Posts
"Only recently did I become ripe for most of your posts from 2001. I
hope you don't take too much offense whenever I appear unready for
your current posts. Maybe in a few years.
I read Plato's Ion recently. In it, Socrates expresses the idea that
the great artist, e.g., Homer, is attracted by a god like an iron ring
by a magnetic or "Heraclean" stone; the effect of this "stone", this
god, is that the artist becomes inspired and thereby also "magnetic";
other "iron rings" and even little scraps of metal are attracted by
him. If Dionysus is the stone, than Nietzsche is such an iron ring,
and you, for instance, are an iron ring that is attracted by the
latter; I in turn may be yet another ring, or even a scrap of metal.
But even if I am a scrap of metal, I can pride myself on the idea that
I have had direct access to the wealth of Dionysus, to the wealth of
the greatest Dionysian, and to the wealth of the greatest living
Nietzschean - the latter who has direct access to the former two."
hope you don't take too much offense whenever I appear unready for
your current posts. Maybe in a few years.
I read Plato's Ion recently. In it, Socrates expresses the idea that
the great artist, e.g., Homer, is attracted by a god like an iron ring
by a magnetic or "Heraclean" stone; the effect of this "stone", this
god, is that the artist becomes inspired and thereby also "magnetic";
other "iron rings" and even little scraps of metal are attracted by
him. If Dionysus is the stone, than Nietzsche is such an iron ring,
and you, for instance, are an iron ring that is attracted by the
latter; I in turn may be yet another ring, or even a scrap of metal.
But even if I am a scrap of metal, I can pride myself on the idea that
I have had direct access to the wealth of Dionysus, to the wealth of
the greatest Dionysian, and to the wealth of the greatest living
Nietzschean - the latter who has direct access to the former two."
[Sauwelios, July 2007, to Moody Lawless]
Sauwelios is an old adversary who has now found the madgod.
----------
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The Nihilist De-values as he re-values.
I know one thing;I've disabused you of your OWN Christianised conception of Nietzsche,and made you see the Aryan in him...and that is why you hate me so much!
"I would rather be a Satyr than a Saint".[Nietzsche]
The Greeks had more than one word for 'love'. Correspondingly they had more than one conception of 'love'.
Nietzsche deals with multiple perspectives;
AMOR
M==O
O==M
ROMA
Nietzsche deals with multiple perspectives;
AMOR
M==O
O==M
ROMA
"My formula for greatness in a human being is AMOR FATI:that one wants nothing other than it is,not in the future,not in the past,not in all eternity. Not merely to endure that which happens of necessity,still less to dissemble it [all idealism is untruthfulness in the face of necessity],but to LOVE it". [Nietzsche,EH 'Clever' 10]
Speculation about the nature of the universe is still very much 'up for grabs'. Nietzsche knew that he was on to something,and although the ER is not only Physics,but much more [much more,Horatio],we can see some relevance in the following words of Stephen Hawking [author of 'A Brief History of Time'];
"Matter and energy tend to make space-time curve in on itself. In the real time direction,this inevitably leads to singularities,places where space-time comes to an end.
"But the imaginary time [i.e., the universe as having every possible history-cf.Feynman] direction is at right angles to real time. This means that it behaves in a similar way to the three directions that correspond to moving in space.
"The three space directions and imaginary time would form a space -time that was closed in on itself,without boundaries or edges. It wouldn't have any point that could be called a beginning or end,any more than the surface of the earth has a beginning or end.
"If you know the history of the universe in imaginary time,you can calculate how it behaves in real time. In this way,you could hope to get a complete unified theory,one that would predict everything in the universe.
"We still do not know how to do the sum over histories properly for the universe,but we can be fairly sure that it will involve imaginary time and the idea of space-time closing up on itself". [Stephen Hawking,'My Position']
Always remember that Nietzsche's conception of Eternity in time was CIRCULAR,not linear.
'Formula' is meant here in the sense of an enunciation of a principle;an expression of that principle. The principle in question is the affirmation of the ER.
A dictionary definition has it;
AMOR FATI; Latin 'amor',love;'fatum',fate; The willing acceptance,indeed love,of one's fate. Nietzsche sees it as constitutive of human greatness,in his 'Ecce Homo' (late 1888). His concept is a more extreme variant of the Stoic notion of willing submission to one's destiny". [Penguin Dict. Philos.]
Just as the ER was part of Stoicism,so is AF. The sense of 'love' here is,'to cling to,delight in,enjoy having,be addicted to,admire or be glad of the existence of' (OED,'love2,def.3)
Nietzsche's own definitions sear off the page;
"A formula of SUPREME AFFIRMATION born of abundance,and plenitude,an affirmation without reserve,of suffering itself,of guilt itself,of everything questionable and strange in existence...
"Nothing that is can be subtracted,nothing is dispensable...
