Combining Texts

Ideas for 'Unconscious Cerebral Initiative', 'Twilight of the Idols' and 'The Art of Rhetoric'

unexpand these ideas     |    start again     |     choose another area for these texts

display all the ideas for this combination of texts


2 ideas

23. Ethics / A. Egoism / 1. Ethical Egoism
Self-interest is a relative good, but nobility an absolute good [Aristotle]
     Full Idea: One's own interest is a relative good, nobility a good absolutely.
     From: Aristotle (The Art of Rhetoric [c.350 BCE], 1389b37)
     A reaction: The key idea in the whole of Greek moral theory is the concept of what we can call a 'beautiful' action. Such things, or course, tend to be visible in great actions, such as sparing an enemy, rather than the minutiae of well-mannered daily life.
A wholly altruistic morality, with no egoism, is a thoroughly bad thing [Nietzsche]
     Full Idea: An 'altruistic' morality, a morality under which egoism languishes - is under all circumstances a bad sign.
     From: Friedrich Nietzsche (Twilight of the Idols [1889], 8.35)