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All the ideas for 'fragments/reports', 'Gorgias' and 'Unpublished Notebooks 1872-74'

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57 ideas

1. Philosophy / A. Wisdom / 1. Nature of Wisdom
Wisdom prevents us from being ruled by the moment [Nietzsche]
     Full Idea: The most important thing about wisdom is that it prevents human beings from being ruled by the moment.
     From: Friedrich Nietzsche (Unpublished Notebooks 1872-74 [1873], 30 [25])
1. Philosophy / A. Wisdom / 2. Wise People
Unlike science, true wisdom involves good taste [Nietzsche]
     Full Idea: Inherent in wisdom [sophia] is discrimination, the possession of good taste: whereas science, lacking such a refined sense of taste, gobbles up anything that is worth knowing.
     From: Friedrich Nietzsche (Unpublished Notebooks 1872-74 [1873], 19 [086])
     A reaction: This is blatantly unfair to science, which may lack 'taste', but at least prefers deep theories with wide-ranging explanatory power to narrow local theories. Maybe the line across the philosophical community is the one picking out those with taste?
1. Philosophy / A. Wisdom / 3. Wisdom Deflated
Suffering is the meaning of existence [Nietzsche]
     Full Idea: Suffering is the meaning of existence.
     From: Friedrich Nietzsche (Unpublished Notebooks 1872-74 [1873], 32 [67])
     A reaction: This doesn't mean that he is advocating suffering. The context of his remark is that the pursuit of truth involves suffering.
1. Philosophy / D. Nature of Philosophy / 2. Invocation to Philosophy
Philosophy ennobles the world, by producing an artistic conception of our knowledge [Nietzsche]
     Full Idea: Philosophy is indispensable for education because it draws knowledge into an artistic conception of the world, and thereby ennobles it.
     From: Friedrich Nietzsche (Unpublished Notebooks 1872-74 [1873], 19 [052])
     A reaction: I take this to be an unusual way of saying that philosophy aims at the unification of knowledge, which is roughly my own view. It has hard for us to keep believing that life could be 'ennobled'.
1. Philosophy / D. Nature of Philosophy / 5. Aims of Philosophy / a. Philosophy as worldly
The first aim of a philosopher is a life, not some works [Nietzsche]
     Full Idea: The philosopher's product is his life (first, before his works). It is his work of art.
     From: Friedrich Nietzsche (Unpublished Notebooks 1872-74 [1873], 29 [205])
You should only develop a philosophy if you are willing to live by it [Nietzsche]
     Full Idea: One should have a philosophy only to the extent that one is capable of living according to this philosophy: so that everything does not become mere words.
     From: Friedrich Nietzsche (Unpublished Notebooks 1872-74 [1873], 30 [17])
1. Philosophy / D. Nature of Philosophy / 5. Aims of Philosophy / f. Philosophy as healing
Philosophy is pointless if it does not advocate, and live, a new way of life [Nietzsche]
     Full Idea: As long as philosophers do not muster the courage to advocate a lifestyle structured in an entirely different way and demonstrate it by their own example, they will come to nothing.
     From: Friedrich Nietzsche (Unpublished Notebooks 1872-74 [1873], 31 [10])
     A reaction: This is a pretty tough requirement for the leading logicians and metaphysicians of our day, but they must face their marginality. The public will only be interested in philosophers who advocate new ways of living.
1. Philosophy / D. Nature of Philosophy / 6. Hopes for Philosophy
Philosophy is more valuable than much of science, because of its beauty [Nietzsche]
     Full Idea: The reason why unprovable philosophizing still has some value - more value, in fact, than many a scientific proposition - lies in the aesthetic value of such philosophizing, that is, in its beauty and sublimity.
     From: Friedrich Nietzsche (Unpublished Notebooks 1872-74 [1873], 19 [076])
     A reaction: I am increasingly inclined to agree. I love wide-ranging and ambitious works of metaphysics, each of which is a unique creation of the human intellect (and with which no other individual will ever entirely agree). A great short paper is also beautiful.
1. Philosophy / D. Nature of Philosophy / 7. Despair over Philosophy
Is a gifted philosopher unmanly if he avoids the strife of the communal world? [Plato]
     Full Idea: Callicles: Even a naturally gifted philosopher isn't going to develop into a real man, because he's avoiding the heart of his community and the thick of the agora.