"Affirmation of life even in its strangest and sternest problems;the will to life rejoicing in its own inexhaustibility through the SACRIFICE of its highest types---THAT is what I called Dionysian...
"TO REALISE IN ONESELF the eternal joy of becoming--that joy which also encompasses JOY IN DESTRUCTION". [Ecce Homo,'BOT']
Six years earlier,Nietzsche had made committment to this formula crystal clear;
"I want more and more to see what is necessary in things as the beautiful in them--thus I shall become one one of those who makes things beautiful. Amor Fati: may that be my love from now on!...
"I want to be at all times hereafter only an affirmer! ". ['Joyful Wisdom,341 (1882) ]
This flowed into 'Thus Spake Zarathustra',which is adumbrated in the 'Joyful Wisdom';
"Did you ever say Yes to one joy? O my friends,then you said Yes to ALL woe as well. All things are chained and entwined together,all things are in love;if ever you wanted one moment twice,if you ever said: 'You please me,happiness,instant,moment!
"Then you wanted EVERYTHING to return! You wanted everything in love, Oh that is how you LOVED the world,you everlasting men,loved it eternally and for all time: and you say ever to woe: 'Go,but return!' FOR ALL JOY WANTS--ETERNITY!
"It wants ITSELF,it bites into ITSELF,the Will of the Ring wrestles within it,it wants love,it wants hatred,it is superabundant ".[TSZ IV,'The Drunken Song' ]
Here the conjunction of ER and AF is shown.In his next book,'Beyond Good and Evil',Nietzsche 'said the same things as in TSZ,but differently,VERY differently'.
In the next passage he describes how the Nihilistic aspect must open one's eyes [providing one has 'eyes'] to the affirmation of AF;
"He who has really gazed...down into the most world-denying of all possible modes of thought...may have had his eyes opened to the opposite ideal: to the ideal of the most exuberant,most living and most world-affirming man,who has not only learned to get on and treat with all that was and is,but who wants to have it again AS IT WAS AND IS to all eternity,insatiably calling out DA CAPO not only to himself but to the whole piece and play,and not only to a play but fundamentally to him who needs precisely this play--and who makes it necessary: because he needs himself again and again--and makes himself necessary". [BGE 56 (1886) ]
This whole philosophy is steeped in the pagan culture of the Aryas;when we talk of AF/ER/WTP we must always have the image of Dionysos before us;
"MY NEW PATH TO A 'YES'...Such an experimental philosophy as I live anticipates experimentally even the possibilities of the most fundamental Nihilism;but this does not mean that it must halt at a negation,a No,a will to negation. It wants rather to cross over to the opposite of this--to a Dionysian affirmation of the world as it is,without subtraction,exception,or selection---it wants the eternal circulation;--the same things,the same logic and illogic of entanglements.
"The highest state a philosopher can attain: to stand in a Dionysian relationship to existence--my formula for this is AMOR FATI...
"Thus I guessed to what extent a stronger type of man would necessarily have to conceive the elevation and enhancement of man as taking place...beyond good and evil,beyond those values which cannot deny their origin in the sphere of suffering,the herd,the majority---I sought in history the beginnings of this construction of reverse ideals...the concepts 'pagan','classical','noble',newly discovered and expounded". [Nietzsche WM 1041]
That Nietzsche rejects all linearity and atomising individualism,typical of 'modernity' is obvious;
"The FAITH that only what is separate and individual may be rejected,that in the totality everything is redeemed and affirmed--HE NO LONGER DENIES...
"But such a faith is the highest of all posssible faiths: I have baptised it with the name DIONYSOS". [Nietzsche,Twilight,'Expeditions' 49 (1888) ]
I take Nietzsche's basic conception as CIRCULAR not linear. In the wheel of becoming various states of all degrees of declining and ascending struggle with one another [agon].
They also struggle with themselves,and the most ascending spirits can be brought low;they can be corrupted,they can inter-breed so to speak,and lose their amor fati [this is why Nietzsche espouses a eugenics-such things should be thought on the levels of microcosm and macrocosm and all degrees in between.
Here we have the affliction of decadence [in the cycle of 'democracy' for example] when the Nihilists rule and 'even the best lack all conviction'.
Nihilism IS an extreme position-the ultimate NO goes to the very EDGE of the abyss 'extinction'.
However,in the economy of the whole,the affirming and the nihilistic,are ALWAYS present. There is no completely Nihilistic era [that would be a cessation of all,a nothing,a fate that does not await us because in infinite time it would have already happened if it was going to happen-and it hasn't],nor is there any completely ascending era [there is no Master Race without declining slave populations,there is no beast of prey without prey...why,the Master/Beast would starve,and the same impossible nothingness would result].
This is our Joy,our existence affirmed eternally!
They also struggle with themselves,and the most ascending spirits can be brought low;they can be corrupted,they can inter-breed so to speak,and lose their amor fati [this is why Nietzsche espouses a eugenics-such things should be thought on the levels of microcosm and macrocosm and all degrees in between.
Here we have the affliction of decadence [in the cycle of 'democracy' for example] when the Nihilists rule and 'even the best lack all conviction'.
Nihilism IS an extreme position-the ultimate NO goes to the very EDGE of the abyss 'extinction'.
However,in the economy of the whole,the affirming and the nihilistic,are ALWAYS present. There is no completely Nihilistic era [that would be a cessation of all,a nothing,a fate that does not await us because in infinite time it would have already happened if it was going to happen-and it hasn't],nor is there any completely ascending era [there is no Master Race without declining slave populations,there is no beast of prey without prey...why,the Master/Beast would starve,and the same impossible nothingness would result].
This is our Joy,our existence affirmed eternally!
You ask 'isn't the nature of one's will that decides the course of life?'. I would rather say that it is the course of life that decides the nature of one's will. We read Nietzsche because,like him,we want to find out how to 'Become what one is'. This is particularly important in a period of 'egalitarian',dissolution,where the Order of Rank is becoming lost.
This is why we approach the Book Study of BGE with some trepedation;the last chapter is 'What Is Noble?'--who can even ASK that question today,let alone even ANSWER it. We will try with the help of Nietzsche to do so...and that is 'why' we do philosophy.
Do not be fooled by the liberal distortion of supermanhood-i.e.,the idea that all beings on earth can become noble;this is just another recipe for mass extinction;it is also the lie that liberals use to actually LEVEL mankind.
All that means is the rule of mediocrity;the 'last man'.
I dislike the term 'mentality';there is no mind/body distinction;we do philosophy from our whole being,and all the connections inherent in that being;'mentality' is a castrated term I despise.
I quibble that the 'transvaluation' is from Nihilism to WTP;The latter is a basic conception that is characterised by strong will and weak will. It underlies both Nihilism and Affirmation;Nihilism is a type of weak will. So the transvaluation occurs between weak will/strong will;
WTP itself [as an Arche] cannot be 'transvalued'.
The ER is this WTP as 'the world',so we are talking here of ER as a 'formula' of the WTP which is the basic feature of all existence both organic and inorganic.
Weak will can triumph,especially when spiritualised. So while the average Christian slave is fodder,the priest,who has made an art and a weapon of his weakness,is a formiddable enemy. When the priest rules,it is still 'weak will' that triumphs.
The difference between the Twilight of the Masters,and the Twilight of the Slaves is down to what FOLLOWS each of these events.
This is why we approach the Book Study of BGE with some trepedation;the last chapter is 'What Is Noble?'--who can even ASK that question today,let alone even ANSWER it. We will try with the help of Nietzsche to do so...and that is 'why' we do philosophy.
Do not be fooled by the liberal distortion of supermanhood-i.e.,the idea that all beings on earth can become noble;this is just another recipe for mass extinction;it is also the lie that liberals use to actually LEVEL mankind.
All that means is the rule of mediocrity;the 'last man'.
I dislike the term 'mentality';there is no mind/body distinction;we do philosophy from our whole being,and all the connections inherent in that being;'mentality' is a castrated term I despise.
I quibble that the 'transvaluation' is from Nihilism to WTP;The latter is a basic conception that is characterised by strong will and weak will. It underlies both Nihilism and Affirmation;Nihilism is a type of weak will. So the transvaluation occurs between weak will/strong will;
WTP itself [as an Arche] cannot be 'transvalued'.
The ER is this WTP as 'the world',so we are talking here of ER as a 'formula' of the WTP which is the basic feature of all existence both organic and inorganic.
Weak will can triumph,especially when spiritualised. So while the average Christian slave is fodder,the priest,who has made an art and a weapon of his weakness,is a formiddable enemy. When the priest rules,it is still 'weak will' that triumphs.
The difference between the Twilight of the Masters,and the Twilight of the Slaves is down to what FOLLOWS each of these events.
"Since the American Civil War,the Negro Problem in the South has been hotly debated and a thousand schemes for carrying out the Biblical injunction to love one another have been proposed. Recently,a clear-headed and vigorous,if slightly theatrical Southerner,has courageously voiced the instinctive conviction that this injunction must be disregarded,and that the White Race,to preserve itself,must pronounce upon the Black Race and set out to execute--as gently as possible,but still with malleable firmness--a sentence of extermination".
(Mencken,'The Philosophy of F.Nietzsche' 1908)
The QuThe Quartered Cure. arte
Unlike the Stoics,Epicureans did not see an ultimate purpose to life. This is because straining to reach a goal would be likely to bring about anxiety;
"The 'garden' of Epicurus where any TASK is lacking in such a life. It DESIRES nothing;a form of the 'Epicurean gods' : All reason is lacking to set up any further goals-to have children. Everything has been attained". [Nietzsche WM 225]
Epicurus devised a 'Four Part Cure' to aid fellow sufferers. It goes something like this;
1) Don't fear god,
2) Don't worry about death,
3) What is good is easy to get,
4) What is terrible is easy to endure.
And we must not forget that Nietzsche also saw the role of the philosopher in this classical light as that of being a 'physician of the soul'.
But it is Epicurus' attitude to the gods that most fascinated Nietzsche [and I think it is emerging from this first chapter of BGE, 'On the Prejudices of Philosophers',that while he largely rejects the philosophy prior to his revaluation,Nietzsche does take forward certain aspects of that past philolosophy into the future].
Epicurus pictured the gods as being completely INDIFFERENT to mankind; they were perfectly happy and were most certainly NOT the 'creators' of the world! ;
"Nothing can come of mankind in the long run--let us cease to be eager spectators and fools of this spectacle without a goal!--It was in this mood that the gods of Epicurus once withdrew into their divine happiness and silence: they were tired of mankind" [Nietzsche,Daybreak 150]
The most purpose that an Epicurean can give to his life is to try to live like one of the gods--blissful and indifferent to mankind;
"The gods always welcome men who are like themselves". [Epicurus]
What,is this not the superman?red C
Lathe Biosas ('live unnoticed')
ure."Everything a man does in service to the State is against his own nature". (Nietzsche WM 718)
Whereas Stoicism advocated involvement in public affairs, Epicurus advised his followers to withdraw and shun politics,marriage and child-raising: All those things were troublesome and could disturb one's serenity.
It was better (and here we have a similarity with Nietzsche and his 'free spirits' ) to live in small like-minded communities and cultivate friendship;
"The noble man is most involved with wisdom and friendship, of which one is a mortal good,the other,immortal". (Epicurus)
It seems though that Epicurus became somewhat revered as a divine sage;he elaborated both exoteric and esoteric aspects of his philosophy combining,again like Nietzsche,brief maxims and longer treatises;
"It is not possible to know the concentrated result of our continuous overview of the Universe unless one can have in oneself a comprehensive grasp by means of brief maxims of all that might also be worked out in detail with precision". (ib.)
We can see here that Nietzsche was influenced by Epicurus as the 'type',philosopher.
Who WAS Epicurus? -
Nietzsche writes in BGE 7 rather cryptically;
"Greece took a hundred years to find out who the garden god Epicurus really was--did she ever find out? ".
We can infer that Nietzsche alone knows who Epicurus really was;indeed,he had written in an earlier book;
"Yes,I am proud of percieving the character of Epicurus differently from anyone else perhaps,and of enjoying the happiness of the afternoon of antiquity in all that I hear and read of him: I see his eye gazing out on a broad whitish sea,over the shore rocks on which the sunshine rests,while the great and small creatures play in its light,secure and calm like this light and that eye itself.
"Such happiness could only have been devised by a chronic sufferer,the happiness of an eye before which the sae of existence has become calm,and which can no longer tire of gazing at the surface and at the variegated,tender,tremulous skin of this sea.
"Never previously was there such a moderation of voluptuousness" [Nietzsche,'Daybreak']
We must remember that with Epicurus we are in "an age of dissolution,which mixes the races". In such an age,happiness appears "in the character of a soothing medicine and mode of thought (for instance,Epicurean,or Christian) ".
[Nietzsche,BGE 200]
2260
Have you ever thought about the possibility that Hitler was the last Superman of our era?
1) Every point of your life NOW is a moment of recurrence.
You repeat the past and presage the future.
You are a Gateway between the pathways of eternity.
The god Janus,
The Axis,
Polar.
2) Nine Points of Synchronicity:Hitler/Nietzsche.
I] In early January of 1889 Nietzsche collapses insane;
April the same year Hitler is born.
II] 15/10/1946;A.Rosenberg the philosopher of Hitler's NSDAP is hanged at Nuremberg;
15/10/1844;Nietzsche is born at Rocken.
III] 28/1/1969;Death of J.Grimminger [bearer of the NSDAP 'Blood Flag'];
28/1/1869;Basle University approves Nietzsche's appointment.
IV] 16th of March;National Day of Mourning;Heroe's Remebrance Day NSDAP;
16th March;Dionysos/Bacchus;Beginning of two day festival of the Greek god Dionysos:the festival promotes a fruitful g harvest.
V] 17/5/1919;Death of Guido von List,founder of the Thule Society [precursor of NSDAP];
17/5/1869;First visit by Nietzsche to Wagner and Cosima.
VI] 17th August 1987;Death [murder] of Rudolf Hess,Hitler's deputy;
17th August;First day of 'Odin's Ordeal' [this culminates in his finding of the runes-see NSDAP use of runes]
VII] 25th August 1900;Nietzsche dies at Weimar;
25th August;Final day of 'Odin's Ordeal'-Odin discovers the runes.
VIII] 3/1/1946;Wm. Joyce [Lord Haw Haw-Irishman and NSDAP propagandist] hanged in London.
3/1/1889;Nietzsche's collapse.
IX] 20/4/1889;Hitler born;
20/4/1897;Nietzsche's mother dies;
20/4/1897;Nietzsche Cult Begins.
3) Random readings;the technique of pulling out random passages of prophetic works;done at the 'moment'...
"The father both of men and gods agreed; and Pallas sent
With these wing'd words to both the hosts:'Make all haste,and invent
Some mean by which the men of Troy,against the truce agreed,
May stir the glorious Greeks to arms,with some inglorious deed' ".
[Homer,Iliad]
"Ha! Ha!
And st me,fool that thou art,
Dead-st quite my pride?
Give LOVE to me-who warm'th me still?
Who lov'th me still?
Give ardent fingers
Give heartening charcoal-warmers,
Give me,the lonesomest,
The ice (ah! seven-fold frozen ice
For very enemies,
For foes,doth make one thirst)
Give,yield to me,
Cruellest foe-
THYSELF! ".
[Nietzsche,TSZ IV]
Note the parallels there..those 'inglorious deeds'.
4) The sacred repetition of Ritual.
You repeat the past and presage the future.
You are a Gateway between the pathways of eternity.
The god Janus,
The Axis,
Polar.
2) Nine Points of Synchronicity:Hitler/Nietzsche.
I] In early January of 1889 Nietzsche collapses insane;
April the same year Hitler is born.
II] 15/10/1946;A.Rosenberg the philosopher of Hitler's NSDAP is hanged at Nuremberg;
15/10/1844;Nietzsche is born at Rocken.
III] 28/1/1969;Death of J.Grimminger [bearer of the NSDAP 'Blood Flag'];
28/1/1869;Basle University approves Nietzsche's appointment.
IV] 16th of March;National Day of Mourning;Heroe's Remebrance Day NSDAP;
16th March;Dionysos/Bacchus;Beginning of two day festival of the Greek god Dionysos:the festival promotes a fruitful g harvest.
V] 17/5/1919;Death of Guido von List,founder of the Thule Society [precursor of NSDAP];
17/5/1869;First visit by Nietzsche to Wagner and Cosima.
VI] 17th August 1987;Death [murder] of Rudolf Hess,Hitler's deputy;
17th August;First day of 'Odin's Ordeal' [this culminates in his finding of the runes-see NSDAP use of runes]
VII] 25th August 1900;Nietzsche dies at Weimar;
25th August;Final day of 'Odin's Ordeal'-Odin discovers the runes.
VIII] 3/1/1946;Wm. Joyce [Lord Haw Haw-Irishman and NSDAP propagandist] hanged in London.
3/1/1889;Nietzsche's collapse.
IX] 20/4/1889;Hitler born;
20/4/1897;Nietzsche's mother dies;
20/4/1897;Nietzsche Cult Begins.
3) Random readings;the technique of pulling out random passages of prophetic works;done at the 'moment'...
"The father both of men and gods agreed; and Pallas sent
With these wing'd words to both the hosts:'Make all haste,and invent
Some mean by which the men of Troy,against the truce agreed,
May stir the glorious Greeks to arms,with some inglorious deed' ".
[Homer,Iliad]
"Ha! Ha!
And st me,fool that thou art,
Dead-st quite my pride?
Give LOVE to me-who warm'th me still?
Who lov'th me still?
Give ardent fingers
Give heartening charcoal-warmers,
Give me,the lonesomest,
The ice (ah! seven-fold frozen ice
For very enemies,
For foes,doth make one thirst)
Give,yield to me,
Cruellest foe-
THYSELF! ".
[Nietzsche,TSZ IV]
Note the parallels there..those 'inglorious deeds'.
4) The sacred repetition of Ritual.
5) Every single moment has its own future.
And every future is a moment in itself,and so on,eternally into the future.
Your life itself was the future of a moment of a moment,
-Infinite regression into the eternal past.
These chains join up so that at one point a past is identical to a future and a future is identical to a past. At such points a man's last moment abuts his first and vice versa.
He experiences his death as his birth,and his birth as his death.
As with beings and things,so too with thoughts.
6) If the eternal recurrence of the same is true,and the Superman has not yet occurred, then the Superman is not a reality.
If the eternal recurrence of the same is true and the Superman is a reality,then the Superman must have already come.
7) "The Will to Power is so hated in democratic ages that their entire psychology seems directed toward belittling and defaming it." [Nietzsche,WM 751]
So let us say;'down with democracy!';
Let those who are born to rule,rule.
Let those who are bred to rule breed the rulers.
And let those who are born to serve and slave,serve and slave.
And let the Order of Rank thrive!
And let us-all of us, ride the Will to Power!
8) "In a hundred years Hitler will again be the symbol of Germany! Did Napoleon,Frederick the Great,or Tsar Peter the Great act any differently?
History does not regard them as murderers either".
[Goering,at Nuremberg-from Speer's 'Spandau' p.73]
There is little doubt that Nietzsche would also put Hitler in the same company as Napoleon et al.
9) The second chapter of Beyond Good and Evil,'The Free Spirit' is about giving style to one's character.
And every future is a moment in itself,and so on,eternally into the future.
Your life itself was the future of a moment of a moment,
-Infinite regression into the eternal past.
These chains join up so that at one point a past is identical to a future and a future is identical to a past. At such points a man's last moment abuts his first and vice versa.
He experiences his death as his birth,and his birth as his death.
As with beings and things,so too with thoughts.
6) If the eternal recurrence of the same is true,and the Superman has not yet occurred, then the Superman is not a reality.
If the eternal recurrence of the same is true and the Superman is a reality,then the Superman must have already come.
7) "The Will to Power is so hated in democratic ages that their entire psychology seems directed toward belittling and defaming it." [Nietzsche,WM 751]
So let us say;'down with democracy!';
Let those who are born to rule,rule.
Let those who are bred to rule breed the rulers.
And let those who are born to serve and slave,serve and slave.
And let the Order of Rank thrive!
And let us-all of us, ride the Will to Power!
8) "In a hundred years Hitler will again be the symbol of Germany! Did Napoleon,Frederick the Great,or Tsar Peter the Great act any differently?
History does not regard them as murderers either".
[Goering,at Nuremberg-from Speer's 'Spandau' p.73]
There is little doubt that Nietzsche would also put Hitler in the same company as Napoleon et al.
9) The second chapter of Beyond Good and Evil,'The Free Spirit' is about giving style to one's character.
To do evil without remorse,without the sting of con-science...now that IS heroic.
'Tower of Silence'
[structure on which Zarathustrians place their dead].
10) Hear me,Romans.
The Fascism of the 1920's and 30's was premature;
Now Fascism is a NECESSITY.
What does that mean? -It means the need for large,fortressed,centrally controlled,autarkic Meganations; Ethnically,culturally and Spiritually homogeneous.
Geared both to wage necessary war,and to create Art in the Grand Style.
What matters it if millions die in the pursuit of Grand Style!
11) Pater says of 'Decadence';- 'not the fruit of experience,but experience itself, is the end'.
12) One has today a thorough scepticism toward 'ultimates'. A circular scepticism is our basic character [cf. Quantum Physic's claim that the Universe from the micro to the macro is 'uncertain' in that it doesn't always obey the causal laws of Classical Physics].
Nietzsche though,is one of those whose work looks forward to the age of uncertainty.
How to live with uncertainty-the golden rule is that there is no golden rule.
The rules tell us to rule out certainty.
This need not be debilitating. The argument for Faith tells us that it is.It will say that we need certainties and must,if necessary,construct them and believe in them [the 'noble lie' that they are not of our construction helps us to believe in them-basic lack of self-confidence in our own 'making'].
Have faith in uncertainty.
Stamp Being on Becoming.
Nietzsche was deliberately asystematic;he is the philosopher of the Quantum Age,the Age of Uncertainty.
13) Will to Power. The German for 'power' is 'Macht' which derives from 'machen',to make;the English fails to catch this resonance.
The word 'power' derives from the Latin meaning to be 'able'-'potere'.
For the Romans,'potentia' referred to the capacity or ability of one person or thing to affect another.
Hobbes' usuage pervades the English conception;
"There is a generall inclination of all mankind,a perpetuall and restlesse desire of Power after power,that ceaseth onely in Death" [Hobbes,Leviathan I,11]
14) Nietzsche praises the aphorist B.Gracian highly. The following quote has much of the Nietzschean about it;
"KNOW THE GREAT MEN OF YOUR AGE. They are not many. One Phoenix in all the world,one great Captain,one perfect orator,one wise man per century,one eminent King in many. Mediocrities abound and win little esteem. Eminences are rare,for they require total perfection,and the higher the category,the harder it is to reach it. Many have called themselves 'Great',borrowing the name from Caesar and Alexander,but in vain;without deeds,that word is only a puff of air. There have been few Senecas,and only one Appelles won enduring fame" [Gracian,'The Art of Worldly Wisdom' 203]
[structure on which Zarathustrians place their dead].
10) Hear me,Romans.
The Fascism of the 1920's and 30's was premature;
Now Fascism is a NECESSITY.
What does that mean? -It means the need for large,fortressed,centrally controlled,autarkic Meganations; Ethnically,culturally and Spiritually homogeneous.
Geared both to wage necessary war,and to create Art in the Grand Style.
What matters it if millions die in the pursuit of Grand Style!
11) Pater says of 'Decadence';- 'not the fruit of experience,but experience itself, is the end'.
