display all the ideas for this combination of texts
2 ideas
23718 | If we say birds of prey could become lambs, that makes them responsible for being birds of prey [Nietzsche] |
Full Idea: Scientists …do not defend any belief more strongly than that the strong are free to be weak, and the birds of prey are free to be lambs: - in this way, they gain the right to make the birds of prey responsible for being birds of prey. | |
From: Friedrich Nietzsche (On the Genealogy of Morals [1887], I.§13) | |
A reaction: This is a flat rejection of the Sartrean idea that we can what sort of person we want to be. He cares about birds of prey, but also lambs can't become eagles. I would say that adolescents have a reasonable degree of choice about what they will become. |
23717 | Modern nihilism is now feeling tired of mankind [Nietzsche] |
Full Idea: The sight of man now makes us tired - what is nihilism today if it is not that? …We are tired of man… | |
From: Friedrich Nietzsche (On the Genealogy of Morals [1887], I.§12) | |
A reaction: That is close to Hume's nihilist, who would destroy the world to protect his own finger from a scratch. The actor George Sanders committed suicide because he was bored. Don't ever think that Nietzsche was a nihilist, just because he mentions it a lot! |