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Full Idea
You Stoics want to "live according to nature"? Oh you noble Stoics, what fraudulent words! Nature is prodigal and indifferent beyond measure - how could you live by such indifference? Living is wanting to be other than nature.
Clarification
'Prodigal' here means overflowing with variety
Gist of Idea
Nature is totally indifferent, so you should try to be different from it, not live by it
Source
Friedrich Nietzsche (Beyond Good and Evil [1886], §009)
Book Ref
Nietzsche,Friedrich: 'Beyond Good and Evil', ed/tr. Hollingdale,R.J. [Penguin 1973], p.20
A Reaction
I think this is simply indicative of the slide from optimism to pessimism about nature in the intervening centuries. Stoics thought nature rational. See 'King Lear' for the transition.
Related Idea
Idea 3066 Nothing is evil which is according to nature [Aurelius]
| 20841 | Zeno said live in agreement with nature, which accords with virtue [Zeno of Citium, by Diog. Laertius] |
| 1774 | Since we are essentially rational animals, living according to reason is living according to nature [Zeno of Citium, by Diog. Laertius] |
| 20774 | Only nature is available to guide action and virtue [Chrysippus] |
| 6000 | The goal is rationality in the selection of things according to nature [Diogenes of Babylon, by Blank] |
| 3066 | Nothing is evil which is according to nature [Aurelius] |
| 2868 | Nature is totally indifferent, so you should try to be different from it, not live by it [Nietzsche] |
| 23433 | Humans need courage like a plant needs roots [Foot] |
| 23432 | Concepts such as function, welfare, flourishing and interests only apply to living things [Foot] |
| 22375 | Moral judgements need more than the relevant facts, if the same facts lead to 'x is good' and 'x is bad' [Foot] |
| 22492 | Virtues are as necessary to humans as stings are to bees [Foot] |
| 22493 | Sterility is a human defect, but the choice to be childless is not [Foot] |