12) One has today a thorough scepticism toward 'ultimates'. A circular scepticism is our basic character [cf. Quantum Physic's claim that the Universe from the micro to the macro is 'uncertain' in that it doesn't always obey the causal laws of Classical Physics].
Nietzsche though,is one of those whose work looks forward to the age of uncertainty.
How to live with uncertainty-the golden rule is that there is no golden rule.
The rules tell us to rule out certainty.
This need not be debilitating. The argument for Faith tells us that it is.It will say that we need certainties and must,if necessary,construct them and believe in them [the 'noble lie' that they are not of our construction helps us to believe in them-basic lack of self-confidence in our own 'making'].
Have faith in uncertainty.
Stamp Being on Becoming.
Nietzsche was deliberately asystematic;he is the philosopher of the Quantum Age,the Age of Uncertainty.
13) Will to Power. The German for 'power' is 'Macht' which derives from 'machen',to make;the English fails to catch this resonance.
The word 'power' derives from the Latin meaning to be 'able'-'potere'.
For the Romans,'potentia' referred to the capacity or ability of one person or thing to affect another.
Hobbes' usuage pervades the English conception;
"There is a generall inclination of all mankind,a perpetuall and restlesse desire of Power after power,that ceaseth onely in Death" [Hobbes,Leviathan I,11]
14) Nietzsche praises the aphorist B.Gracian highly. The following quote has much of the Nietzschean about it;
"KNOW THE GREAT MEN OF YOUR AGE. They are not many. One Phoenix in all the world,one great Captain,one perfect orator,one wise man per century,one eminent King in many. Mediocrities abound and win little esteem. Eminences are rare,for they require total perfection,and the higher the category,the harder it is to reach it. Many have called themselves 'Great',borrowing the name from Caesar and Alexander,but in vain;without deeds,that word is only a puff of air. There have been few Senecas,and only one Appelles won enduring fame" [Gracian,'The Art of Worldly Wisdom' 203]
"You will live as a god among men". [Epicurus]
You are right to question this point. Fate was the general outlook of pagan antiquity,and is the coin of vantage of the Indo-European/Aryan culture in general.
It takes various degrees of sophistication as you suggest,from the stark nemesis of Greek Tragedy to the complexities of Hindu Karma.
This outlook has been devalued by the spread of Christianity,so that,for example,the Anglo-Saxon word for fate,'Wyrd',has come to mean-'strange',as in 'wierd'.
If we take the basic classical position on fate of Diodorus Cronos [d.284B.C.];that the present and the future are no more under our control than the past,we see that the Eternal Recurrence of Nietzsche is classical in that respect;it is far more stringent,and very much a 'fact' of 'fate' [see the thread begun recently by Sorrensson on ER and Amor Fati for more on all of this].
This is where Epicurus is interesting in relation to this question of fate. The foundation of Epicurus' metaphysics was the Presocratic hypothesis of Atomism.
In its classic formulation,atomism [like the Stoic's Eternal Return],does not allow for freewill. All is down to the internal logic of the atoms and their movements of attraction and repulsion.
But the idea of fate [vid. Oedipus] could be disturbing,and to Epicurus,things that disturb one's equilibrium should be avoided at all costs. Like a god,Epicurus wanted to cheat fate,and so invented an ironic twist on atomism which he called the 'atomic swerve'. Here,atoms will [very occasionally] swerve away from their fate and engender a randomicity that will give rise to chance,luck,and freewill.
The ancients were aware,as Cicero pointed out in his piece 'On Fate',that such freewill and the rest were illusory;indeed-ways of avoiding the terrors of existence.
So this resistance to fate was Epicurus' own 'holy lie'. A god-like struggle had to ba waged against fate to achieve 'peace of mind',but it was,like Oedipus,ultimately doomed. Fate ruled the universe.
You are right to question this point. Fate was the general outlook of pagan antiquity,and is the coin of vantage of the Indo-European/Aryan culture in general.
It takes various degrees of sophistication as you suggest,from the stark nemesis of Greek Tragedy to the complexities of Hindu Karma.
This outlook has been devalued by the spread of Christianity,so that,for example,the Anglo-Saxon word for fate,'Wyrd',has come to mean-'strange',as in 'wierd'.
If we take the basic classical position on fate of Diodorus Cronos [d.284B.C.];that the present and the future are no more under our control than the past,we see that the Eternal Recurrence of Nietzsche is classical in that respect;it is far more stringent,and very much a 'fact' of 'fate' [see the thread begun recently by Sorrensson on ER and Amor Fati for more on all of this].
This is where Epicurus is interesting in relation to this question of fate. The foundation of Epicurus' metaphysics was the Presocratic hypothesis of Atomism.
In its classic formulation,atomism [like the Stoic's Eternal Return],does not allow for freewill. All is down to the internal logic of the atoms and their movements of attraction and repulsion.
