more on this theme     |     more from this thinker     |     more from this text


Single Idea 4411

[filed under theme 20. Action / A. Definition of Action / 1. Action Theory ]

Full Idea

Just as the popular mind separates the lightning from its flash and takes the latter for a 'action', so they separate strength from expressions of strength, but there is no such substratum; the deed is everything.

Gist of Idea

It is a delusion to separate the man from the deed, like the flash from the lightning

Source

Friedrich Nietzsche (On the Genealogy of Morals [1887], I.§13)

Book Ref

Nietzsche,Friedrich: 'On the Genealogy of Morals/ Ecce Homo', ed/tr. Kaufmann,Walter [Vintage 1969], p.45


A Reaction

Of course, there is no reason why an analysis should not separate the doer and the deed (to explain, for example, a well-meaning fool), but it is a blunder to think of a human action as a merely physical event.