     From: Plato (Gorgias [c.387 BCE], 485d)
     A reaction: A serious charge against philosophy. An attraction of the subject is its purity, its necessity, its timelessness, and in some ways these are just nicer and easier and more understandable than the hard mess of real life. But understanding has to be good.
It would better if there was no thought [Nietzsche]
     Full Idea: It would be better if thought did not exist at all.
     From: Friedrich Nietzsche (Unpublished Notebooks 1872-74 [1873], 29 [004])
Why do people want philosophers? [Nietzsche]
     Full Idea: Why do human beings even want philosophers?
     From: Friedrich Nietzsche (Unpublished Notebooks 1872-74 [1873], 29 [019])
     A reaction: It is not clear, of course, that they do want philosophers. The standard attitude to them seems to be a mixture of contempt and fear.
Philosophy is always secondary, because it cannot support a popular culture [Nietzsche]
     Full Idea: It is not possible to base a popular culture on philosophy. Thus, with regard to culture, philosophy never can have primary, but always only secondary, significance.
     From: Friedrich Nietzsche (Unpublished Notebooks 1872-74 [1873], 23 [14])
     A reaction: It is the brilliance of Christianity as a set of ideas that it is simple enough to found a popular culture. A complex theology would make that impossible. Luther brought it back to its roots, when the priesthood lost touch with the people.
1. Philosophy / E. Nature of Metaphysics / 7. Against Metaphysics
Kant has undermined our belief in metaphysics [Nietzsche]
     Full Idea: In a certain sense, Kant's influence was detrimental; for the belief in metaphysics has been lost.
     From: Friedrich Nietzsche (Unpublished Notebooks 1872-74 [1873], 19 [028])
     A reaction: As I understand it, there are two interpretations of Kant, one of which is fairly thoroughly anti-metaphysical, and another which is less so. Also one path leads to idealism and the other doesn't, but I need to research that.
1. Philosophy / G. Scientific Philosophy / 3. Scientism
If philosophy controls science, then it has to determine its scope, and its value [Nietzsche]
     Full Idea: The philosophy that is in control of science must also consider the extent to which science should be allowed to develop; it must determine its value!
     From: Friedrich Nietzsche (Unpublished Notebooks 1872-74 [1873], 19 [024])
2. Reason / C. Styles of Reason / 2. Elenchus
In "Gorgias" Socrates is confident that his 'elenchus' will decide moral truth [Vlastos on Plato]
     Full Idea: In the 'Gorgias' Socrates is still supremely confident that the elenchus is the final arbiter of moral truth.
     From: comment on Plato (Gorgias [c.387 BCE]) by Gregory Vlastos - Socrates: Ironist and Moral Philosopher p.117
We should test one another, by asking and answering questions [Plato]
     Full Idea: Test me, and let yourself be tested as well, by asking and answering questions.
     From: Plato (Gorgias [c.387 BCE], 462a)
     A reaction: The idea must be to avoid wild speculation, by continually filtering ideas through rival critical intelligences. The best philosophical method ever devised.
5. Theory of Logic / A. Overview of Logic / 3. Value of Logic
Logic is just slavery to language [Nietzsche]
     Full Idea: Logic is merely slavery in the fetters of language.
     From: Friedrich Nietzsche (Unpublished Notebooks 1872-74 [1873], 29 [008])
     A reaction: I don't think I agree with this, but I still like it.
7. Existence / C. Structure of Existence / 6. Fundamentals / c. Monads
If some sort of experience is at the root of matter, then human knowledge is close to its essence [Nietzsche]
     Full Idea: If pleasure, displeasure, sensation, memory, reflex movements are all part of the essence of matter, then human knowledge penetrates far more deeply into the essence of things.
     From: Friedrich Nietzsche (Unpublished Notebooks 1872-74 [1873], 19 [161])
     A reaction: I don't think Nietzsche is thinking of monads at this point, but his idea certainly applies to them. Leibniz rested his whole theory on the close analogy between how minds work and how matter must also work.
