Publisher's Synopsis
Les critiques sur Henri Lichtenberger, La Philosophie de Nietzsche. - L'auteur trace dans cet ouvrage un portrait vivant et impartial de Nietzsche et une esquisse sommaire, mais claire et généralement exacte, de sa doctrine. En somme, ce travail rendra service aux lecteur désireux de s'initier rapidement à la pensée de Nietzsche. Archives de Philosophie, Vol. 3, No. 3, p. 231 - "Professor Lichtenberger gives a clear and thoroughly satisfactory account both of Nietzsche and his philosophy. The author is neither a partisan nor an avowed opponent of Nietzsche. He treats his subject skillfully and sympathetically. Indeed, one cannot help feeling that Professor Lichtenberger's studies have enabled him to understand to a remarkable degree the personality of his author. And there can be no doubt that this is absolutely essential in the case of Nietzsche: to represent the philosophy apart from the man - and especially to represent it by means of a few fragmentary propositions - is to reduce it to a somewhat violent and extreme, though not particularly interesting type of "materialism.'" J. E. C., The Philosophical Review, Vol. 8, No. 1, pp. 90-91 - "There is hardly another thinker so difficult to truly understand, as is Nietzsche. His books are not, in our sense of the term, systematically written. His style is brilliant, but not always easy to grasp. Not one of his works contains the whole thought of the author. There is a great number of them. Again, Nietzsche changed his views more than once, and one very often encounters contradictions in his writings. It is due to all this, for a great part at least, that the European critics totally misunderstood Nietzsche. A book like that of Mr. Lichtenberger would have prevented many unjust judgments. Nietzsche is now being studied in this country. I should be glad to see the little book I speak of, serve as an introduction into the study of Nietzsche. If he will be found as interesting in this country as he was regarded in Europe, nothing could be more useful than a translation of Lichtenberger's work. The origin of Nietzsche's idea is very clearly exposed. Also, the transition from one period of thought to another. The rational ground of the dry and often hard and repelling paradoxes of Nietzsche is especially well developed. As a rule, only short and startling maxims are attributed to Nietzsche. Isolated, away from their context, they not only sound strange, but seem to be the production of a mad mind. On the other hand, to read Nietzsche is, as I said before, a wearisome undertaking, or, rather, a difficult one. On reading the 182 pages of Lichtenberger's book, one will be able to see every one of these well-known quotations in their proper light, and one will no longer think only of attacking Nietzsche, but of reflecting upon the many problems he has treated in such an admirably original way. I cannot but call attention to another merit of Lichtenberger's work. Nietzsche is exceedingly suggestive. It is therefore a very strong temptation for anyone writing about him, to discuss him only, and not to explain and expose his ideas. Lichtenberger succeeded in putting Nietzsche forward and in keeping himself in the background. Albert Schinz, The American Journal of Psychology, Vol. 9, No. 4, p. 599."
