, is to choose, wholeheartedly, what we think and where we find and create meaning…
…In a post-theological world, self over-overcoming remains one of the few remaining goals. It is an exciting, terrifying possibility that can place unsustainable weight on budding relationships.
…As Nietzsche coursed these trails, he was in search of a philosophy that could have traction in life: “Our first question about the value of a book, of a human being, or a musical composition is: Can they walk.” Can they stand up and straight, carry their own weight, cover ground, and make progress? According to Nietzsche, most philosophers, most philosophies couldn’t…
…we are, at base, suffering creatures, and when this insight comes home to roost at last, the ascetic ideal is there to greet us at the doorway of our misery…
…Quiet: the one thing the herd cannot abide. Silence, the sound of oneself, enables—even necessitates—thinking…
…His late study of decadence taught him to be patient in investigating decline and self-destruction. It often takes longer than one thinks, and one is to remain especially clear-eyed as something fully vanishes…
…beneath the reasonable habits of our lives hides a little inexplicable something that has the ability to opt out, even against our better judgment…
…life does not change, but the attitude you bring to it might. And this is not a trivial adjustment. In fact, it may be the only meaningful adjustment that is possible…
…Becoming is the ongoing process of losing and finding yourself…
…Things must suffer, go dark, perish before they live again…
A really wonderful book. Very much enjoyed reading it. Here are some notes lifted from the text:
…At nineteen, on the summit of Corvatsch, I had no idea how dull the world could sometimes be. How easy it would be to remain in the valleys, to be satisfied with mediocrity. Or how difficult it would be to stay alert to life…
… The project of the Übermensch—is not to arrive at any fixed destination or to find some permanent room with a view.
…Nietzsche insists, “if thou gaze long into the abyss, the abyss will also gaze into thee.”
…Life goes only one way, into ever-steeper decline…
…According to Nietszche, there are two forms of health: the futile type that tries to keep death at bay as long as possible, and the affirming type that embraces life, even its deficiencies and excesses.
To be well-adjusted, for Nietzsche, is to choose, wholeheartedly, what we think and where we find and create meaning…
…In a post-theological world, self over-overcoming remains one of the few remaining goals. It is an exciting, terrifying possibility that can place unsustainable weight on budding relationships.
…As Nietzsche coursed these trails, he was in search of a philosophy that could have traction in life: “Our first question about the value of a book, of a human being, or a musical composition is: Can they walk.” Can they stand up and straight, carry their own weight, cover ground, and make progress? According to Nietzsche, most philosophers, most philosophies couldn’t…
…we are, at base, suffering creatures, and when this insight comes home to roost at last, the ascetic ideal is there to greet us at the doorway of our misery…
…Quiet: the one thing the herd cannot abide. Silence, the sound of oneself, enables—even necessitates—thinking…
…His late study of decadence taught him to be patient in investigating decline and self-destruction. It often takes longer than one thinks, and one is to remain especially clear-eyed as something fully vanishes…
…beneath the reasonable habits of our lives hides a little inexplicable something that has the ability to opt out, even against our better judgment…
…life does not change, but the attitude you bring to it might. And this is not a trivial adjustment. In fact, it may be the only meaningful adjustment that is possible…
…Becoming is the ongoing process of losing and finding yourself…
…Things must suffer, go dark, perish before they live again…
July 20, 2021
I'm drawn to philosophy but have been burnt by this weakness in the past. After all, when philosophers get talking (or writing), before you know it you feel like they're saying the same thing in different ways with different words. Or perhaps they're not using clear English (or fill in the native language here). Or maybe they're thinking in circles or whatever.
The word it all comes down to: Huh?
So it was refreshing to read a "memoir-ish" exploration of a philosopher, in this case Nietzsche, by a professor of philosophy, in this case John Kaag. Apparently a Nietzsche fanatic from wayback, Kaag first visited the Alps in search of N. when he was only 19-years old and having suicidal thoughts (oh, man, always avoid philosophy when you're having suicidal thoughts!). Here, in this book, he returns to trace his tracks as a middle-aged man with wife and daughter in tow.
Result: We follow a man who's following a man. We get Nietzsche's life (and, to an extent, philosophy) explained, but all that "Thus Spake" stuff is leavened liberally with Kaag's life and thoughts, which provides philosophic relief and clarity.
Meaning: I get my cake and eat it, too. I read about a heavyweight philosopher and actually understand most of what I'm reading. None of this "I Kant figure a word of this!" stuff.
Win-win, I think they call it. If you're a lowbrow slash middlebrow philosophy fan, jump in. If you're highbrow, I leave it to you. And Kaag. And may the best expert win.
The word it all comes down to: Huh?
So it was refreshing to read a "memoir-ish" exploration of a philosopher, in this case Nietzsche, by a professor of philosophy, in this case John Kaag. Apparently a Nietzsche fanatic from wayback, Kaag first visited the Alps in search of N. when he was only 19-years old and having suicidal thoughts (oh, man, always avoid philosophy when you're having suicidal thoughts!). Here, in this book, he returns to trace his tracks as a middle-aged man with wife and daughter in tow.
Result: We follow a man who's following a man. We get Nietzsche's life (and, to an extent, philosophy) explained, but all that "Thus Spake" stuff is leavened liberally with Kaag's life and thoughts, which provides philosophic relief and clarity.
Meaning: I get my cake and eat it, too. I read about a heavyweight philosopher and actually understand most of what I'm reading. None of this "I Kant figure a word of this!" stuff.
Win-win, I think they call it. If you're a lowbrow slash middlebrow philosophy fan, jump in. If you're highbrow, I leave it to you. And Kaag. And may the best expert win.
October 3, 2022
John Kaag begibt sich im Alter von 19 und 36 Jahren auf die Spuren des Philiosophen Friedrich Nietzsche in Form einer Wanderung in der Schweiz. Unterschied: Bei der zweiten Wanderung sind auch seine Tochter Becca und seine zweite Ehefrau Carol mit anwesend. Die Reisen, die wir als Leser begleiten dürfen, ist in den schroffen Bergen rund um Sils-Maria. Ziel für den Autor ist, die Selbstgefälligkeit zu überwinden, die Grenzen zwischen Vernunft und Wahnsinn zu erkunden und das Unerreichbare in Angriff zu nehmen. Und das zu lesen, war für mich sehr lehrreich.
Das Buch beinhaltet drei Teile mit einem Seitenumfang von knapp 310. John Kaag greift mehrere Zitate von Friedrich Nietzsche auf und lässt den Leser seine Gedanken offenbahren. Der Autor hat es geschafft, das ich nun die Bücher von Nietzsche in Angriff nehmen möchte (mein SuB wird sich freuen). Aber ich habe während des Lesens so viel mitnehmen dürfen.
Dieses Buch werde ich bestimmt noch mehrmals lesen, denn hier kann man viel Input mitnehmen. Definitv eine LeseEmpfehlung.
Das Buch beinhaltet drei Teile mit einem Seitenumfang von knapp 310. John Kaag greift mehrere Zitate von Friedrich Nietzsche auf und lässt den Leser seine Gedanken offenbahren. Der Autor hat es geschafft, das ich nun die Bücher von Nietzsche in Angriff nehmen möchte (mein SuB wird sich freuen). Aber ich habe während des Lesens so viel mitnehmen dürfen.
