4.5.03
Why Nietzche went mad
It wasn't syphillis, apparently, but a brain tumor instead.I was talking about this the other day with a very close associate. She said the thing that triggered Nietzche's madness was him seeing a horse being beaten in the streets and feeling pity for it. The fact that Nietzche, who had counted himself among his postulated group of "uebermenschen", felt pity - an emotion not supposed to be characteristic of a "superman" - made him realize that his entire philospohical Weltanschauung was rubbish and led to his breakdown. An interesting, if urban legend-esque, take on philosphers going insane.
