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Single Idea 20111
[filed under theme 23. Ethics / F. Existentialism / 1. Existentialism
]
Full Idea
I can imagine a life much more simple...than the present one. ...One would live among men and with oneself as in nature, without praise, reproach, overzealousness, delighting in things as in a spectacle. One would no longer feel one was more than nature.
Gist of Idea
We could live more naturally, relishing the spectacle, and not thinking we are special
Source
Friedrich Nietzsche (Human, All Too Human [1878], 034)
Book Ref
Nietzsche,Friedrich: 'Human, All Too Human', ed/tr. Faber,Marion [Penguin 1994], p.37
A Reaction
[compressed] Safranski says this passage is a big turning point for Nietzsche, replacing his earlier idea that art could be salvation. Eternal Recurrence puts a seal on this new view. Nietzsche adds that this life needs to be 'cheerful'.
The
25 ideas
with the same theme
[key to life is freedom and self-creation]:
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7585
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Socrates emphasises that the knower is an existing individual, with existence his main task
[Socrates, by Kierkegaard]
|
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22779
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The good is realised freedom
[Hegel]
|
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21758
|
Humans have no fixed identity, but produce and reveal their shifting identity in history
[Hegel, by Houlgate]
|
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7579
|
While big metaphysics is complete without ethics, personal philosophy emphasises ethics
[Kierkegaard]
|
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7581
|
Speculative philosophy loses the individual in a vast vision of humanity
[Kierkegaard]
|
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2880
|
The greatest possibilities in man are still unexhausted
[Nietzsche]
|
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24086
|
The goal is to settle human beings, like other animals, but humans are still changeable
[Nietzsche]
|
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24080
|
We should give style to our character - by applying an artistic plan to its strengths and weaknesses
[Nietzsche]
|
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23718
|
If we say birds of prey could become lambs, that makes them responsible for being birds of prey
[Nietzsche]
|
|
20111
|
We could live more naturally, relishing the spectacle, and not thinking we are special
[Nietzsche]
|
|
7164
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Not feeling harnessed to a system of 'ends' is a wonderful feeling of freedom
[Nietzsche]
|
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4489
|
If faith is lost, people seek other authorities, in order to avoid the risk of willing personal goals
[Nietzsche]
|
|
20104
|
Nietzsche tried to lead a thought-provoking life
[Safranski on Nietzsche]
|
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20318
|
My helplessness in philosophising reveals my being, and begins its upsurge
[Jaspers]
|
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20321
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The struggle for Existenz is between people who are equals, and are utterly honest
[Jaspers]
|
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20325
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Once we grasp freedom 'from' things, then freedom 'for' things becomes urgent
[Jaspers]
|
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22166
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Dasein has the potential to be itself, but must be shown this in the midst of ordinariness
[Heidegger]
|
|
22229
|
Existentialists says that cowards and heroes make themselves
[Sartre]
|
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19619
|
To live authentically, we must see that philosophy is totally useless
[Cioran]
|
|
19634
|
Man is never himself; he always aims at less than life, or more than life
[Cioran]
|
|
20765
|
Man is a brave naked will, separate from a background of values and realities
[Murdoch]
|
|
7677
|
Central to existentialism is the romantic idea that there is nothing to lean on
[Berlin]
|
|
6691
|
It is more plausible to say people can choose between values, than that they can create them
[Graham]
|
|
6867
|
Existentialism focuses on freedom and self-making, and insertion into the world
[Le Poidevin]
|
|
21898
|
For existentialists the present is empty without the pull of the future and weight of the past
[May]
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