11. Knowledge Aims / A. Knowledge / 4. Belief / a. Beliefs
Belief matters more than knowledge, and only begins when knowledge ceases [Nietzsche]
     Full Idea: The human being starts to believe when he ceases to know. …Knowledge is not as important for the welfare of human beings as is belief.
     From: Friedrich Nietzsche (Unpublished Notebooks 1872-74 [1873], 21 [13])
     A reaction: The first idea is now associated with Williamson (and Hossack). The second is something like the pragmatic view of belief espoused by Ramsey.
11. Knowledge Aims / C. Knowing Reality / 1. Perceptual Realism / b. Direct realism
It always remains possible that the world just is the way it appears [Nietzsche]
     Full Idea: Against Kant we can still object, even if we accept all his propositions, that it is still possible that the world is as it appears to us.
     From: Friedrich Nietzsche (Unpublished Notebooks 1872-74 [1873], 19 [125])
     A reaction: This little thought at least seems to be enough to block the slide from phenomenalism into total idealism. The idea that direct realism can never be ruled out, even if it is false, is very striking.
13. Knowledge Criteria / D. Scepticism / 1. Scepticism
Our knowledge is illogical, because it rests on false identities between things [Nietzsche]
     Full Idea: Every piece of knowledge that is beneficial to us involves an identification of nonidentical things, of things that are similar, which means that it is essentially illogical.
     From: Friedrich Nietzsche (Unpublished Notebooks 1872-74 [1873], 19 [236])
     A reaction: I take the thought to be that no two tigers are alike, but we call them all 'tigers' and merge them into a type, and then all our knowledge is based on this distortion. A wonderful idea. I love particulars You should love particulars.
The most extreme scepticism is when you even give up logic [Nietzsche]
     Full Idea: Even skepticism contains a belief: the belief in logic. The most extreme position is hence the abandoning of logic.
     From: Friedrich Nietzsche (Unpublished Notebooks 1872-74 [1873], 29 [008])
     A reaction: Some might say that flirting with non-classical logic (as in Graham Priest) is precisely travelling down this road. You could also be sceptical about meaning in language, so you couldn't articulate your abandonment of logic.
14. Science / D. Explanation / 3. Best Explanation / b. Ultimate explanation
If we find a hypothesis that explains many things, we conclude that it explains everything [Nietzsche]
     Full Idea: The feeling of certainty is the most difficult to develop. Initially one seeks explanation: if a hypothesis explains many things, we draw the conclusion that it explains everything.
     From: Friedrich Nietzsche (Unpublished Notebooks 1872-74 [1873], 19 [238])
     A reaction: As so often, a wonderful warning from Nietzsche to other philosophers. They love to latch onto a Big Idea, and offer it as the answer to everything (especially, dare I say it, continental philosophers).
15. Nature of Minds / C. Capacities of Minds / 1. Faculties
Our primary faculty is perception of structure, as when looking in a mirror [Nietzsche]
     Full Idea: The primary faculty seems to me to be the perception of structure, that is, based upon the mirror.
     From: Friedrich Nietzsche (Unpublished Notebooks 1872-74 [1873], 19 [153])
     A reaction: The point about the mirror makes this such an intriguingly original idea. Personally I like very much the idea that structure is our prime perception. See Sider 2011 on structure.
15. Nature of Minds / C. Capacities of Minds / 9. Perceiving Causation
We experience causation between willing and acting, and thereby explain conjunctions of changes [Nietzsche]
     Full Idea: The only form of causality of which we are aware is that between willing and acting - we transfer this to all things, and thereby explain the relationship between two changes that always occur together.
     From: Friedrich Nietzsche (Unpublished Notebooks 1872-74 [1873], 19 [209])
     A reaction: This is a rather Humean view, of projecting our experience onto the world, but it may be that we really are experiencing real causation, just as it occurs between insentiate things.
17. Mind and Body / A. Mind-Body Dualism / 8. Dualism of Mind Critique
It is just madness to think that the mind is supernatural (or even divine!) [Nietzsche]
     Full Idea: To view 'spirit', the product of the brain, as supernatural. Even to deify it. What madness!
     From: Friedrich Nietzsche (Unpublished Notebooks 1872-74 [1873], 19 [127])
     A reaction: When I started philolosophy I was obliged to take mind-body dualism very seriously, but I have finally managed to drag myself to the shores of this lake of madness, where Nietzsche awaited with a helping hand.