Dieses Buch werde ich bestimmt noch mehrmals lesen, denn hier kann man viel Input mitnehmen. Definitv eine LeseEmpfehlung.
February 24, 2019
‘Set for yourself goals, high and noble goals, and perish in pursuit of them! I know of no better life purpose than to perish in pursuing the great and the impossible: animae magnae prodigus.’
—Friedrich Nietzsche, Notebook, 1873
‘I came to rest on a well-worn slab of granite and appreciated how far I’d come....
...Nietzsche was, for most of his life, in search of the highest, routinely bent on mastering the physical and philosophical landscape. “Behold,” he gestures, “I teach you the Übermensch.” This “Overman,” a superhuman ideal, a great height to which an individual could aspire, remains an inspiration for an untold number of readers. For many years I thought the message of the Übermensch was clear: become better, go higher than you presently are. Free spirit, self-conqueror, nonconformist—Nietzsche’s existential hero terrifies and inspires in equal measure. The Übermensch stands as a challenge to imagine ourselves otherwise, above the societal conventions and self-imposed constraints that quietly govern modern life. Above the steady, unstoppable march of the everyday. Above the anxiety and depression that accompany our daily pursuits. Above the fear and self-doubt that keep our freedom in check.’
‘Wagner was thirty years Nietzsche’s senior, born in the same year as the philosopher’s father, a devout Lutheran who had died of a “softening of the brain” when his son was five. There was nothing soft or dead about the composer. Wagner’s middle works were expressions of Sturm und Drang—“storm and stress”—and Nietzsche adored them. Wagner and Nietzsche shared a deep contempt for the rise of bourgeois culture, for the idea that life, at its best, was to be lived easily, blandly, punctually, by the book. “Making a living” was, and still is, simple in Basel: you go to school, get a job, make some money, buy some stuff, go on holiday, get married, have kids, and then you die. Nietzsche and Wagner knew that there was something meaningless about this sort of life.’
‘The history of philosophy is largely the history of thought in transit. Of course, many philosophers came to rest in order to write, but this was, at most, a perching, a way to faintly mark the ground that had been covered. The Buddha, Socrates, Aristotle, the Stoics, Jesus, Kant, Rousseau, Thoreau—these thinkers were never still for very long. And some of them, the truly obsessive walkers, realized that wandering can eventually lead elsewhere: to the genuine hike. This is the discovery that Nietzsche made in the Alps.’
—Friedrich Nietzsche, Notebook, 1873
‘I came to rest on a well-worn slab of granite and appreciated how far I’d come....
...Nietzsche was, for most of his life, in search of the highest, routinely bent on mastering the physical and philosophical landscape. “Behold,” he gestures, “I teach you the Übermensch.” This “Overman,” a superhuman ideal, a great height to which an individual could aspire, remains an inspiration for an untold number of readers. For many years I thought the message of the Übermensch was clear: become better, go higher than you presently are. Free spirit, self-conqueror, nonconformist—Nietzsche’s existential hero terrifies and inspires in equal measure. The Übermensch stands as a challenge to imagine ourselves otherwise, above the societal conventions and self-imposed constraints that quietly govern modern life. Above the steady, unstoppable march of the everyday. Above the anxiety and depression that accompany our daily pursuits. Above the fear and self-doubt that keep our freedom in check.’
‘Wagner was thirty years Nietzsche’s senior, born in the same year as the philosopher’s father, a devout Lutheran who had died of a “softening of the brain” when his son was five. There was nothing soft or dead about the composer. Wagner’s middle works were expressions of Sturm und Drang—“storm and stress”—and Nietzsche adored them. Wagner and Nietzsche shared a deep contempt for the rise of bourgeois culture, for the idea that life, at its best, was to be lived easily, blandly, punctually, by the book. “Making a living” was, and still is, simple in Basel: you go to school, get a job, make some money, buy some stuff, go on holiday, get married, have kids, and then you die. Nietzsche and Wagner knew that there was something meaningless about this sort of life.’
‘The history of philosophy is largely the history of thought in transit. Of course, many philosophers came to rest in order to write, but this was, at most, a perching, a way to faintly mark the ground that had been covered. The Buddha, Socrates, Aristotle, the Stoics, Jesus, Kant, Rousseau, Thoreau—these thinkers were never still for very long. And some of them, the truly obsessive walkers, realized that wandering can eventually lead elsewhere: to the genuine hike. This is the discovery that Nietzsche made in the Alps.’
April 19, 2020
Hiking with Nietzsche : On Becoming Who You Are (2018) by John Kaag is an interesting mix of travelogue, Nietzsche's philosophy and Kaag's reflections on his own life. Kaag is a professor of philosophy who writes popular books who is also married to a professor of philosophy who writes popular books.
In Hiking with Nietzsche Kaag writes about his trip with his young daughter and wife to the Swiss Alps where Nietzsche had written some of his most important work. Kaag had also made the same trip as a 19 year old when he first studied Nietzsche. The book works as a piece of non-fiction, there is the narrative of Kaag's trip mixed in with descriptions of Nietzsche's philosophy and his life.
Books like these are often quite a good read. It's much easier than reading actual philosophy. Nietzsche is one of the few philosopher's whose work I've actually read. But as a young man when I was more determined to do such things. Nietzsche is important, the Existentialists, some of the post modernists and many other 20th century philosophers read and reacted to him. His re-assertion of David Hume's point that values are irrational and that reason is insufficient to provide values was a change from much of philosophy after Hume. Nietzsche asserts that we all derive our own values one way or another.
The mixing of Kaag's life, Nietzsche's life and Nietzsche's philosophy is also well done and worthwhile. Nietzsche was all about a philosophy that was about how to live so how he actually lived is relevant. Nietzsche didn't compromise and live as most of us do with long term partners and many of us having children. Kaag has when writing this book and he does carefully ponder these things. Nietzsche also had chronic illnesses and then lost his mind. It wasn't quite what you'd expect from someone extolling the ideals of trying to become an uber mensch. Kaag doesn't address it directly, but for many people much of their value and what they care about in life comes through their family, loved ones and children.
Hiking with Nietzsche is a well done, very readable work that successfully combines a narrative with exposition of an important philosopher. By limiting the scope to one philosopher the book also keeps the ideas to be comprehended as manageable. Hiking with Nietzsche is well worth a read for anyone interested in Nietzsche and his thought.
In Hiking with Nietzsche Kaag writes about his trip with his young daughter and wife to the Swiss Alps where Nietzsche had written some of his most important work. Kaag had also made the same trip as a 19 year old when he first studied Nietzsche. The book works as a piece of non-fiction, there is the narrative of Kaag's trip mixed in with descriptions of Nietzsche's philosophy and his life.
Books like these are often quite a good read. It's much easier than reading actual philosophy. Nietzsche is one of the few philosopher's whose work I've actually read. But as a young man when I was more determined to do such things. Nietzsche is important, the Existentialists, some of the post modernists and many other 20th century philosophers read and reacted to him. His re-assertion of David Hume's point that values are irrational and that reason is insufficient to provide values was a change from much of philosophy after Hume. Nietzsche asserts that we all derive our own values one way or another.
