Friedrich Nietzsche: Germany (1844-1900) (The Giants of Philosophy)

Near the end of the nineteenth century, Friedrich Nietzsche boldly announced that God is dead. There are no absolute truths, he said; the only reality is this world of life and death, conflict and change, creation and destruction. For centuries, religious ideas had given meaning to life in the western world; but with their collapse, humanity faced a grave crisis of nihilism and despair. Nietzsche proposed to replace restrictive traditional morals with the idea of humans as creative beings whose energy, strength, and intelligence enable them to give purpose and meaning to their lives.