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June 7 - June 29, 2022
“Imagine a book which speaks of nothing but events which lie outside the possibility of general or even of rare experiences – the first language for a new range of experiences. In this case, nothing will be heard!”
there is a fundamental distinction between the world as it appears (phenomena) and the world as it truly is (noumena).
Will is seen as the source of all suffering, since willing never brings contentment, but only further desire!
the mole-like activities of the philological brood … their indifference to the true and urgent problems of life”.
“In the scholar, the instinct of self-defence has decayed; otherwise he would defend himself against books. The scholar is a decadent.”
“a certain musical disposition of mind comes first, and after that follows the poetical idea”.
This trance-like condition briefly protects us from our sense of isolation and the transitory nature of human life, from which our intuition won’t allow us to escape.
No wonder Nietzsche tells us that modern consciousness is sick: “Art is reduced to mere amusement, and governed by empty concepts.”
“We moderns have no culture to call our own. We fill ourselves with foreign customs, arts, philosophies, religions and sciences: we are wandering encyclopaedias.” (Use and Abuse of History)
Education insists on accurate detail and detached “objectivity” which serve only to paralyze the individual’s project of self-realization and action in the world.
Zuri Vania liked this
If we are to produce a vital authentic culture, we will need to be less educated (in the traditional sense).
“At the end of the cure they are men again and have ceased to be mere shadows of humanities.”
“A virtue has to be our invention, our most personal defence and necessity.”
Morality cannot be based upon reason alone, or if it is, then my reason may not be the same as yours
So we ask not “What can we know?”, but rather “What is it good for us to know?”
“He who considers more deeply knows that, whatever his acts and judgements may be, he is always wrong.”
“There is no pre-established harmony between the furtherance of truth and the well-being of mankind.”
“Q. Why do you write? A. I have found no other way of getting rid of my thoughts.”
“If it is your destiny to think, give to it divine honours, and sacrifice to it the best you have and what you love the most.”
Eternal Recurrence stresses the significance of our present actions: whatever we do now will return to us, again and again. It underlines the fact of our personal responsibility for those actions, and implies an exhortation: strive to be greater than you are, to overcome yourself; the present moment is all, so let us make the best use of it and of ourselves.
Research will show us that there are moralities but not “morality” – no timeless realm where the “goodness” and “truth” of a Plato or a Christ can reign happily for ever.
“There are no moral phenomena at all, only a moral interpretation of phenomena …”
“Although the most clear-sighted judges of witches and even the witches themselves were convinced the witches were guilty of witchcraft, no guilt in fact existed. So it is with all guilt.”
“With morality, the individual can only ascribe value to himself as a function of the herd.”
If Nietzsche’s ideas on the origins of morality are correct – if moral ideas are the simple result of human self-interest and the evolutionary urge to survive – then what can we say of religion, that ancient source of moral principles and commandments? And what will become of our gods? “The whole of religion may appear to some distant age as an exercise and a prelude.” Here we encounter for the first time the idea of the death of God.
“Our heart overflows with gratitude, astonishment, presentiment, expectation – at last the horizon seems to us again free, even if it is not bright, at last our ships can put out again, no matter what the danger; every daring venture of knowledge is again permitted; the sea, our sea again is there open before us; perhaps there has never yet been such an ‘open sea’.”
“What are these churches now, if not the tombs and sepulchres of God?”
The pursuit of knowledge for its own sake makes as little sense as the pursuit of goodness for its own sake, and can be just as harmful.
Any truth which threatens life is no truth at all. It is an error.
Religion, morality, science: their history is “all too human”. Their claims to truth fall short of their ambitions. Behind these individual critiques, we can begin to sense a general mistrust of human thought which tends to lack awareness of its deeper motivation and needs.
“Consciousness is the last and latest development of the organic, and consequently also the most unfinished and weakest part of it. From consciousness there proceed countless errors which cause an animal, a man, to perish earlier than necessary.”
The interleaving of thought with feeling, instinct, desire, need, will provide endless work for the psychologists and analysts of the 20th century and will slowly undermine the simple rationalist belief in “the facts” which still lingers into our own time.
A struggle, not for existence (Darwin), but rather a struggle for greatness – and with that, a struggle for power.
It is the road to nihilism. True knowledge must be useful for the projects of human action.
The belief of “the virtuous” is a form of hypocrisy. When people say “virtue is necessary”, they are really saying “the police is necessary”, for what they crave is a quiet, orderly and safe society, where they will be well looked after.
they expect a reward from their God for being virtuous. Is this a love of virtue?
“For today the petty people [the masses] have become lord and master; they preach submission and acquiescence and prudence and diligence and consideration . . .”
Behind this lies a fear of doing, risking and seeking one’s own fate. A fear of wanting too much and facing failure.
This modern fear of pain and of suffering shows only that we have not suffered enough. All knowledge requires a price.
“a poor ignorant weariness, which no longer wants even to want: that created all gods and afterworlds”.
“He who cannot obey himself will be commanded.”
“Who else should we wish to serve, if not ourselves?”
“There are no moral phenomena at all, only a moral interpretation of phenomena …”
“A profound man needs friends, unless he has a God. I have neither God nor friend.”