The mixing of Kaag's life, Nietzsche's life and Nietzsche's philosophy is also well done and worthwhile. Nietzsche was all about a philosophy that was about how to live so how he actually lived is relevant. Nietzsche didn't compromise and live as most of us do with long term partners and many of us having children. Kaag has when writing this book and he does carefully ponder these things. Nietzsche also had chronic illnesses and then lost his mind. It wasn't quite what you'd expect from someone extolling the ideals of trying to become an uber mensch. Kaag doesn't address it directly, but for many people much of their value and what they care about in life comes through their family, loved ones and children.
Hiking with Nietzsche is a well done, very readable work that successfully combines a narrative with exposition of an important philosopher. By limiting the scope to one philosopher the book also keeps the ideas to be comprehended as manageable. Hiking with Nietzsche is well worth a read for anyone interested in Nietzsche and his thought.
October 4, 2018
This was a surprisingly pleasant read. It is essentially a long personal essay on how the author, John Kaag, grappled with Nietzsche’s thought and applied it to his own life during two separate trips to the trails and villages of the Swiss Alps where Nietzsche did most of his walking, writing, and ruminating.
On the first trip, Kaag was an angst-filled nineteen-year-old: the embodiment of the prototypical teenaged devotee of Nietzsche’s independent and iconoclastic Übermensch ideal. The second trip, taken seventeen years later, found Kaag in much different circumstances: a thirty-six-year-old divorcé on his second marriage, and the father of a young daughter. With his wife and daughter in tow, he returns to the site of his original Nietzschean pilgrimage, reflecting on how the experiences of marriage, divorce, remarriage, and fatherhood have changed his understanding of Nietzsche, and how Nietzsche himself must have changed as he tried to live out his own philosophy.
This is not an in-depth study of Nietzsche; it casually treats with some familiar concepts from his writings, but it is not intended to be philosophically rigorous. It is written for a general audience, who may or may not be at all familiar with Nietzsche. It is far more about Kaag’s experiences with Nietzsche than it is about Nietzsche himself. I’d recommend it for those interested in readings about the intersection of philosophy and lived experience.
On the first trip, Kaag was an angst-filled nineteen-year-old: the embodiment of the prototypical teenaged devotee of Nietzsche’s independent and iconoclastic Übermensch ideal. The second trip, taken seventeen years later, found Kaag in much different circumstances: a thirty-six-year-old divorcé on his second marriage, and the father of a young daughter. With his wife and daughter in tow, he returns to the site of his original Nietzschean pilgrimage, reflecting on how the experiences of marriage, divorce, remarriage, and fatherhood have changed his understanding of Nietzsche, and how Nietzsche himself must have changed as he tried to live out his own philosophy.
This is not an in-depth study of Nietzsche; it casually treats with some familiar concepts from his writings, but it is not intended to be philosophically rigorous. It is written for a general audience, who may or may not be at all familiar with Nietzsche. It is far more about Kaag’s experiences with Nietzsche than it is about Nietzsche himself. I’d recommend it for those interested in readings about the intersection of philosophy and lived experience.
January 4, 2020
"Hiking with Nietzsche" should have been a 30-page personal essay reflecting on the author's evolving understanding of Nietzsche. Instead, Kaag has turned a little family vacation to Nietzsche's mountain haunts into a bloated and rambling 200-page book shot-through with quotes from Nietzsche and other writers and thinkers. (Like Nietzsche's own works, this book doesn't bother much with footnotes.)
Despite the title, there is relatively little "hiking," by which I mean both little study of the actual geographical landscape and little rigorous investigation (at least in my opinion) into just how the Swiss landscape might have influenced Nietzsche's thought; one also gains only a superficial understanding of Nietzsche. One does, however, get to know Kaag quite well--the least interesting (and most insufferable) of the "characters" here. One can't help but cringe at just how juvenile this academic comes across in these pages.
As another commentator has noted, this book is a real "stretch." The author has turned an expensive family vacation, likely funded under the pretext of "research," into a meditation on his personal (and relatively privileged and modern) issues surrounding, namely, relationships (marriage), fatherhood, and mental health. I hate to say it, but Kaag is not a sympathetic narrator or protagonist here. His personal battles seem largely to have to do with dealing with his own narcissistic tendencies.
I can see a couple of ways in which this exercise ("hiking with Nietzsche") could have have been more successful or at least more fun: 1) Turning it into a radically shortened personal essay 2) As commentator Phillippe has pointed out, staging the book as something akin to a philosophical and personal dialogue between Kaag and his wife, Carol Hay, a brilliant feminist, Kantian philosopher with a deep distrust of Nietzsche. Bringing Hay's voice properly (i.e., authentically) into this work could have been fascinating; instead she comes across, through Kaag's writing, as little more than a patiently supportive wife and caretaker, tending to and enduring her husband's ego issues while looking after their toddler daughter. 3) Re-writing this book as a comedy. As it stands, this book does have a handful of arguably comedic moments: At times, the author is capable of recognizing how absurd he or the situations he finds himself in/orchestrates are. This could have been pushed further to perhaps wonderful effect. Had Kaag been more self-aware (or self-aware in a way he is not) and had a stronger sense of humor, he could have hilariously attacked and unpacked the type of "Nietzsche boy" of which he was (and still probably is) a representative. He could have written a more incisive accounting of modern decadence, stringing Nietzsche's thought throughout, and gone much further in critiquing himself and the paradoxical (and funny!) nature of his ultra bourgeois family vacay to Switzerland that was first planned as a means of better understanding the work of Nietzsche. I, anyway, would've loved such a book. Instead, "Hiking with Nietzsche" slips into self-indulgent and self-conscious self-aggrandizement (yes, I deliberately used "self-" three times there); even worse, particularly by the end, it descends into the treacly platitudes common to the genres of self-help and memoir. The sprinklings of quotes from Nietzsche, Hesse, Adorno, etc. fail to paper over that fact.
Despite the title, there is relatively little "hiking," by which I mean both little study of the actual geographical landscape and little rigorous investigation (at least in my opinion) into just how the Swiss landscape might have influenced Nietzsche's thought; one also gains only a superficial understanding of Nietzsche. One does, however, get to know Kaag quite well--the least interesting (and most insufferable) of the "characters" here. One can't help but cringe at just how juvenile this academic comes across in these pages.
As another commentator has noted, this book is a real "stretch." The author has turned an expensive family vacation, likely funded under the pretext of "research," into a meditation on his personal (and relatively privileged and modern) issues surrounding, namely, relationships (marriage), fatherhood, and mental health. I hate to say it, but Kaag is not a sympathetic narrator or protagonist here. His personal battles seem largely to have to do with dealing with his own narcissistic tendencies.
