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Single Idea 24094

[filed under theme 22. Metaethics / C. The Good / 1. Goodness / g. Consequentialism ]

Full Idea

How weakly human beings feel responsible for their indirect and distant effects! And how cruelly and exaggeratedly the closest effect that we exert pounces on us - the effect we see, for which our myopic vision is still just sharp enough!

Gist of Idea

Humans are vividly aware of short-term effects, and almost ignorant of the long-term ones

Source

Friedrich Nietzsche (Unpublished Notebooks 1881-82 [1882], 15[11])

Book Ref

Nietzsche,Friedrich: 'The Joyful Science, and 1881-82 fragments (v 6)', ed/tr. Del Caro,Adrian [Stanford 2023], p.478

A Reaction

This strikes me as both accurate and important, because consequentialist ethics is largely committed to judging by a very distorted image of their own objective.

The 40 ideas from 'Unpublished Notebooks 1881-82'

24096 Unlike time, space is subjective. Empty space was assumed, but it doesn't exist [Nietzsche]
24084 Seeing with other eyes is more egoism, but exploring other perspectives leads to objectivity [Nietzsche]
24085 For absolute morality a goal for mankind is needed [Nietzsche]
24086 The goal is to settle human beings, like other animals, but humans are still changeable [Nietzsche]
24087 People who miss beauty seek the sublime, where even the ugly shows its 'beauty' [Nietzsche]
24088 See our present lives as eternal! Religions see it as fleeting, and aim at some different life [Nietzsche]
24089 Essences are fictions needed for beings who represent things [Nietzsche]
24115 There is no proof that we forget things - only that we can't recall [Nietzsche]
24090 Our inclinations would not conflict if we were a unity; we imagine unity for our multiplicity [Nietzsche]
24091 The sublimity of nature which dwarfs us was a human creation [Nietzsche]
24116 Justice says people are not equal, and should become increasingly unequal [Nietzsche]
24092 I tell the truth, even if it is repulsive [Nietzsche]
24093 We can aspire to greatness by creating new functions for ourselves [Nietzsche]
24117 We need lower and higher drives, but they must be under firm control [Nietzsche]
24094 Humans are vividly aware of short-term effects, and almost ignorant of the long-term ones [Nietzsche]
24095 Our growth is too subtle to perceive, and long events are too slow for us to grasp [Nietzsche]
24118 Do away with punishment. Counter-retribution is as bad as the crime [Nietzsche]
24119 The eternal return of wastefulness is a terrible thought [Nietzsche]
24120 Great orators lead their arguments, rather than following them [Nietzsche]
24122 Life is forces conjoined by nutrition, to produce resistance, arrangement and value [Nietzsche]
24123 My eternal recurrence is opposed to feeling fragmented and imperfect [Nietzsche]
24097 The pragmatics of language is more comprehensible than the meaning [Nietzsche]
24098 Reasons that justify punishment can also justify the crime [Nietzsche]
24121 Greeks might see modern analysis of what is human as impious [Nietzsche]
24099 We contain many minds, which fight for the 'I' of the mind [Nietzsche]
24100 If you don't want war, remove your borders; but you set up borders because you want war [Nietzsche]
24101 We always assign values, but we may not value those values [Nietzsche]
24102 Thoughts are signs (just as words are) [Nietzsche]
24103 You should not want too many virtues; one is enough [Nietzsche]
24104 We don't create logic, time and space! The mind obeys laws because they are true [Nietzsche]
24105 Drives make us feel non-feelings; Will is the effect of those feelings [Nietzsche]
24106 Talk of 'utility' presupposes that what is useful to people has been defined [Nietzsche]
24107 Once a drive controls the intellect, it rules, and sets the goals [Nietzsche]
24108 Actions are just a release of force. They seize on something, which becomes the purpose [Nietzsche]
24109 Actual morality is more complicated and subtle than theory (which gets paralysed) [Nietzsche]
24110 Some things we would never do, even for the highest ideals [Nietzsche]
24111 Happiness is the active equilibrium of our drives [Nietzsche]
24112 To think about being we must have an opinion about what it is [Nietzsche]
24113 Our motives don't explain our actions [Nietzsche]
24114 The pain in truth is when it destroys a belief [Nietzsche]