Twenty-five threads through the corpus.

Diagnosis

Christianity, metaphysics, and the cultural event of the death of God — the symptoms Nietzsche names and the malady underneath.

• The Death of God The cultural event and the question of what comes after.
  Middle / Late
• Nihilism The loss of authority of inherited values; published diagnoses and notebook distinctions.
  Late
• Critique of Christianity Christianity as Platonism for the people, as priestly power, as life-denial.
  Late
• Critique of Metaphysics The dismantling of "the true world" and the two-world theories.
  Late

Revaluation

The genealogy of moral valuations and the project of revaluing all values — Nietzsche's most overtly philosophical campaign.

• Master and Slave Morality Two valuations, two psychologies; ressentiment as the engine of slave morality.
  Late
• The Revaluation of Values Nietzsche's overarching philosophical project.
  Late
• Genealogy as Method Historical-psychological critique: tracing values to their conditions of emergence.
  Middle / Late
• The Herd and the Last Man Herd valuation and conformity; the last man's ideal of comfort is a distinct case.
  Late
• Suffering, Cruelty, Discipline Nietzsche's claims about suffering, discipline, and higher possibilities — and the objections they invite.
  Late

Affirmation

Will to power, eternal recurrence, self-overcoming — approaches to affirmation whose relations and answers to nihilism remain questions for the reader.

• Will to Power As psychology, as principle of interpretation, as contested cosmology.
  Late
• Eternal Recurrence Thought experiment, test of affirmation, contested cosmological hypothesis.
  Middle / Late
• Self-Overcoming Transformation of the commitments that organize a life; related to, but distinct from, self-creation.
  Late
• The Overman What Nietzsche means by it, what he doesn't, and how it relates to self-overcoming.
  Late
• Recurrence, Time, Becoming The Heraclitean inheritance and the affirmation of becoming as such.
  Late
• Amor Fati Learning to love what is necessary; resolution, demand, and retrospective claim.
  Middle / Late

Knowledge and the Body

Perspectivism, the psychology of the affects, the philosopher as physiologist — Nietzsche's challenge to the philosophical idea of "pure" knowing.

• Perspectivism and the Will to Truth No view from nowhere — and the strange ascetic root of our drive for truth.
  Late
• The Psychology of Morality Nietzsche as "the first psychologist" — affects, drives, moral self-deception.
  Middle / Late
• Body, Physiology, Naturalism Anti-Cartesianism: the body as great reason, philosophy as physiological symptom.
  Late
• Free Spirits and the Philosopher of the Future Solitude, intellectual independence, the new kind of philosopher Nietzsche prepares.
  Middle / Late

Aesthetics and Form

From the early book on tragedy to the late preoccupation with style — art is never decoration in Nietzsche; it is how a culture either justifies or fails itself.

• The Apollonian and the Dionysian The early aesthetic-metaphysical pair, and what Nietzsche keeps and discards.
  Early / Late
• Tragedy and the Aesthetic Justification Early aesthetic justification and the changing role of art in later accounts of affirmation.
  Early / Middle
• Aphorism, Style, and Philosophical Form Why Nietzsche writes the way he does — and what the form is doing philosophically.
  Middle / Late
• Wagner and the Critique of Decadence A long love affair turned into a diagnosis of the modern.
  Late
• Greatness, Friendship, and the Agon The Greek contest as cultural form; what Nietzsche means by "greatness."
  Early / Late

Specific Topics

A theme that does not fit a cluster cleanly and is best approached on its own terms.

• Women, Marriage, and Gender The textual evidence honestly, the interpretive disputes, and what the passages actually say.
  Middle / Late

These groupings mark principal associations, not exhaustive date ranges. Themes can begin earlier and change substantially in later books; The Gay Science Books I–IV appeared in 1882, while Book V was added in 1887.

Early — 1872 to 1876

The Birth of Tragedy; the Untimely Meditations. Schopenhauerian metaphysics, Wagner, the Greeks.

• The Apollonian and the DionysianAnchored in The Birth of Tragedy; revised in Twilight.
• Tragedy and the Aesthetic JustificationThe early aesthetic metaphysics.
• Greatness, Friendship, and the Agon"Homer's Contest" begins here.

Middle — 1878 to 1882

Human, All Too Human; Daybreak; The Gay Science. The break from Wagner; the emergence of psychological method.

• Amor FatiNamed as a resolution in The Gay Science §276 (1882).
• Eternal RecurrenceThe demon's question in The Gay Science §341 (1882).
• Free SpiritsThe middle period's signature subject.
• The Death of GodFirst fully formulated in The Gay Science.
• Genealogy as MethodMethod emerges in HH and Daybreak.
• Psychology of MoralityDaybreak is the laboratory.

Late — 1883 to 1888

Zarathustra through Ecce Homo. The mature doctrines crystallize; the polemic intensifies.

• Will to Power
• Eternal Recurrence
• The Overman
• Self-Overcoming
• Master and Slave Morality
• The Revaluation of Values
• Nihilism
• Amor Fati
• Critique of Christianity
• Critique of Metaphysics
• Perspectivism
• Body, Physiology, Naturalism
• The Herd and the Last Man
• Suffering, Cruelty, Discipline
• Recurrence, Time, Becoming
• Wagner and Decadence
• Aphorism, Style, and Form
• Women, Marriage, and Gender

• Amor FatiThe demand to love what is necessary.
• Aphorism, Style, and Philosophical FormWhy he writes the way he does.
• Apollonian and DionysianThe early aesthetic-metaphysical pair.
• Body, Physiology, NaturalismAnti-Cartesianism, the body as great reason.
• Critique of ChristianityChristianity as priestly power, life-denial.
• Critique of MetaphysicsDismantling "the true world."
• Death of GodThe cultural event and what comes after.
• Eternal RecurrenceThe test of affirmation.
• Eternal Return, Time, BecomingThe Heraclitean inheritance.
• Free Spirits and the Philosopher of the FutureSolitude and the new philosopher.
• Genealogy as MethodHistorical-psychological critique.
• Greatness, Friendship, and the AgonThe Greek contest as cultural form.
• Herd and the Last ManModern democratic culture diagnosed.
• Master and Slave MoralityTwo valuations and the engine of ressentiment.
• NihilismIts varieties and overcoming.
• OvermanWhat Nietzsche means and doesn't.
• Perspectivism and the Will to TruthNo view from nowhere.
• Psychology of Morality and the AffectsNietzsche as "first psychologist."
• Revaluation of ValuesThe overarching project.
• Self-Overcoming and Self-CreationBecoming who you are.
• Suffering, Cruelty, and DisciplinePain and the higher type.
• Tragedy and the Aesthetic JustificationExistence justified as aesthetic phenomenon.
• Wagner and the Critique of DecadenceFrom devotion to diagnosis.
• Will to PowerPsychology, principle of interpretation, contested cosmology.
• Women, Marriage, and GenderThe textual evidence and the disputes.