Hiking with Nietzsche, John Kaag
Hiking with Nietzsche, John Kaag
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Hiking with Nietzsche
On Becoming Who You Are

Author: John Kaag

Narrator: Josh Bloomberg

Unabridged: 7 hr 26 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 09/25/2018


Synopsis

A revelatory Alpine journey in the spirit of the great Romantic thinker, Friedrich NietzscheHiking with Nietzsche is a tale of two philosophical journeys—one made by John Kaag as an introspective young man of nineteen, the other seventeen years later and in quite different circumstances: as a husband and father. His wife and small child in tow, Kaag sets off for the Swiss peaks above Sils-Maria, where Nietzsche routinely summered, and where he wrote his mysterious landmark work Thus Spoke Zarathustra. Both journeys are made in search of the wisdom at the core of Nietzsche’s philosophy, but they deliver him to radically different interpretations and, more crucially, revelations about the human condition.Just as Kaag’s acclaimed debut, American Philosophy: A Love Story, seamlessly wove together his philosophical discoveries and his search for meaning, Hiking with Nietzsche is a fascinating exploration, not only of Nietzsche’s ideals, but of how his experience of living relates to us as individuals in the twenty-first century. Bold, intimate, and rich with insight, Hiking with Nietzsche is about defeating complacency, balancing sanity and madness, and coming to grips with the unobtainable. As Kaag hikes alone or with his family, but always with Nietzsche, he recognizes that even slipping can be instructive. It is in the process of climbing, and through the inevitable missteps, that one has the chance, in Nietzsche’s words, to “become who you are.”

About John Kaag

John Kaag is a professor of philosophy at the University of Massachusetts, Lowell. He is the author of Idealism, Pragmatism, and Feminism and Thinking through the Imagination: Aesthetics in Human Cognition. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Harper’s, the Christian Science Monitor, the Chronicle of Higher Education, and many other publications.

About Josh Bloomberg

Josh Bloomberg, an Earphones Award–winning narrator, is a trained professional actor with extensive audiobook experience as a director and narrator. Having worked with some of the biggest publishers in the audiobook industry, he is used to performing at high standards. He speaks English, French, and Hebrew fluently and is a member of the Audio Publishers Association. He also records his voice for commercial spots and other types of voice-over. In his spare time, he loves making homemade almond milk.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Philippe on October 20, 2020

While reading this book I had the very uncomfortable feeling that I was being taken for a ride by the author. In his American Philosophy (which I haven’t read) Mr. Kaag seemed to have hit upon a winning formula that meshed autobiography with the lives and ideas of Transcendentalist philosophers. Per......more

Goodreads review by M. on June 14, 2018

[URL not allowed] A really wonderful book. Very much enjoyed reading it. Here are some notes lifted from the text: …At nineteen, on the summit of Corvatsch, I had no idea how dull the world could sometimes be. How easy it would be to remain in the valleys, to be satisfied with m......more

Goodreads review by Cule.Jule on October 03, 2022

John Kaag begibt sich im Alter von 19 und 36 Jahren auf die Spuren des Philiosophen Friedrich Nietzsche in Form einer Wanderung in der Schweiz. Unterschied: Bei der zweiten Wanderung sind auch seine Tochter Becca und seine zweite Ehefrau Carol mit anwesend. Die Reisen, die wir als Leser begleiten dü......more

Goodreads review by L. H. on January 04, 2020

"Hiking with Nietzsche" should have been a 30-page personal essay reflecting on the author's evolving understanding of Nietzsche. Instead, Kaag has turned a little family vacation to Nietzsche's mountain haunts into a bloated and rambling 200-page book shot-through with quotes from Nietzsche and oth......more

Goodreads review by Pete on April 18, 2020

Hiking with Nietzsche : On Becoming Who You Are (2018) by John Kaag is an interesting mix of travelogue, Nietzsche's philosophy and Kaag's reflections on his own life. Kaag is a professor of philosophy who writes popular books who is also married to a professor of philosophy who writes popular books......more


Quotes

“Fusing intense emotion with unflinching analysis, Kaag invites readers to make philosophy a life-elevating adventure.” Booklist

“Kaag has crafted a stirring account of a personal encounter with a great mind.” Publishers Weekly

“A philosopher’s journey into the life, writings, and mountains of Nietzsche—and ultimately into himself…A meditative work full of self-understanding that will resonate with anyone who has ever been drawn toward the void.” Kirkus Reviews

“John Kaag is the closest thing we have to William James: a breathtakingly good prose stylist; philosophically and psychologically courageous, inventive and inspiring; ruthlessly honest; unsparing about the difficulties of love, intimacy and experience; and above all, human, in the most valuable and moral sense of the word.” Clancy Martin, professor of philosophy, University of Missouri–Kansas City, and author of How to Sell: A Novel, praise for the author