Ross's review
The Twilight of the Idols/The Anti-Christ: or How to Philosophize with a Hammer by Friedrich Nietzsche
He's weirdly conflicted about whether or not one should seek truth at any cost, or whether it's wiser NOT to know some things, whether that's better for one's life and ability to form projects and move forward. He's gone back and forth on this several times, from "On the Advantage and Disadvantage of History for Life" to "Dawn" and "The Gay Science" to here. There's a split in him between the joyful guy who loves life and accepts everything as it is, and the feverish, deadly serious prophet who has to overturn all of history. And in the preface to "Twilight of the Idols" he writes explicitly about the burden of taking on such a serious project ("revaluation of all values") when he'd rather be out gamboling in the sun. At least two of the aphorisms deal with this: the one about Aristotle's saying that only a beast or a god can live alone, to which Nietzsche adds the third case: the philosopher; and the one asking whether an ass can b...more
