display all the ideas for this combination of texts
5 ideas
| 18297 | We created meanings, to maintain ourselves [Nietzsche] |
| Full Idea: Man first implanted values into things to maintain himself - he first created the meaning of things, a human meaning! | |
| From: Friedrich Nietzsche (Thus Spake Zarathustra [1884], 1.16) | |
| A reaction: It is certainly hard to see anything resembling values or meaning in the cosmos, if you remove the human beings. We should expect an evolutionary grounding in their explanation. |
| 22344 | Freud is pessimistic about human nature; it is ambivalent motive and fantasy, rather than reason [Freud, by Murdoch] |
| Full Idea: Freud takes a thoroughly pessimistic view of human nature. ...Introspection reveals only the deep tissue of ambivalent motive, and fantasy is a stronger force than reason. Objectivity and unselfishness are not natural to human beings. | |
| From: report of Sigmund Freud (works [1900], II) by Iris Murdoch - The Sovereignty of Good II | |
| A reaction: Interesting. His view seems to have coloured the whole of modern culture, reinforced by the hideous irrationality of the Nazis. Adorno and Horkheimer attacking the Enlightenment was the last step in that process. |
| 18293 | The noble man wants new virtues; the good man preserves what is old [Nietzsche] |
| Full Idea: The noble man wants to create new things and a new virtue. The good man wants the old things and that the old things shall be preserved. | |
| From: Friedrich Nietzsche (Thus Spake Zarathustra [1884], 1.09) | |
| A reaction: There is a limit to how many plausible virtues the noble men can come up with. We may already have run out. Are we going to have to re-run the Iliad? |
| 18301 | We only really love children and work [Nietzsche] |
| Full Idea: One loves from the very heart only one's child and one's work. | |
| From: Friedrich Nietzsche (Thus Spake Zarathustra [1884], 3.03) | |
| A reaction: Very Nietzchean (and masculine?) to cite one's work. Rachmaninov said he was 85% musician and 15% human being, so I guess he loved music from the very heart. |
| 18307 | I want my work, not happiness! [Nietzsche] |
| Full Idea: Do I aspire after happiness? I aspire after my work! | |
| From: Friedrich Nietzsche (Thus Spake Zarathustra [1884], 4.20) | |
| A reaction: I empathise with aspiring to do something, rather than be something. But what do we wish for our children? Happiness first, then achievement? |