INTRODUCTION

I IN the history of modern European thought Friedrich Nietzsche occupies one of the most provocative and at the same time paradoxical positions: provocative, because he challenged all our traditional ideas, beliefs and values; paradoxical, because his work has proved both misleading and yet highly stimulating on account of its very inconsistencies and contradictions. His personal fate itself was a paradox, the dramatic character of which was increased by the fact that after a neglect, lasting throughout the whole of his creative life, Nietzsche suddenly sprang into a vogue that made his name something of an ideological battle-cry all over Europe. And however much he may have been misunderstood by his detractors and even more by his adherents, the passions aroused by his thought helped to clear the atmosphere, the mental and moral climate of our age, let alone his challenge to the whole of our civilization.