I can see a couple of ways in which this exercise ("hiking with Nietzsche") could have have been more successful or at least more fun: 1) Turning it into a radically shortened personal essay 2) As commentator Phillippe has pointed out, staging the book as something akin to a philosophical and personal dialogue between Kaag and his wife, Carol Hay, a brilliant feminist, Kantian philosopher with a deep distrust of Nietzsche. Bringing Hay's voice properly (i.e., authentically) into this work could have been fascinating; instead she comes across, through Kaag's writing, as little more than a patiently supportive wife and caretaker, tending to and enduring her husband's ego issues while looking after their toddler daughter. 3) Re-writing this book as a comedy. As it stands, this book does have a handful of arguably comedic moments: At times, the author is capable of recognizing how absurd he or the situations he finds himself in/orchestrates are. This could have been pushed further to perhaps wonderful effect. Had Kaag been more self-aware (or self-aware in a way he is not) and had a stronger sense of humor, he could have hilariously attacked and unpacked the type of "Nietzsche boy" of which he was (and still probably is) a representative. He could have written a more incisive accounting of modern decadence, stringing Nietzsche's thought throughout, and gone much further in critiquing himself and the paradoxical (and funny!) nature of his ultra bourgeois family vacay to Switzerland that was first planned as a means of better understanding the work of Nietzsche. I, anyway, would've loved such a book. Instead, "Hiking with Nietzsche" slips into self-indulgent and self-conscious self-aggrandizement (yes, I deliberately used "self-" three times there); even worse, particularly by the end, it descends into the treacly platitudes common to the genres of self-help and memoir. The sprinklings of quotes from Nietzsche, Hesse, Adorno, etc. fail to paper over that fact.
November 14, 2023
3.5
A memoir type book about a guy who visits Sils-Maria (where Nietzsche once lived), once at 19 and once later in his life, after he's married and has a child. It's a nice idea for a book and Kaag does a good job of weaving Nietzsche's philosophy into his own life story. Lots of touching moments, especially about his daughter. It was nice to read something again, as my loyal Goodreads fans know, I adore him and reading about someone who also adores him is a nice, relatable experience. Book was a great motivation to think about life, meaning, purpose, Nietzsche, which is also nice.
Quotes
“Hesse, however, explains that “words do not express thoughts very well. They always become a little different immediately after they are expressed. A little distorted. A little foolish.” Words reify something experienced in motion, attempting to capture the forever unruly.”
“A relationship often involves lying to the ones we love—speaking half-truths that suit our beloved. We measure, carefully, what we say and what we don’t. This is part of the game of love, and Nietzsche was a horrible player. He seemed to say, or write, everything that entered his mind, and his listeners could take it or leave it. When Salomé left it, and him, he became furious.”
“According to Nietzsche, marriage could be a prolonged mistake, but it could also embody something else, something higher: “[T]he will of two to create the one that is more than those who created it. Reverence for each other, as for those willing with such a will, is what I [Nietzsche] name marriage.” This was, among other things, what we could look for in the mountains.”
A memoir type book about a guy who visits Sils-Maria (where Nietzsche once lived), once at 19 and once later in his life, after he's married and has a child. It's a nice idea for a book and Kaag does a good job of weaving Nietzsche's philosophy into his own life story. Lots of touching moments, especially about his daughter. It was nice to read something again, as my loyal Goodreads fans know, I adore him and reading about someone who also adores him is a nice, relatable experience. Book was a great motivation to think about life, meaning, purpose, Nietzsche, which is also nice.
Quotes
“Hesse, however, explains that “words do not express thoughts very well. They always become a little different immediately after they are expressed. A little distorted. A little foolish.” Words reify something experienced in motion, attempting to capture the forever unruly.”
“A relationship often involves lying to the ones we love—speaking half-truths that suit our beloved. We measure, carefully, what we say and what we don’t. This is part of the game of love, and Nietzsche was a horrible player. He seemed to say, or write, everything that entered his mind, and his listeners could take it or leave it. When Salomé left it, and him, he became furious.”
“According to Nietzsche, marriage could be a prolonged mistake, but it could also embody something else, something higher: “[T]he will of two to create the one that is more than those who created it. Reverence for each other, as for those willing with such a will, is what I [Nietzsche] name marriage.” This was, among other things, what we could look for in the mountains.”
February 8, 2023
"Set for yourself goals, high and noble goals, and perish in pursuit of them! I know of no better life purpose than to perish in pursuing the great and the impossible: animae magnae prodigus."
—Friedrich Nietzsche, Notebook, 1873
Unfortunately, I did not enjoy Hiking with Nietzsche as much as I'd hoped to...
Author John Kaag is an American philosopher and Chair and Professor of philosophy at the University of Massachusetts Lowell. Kaag specializes in American philosophy. His writing has been published in The Paris Review, The New York Times, and Harper’s Magazine.
John Kaag:
The style of writing here was well done; for the most part. Kraag writes with a decent flow that shouldn't have trouble holding the reader's attention. The formatting was also fairly well done: It is broken into chapters that roughly correspond with the life of Nietzsche. Kraag drops the quote above at the start of the book.
The book details a trip the author took with his wife and young daughter to hike the same mountains that Nietzsche did many decades before. Along the way, the author talks about his own musings, as well as drops some historical facts about the philosopher and his life. He is admittedly somewhat of a Nietzsche fanboy. Accordingly, this one will likely resonate the most with others who share the same inclinations toward Nietzsche. Sadly, I am not among those... Which is fine, I guess, but I was expecting a bit more from this book.
The author ended up irritating me with some of his commentary; especially in the latter part of the book. He takes long hikes in the mountains; often leaving his wife and young daughter behind. He mentions a fight they had caused by him leaving for the entire day, resulting in his young daughter becoming really upset and wondering if he died on the mountain. It sounds like he has misplaced priorities...
Kraag also comes off as a bit of a misguided juvenile brat at times here. IMHO, (and as a new father myself) leaving your wife and daughter behind while you traipse around the mountains in search of some elusive philosophical epiphany that would finally give meaning to your life reeks of something seriously wrong. The author does mention here that he takes antidepressants, and also briefly touches on some deep-seated psychological problems he has. Which is not to cast judgment on someone with mental health issues - but the writing here left me feeling sorry for his poor wife and kid, whom he is neglecting with these selfish treks.
Finally - and further to the above criticisms- there is no real point to the book. The whole thing reads more like a series of journal entries than it does a proper book examining the subject matter in an interesting manner. Thankfully it was not longer, or I would have put it down...
***********************
I wasn't really sure what to expect from Hiking with Nietzsche. What I got here, however, disappointed me. If you are a die-hard fan of the philosopher, you will likely enjoy this one. If not, you might want to give it a pass...
2 stars.
—Friedrich Nietzsche, Notebook, 1873
Unfortunately, I did not enjoy Hiking with Nietzsche as much as I'd hoped to...
Author John Kaag is an American philosopher and Chair and Professor of philosophy at the University of Massachusetts Lowell. Kaag specializes in American philosophy. His writing has been published in The Paris Review, The New York Times, and Harper’s Magazine.
John Kaag:
The style of writing here was well done; for the most part. Kraag writes with a decent flow that shouldn't have trouble holding the reader's attention. The formatting was also fairly well done: It is broken into chapters that roughly correspond with the life of Nietzsche. Kraag drops the quote above at the start of the book.
