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Single Idea 20358

[filed under theme 22. Metaethics / A. Ethics Foundations / 2. Source of Ethics / f. Übermensch ]

Full Idea

The highest man has the greatest multiplicity of drives, in the relatively greatest strength that can be endured. Indeed, when the plant 'man' shows himself strongest one finds instincts that conflict powerfully (e.g. in Shakespeare), but are controlled.

Gist of Idea

The highest man can endure and control the greatest combination of powerful drives

Source

Friedrich Nietzsche (The Will to Power (notebooks) [1888], §966)

Book Ref

Nietzsche,Friedrich: 'The Will to Power', ed/tr. Kaufmann,W /Hollingdate,R [Vintage 1968], p.507

A Reaction

Are there some people, perhaps in mental hospitals, who cannot endure or control such things? Do these people have some drives which the rest of us never experience? Do good people only have good drives?

The 82 ideas from 'The Will to Power (notebooks)'

5652 True beliefs are those which augment one's power [Nietzsche, by Scruton]
4485 Every belief is a considering-something-true [Nietzsche]
4486 The extreme view is there are only perspectives, no true beliefs, because there is no true world [Nietzsche]
4487 A note for asses: What convinces is not necessarily true - it is merely convincing [Nietzsche]
4488 Those who have abandoned God cling that much more firmly to the faith in morality [Nietzsche]
4489 If faith is lost, people seek other authorities, in order to avoid the risk of willing personal goals [Nietzsche]
4491 In modern society virtue is 'equal rights', but only because everyone is zero, so it is a sum of zeroes [Nietzsche]
4493 Be natural! But how, if one happens to be "unnatural"? [Nietzsche]
20357 Truth was given value by morality, but eventually turned against its own source [Nietzsche]
4494 Not "return to nature", for there has never yet been a natural humanity [Nietzsche]
4495 The high points of culture and civilization do not coincide [Nietzsche]
4484 Nihilism results from valuing the world by the 'categories of reason', because that is fiction [Nietzsche]
4496 'Conscience' is invented to value actions by intention and conformity to 'law', rather than consequences [Nietzsche]
4497 The concept of 'God' represents a turning away from life, and a critique of life [Nietzsche]
4498 'Love your enemy' is unnatural, for the natural law says 'love your neighbour and hate your enemy' [Nietzsche]
4499 Primitive Christianity is abolition of the state; it is opposed to defence, justice, patriotism and class [Nietzsche]
4500 It is a sign of degeneration when eudaimonistic values begin to prevail [Nietzsche]
20359 The nature of being, of things, is much easier to understand than is becoming [Nietzsche]
4502 Morality cannot survive when the God who sanctions it is missing [Nietzsche]
4501 Utilitarianism criticises the origins of morality, but still believes in it as much as Christians [Nietzsche]
20383 The wisest man is full of contradictions, and attuned to other people, with occasional harmony [Nietzsche]
20370 All evaluation is from some perspective, and aims at survival [Nietzsche]
4504 Morality used to be for preservation, but now we can only experiment, giving ourselves moral goals [Nietzsche]
4505 How can it be that I should prefer my neighbour to myself, but he should prefer me to himself? [Nietzsche]
4506 There is a conspiracy (a will to power) to make morality dominate other values, like knowledge and art [Nietzsche]
4507 The categorical imperative needs either God behind it, or a metaphysic of the unity of reason [Nietzsche]
4508 The truth is what gives us the minimum of spiritual effort, and avoids the exhaustion of lying [Nietzsche]
20372 The instinct of the herd, the majority, aims for the mean, in the middle [Nietzsche]
4509 Utilitarians prefer consequences because intentions are unknowable - but so are consequences! [Nietzsche]
4510 A path to power: to introduce a new virtue under the name of an old one [Nietzsche]
4511 We would avoid a person who always needed reasons for remaining decent [Nietzsche]
4512 Virtue is pursued from self-interest and prudence, and reduces people to non-entities [Nietzsche]
4513 Virtuous people are inferior because they are not 'persons', but conform to a fixed pattern [Nietzsche]
4514 The basic tendency of the weak has always been to pull down the strong, using morality [Nietzsche]
4515 Modesty, industriousness, benevolence and temperance are the virtues of a good slave [Nietzsche]