19. Language / F. Communication / 1. Rhetoric
Rhetoric can produce conviction, but not educate people about right and wrong [Plato]
     Full Idea: Rhetoric is an agent of the kind of persuasion which is designed to produce conviction, but not to educate people about right and wrong.
     From: Plato (Gorgias [c.387 BCE], 455a)
     A reaction: Surely there must be good rhetoric (or at least it is an open question)?
Rhetoric is irrational about its means and its ends [Plato]
     Full Idea: Rhetoric is a knack, because it lacks rational understanding of its object or what it dispenses (and can't explain the reason anything happens).
     From: Plato (Gorgias [c.387 BCE], 465a)
     A reaction: If there are cunning people who have the wrong sort of intelligence for morality, there must be cunning users of rhetoric who know exactly what they are doing.
20. Action / B. Preliminaries of Action / 1. Intention to Act / b. Types of intention
All activity aims at the good [Plato]
     Full Idea: All activity aims at the good.
     From: Plato (Gorgias [c.387 BCE], 499e)
     A reaction: He includes non-conscious activity, so this is the 'teleological' view of nature, which seems a bit optimistic to the modern mind.
21. Aesthetics / C. Artistic Issues / 7. Art and Morality
Musical performance can reveal a range of virtues [Damon of Ath.]
     Full Idea: In singing and playing the lyre, a boy will be likely to reveal not only courage and moderation, but also justice.
     From: Damon (fragments/reports [c.460 BCE], B4), quoted by (who?) - where?
22. Metaethics / A. Ethics Foundations / 2. Source of Ethics / g. Will to power
Moral rules are made by the weak members of humanity [Plato]
     Full Idea: Callicles: It's the weaklings who constitute the majority of the human race who make the rules.
     From: Plato (Gorgias [c.387 BCE], 483b)
     A reaction: An aristocrat bemoans democracy. Presumably the qualification for being a 'weakling' is shortage of money. How strong are the scions of the aristocrats?
22. Metaethics / B. Value / 2. Values / h. Fine deeds
A good person is bound to act well, and this brings happiness [Plato]
     Full Idea: A good person is bound to do whatever he does well and successfully, and success brings fulfilment and happiness.
     From: Plato (Gorgias [c.387 BCE], 507c)
     A reaction: Not how we would see it, I guess, but this is the Greek idea that a good person is one who functions well. Anyone who functions well is probably having a good time.
22. Metaethics / B. Value / 2. Values / i. Self-interest
Is it natural to simply indulge our selfish desires? [Plato]
     Full Idea: Callicles: Nature says the only authentic way of life is to do nothing to hinder or restrain the expansion of one's desires.
     From: Plato (Gorgias [c.387 BCE], 491e)
     A reaction: Sounds like the natural desires of a young single man. Parents and spouses have natural desires that focus on other people's desires.
22. Metaethics / C. The Good / 1. Goodness / f. Good as pleasure
Good should be the aim of pleasant activity, not the other way round [Plato]
     Full Idea: Good should be the goal of pleasant activities, rather than pleasure being the goal of good activities.
     From: Plato (Gorgias [c.387 BCE], 500a)
     A reaction: Nice. Not far off what Aristotle says on the topic. So what activities should we seek out? Narrow the pleasures down to the good ones, or narrow the good ones down to the pleasurable?
In slaking our thirst the goodness of the action and the pleasure are clearly separate [Plato]
     Full Idea: When we drink to quench thirst, we lose the distress of the thirst and the pleasure of drinking at the same moment, but one loss is good and the other bad, so the pleasure and the goodness must be separate.
     From: Plato (Gorgias [c.387 BCE], 497d)
     A reaction: This is open to the objection that the good of slaking one's thirst is a long-term pleasure, where the drinking is short-term, so pleasure is still the good.
22. Metaethics / C. The Good / 2. Happiness / d. Routes to happiness
The shortest path to happiness is forgetfulness, the path of animals (but of little value) [Nietzsche]
     Full Idea: If happiness were the goal, then animals would be the highest creatures. Their cynicism is grounded in forgetfulness: that is the shortest path to happiness, even if it is a happiness with little value.