The book details a trip the author took with his wife and young daughter to hike the same mountains that Nietzsche did many decades before. Along the way, the author talks about his own musings, as well as drops some historical facts about the philosopher and his life. He is admittedly somewhat of a Nietzsche fanboy. Accordingly, this one will likely resonate the most with others who share the same inclinations toward Nietzsche. Sadly, I am not among those... Which is fine, I guess, but I was expecting a bit more from this book.
The author ended up irritating me with some of his commentary; especially in the latter part of the book. He takes long hikes in the mountains; often leaving his wife and young daughter behind. He mentions a fight they had caused by him leaving for the entire day, resulting in his young daughter becoming really upset and wondering if he died on the mountain. It sounds like he has misplaced priorities...
Kraag also comes off as a bit of a misguided juvenile brat at times here. IMHO, (and as a new father myself) leaving your wife and daughter behind while you traipse around the mountains in search of some elusive philosophical epiphany that would finally give meaning to your life reeks of something seriously wrong. The author does mention here that he takes antidepressants, and also briefly touches on some deep-seated psychological problems he has. Which is not to cast judgment on someone with mental health issues - but the writing here left me feeling sorry for his poor wife and kid, whom he is neglecting with these selfish treks.
Finally - and further to the above criticisms- there is no real point to the book. The whole thing reads more like a series of journal entries than it does a proper book examining the subject matter in an interesting manner. Thankfully it was not longer, or I would have put it down...
***********************
I wasn't really sure what to expect from Hiking with Nietzsche. What I got here, however, disappointed me. If you are a die-hard fan of the philosopher, you will likely enjoy this one. If not, you might want to give it a pass...
2 stars.
April 7, 2020
A new experience. I don’t think I’ve ever yearned for a narrator to fall and injure themselves during one of the hikes they’re recounting before.
Kaag’s text is a ‘tale of two philosophical journeys’. He discusses Nietzsche’s philosophies and shifting cosmologies while also chronicling his own physical and existential travails in the Swiss Alps.
He does a grand job of clarifying (in his own terms) the foundations and key aspects of Nietzschean thought, but for the first half I was haunted by the feeling that John Kaag might be a tremendous arse.
Having decided to ignore how shamefully indulgent and prone to naff co-incidences he is, I focused on appreciating the way he taxonomises Kant, Schopenhauer, Adorno et al in relation to Nietzsche’s evolving philosophical ideals. But then he takes his wife and daughter to Switzerland with him on a journey of becoming that is doomed from the airport.
He does pretty much his own thing throughout the ‘holiday’, in which his inner longing for some deeply c*nty asceticism fights with his family life. After some failed hikes, mistaking some sheep for chamois goats and a toddler who won’t clean her teeth he laments that-
‘the trip had been a failure. A search for the
Übermensch had become a family affair-
brimming with tender moments, routine tasks
[. . . ] The attempt to be free, to retrace a path
I’d taken in my youth, had been cut short by
family obligations,’
His poor ‘Kantian’ wife is cool with him waking before her and leaving on hikes she has no idea when he’ll return from. She supports him sleeping in a different hotel to her and their daughter so he can attempt to grasp his ‘authentic self’. She looks after him when he injures himself doing stupid, ill-equipped things on hikes.
Yes, Kaag’s writing on C19th philosophy is clear and interesting, but the weight of his subjective judgements on everyone and everything (how dare Hesse write his ‘Faustus’ in the comfort of California) means that in the end I could only trust his interpretations so far.
I like to hope that Kaag’s narrative voice is a bit skewed and not a true representation of his nature. But the book left me feeling that, like Nietzsche and ‘Steppenwolf’s’ Harry Haller, John Kaag has a ‘bifurcated nature’... sadly for me both aspects are a bit of an arse.
Kaag’s text is a ‘tale of two philosophical journeys’. He discusses Nietzsche’s philosophies and shifting cosmologies while also chronicling his own physical and existential travails in the Swiss Alps.
He does a grand job of clarifying (in his own terms) the foundations and key aspects of Nietzschean thought, but for the first half I was haunted by the feeling that John Kaag might be a tremendous arse.
Having decided to ignore how shamefully indulgent and prone to naff co-incidences he is, I focused on appreciating the way he taxonomises Kant, Schopenhauer, Adorno et al in relation to Nietzsche’s evolving philosophical ideals. But then he takes his wife and daughter to Switzerland with him on a journey of becoming that is doomed from the airport.
He does pretty much his own thing throughout the ‘holiday’, in which his inner longing for some deeply c*nty asceticism fights with his family life. After some failed hikes, mistaking some sheep for chamois goats and a toddler who won’t clean her teeth he laments that-
‘the trip had been a failure. A search for the
Übermensch had become a family affair-
brimming with tender moments, routine tasks
[. . . ] The attempt to be free, to retrace a path
I’d taken in my youth, had been cut short by
family obligations,’
His poor ‘Kantian’ wife is cool with him waking before her and leaving on hikes she has no idea when he’ll return from. She supports him sleeping in a different hotel to her and their daughter so he can attempt to grasp his ‘authentic self’. She looks after him when he injures himself doing stupid, ill-equipped things on hikes.
Yes, Kaag’s writing on C19th philosophy is clear and interesting, but the weight of his subjective judgements on everyone and everything (how dare Hesse write his ‘Faustus’ in the comfort of California) means that in the end I could only trust his interpretations so far.
I like to hope that Kaag’s narrative voice is a bit skewed and not a true representation of his nature. But the book left me feeling that, like Nietzsche and ‘Steppenwolf’s’ Harry Haller, John Kaag has a ‘bifurcated nature’... sadly for me both aspects are a bit of an arse.
April 26, 2021
Biographical sketches of both the author and his obsession Nietzsche. Astute analysis of many of Nietzsche's works, and the information gained by learning more about one of the more misunderstood and misrepresented philosophers in history made this a worthy read. I would recommend this to those interested in philosophy, the outdoors, and mental instability.
Thank you to the publisher for providing me with this arc available through netgalley.
Thank you to the publisher for providing me with this arc available through netgalley.
October 6, 2018
Hiking with Nietzsche is, on the one hand, a creative way to present the ideas of Nietzsche to those less familiar with them, from an author that in many ways shares a similar pessimistic disposition. John Kaag seems especially well-suited to tell the story, and by telling it in the context of Nietzsche’s original environment and travels, he makes Nietzsche’s core ideas of eternal recurrence, the Overman, and master-slave morality more memorable and understandable.
On the other hand, Kaag is exceedingly pessimistic, which helps him to explain Nietzsche but also makes for some gloomy reading. The author discusses suicide, self-destruction, anxiety and depression, failed marriages, isolation, loneliness, nihilism, not wanting to be a parent, and fasting as “a means of orienting the will to something higher or deeper.” I found much of his commentary to be likewise either overly nihilistic, dramatic, or sentimental.
Personally, and by nature, I’m not a pessimist, and in fact find most pessimists to be intolerably annoying. Pessimism is self-defeating in the most obvious way, is unproductive, comes across as sulky and immature, and takes for granted the best and most enjoyable parts of life. To be fair, the author cannot be faulted for his own personality, and as far as I can tell, he’s writing in an honest and authentic manner, but it’s simply not a disposition or a philosophy that I can, or want, to relate to.
