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Full Idea
If a man eighty thousand years old were conceivable, his character would in fact be absolutely variable. …The brevity of human life misleads us…
Gist of Idea
Over huge periods of time human character would change endlessly
Source
Friedrich Nietzsche (Human, All Too Human [1878], 041)
Book Ref
Nietzsche,Friedrich: 'Human, All Too Human', ed/tr. Faber,Marion [Penguin 1994], p.45
A Reaction
This would be one of my many exhibits for claiming Nietzsche as an existentialist. I think he is largely right, and we do detect slow shifts in our characters over long periods of time. They may be as much a response to culture as a personal matter.
| 3635 | Essence must be known before we discuss existence [Descartes] |
| 6916 | For Kant, essence is mental and a mere idea, and existence is the senses and mere appearance [Kant, by Feuerbach] |
| 5650 | Reason is just abstractions, so our essence needs a subjective 'leap of faith' [Kierkegaard, by Scruton] |
| 14808 | Over huge periods of time human character would change endlessly [Nietzsche] |
| 20130 | It is absurd to think you can change your own essence, like a garment [Nietzsche] |
| 15572 | Being what it is (essentia) must be conceived in terms of Being (existence) [Heidegger] |
| 6868 | 'Existence precedes essence' means we have no pre-existing self, but create it through existence [Sartre, by Le Poidevin] |
| 3842 | Existence before essence (or begin with the subjective) [Sartre] |
| 6705 | Existentialism may transcend our nature, unlike eudaimonism [Graham] |
| 20733 | Our 'existence' is how we create ourselves, unconstrained by any prior 'essence' [Aho] |