Focus: Life-affirmation, critique of morality and Christianity. Considered an early existentialist.
Nihilism: "God is dead" (from Thus Spoke Zarathustra). Science eroded traditional Christian values, leading to nihilism (abandonment of beliefs). Feared aggressive nationalism as replacement. Sought life-affirmation beyond nihilism.
Will to Power:
- Everything is in flux; "will to power" is core of change (universe made of wills).
- Individual's fundamental drive for power (dominance, independence). Can be outward (controlling others) or inward (self-mastery).
- "I" is a mix of competing wills. Attempts to view life as objective/fixed are "life-denying."
Role of Man:
- Humans (control instincts for greater gains) are between animals and overman.
- Overman: Achieves self-mastery and good conscience, deep love of life, accepts suffering. Humanity is a transition to overman.
Truth: "Truth" (one correct way) shows inflexible thought. Flexibility is healthy; "no" to life is inflexibility.
Values: Criticized morality (especially Christian) as fiction, opposed to life, devaluing natural instincts. Advocated re-evaluating values for honesty/realism.
Eternal Recurrence: Metaphysical theory (Ouroboros symbol).
- Time is cyclical; live each moment endlessly, exactly the same. Embrace with joy.
- "Being" doesn't exist, only "becoming." Reality intertwined. Cannot judge part without judging all. Embrace constant change.

The Sorites Paradox ("Heap" Paradox)

Problem (Eubulides): Deals with vagueness.
- Heap of sand: Removing one grain from a heap still leaves a heap. Eventually, no heap. At what point does it stop being a heap?
- Bald Man: Man with one hair is bald. If 1 hair is bald, is 2 hairs bald? Eventually, 1,000,000 hairs is bald. At what point is he NOT bald?
Philosophical Context: Frege & Russell argued ideal language needs precision, natural language has defect (vagueness). Quine believed vagueness could be eliminated.
Proposed Solutions:
- Denying Logic is Applicable: Not ideal, as logic should apply to natural language.
- Denying Some Premises (Most Common): Issues with premises themselves.
  - Epistemic Theory: There's a sharp cutoff point, but we don't know it. (Criticism: How would we know/determine it?).
  - Truth-Value Gap Theory: No specific cutoff. There's a middle group where "bald" is undefined (neither true nor false). (Criticism: "Either raining or not raining" becomes undefined in borderline cases).
  - Supervaluationism: Sharpening (drawing lines) determines truth. Sentence true if true across all sharpenings, false if false across all, undefined if mixed. Allows valid reasoning with false conclusion. (Criticism: Contradictions can still arise, e.g., "if 130 hairs not bald, 129 is bald" vs. "there is a number of hairs...").
- Denying Validity: Accept premises, deny conclusion. Sentences are true to a degree.
- Accepting as Sound: Embrace paradox. Both "no one is bald" and "everyone is bald" are true. (Implies rejecting classical reasoning for vague terms).

Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889–1951)

Impact: One of 20th C.'s most important philosophers, significant in analytic philosophy.
Early Wittgenstein (Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus):