Single Idea 20275

[catalogued under 23. Ethics / F. Existentialism / 6. Authentic Self]

Full Idea

We are free to handle and cultivate our drives like a gardener ...but how many people know we are free to do this? Don't most people believe in themselves as completed, full grown up facts?

Gist of Idea

Most people think they are already complete, but we can cultivate ourselves

Source

Friedrich Nietzsche (Dawn (Daybreak) [1881], 560)

Book Reference

Nietzsche,Friedrich: 'Dawn (Daybreak) (v 5)', ed/tr. Smith, Brittain [Stanford 2011], p.277


A Reaction

I see Nietzsche as an existentialist philosopher. He is much more than that, but this quotation endorses what I take to be the central idea of existentialism.

Related Idea

Idea 20131 We can cultivate our drives, of anger, pity, curiosity, vanity, like a gardener, with good or bad taste [Nietzsche]