The same goes for Nietzsche himself; while he was undeniably brilliant and creative, his philosophy is centered on the idea of goodness being synonymous with individual power. He considers self-actualization to be a process of trampling on others to achieve one’s own goals in a zero-sum competition for resources (the “master mentality” as superior to the “slave mentality”). He fails to recognize the third alternative, a means of achieving self-actualization through cooperation or in helping others in positive-sum relationships. But, as an outcast himself, with a history of failed relationships and depression, the philosophy fits the personality.
I would have given the book less than three stars, but the author is a skilled writer and parts of the book were enjoyable and fascinating. The idea of eternal recurrence—the idea that you should live your life as if you will, for all eternity, have to live it over again—is compelling. Also, I imagine that if you are pessimistic and suffer from depression, this book might actually be inspirational to you. If not, then I’m not sure if you’re going to find much value in it, especially since the author doesn’t spend as much time on the actual philosophy as I would have liked.
On the other hand, Kaag is exceedingly pessimistic, which helps him to explain Nietzsche but also makes for some gloomy reading. The author discusses suicide, self-destruction, anxiety and depression, failed marriages, isolation, loneliness, nihilism, not wanting to be a parent, and fasting as “a means of orienting the will to something higher or deeper.” I found much of his commentary to be likewise either overly nihilistic, dramatic, or sentimental.
Personally, and by nature, I’m not a pessimist, and in fact find most pessimists to be intolerably annoying. Pessimism is self-defeating in the most obvious way, is unproductive, comes across as sulky and immature, and takes for granted the best and most enjoyable parts of life. To be fair, the author cannot be faulted for his own personality, and as far as I can tell, he’s writing in an honest and authentic manner, but it’s simply not a disposition or a philosophy that I can, or want, to relate to.
The same goes for Nietzsche himself; while he was undeniably brilliant and creative, his philosophy is centered on the idea of goodness being synonymous with individual power. He considers self-actualization to be a process of trampling on others to achieve one’s own goals in a zero-sum competition for resources (the “master mentality” as superior to the “slave mentality”). He fails to recognize the third alternative, a means of achieving self-actualization through cooperation or in helping others in positive-sum relationships. But, as an outcast himself, with a history of failed relationships and depression, the philosophy fits the personality.
I would have given the book less than three stars, but the author is a skilled writer and parts of the book were enjoyable and fascinating. The idea of eternal recurrence—the idea that you should live your life as if you will, for all eternity, have to live it over again—is compelling. Also, I imagine that if you are pessimistic and suffer from depression, this book might actually be inspirational to you. If not, then I’m not sure if you’re going to find much value in it, especially since the author doesn’t spend as much time on the actual philosophy as I would have liked.
January 21, 2019
Heavy-handed. Kaag is a great teacher and explains Nietzsche well, but he’s not a great storyteller. I found it difficult to care about his individual search for meaning, mainly because he disjointedly jumped from one angst to another. There also wasn’t much hiking. This should have been called “A family vacation with an angsty Neitzsche-obsessed professor“
April 29, 2023
Es war absehbar, dass ich nach dem Lesen von Hesses Büchern früher oder später auch von der Schreibgewalt Friedrich Nietzsches eingenommen werde. In diesem Buch über den Vorläufer des Existenzialismus werden immer wieder Zitate von ihm eingebunden, welche mich von seiner Gedankenwelt überzeugt haben. Meiner Ansicht nach zählt Nietzsche zu den komplexesten Persönlichkeiten in der Literaturgeschichte. Ein zerissener, gespaltener Mensch, ein Einsiedler, Melancholiker, der versuchte, uns moderne Menschen vor der Dekadenz zu bewahren. Dekadenz kommt vom Lateinischen Wort "decadere", was so viel bedeutet wie "hinunterfallen" oder "herabsetzen". Man braucht nicht viel Beobachtungsgabe, um festzustellen, dass sich ein grosser Teil der Menschheit in diesem Zustand befindet. In seinem Buch präsentiert der Nietzsche-Student John Kaag seine Interpretationen und verbindet sie mit dem tugendhaften Handeln des Gehens. Nietzsche's Philosophie und das Wandern können als Ausweg aus der Dekadenz und Trägheit dienen.
„Sitze so wenig als möglich, schenke keinem Gedanken Glauben, der nicht im Freien geboren ist und bei freier Bewegung - in dem nicht auch die Muskeln ein Fest feiern!“
„Die junge Seele sehe auf das Leben zurück mit der Frage: Was hast du bis jetzt wahrhaft geliebt, was hat deine Seele hinangezogen?“
Amor fati
„Sitze so wenig als möglich, schenke keinem Gedanken Glauben, der nicht im Freien geboren ist und bei freier Bewegung - in dem nicht auch die Muskeln ein Fest feiern!“
„Die junge Seele sehe auf das Leben zurück mit der Frage: Was hast du bis jetzt wahrhaft geliebt, was hat deine Seele hinangezogen?“
Amor fati
January 10, 2019
Hiking with Nietzsche was a fascinating look into both Nietzsche's and John Kaag's life. John describes two different personal journeys to the alps where Nietzsche wrote Zarathustra. The first was when John was an angsty teenager and the second was in his mid-thirties with his wife and young daughter. He interweaves biographical information and the basics of Nietzche's philosophy throughout the book as he examines Nietzsche philosophy through the lens of his personal experience.
I knew nothing about Nietzsche before reading this book, but the man was responsible for some cool philosophical concepts including the idea of the eternal return, decadence, and the overman. He also had his issues - He never found love, had multiple mental health challenges, and clearly saw the world differently than your typical 19th-century man. He also had a bizarre relationship with the composer Richard Wagner that eventually decayed into resentment that was fun to read about.
If you're interested in an accessible introduction to Nietzsche or are wondering how any of his philosophy can apply to your life, then this is the book for you.
I knew nothing about Nietzsche before reading this book, but the man was responsible for some cool philosophical concepts including the idea of the eternal return, decadence, and the overman. He also had his issues - He never found love, had multiple mental health challenges, and clearly saw the world differently than your typical 19th-century man. He also had a bizarre relationship with the composer Richard Wagner that eventually decayed into resentment that was fun to read about.
If you're interested in an accessible introduction to Nietzsche or are wondering how any of his philosophy can apply to your life, then this is the book for you.
December 31, 2018
The author, a philosophy professor who was fascinated by Nietzsche at University, undertook two trips into the Swiss alps hiking through the places where Nietzsche lived and produced most of his work. Not really a book about hiking, nor a meaningful intro to Nietzsche’s work, but a gentle, easy read that has its moments.
February 7, 2019
I was quite moved by Hiking with Nietzsche, the selection of my book club. I have a sense we read a bit of Nietzsche in a college philosophy class, but my memory was limited to the idea that special people, the Overmen, were not obligated to follow society’s rules. I heard vague accusations that this was the philosophical underpinning and justification of the Nazi regime.
After the first couple of chapters, I believe I would have set this down if not for the obligation to the book club. The author was full of himself and full of Nietzchean nonsense about being alone and strong, and punishing oneself to develop one’s strength, the only measure of one’s purpose. This is narrated through his hiking on the trails that Nietzsche hiked in the late 19th century in Switzerland.
