7150
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By developing herd virtues man fixes what has up to now been the 'unfixed animal' [Nietzsche]
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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'.
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From:
Friedrich Nietzsche (Writings from Late Notebooks [1887], 02[13])
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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.
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7177
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Virtues from outside are dangerous, and they should come from within [Nietzsche]
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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.
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From:
Friedrich Nietzsche (Writings from Late Notebooks [1887], 07[6])
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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?
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7172
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Existence without meaning or goal or end, eternally recurring, is a terrible thought [Nietzsche]
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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'.
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From:
Friedrich Nietzsche (Writings from Late Notebooks [1887], 05[71].6)
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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.
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