The great epochs of life come when we gain the courage to re-christen our evil as what is best in us.
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About Me
- Sherilyn Fenn
- A seeker and speaker of my truth. And I encourage others to do the same. All are one and yet here we appear to be separate and therefore truth has many faces. And they are all relevant.This is my place to share . If it offends you, you don't have to read it.
Wow! Interesting. You are reading Nietzsche. Must be getting dark. Batman Begins.
ReplyDeleteThe Dark Side is Seductive. But it can also destroy you. Remember Stars Wars when Yoda was training Luke?
ReplyDeleteI love Yoda with my heart and soul. Did you read the blogs about which I am referring. Nietzsche was a concious being and in my opinion NOT dark at all. One cannot reach the light without walking through the dark. And I am coming out of the dark night of my soul a few months ago. I am onl;y walking in and towards the light now.
ReplyDeletewith love,
ce moi
Nietzsche ended up in a mental asylum, and I believe he died there. He stared into the abyss, and the abyss won. He is a great philosopher, but one that should be taken with a grain of salt. I love his work, and I think you have found love in it. Embrace it with what you've learned with your dark night. I hope all that's left is love.
ReplyDeleteAnd I would suggest looking into Carl Jung's concept of the shadow:
ReplyDelete"The psychological rule says that when an inner situation is not made conscious, it happens outside as fate. That is to say, when the individual remains undivided and does not become conscious of his inner opposite, the world must perforce act out of the conflict and be torn into opposing halves."
derek - nietzsche was in the asylum because he was, underlyingly, physically ill - it's not clear if he had syphilis (modern thought tends to think not) or something other, such as brain lesions. he went home after about two years and died there after a long paralysis - he'd fought physical ills heroically for many years. spiritually he was anything but ill, though deeply eccentric as all who peer under the curtain are. freud said n. likely had the most penetrating knowledge of himself of any man ever.
ReplyDeletesherilyn-who-shines - i was just listening to one of nietzsche's songs when i came upon this entry! he was an interesting composer, mostly in the schumann manner. he would've understood your deconstruction of r and v - he writes explicitly against the idea of the self being a simple, lumplike unity. (one reason i've had a lot of years knowing people with multiple personalities.)
The idea of a person having many conflicting desires and wants is not unique to Nietzsche. Freud described it was the ego, the id, and the superego. Gurdjieff described the many I's that make us up, who's to know which I is in control or will be in control at any point in time. Jesus talks about doing what is not easy and walking the narrow path. That requires fighting a part of ourselves. I agree that we are not one. Which part of ourselves takes over depends on which one we believe and feed.
ReplyDeletetarzan - i think the buddhists and hindus knew it long before anyone of recent vintage. but nietzsche was pretty pioneering, for the recent ones. we are both one, more-than-one, and less-than-one. it's all transcendental math. :)
ReplyDeletemichael
fugue - I agree with you, yes, by the books he died of syphilis. And as I said, I believed he died in the asylum, but I stand corrected. However, there are some that subscribe to the belief that he wore quite the strain on himself by pushing the boundaries of Nihilism. The abyss to him was the complete acknowledgement and embracement of everything in life meaning nothing. They didn't have the resources or knowledge to diagnose mental illnesses that we do today, and I think he drove himself into something beyond what could have been put in the books in 1900. He died a martyr to Nihilism. Look into some of the stories of his behavior after pioneering his "staring into the abyss" philosophy (such as the horse in the middle of the street, playing a single chord on a piano, etc). It very well could have just been "eccentric" in the way the Dadaists were, but I think there was something else going on. Freud was right, he did have a deep knowledge of himself, but in my opinion, it costed him his life.
ReplyDeleteThis is not discounting his research in any way, I admire his courage to work such theories into practice. If anything, I think he somehow found romanticism in Nihilism by almost moving beyond philosophy. (disturbing as that may sound, it's what we do to martyrs)
But I guess now we're debating opinion. With philosophical debates, we could talk in circles forever. Nothing's proven. Sorry if we're getting off topic, Sherilyn.
I hope this doesn't come off as trolling, but I do think this discussion is missing an important detail of nihilism in Nietzsche's work; the opposition of what he called "active" and "passive" nihilism. To simply say Nietzsche was a nihilist overlooks this distinction.
ReplyDeleteHis discussions in The Gay Science and The Will to Power describe a society's movement from active to passive nihilism as indicated when impassioned, revolutionary deconstruction and purgative self-overcoming are de-emphasized and backgrounded by a kind of defeated relativism in which people would rather "will nothing than not to will at all" (I think that's the quote, anyway, too lazy to check). This end-point, when civilization accepts a kind of stasis via its own admission of falsehood and meaninglessness yet insists upon an endless reproduction of equally substanceless multiplicities, is what Heidegger called "completed" nihilism.
It was this state of defeat, however, which Nietzsche's work is consistently warning of and attempting to fortify the reader/thinker to deal with on an internal or subjective level, especially in Thus Spoke Zarathustra, a work which is far more optimistic than is generally acknowledged or argued.
Ultimately, then, I think it's fair to say Nietzsche was a nihilist, but only under a certain definition. And I think it's that spirit of self-overcoming or destructive evolution that Sherilyn's quote above is exalting. Nietzsche's work is intensely affirmational, albeit in a radically inclusive, non-dualistic and yet complicated manner.
I am thrilled that this kind of deep and meaningful conversing is on my blog. God blesses all of us at the end of the day. Thank you for all who participated, it was beautiful to find and read on this day, The Feast of the Epiphany.
ReplyDeletefred - nietzsche said (depending on translation) "man will will nothingness rather than will nothing." and yes, n. was deeply concerned with the consequences of european nihilism and the decadence that underpinned it. that's one reason i'm concerned with the decadence of the present culture. one can already here the collapse of the will-to-value happening - not good for us. we are valuing organisms, we *must* value. yes, i see n. as a kind of physician to nihilism. i like how you bring out n.'s optimism. what a pity we couldn't sit down with him in turin in 1888, yes?
ReplyDeletesherilyn-who-shines - the nietzsche quote that comes to me for you lately is "when you look into the abyss, the abyss looks into you." that's the sense i got from your december explorations: dark and light epiphanies, like consonanaces and dissonances in music: both needed, together!