What Is Nietzsche''s Zarathustra? - A Philosophical Confrontation

A masterful, nuanced, and novel examination of Nietzsche's Zarathustra.
Thus Spoke Zarathustra is Nietzsche's most famous and most puzzling work, one in which he makes the greatest use of poetry to explore the questions posed by philosophy. But in order to understand the movement of this drama, we must first understand the character of its protagonist: we must ask, What Is Nietzsche's Zarathustra?

Heinrich Meier attempts to penetrate the core of the drama, following as a guiding thread the question of whether Zarathustra is a philosopher or a prophet, or, if he is meant to be both, whether Zarathustra is able to unite philosopher and prophet in himself. Via a close reading that uncovers the book's hidden structure, Meier develops a highly stimulating and original interpretation of this much-discussed but still ill-understood masterwork of German poetic prose. In the process, he carefully overturns long-established canons in the academic discourse of Nietzsche interpretation. The result is a fresh and surprising grasp of Nietzsche's well-known teachings of the overman, the will to power, and the eternal return.

About the author

Heinrich Meier is director emeritus of the Carl Friedrich von Siemens Foundation in Munich, professor of philosophy at the University of Munich, and permanent visiting professor in the John U. Nef Committee on Social Thought at the University of Chicago. He is the author of nine books, including On the Happiness of the Philosophic Life and Political Philosophy and the Challenge of Revealed Religion.

Product details

• Authors: Heinrich Meier, Meier Heinrich
• Assisted by: Justin Gottschalk (Translation)
• Publisher: University Of Chicago Press
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Release: 15.04.2026
• EAN: 9780226849256
• ISBN: 978-0-226-84925-6
• No. of pages: 224
• Subjects: Humanities, art, music > History; History, History of Ideas, PHILOSOPHY / Political, PHILOSOPHY / History & Surveys / Modern, LITERARY CRITICISM / Semiotics & Theory, Philosophy, LITERARY CRITICISM / Subjects & Themes / Politics, LITERARY CRITICISM / Subjects & Themes / Historical Events, Politics & government, Social & political philosophy, social and political philosophy, Western philosophy from c 1800, Politics and government, Literary theory