Hello and welcome all of my fellow self-learners! When I first got started with developing a personal curricula, one of the hardest parts was building the curriculum with resources. So often, there are no pre-made free courses out there on topics you may want to learn, and that is especially true for topics like Nietzsche. Because of that lack of structured resources out there, I wanted to start up a series on my site sharing the various course curriculum that I build for my personal learning.

Now you may not want all of the resources I use, or you may want to make the course shorter or longer then I do, and that is perfectly fine. I however do all of my self-learning courses in four month sprints. By studying topics for at least four months, I feel like one can really get a solid understanding of the material, and it can help you realize whether it is something that you would like to explore in further courses of your own design.

The way that I structure all of these courses will follow the same setup: material will be spread out across four months, and will often include 1-2 books, some articles, lectures or YouTube videos on the topic, and essay prompts to help you apply the knowledge that you learn.

I highly suggest taking notes for all of my personal curriculum courses, as they will help you understand the material and promote active learning. If you do not have a good note taking app, my personal recommendation is the free software on PC, Obsidian.MD.

Into to Nietzsche – Month 1

Starting off in Month 1 of Intro to Nietzsche, you will want to work through the following material.

• The Gay Science by Friedrich Nietzsche
• Watch Lectures #1 – 3 of Prof. Raymond Geuss’ series on Nietzsche
• Watch BBC – Human All Too Human: Nietzsche

Once you have studied thru the above material, write a short 500-word essay on Nietzsche and his life, and a 1500 word essay about the Stoic concept of accepting fate with Nietzsche’s Amor Fati as introduced in The Gay Science.

Intro to Nietzsche – Month 2

Now that you have the beginnings of an understanding of Nietzsche and his philosophy, we shall start month 2 off strong with the following material.

• Beyond Good and Evil by Friedrich Nietzsche
• Watch Lectures #4 & 5 of Prof. Raymond Geuss’ series on Nietzsche
• Watch Nietzsche on Power, Knowledge, and Morality

Once you have studied thru the material for Month 2 of Intro to Nietzsche, write a 1000-1500 Word Essay about 5–7 original aphorisms targeting a modern institution, followed by a philosophical commentary using the concepts of “will to power” and “perspectivism” from Beyond Good and Evil.

Intro to Nietzsche – Month 3

We are now into the third month of the four month long course on Nietzsche, which has the least amount of material to work thru out of all the months.

• On the Genealogy of Morals by Friedrich Nietzsche
• Watch Lecture #6 of Prof. Raymond Geuss’ series on Nietzsche

After completing the required materials for this month in Intro to Nietzsche, write a 1000-1500 word essay about the Nietzsche genealogy of a modern moral. Like I said, pretty easy month this time around.

Intro to Nietzsche – Month 4

And now you have finally reached the final month in this introduction course to Nietzsche. This month is going to be more heavy on the materials to study and the essays to write, but once you have finished all that up, you shall have a solid understanding of Nietzsche, his teachings, and the values of his philosophy.

• Thus Spoke Zarathustra by Friedrich Nietzsche
• Watch Lecture #7 of Prof. Raymond Geuss’ series on Nietzsche

Below are the two essays that you will be writing to finish off this course into the philosophy of Nietzsche.

• Write a 1000-1500 word essay on the topic of modern digital culture and constant scrolling through the lens of Zarathustra’s warning of “The Last Man”
• Write a 1500-2000 word essay on the topic of a moral that you were raised with and have deeply ingrained, and then critique it with the knowledge gained in Months 2 & 3. Propose a new, life-affirming framework to replace it with, without falling into Nihilism.

Conclusion

Thank you for coming along in this journey of Intro to Nietzsche, an introductory Philosophy course designed by yours truly, The Trans Archivist. I hope that this list of resources has helped inspire you on your own self-learning journey, and if you have any questions, or any other materials to recommend that I add to this course or any of the courses that follow in this series, then feel free to leave me a comment or email me at thetransarchivist@gmail.com

Happy learning and I will see you next time! Love you all!