Combining Texts

Ideas for 'Walking the Tightrope of Reason', 'The Gay (Joyful) Science' and 'The Unimportance of Identity'

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6 ideas

23. Ethics / F. Existentialism / 1. Existentialism

24080	We should give style to our character - by applying an artistic plan to its strengths and weaknesses [Nietzsche]
	Full Idea: One thing is essential - 'giving style' to one's character. It is practised by the one who surveys everything that his nature offers in strengths and weaknesses, and subjects it to an artistic plan until each thing appears as art and reason.
	From: Friedrich Nietzsche (The Gay (Joyful) Science [1882], §290)
	A reaction: Clearly existentialist, in its proposal to change one's own character. I invite the reader to consider applying this to themselves - and I submit that it is an impossible project. Nice thought, though.

23. Ethics / F. Existentialism / 2. Nihilism

20125	The ethical teacher exists to give purpose to what happens necessarily and without purpose [Nietzsche]
	Full Idea: That what happens necessarily, spontaneously and without any purpose, may henceforth appear to be done for some purpose, and strike man as rational and an ultimate commandment, the ethical teacher comes on stage, as teacher of the purpose of existence.
	From: Friedrich Nietzsche (The Gay (Joyful) Science [1882], §001)
	A reaction: This doesn't look like much of a solution to the problem of nihilism, unless the teacher plants an idea in us which endures and grows. Nietzsche's 'eternal recurrence' was supposed to be just such an idea.

23. Ethics / F. Existentialism / 4. Boredom

9306	To ward off boredom at any cost is vulgar [Nietzsche]
	Full Idea: To ward off boredom at any cost is vulgar.
	From: Friedrich Nietzsche (The Gay (Joyful) Science [1882], §042)
	A reaction: Ignoring 'vulgar', this is a nice thought. Do affluent retired people now travel so much because they are terrified of boredom? What would they end up doing if they stayed at home and lived through the boredom to something else?

23. Ethics / F. Existentialism / 7. Existential Action

24079	The best life is the dangerous life [Nietzsche]
	Full Idea: The secret of harvesting the greatest fruitfulness and the greatest enjoyment from existence is: live dangerously!
	From: Friedrich Nietzsche (The Gay (Joyful) Science [1882], §283)
	A reaction: I treasured this quotation when I was 17, but failed to live up to it.

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

2936	Imagine if before each of your actions you had to accept repeating the action over and over again [Nietzsche]
	Full Idea: Suppose a demon were to say to you, "This life as you have lived it, you will have to live once more and innumerable times more". …Then the question in each thing, "Do you desire this once more and innumerable times more?" would lie across your actions.
	From: Friedrich Nietzsche (The Gay (Joyful) Science [1882], §341)
	A reaction: If you were stuck in nihilistic indifference, this thought might not be enough to rouse you from your torpor. If all possibilities in life are boring, repetition cannot pep it up, or make it any worse. But I still love this idea!

6842	Nietzsche says facing up to the eternal return of meaninglessness is the response to nihilism [Nietzsche, by Critchley]
	Full Idea: Nietzsche is overwhelmingly concerned with how to respond to nihilism, and he offers the concept of eternal return; the Overman is one who can affirm over and over that one is equal to meaninglessness, without turning to despair or idols.
	From: report of Friedrich Nietzsche (The Gay (Joyful) Science [1882], §342) by Simon Critchley - Interview with Baggini and Stangroom p.192
	A reaction: I agree with Critchley that this is not much of a recipe for ordinary people's lives, and I don't even find it very congenial for a tough-minded philosopher. We should make the best of the cards we are dealt, however feeble they may appear.