Few philosophers have had such a profound and varied influence as Friedrich Nietzsche. From artists and musicians to psychologist and statesmen, Nietzsche's thought has, for better or worse, left a definite and lasting impression on the last one hundred years. Nietzsche was born in Prussia in 1844 and died after a long period of unproductive insanity in Weimar, Germany, in 1900.

Nietzsche's life and thought serve as both a model and a warning for those who would hope to free themselves from the traditional and cultural values which they have inherited merely by being born into them. Nietzsche's Europe was on the edge of a cultural anomy. The traditonal social and religious values were still being proclaimed by the mouth, but were not being followed by the body. Nietzsche saw this situation with an unmatched clarity and, instead of trying to rescue Europe, hoped to speed its decline by powerfully and passionately pointing out the hypocracies of the times. In turn, this might hasten the ascention of a new type of man-the "Free-Spirits", those who had the strength and courage to "become what they are". Thus, Nietzsche's task was to expose the cultural inheritance of Europe as something that has limited and denaturalized humanity, instead of elevating it to all that it could become.

During what would prove to be the last years of his sanity, Niezsche proposed for himself a new program for his task, the "Revaluation of all Values", or as it is sometimes known "The Will to Power". It is from this period that the "Writings from the Late Notebooks" are taken. The first thing that must be noted is that these writings were not intended for publication, and therefore it cannot be safely assumed that everything he has to say in these notebooks would have survived his own critical editorial process and entered into a published work. However, it is safe (I believe) to assume that the themes that Nietzsche wrote about and worked through in these notebooks would, some of them, find their way into a finished work.

As anyone who has read Nietzsche will agree, both his style and his content are very original. Instead of long, obscure treatise, Nietzsche wrote in short, aphoristic paragraphs. What he wrote in his notebooks is in this regard no different from what was published during his lifetime. Although there are a few outline-style entries in these notebooks, most are written in the same aphoristic style that Nietzsche elevated to a perfected art form in his published works. The strength of the aphorism is that it immediately produces an effect; the reader cannot help but to be struck by the genius of the observation. The weakness is that the aphorism does not present an argument, rather, it makes an assertion that is to be belived because of its directness and its initial effect. This style fits quite well with Nietzsche, who mistrusted systematic constructions of "truth", and was poetically sensitive enough to know how to deeply and immediately affect his readers.