4516 Many virtues are merely restraints on the most creative qualities of a human being [Nietzsche]
4517 Egoism is inescapable, and when it grows weak, the power of love also grows weak [Nietzsche]
4518 The question about egoism is: what kind of ego? since not all egos are equal [Nietzsche]
4519 The ego is only a fiction, and doesn't exist at all [Nietzsche]
23938 Passions are ranked, as if they are non-rational and animal pleasure seeking [Nietzsche]
23939 We fail to see that reason is a network of passions, and every passion contains some reason [Nietzsche]
4520 I don't want to persuade anyone to be a philosopher; they should be rare plants [Nietzsche]
4521 None of the ancients had the courage to deny morality by denying free will [Nietzsche]
4523 What can be 'demonstrated' is of little worth [Nietzsche]
20374 Consciousness is a terminal phenomenon, and causes nothing [Nietzsche]
4525 There are no facts in themselves, only interpretations [Nietzsche]
4527 Perhaps we are not single subjects, but a multiplicity of 'cells', interacting to create thought [Nietzsche]
4528 For me, a priori 'truths' are just provisional assumptions [Nietzsche]
4529 All sense perceptions are permeated with value judgements (useful or harmful) [Nietzsche]
4530 Reason is a mere idiosyncrasy of a certain species of animal [Nietzsche]
4531 Our inability to both affirm and deny a single thing is merely an inability, not a 'necessity' [Nietzsche]
4532 We can have two opposite sensations, like hard and soft, at the same time [Nietzsche]
4533 Logic and maths refer to fictitious entities which we have created [Nietzsche]
4534 'Truth' is the will to be master over the multiplicity of sensations [Nietzsche]
4535 A 'species' is a stable phase of evolution, implying the false notion that evolution has a goal [Nietzsche]
4536 It is a major blunder to think of consciousness as a unity, and hence as an entity, a thing [Nietzsche]
4539 The forms of 'knowledge' about logic which precede experience are actually regulations of belief [Nietzsche]
4537 We can't know whether there is knowledge if we don't know what it is [Nietzsche]
4538 Judgements can't be true and known in isolation; the only surety is in connections and relations [Nietzsche]
4541 Everything simple is merely imaginary [Nietzsche]
4542 Science has taken the meaning out of causation; cause and effect are two equal sides of an equation [Nietzsche]
4543 There are no 'facts-in-themselves', since a sense must be projected into them to make them 'facts' [Nietzsche]
4544 A thing has no properties if it has no effect on other 'things' [Nietzsche]
4545 Could not the objective character of things be merely a difference of degree within the subjective? [Nietzsche]
4546 We realise that properties are sensations of the feeling subject, not part of the thing [Nietzsche]
4548 Only because there is thought is there untruth [Nietzsche]
4551 Great self-examination is to become conscious of oneself not as an individual, but as mankind [Nietzsche]
4550 Pleasure and pain are mere epiphenomena, and achievement requires that one desire both [Nietzsche]
20362 We saw unity in things because our ego seemed unified (but now we doubt the ego!) [Nietzsche]
20361 We need 'unities' for reckoning, but that does not mean they exist [Nietzsche]
4553 We derive the popular belief in cause and effect from our belief that our free will causes things [Nietzsche]
4552 There is no such things a pure 'willing' on its own; the aim must always be part of it [Nietzsche]
4554 The concept of the 'will' is just a false simplification by our understanding [Nietzsche]
20354 The ruling drives of our culture all want to be the highest court of our values [Nietzsche]
4555 The great error is to think that happiness derives from virtue, which in turn derives from free will [Nietzsche]
4557 The supposed great lovers of honour (Alexander etc) were actually great despisers of honour [Nietzsche]
4558 We have no more right to 'happiness' than worms [Nietzsche]
4559 When powerless one desires freedom; if power is too weak, one desires equal power ('justice') [Nietzsche]
4560 The Golden Rule prohibits harmful actions, with the premise that actions will be requited [Nietzsche]
20136 There is an extended logic to a great man's life, achieved by a sustained will [Nietzsche]
20358 The highest man can endure and control the greatest combination of powerful drives [Nietzsche]
20369 The highest man directs the values of the highest natures over millenia [Nietzsche]