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Single Idea 14884

[filed under theme 22. Metaethics / C. The Good / 2. Happiness / d. Routes to happiness ]

Full Idea

If happiness were the goal, then animals would be the highest creatures. Their cynicism is grounded in forgetfulness: that is the shortest path to happiness, even if it is a happiness with little value.

Gist of Idea

The shortest path to happiness is forgetfulness, the path of animals (but of little value)

Source

Friedrich Nietzsche (Unpublished Notebooks 1872-74 [1873], 29 [143])

Book Ref

Nietzsche,Friedrich: 'Unpublished of 'Unfashionable Obs' period (v 11)', ed/tr. Gray,Richard T. [Stanford 1995], p.257

The 30 ideas from 'Unpublished Notebooks 1872-74'

14859 If philosophy controls science, then it has to determine its scope, and its value [Nietzsche]
14860 Kant has undermined our belief in metaphysics [Nietzsche]
14861 Philosophy ennobles the world, by producing an artistic conception of our knowledge [Nietzsche]
14862 Philosophy is more valuable than much of science, because of its beauty [Nietzsche]
14863 Unlike science, true wisdom involves good taste [Nietzsche]
14864 The Greeks lack a normative theology: each person has their own poetic view of things [Nietzsche]
14865 We do not know the nature of one single causality [Nietzsche]
14866 It always remains possible that the world just is the way it appears [Nietzsche]
14867 It is just madness to think that the mind is supernatural (or even divine!) [Nietzsche]
14868 Our primary faculty is perception of structure, as when looking in a mirror [Nietzsche]
14869 If some sort of experience is at the root of matter, then human knowledge is close to its essence [Nietzsche]
14870 We experience causation between willing and acting, and thereby explain conjunctions of changes [Nietzsche]
14871 Laws of nature are merely complex networks of relations [Nietzsche]
14872 Our knowledge is illogical, because it rests on false identities between things [Nietzsche]
14873 If we find a hypothesis that explains many things, we conclude that it explains everything [Nietzsche]
14875 Belief matters more than knowledge, and only begins when knowledge ceases [Nietzsche]
14876 Philosophy is always secondary, because it cannot support a popular culture [Nietzsche]
14878 It would better if there was no thought [Nietzsche]
14880 Logic is just slavery to language [Nietzsche]
14879 The most extreme scepticism is when you even give up logic [Nietzsche]
14881 Why do people want philosophers? [Nietzsche]
14882 Protest against vivisection - living things should not become objects of scientific investigation [Nietzsche]
14883 We should evaluate the past morally [Nietzsche]
14884 The shortest path to happiness is forgetfulness, the path of animals (but of little value) [Nietzsche]
14885 The first aim of a philosopher is a life, not some works [Nietzsche]
14886 Education is contrary to human nature [Nietzsche]
14887 You should only develop a philosophy if you are willing to live by it [Nietzsche]
14888 Wisdom prevents us from being ruled by the moment [Nietzsche]
14889 Philosophy is pointless if it does not advocate, and live, a new way of life [Nietzsche]
14890 Suffering is the meaning of existence [Nietzsche]