Combining Texts

Ideas for 'On the Notion of Cause', 'Writings from Late Notebooks' and 'The Sign of Four'

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5 ideas

23. Ethics / F. Existentialism / 1. Existentialism

7164	Not feeling harnessed to a system of 'ends' is a wonderful feeling of freedom [Nietzsche]
	Full Idea: What a sensation of freedom it is to feel, as we freed spirits feel, that we are not harnessed up to a system of 'ends'!
	From: Friedrich Nietzsche (Writings from Late Notebooks [1887], 02[206])
	A reaction: Given his view that we are utterly dominated by the 'will to power', I am beginning to wonder in what sense we could ever be 'free'. If my happiness is an 'illusion' (Idea 7159), then I retaliate by saying that his freedom is also an illusion.

23. Ethics / F. Existentialism / 2. Nihilism

7198	Nihilism results from measuring the world by our categories which are purely invented [Nietzsche]
	Full Idea: Belief in the categories of reason is the cause of nihilism - we have measured the value of the world against categories that refer to a purely invented world.
	From: Friedrich Nietzsche (Writings from Late Notebooks [1887], 11[99])
	A reaction: What a remarkable thought! He will have Kant especially in mind. The implication is that we might avoid nihilism by creating more accurate categories, but Nietzsche, as relativist, thinks that is impossible (Ideas 7174, 7175). Nihilism is our fate.

23. Ethics / F. Existentialism / 6. Authentic Self

7150	By developing herd virtues man fixes what has up to now been the 'unfixed animal' [Nietzsche]
	Full Idea: Men's increasing morality allows them to fancy they can rise to the rank of 'gods', whereas in fact they sink; by cultivating the virtues by which a herd can flourish, they develop the herd animal, and 'fix' what has up to now been the 'unfixed animal'.
	From: Friedrich Nietzsche (Writings from Late Notebooks [1887], 02[13])
	A reaction: [compressed] More than any other remark, this explains the sense of distress found in all of later Nietzsche. If he is right, it looks even more true now than in 1886, because of the globalisation of culture. I think he is right.

7177	Virtues from outside are dangerous, and they should come from within [Nietzsche]
	Full Idea: The virtues are as dangerous as the vices, to the extent that one allows them to rule as authority and law from outside instead of generating them from within oneself.
	From: Friedrich Nietzsche (Writings from Late Notebooks [1887], 07[6])
	A reaction: Nietzsche was a romantic, who thought things only have worth if they are authentic, individual, autonomous, original. Existentialism is the last fling of romanticism, and expresses an adolescent yearning for 'freedom'. From what?

23. Ethics / F. Existentialism / 8. Eternal Recurrence

7172	Existence without meaning or goal or end, eternally recurring, is a terrible thought [Nietzsche]
	Full Idea: Let us think this thought in its most terrible form: existence as it is, without meaning or goal, but inevitably recurring, without any finale into nothingness: 'eternal recurrence'.
	From: Friedrich Nietzsche (Writings from Late Notebooks [1887], 05[71].6)
	A reaction: I take this in a positive spirit - that if you wish to live well you should create a life which you could endure and enjoy, even if it recurred eternally. But that might be rather conservative rather than exciting, if we always avoided giving offence.