My recent reading about morality in a God-is-dead world prepared me a bit better to understand the philosophy of not conforming to societal values and to avoid sheepness. It helped me to understand populism a bit better, and those ideas aligned with the spirit underlying the Nietzschean ideas as presented within. But the implicit rejection of society did not conform to my understanding of human nature.
Of course, the author grows along with his family and recognizes the value of humanity; he highlights his growth through the narration of a trip to reenact his hikes some 15 years later. This time, he is with his wife and daughter. He is frustrated with the obligations to them interfering in his self-study and self-improvement, and perceives them as holding him back…until he realizes they are holding him up. In the end, he aligns his world-view with that of Hesse, and rejects the mental illness that took Nietzsche in the end.
The book is compelling for its philosophy, for its engaging story of a scholar turned human, and for its narrative arc. Well written and much appreciated.
After the first couple of chapters, I believe I would have set this down if not for the obligation to the book club. The author was full of himself and full of Nietzchean nonsense about being alone and strong, and punishing oneself to develop one’s strength, the only measure of one’s purpose. This is narrated through his hiking on the trails that Nietzsche hiked in the late 19th century in Switzerland.
My recent reading about morality in a God-is-dead world prepared me a bit better to understand the philosophy of not conforming to societal values and to avoid sheepness. It helped me to understand populism a bit better, and those ideas aligned with the spirit underlying the Nietzschean ideas as presented within. But the implicit rejection of society did not conform to my understanding of human nature.
Of course, the author grows along with his family and recognizes the value of humanity; he highlights his growth through the narration of a trip to reenact his hikes some 15 years later. This time, he is with his wife and daughter. He is frustrated with the obligations to them interfering in his self-study and self-improvement, and perceives them as holding him back…until he realizes they are holding him up. In the end, he aligns his world-view with that of Hesse, and rejects the mental illness that took Nietzsche in the end.
The book is compelling for its philosophy, for its engaging story of a scholar turned human, and for its narrative arc. Well written and much appreciated.
August 9, 2020
زندگی تغییر نمیکند، اما نگاه تو به آن تغییر میکند. و این سازگاری بی ارزشی نیست. در حقیقت میتوان آن را تنها سازگاری معنادار دانست.
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کتاب جمع و جور و دوست داشتنی بود. نویسنده سعی کرده بود با استفاده از خاط��ات سفرش به محل زندگی نیچه مخاطب رو با مفاهیم اندیشه های نیچه آشنا کنه. از بین تفسیرهایی که راجع به نیچه خونده بودم این یکی با وجود سادگی کلامش خیلی بهتر از همه بود.
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کتاب جمع و جور و دوست داشتنی بود. نویسنده سعی کرده بود با استفاده از خاط��ات سفرش به محل زندگی نیچه مخاطب رو با مفاهیم اندیشه های نیچه آشنا کنه. از بین تفسیرهایی که راجع به نیچه خونده بودم این یکی با وجود سادگی کلامش خیلی بهتر از همه بود.
August 10, 2022
I am long a student of Neitzsche and firmly believe no matter how angry his writings may make you he forces you to relook your very foundational precepts. Yet it can be hard for someone to just grasp Nietzche his life and writings. To this end this author does a fantastic job of proving a great overall introduction to Nietzsche's life and ideas in an easily understandable way, while incorporating some of his own life story and how he experienced Nietzsche in early then later life. It's a very good read even if sometimes you want to chastize the author for being weak and unrealistic in his later life. As a once married later divorced man I can say there is no wrong or guilt in a married man and woman sometimes needing their own space and time and what troubled me in this book was how the author was berated by his wife for needing such time while I also noted he often failed to offer his wife her own such time. Nontheless this is a great read, a good introduction to Nietzsche and will help any reader on his philosophical journey.
January 9, 2021
Ik heb het boek van een vriendin gekregen en ben het dan redelijk sceptisch beginnen lezen. Doordat hij net dat ene citaat “become who you are” als subtitel nam verwachtte ik een zelfhulpboek gebaseerd op een vreemd verdraaide Nietzsche (en om uit Nietzsche een zelfhulpboek te puren moet je toch al veel verdraaien). Niets is minder waar. Veel eerder is het een prachtig geschreven verhaal over mens zijn met reflecties op Nietzsches leven en filosofie.
January 23, 2020
A new all-time favorite 😍
May 21, 2023
A brilliant introduction to Nietzsche, the existential journey of western manhood, and to the author himself. It’s a book that somehow traverses the intimidating concepts of a madman’s imagination with a clarity and vulnerability that softens the dynamiting ‘ubermensch’ himself to the same mere mortal status as the rest of us, yet without retracting from the value or potency of his thought. This book is a aptly embodies its title; the joy of walking alongside a roller coaster of a man.
March 21, 2019
I did not like this book. The author seems to be so preoccupied by the lives of self absorbed and neurotic philosophers that he misses much of the opportunity to live his own life with freshness, intimacy and appreciation. By seeing his experiences as they relate to Nietzsche’s experiences he becomes lost in endless analysis, conjecture, and unhappiness. He is living in his head most of the time and carrying a lot of baggage from the past lives and experiences of others. I feel sorry for his wife and daughter who are often seen as impediments to his ‘spiritual and intellectual’ quest for meaning. In my opinion Kaag could benefit from a large dose of ‘mindfulness’ and attention to the present moment. He is missing the richness and freshness of his own life and gratitude for the opportunities he has as a father and husband. He injures himself on his hikes as a result of his lack of attention to what he is doing, how he is dressed, and what he needs to be safe. If he wants to move forward, he will need to see what is in front of him and around him and spend less time looking in the rear view mirror.
July 26, 2019
This book captured everything pretentious and juvenile about Nietzsche without giving any hint of what is brilliant about his thought. I usually have a problem of sympathizing with the author of what I read too much (I love Kerouac for example, despite his intense flaws)— but throughout this book the narrator is incredibly condescending, especially in his depictions of his wife. I’ve read a fair bit of Nietzsche, enough to understand that the true genius and implications of his thought surge far past the toxic masculinity and simple axioms he is often accused of, and are indeed something society could use more of to advocate for progressive ideals. But you won’t get any closer to understanding history’s most misunderstood thinker from reading this book.
February 7, 2022
خب یه کوهنوردی سالم به سیلسماریا با نیچه رفتیم..
نیچه رو میشناختم از قبل ولی هیچکدوم از آثارشو نخوندم، کمکم میرم سراغ آثار و نوشتههاش.
این کتاب فکر میکنم برای کسایی که میخوان با نیچهی مهربان(نه با خود) یه آشنایی داشته باشند خوب میتونه باشه.
از نیچه:
"به یاد آوردن آنهایی که مدتهاست مرده یا فراموش شدهاند، نشانهایست از رخداد تغییر شگرف در ما و نیز کنده شدن زمین محل سکونتمان؛ مردگان برمیخیزند و کهنه نو میشود."
یکجایی از کتاب از هسه یه نقلِ قول آورده که واقعا همچین نظری رو توو زندگی دارم و با وجودم حس کردهم که میگه:
" کلمات، اندیشه را به خوبی بیان نمیکنند. به محض استفاده از آنها، مفهوم کمی تغییر میکند، کمی تحریف میشود، کمی احمقانه."
