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Single Idea 20757

[filed under theme 16. Persons / B. Nature of the Self / 7. Self and Body / a. Self needs body ]

Full Idea

Behind your thoughts and feelings stands a powerful commander, an unknown wise man - he is called a self. He lives in your body; he is your body.

Gist of Idea

The powerful self behind your thoughts and feelings is your body

Source

Friedrich Nietzsche (Thus Spake Zarathustra [1884], I.4), quoted by Kevin Aho - Existentialism: an introduction 5 'Creature'

Book Ref

Aho,Kevin: 'Existentialism: an introduction' [Polity 2014], p.76

A Reaction

I find Nietzsche's view of the self very congenial, though I tend to see the self as certain central functions of the brain. The brain is enmeshed in the body (as in the location of pains).

The 23 ideas from 'Thus Spake Zarathustra'

18287 People now find both wealth and poverty too much of a burden [Nietzsche]
18286 The greatest experience possible is contempt for your own happiness, reason and virtue [Nietzsche]
18288 Heaven was invented by the sick and the dying [Nietzsche]
18290 But what is the reasoning of the body, that it requires the wisdom you seek? [Nietzsche]
18289 Forget the word 'I'; 'I' is performed by the intelligence of your body [Nietzsche]
18291 Virtues can destroy one another, through jealousy [Nietzsche]
18292 I can only believe in a God who can dance [Nietzsche]
18293 The noble man wants new virtues; the good man preserves what is old [Nietzsche]
18294 The state coldly claims that it is the people, but that is a lie [Nietzsche]
18295 If you want friends, you must be a fighter [Nietzsche]
18296 An enduring people needs its own individual values [Nietzsche]
18297 We created meanings, to maintain ourselves [Nietzsche]
18298 Not being a god is insupportable, so there are no gods! [Nietzsche]
18299 The will is constantly frustrated by the past [Nietzsche]
18300 Whenever we have seen suffering, we have wanted the revenge of punishment [Nietzsche]
18301 We only really love children and work [Nietzsche]
18302 Man and woman are deeply strange to one another! [Nietzsche]
18303 Reject wisdom that lacks laughter [Nietzsche]
18304 Saints want to live as they desire, or not to live at all [Nietzsche]
18305 To love truth, you must know how to lie [Nietzsche]
18306 We don't want heaven; now that we are men, we want the kingdom of earth [Nietzsche]
18307 I want my work, not happiness! [Nietzsche]
20757 The powerful self behind your thoughts and feelings is your body [Nietzsche]