But the idea of fate [vid. Oedipus] could be disturbing,and to Epicurus,things that disturb one's equilibrium should be avoided at all costs. Like a god,Epicurus wanted to cheat fate,and so invented an ironic twist on atomism which he called the 'atomic swerve'. Here,atoms will [very occasionally] swerve away from their fate and engender a randomicity that will give rise to chance,luck,and freewill.
The ancients were aware,as Cicero pointed out in his piece 'On Fate',that such freewill and the rest were illusory;indeed-ways of avoiding the terrors of existence.
So this resistance to fate was Epicurus' own 'holy lie'. A god-like struggle had to ba waged against fate to achieve 'peace of mind',but it was,like Oedipus,ultimately doomed. Fate ruled the universe.
The QuThe Quartered Cure. arte
Unlike the Stoics,Epicureans did not see an ultimate purpose to life. This is because straining to reach a goal would be likely to bring about anxiety;
"The 'garden' of Epicurus where any TASK is lacking in such a life. It DESIRES nothing;a form of the 'Epicurean gods' : All reason is lacking to set up any further goals-to have children. Everything has been attained". [Nietzsche WM 225]
Epicurus devised a 'Four Part Cure' to aid fellow sufferers. It goes something like this;
1) Don't fear god,
2) Don't worry about death,
3) What is good is easy to get,
4) What is terrible is easy to endure.
And we must not forget that Nietzsche also saw the role of the philosopher in this classical light as that of being a 'physician of the soul'.
But it is Epicurus' attitude to the gods that most fascinated Nietzsche [and I think it is emerging from this first chapter of BGE, 'On the Prejudices of Philosophers',that while he largely rejects the philosophy prior to his revaluation,Nietzsche does take forward certain aspects of that past philolosophy into the future].
Epicurus pictured the gods as being completely INDIFFERENT to mankind; they were perfectly happy and were most certainly NOT the 'creators' of the world! ;
"Nothing can come of mankind in the long run--let us cease to be eager spectators and fools of this spectacle without a goal!--It was in this mood that the gods of Epicurus once withdrew into their divine happiness and silence: they were tired of mankind" [Nietzsche,Daybreak 150]
The most purpose that an Epicurean can give to his life is to try to live like one of the gods--blissful and indifferent to mankind;
"The gods always welcome men who are like themselves". [Epicurus]
What,is this not the superman?red C
Lathe Biosas ('live unnoticed')
ure."Everything a man does in service to the State is against his own nature". (Nietzsche WM 718)
Whereas Stoicism advocated involvement in public affairs, Epicurus advised his followers to withdraw and shun politics,marriage and child-raising: All those things were troublesome and could disturb one's serenity.
It was better (and here we have a similarity with Nietzsche and his 'free spirits' ) to live in small like-minded communities and cultivate friendship;
"The noble man is most involved with wisdom and friendship, of which one is a mortal good,the other,immortal". (Epicurus)
It seems though that Epicurus became somewhat revered as a divine sage;he elaborated both exoteric and esoteric aspects of his philosophy combining,again like Nietzsche,brief maxims and longer treatises;
"It is not possible to know the concentrated result of our continuous overview of the Universe unless one can have in oneself a comprehensive grasp by means of brief maxims of all that might also be worked out in detail with precision". (ib.)
We can see here that Nietzsche was influenced by Epicurus as the 'type',philosopher.
Who WAS Epicurus? -
Nietzsche writes in BGE 7 rather cryptically;
"Greece took a hundred years to find out who the garden god Epicurus really was--did she ever find out? ".
We can infer that Nietzsche alone knows who Epicurus really was;indeed,he had written in an earlier book;
"Yes,I am proud of percieving the character of Epicurus differently from anyone else perhaps,and of enjoying the happiness of the afternoon of antiquity in all that I hear and read of him: I see his eye gazing out on a broad whitish sea,over the shore rocks on which the sunshine rests,while the great and small creatures play in its light,secure and calm like this light and that eye itself.
"Such happiness could only have been devised by a chronic sufferer,the happiness of an eye before which the sae of existence has become calm,and which can no longer tire of gazing at the surface and at the variegated,tender,tremulous skin of this sea.
"Never previously was there such a moderation of voluptuousness" [Nietzsche,'Daybreak']
We must remember that with Epicurus we are in "an age of dissolution,which mixes the races". In such an age,happiness appears "in the character of a soothing medicine and mode of thought (for instance,Epicurean,or Christian) ".
[Nietzsche,BGE 200]
2260
"... that was perhaps my worst moment of the year. The other was being set upon and mauled by a vicious neo-Nazi called Moody Lawless on a Nietzsche forum. I (naively?) expected to find philosophers there, but got mostly thugs, albeit articulate ones. A virtual attack leaves the same dull, sick feeling as real-life violence. "
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