هدیهی عزیزی برای من بود..
نیچه رو میشناختم از قبل ولی هیچکدوم از آثارشو نخوندم، کمکم میرم سراغ آثار و نوشتههاش.
این کتاب فکر میکنم برای کسایی که میخوان با نیچهی مهربان(نه با خود) یه آشنایی داشته باشند خوب میتونه باشه.
از نیچه:
"به یاد آوردن آنهایی که مدتهاست مرده یا فراموش شدهاند، نشانهایست از رخداد تغییر شگرف در ما و نیز کنده شدن زمین محل سکونتمان؛ مردگان برمیخیزند و کهنه نو میشود."
یکجایی از کتاب از هسه یه نقلِ قول آورده که واقعا همچین نظری رو توو زندگی دارم و با وجودم حس کردهم که میگه:
" کلمات، اندیشه را به خوبی بیان نمیکنند. به محض استفاده از آنها، مفهوم کمی تغییر میکند، کمی تحریف میشود، کمی احمقانه."
هدیهی عزیزی برای من بود..
February 25, 2019
I’ve been interested in learning a bit of philosophy since I neglected to take any classes on it in college. It is one of those subjects that felt fairly inaccessible to me without an instructor as a guide. This book gave me a starting point without being as dry as an intro class. I love memoirs, especially those involving travel so this seemed tailor made for me. I can’t comment on the quality of the author’s analysis of Nietsche’s works, but I can say it has opened my eyes to a new area of study. I will be continuing to pick up more material on the subject.
January 20, 2023
"بیشتر زندگی مدرن صرف موفقیتهای مادی میشود، اما پس از دستیابی به آنها، پوچی عمر بیش از پیش خودنمایی میکند."
August 9, 2019
Hiking with Friedrich Nietzsche means hiking in the Alps , a region that Nietzsche loved and where he spent as much time as he could. Kaag, an American philosopher, follows Nietzsche’s footsteps though the mountains and provides a running commentary on both Nietzsche’s short life (1844-1900) and ideas. found in his works, arranged chronologically. While pursuing Nietzsche, Kaag talks to some extent about his own life. Kaag’s book is interesting and a good introduction to Nietzsche.
Nietzsche as a young man was heavily influenced by reading the American transcendentalist, Ralph Waldo Emerson, and that influence continued through his life. Emerson distrusted the deadening impact of unexamined social customs upon the individual, as Thoreau would do, and Nietzsche is firmly in this romantic tradition. He was moved by the rugged landscape of the Alps where the individual was alone, amd often lonely, a loneliness that for him was not a bad thing, instead it led to independence, something to be contemplated and even enjoyed.
Kaag brings his wife and small child with him to the mountains and these serve, intentionally or not, as a foil to Nietzsche, particularly as Kaag’s wife, also a professional philosopher, has a low opinion of Nietzsche,. She is more a follower of Immanuel Kant . Kant with his emphasis upon a more socialized notion of morality, is antithetical to everything Nietzsche’s believed and during his lifetime he despised Kant.
The mountains were important to Nietzsche for many reasons, but an important one had to with climbing peaks. At the top were breathtaking views, but they could only be reached by difficult and demanding climbs. His writings reflected the same ideas – individual mental effort that resulted in breakthroughs had to be earned through long and often tortuous trials. For him, traditional philosophy and religion led to blindness and conformity. In the Alps, there was a return to the natural world which propelled his theories of power and independent life, and how to promote them in human existence.
Kaag concedes that Nietzsche is complex and is at times contradictory. But that is not necessarily a fault. As Emerson pointed out, “consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds." To become who you are, he would argue, you must not have the faintest preconceived notion of who you are. Views from different mountain peaks are not the same, and in every person’s life there are inevitable changes. The important thing is for you to recognize these changes and not be imprisoned by a rigid consistency with the past.
Kaag writes that while he emphasizes Nietzsche’s intellectual ideas, he often emotionally felt close to what to what Nietzsche might have been feeling. In Kaag's two visits to the Alps, one when he was nineteen, and this trip many years later, he had such experiences in feeling both beauty and fear in the mountains. If one gets lost in the mountains, for example, bound to happen if you take chances, there is an emotional bond with Nietzsche.
Modern life, Kaag points out, is not particularly conducive to becoming who one is. It distracts us with its emphasis upon material goods, their “getting and spending” as Wordsworth put it. It deadens us from even exploring alternative views of reality, as Herman Hesse, a friend of Nietzsche, did in his books. I think after reading this book, whether you agree with Nietzsche’s views or not, you’ll be much more sympathetic to the man, and not simply dismiss him as a Nazi-prototype madman who suffered a breakdown and was dead at 46 of pneumonia.
Nietzsche as a young man was heavily influenced by reading the American transcendentalist, Ralph Waldo Emerson, and that influence continued through his life. Emerson distrusted the deadening impact of unexamined social customs upon the individual, as Thoreau would do, and Nietzsche is firmly in this romantic tradition. He was moved by the rugged landscape of the Alps where the individual was alone, amd often lonely, a loneliness that for him was not a bad thing, instead it led to independence, something to be contemplated and even enjoyed.
Kaag brings his wife and small child with him to the mountains and these serve, intentionally or not, as a foil to Nietzsche, particularly as Kaag’s wife, also a professional philosopher, has a low opinion of Nietzsche,. She is more a follower of Immanuel Kant . Kant with his emphasis upon a more socialized notion of morality, is antithetical to everything Nietzsche’s believed and during his lifetime he despised Kant.
The mountains were important to Nietzsche for many reasons, but an important one had to with climbing peaks. At the top were breathtaking views, but they could only be reached by difficult and demanding climbs. His writings reflected the same ideas – individual mental effort that resulted in breakthroughs had to be earned through long and often tortuous trials. For him, traditional philosophy and religion led to blindness and conformity. In the Alps, there was a return to the natural world which propelled his theories of power and independent life, and how to promote them in human existence.
Kaag concedes that Nietzsche is complex and is at times contradictory. But that is not necessarily a fault. As Emerson pointed out, “consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds." To become who you are, he would argue, you must not have the faintest preconceived notion of who you are. Views from different mountain peaks are not the same, and in every person’s life there are inevitable changes. The important thing is for you to recognize these changes and not be imprisoned by a rigid consistency with the past.
Kaag writes that while he emphasizes Nietzsche’s intellectual ideas, he often emotionally felt close to what to what Nietzsche might have been feeling. In Kaag's two visits to the Alps, one when he was nineteen, and this trip many years later, he had such experiences in feeling both beauty and fear in the mountains. If one gets lost in the mountains, for example, bound to happen if you take chances, there is an emotional bond with Nietzsche.
Modern life, Kaag points out, is not particularly conducive to becoming who one is. It distracts us with its emphasis upon material goods, their “getting and spending” as Wordsworth put it. It deadens us from even exploring alternative views of reality, as Herman Hesse, a friend of Nietzsche, did in his books. I think after reading this book, whether you agree with Nietzsche’s views or not, you’ll be much more sympathetic to the man, and not simply dismiss him as a Nazi-prototype madman who suffered a breakdown and was dead at 46 of pneumonia.
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