     From: Friedrich Nietzsche (Unpublished Notebooks 1872-74 [1873], 29 [143])
     A reaction: I would be reluctant to describe an apparently contented cow as 'happy'. Is a comatose person happy? Maybe happiness is fulfilling one's nature, like a monkey swinging through trees?
22. Metaethics / C. The Good / 3. Pleasure / e. Role of pleasure
Good and bad people seem to experience equal amounts of pleasure and pain [Plato]
     Full Idea: There is little to tell between good and bad people (e.g. cowards) in terms of how much pleasure and distress they experience.
     From: Plato (Gorgias [c.387 BCE], 498c)
     A reaction: A very perceptive remark. If the good are people with empathy for others, then they may suffer more distress than the insensitive wicked.
22. Metaethics / C. The Good / 3. Pleasure / f. Dangers of pleasure
If happiness is the satisfaction of desires, then a life of scratching itches should be happiness [Plato]
     Full Idea: Socrates: I want to ask whether a lifetime spent scratching, itching and scratching, no end of scratching, is also a life of happiness.
     From: Plato (Gorgias [c.387 BCE], 494c)
     A reaction: There are plenty of people who think 'fun' is the main aim of life, and who fit what Socrates is referring to. We don't admire such a life, but not many people can be admired.
In a fool's mind desire is like a leaky jar, insatiable in its desires, and order and contentment are better [Plato]
     Full Idea: In a fool's mind desire is a leaky jar, …which is an analogy for the mind's insatiability, showing we should prefer an orderly life, in which one is content with whatever is to hand, to a self-indulgent life of insatiable desire.
     From: Plato (Gorgias [c.387 BCE], 493b)
     A reaction: This points to an interesting paradox, that pleasure requires the misery of desire. And yet absence of desire is like death. An Aristotelian mean, of living according to nature, seems the escape route.
23. Ethics / A. Egoism / 2. Hedonism
Is the happiest state one of sensual, self-indulgent freedom? [Plato]
     Full Idea: Callicles: If a person has the means to live a life of sensual, self-indulgent freedom, there's no better or happier state of existence.
     From: Plato (Gorgias [c.387 BCE], 492c)
23. Ethics / C. Virtue Theory / 2. Elements of Virtue Theory / c. Motivation for virtue
Should we avoid evil because it will bring us bad consequences? [Plato]
     Full Idea: Socrates: We should avoid doing wrong because of all the bad consequences it will bring us.
     From: Plato (Gorgias [c.387 BCE], 480a)
23. Ethics / C. Virtue Theory / 2. Elements of Virtue Theory / e. Character
I would rather be a victim of crime than a criminal [Plato]
     Full Idea: Socrates: If I had to choose between doing wrong and having wrong done to me, I'd prefer the latter to the former.
     From: Plato (Gorgias [c.387 BCE], 469c)
     A reaction: cf Democritus 68B45
23. Ethics / C. Virtue Theory / 3. Virtues / b. Temperance
If absence of desire is happiness, then nothing is happier than a stone or a corpse [Plato]
     Full Idea: Callicles: If people who need nothing are happy, there would be nothing happier than a stone or a corpse.
     From: Plato (Gorgias [c.387 BCE], 492e)
     A reaction: We aren't really supposed to approve of Callicles, but to me this is a splendidly crushing western response to many of the ideals found in eastern philosophy.
Self-indulgent desire makes friendship impossible, because it makes a person incapable of co-operation [Plato]
     Full Idea: Self-indulgent desire makes a person incapable of co-operation, which is a prerequisite of friendship.
     From: Plato (Gorgias [c.387 BCE], 507e)
23. Ethics / C. Virtue Theory / 3. Virtues / c. Justice
A criminal is worse off if he avoids punishment [Plato]
     Full Idea: Socrates: A criminal is worse off if he doesn't pay the penalty, and continues to do wrong without getting punished.
     From: Plato (Gorgias [c.387 BCE], 472e)
Do most people praise self-discipline and justice because they are too timid to gain their own pleasure? [Plato]
     Full Idea: Callicles: Why do most people praise self-discipline and justice? Because their own timidity makes them incapable of satisfying their pleasures.
     From: Plato (Gorgias [c.387 BCE], 492a)
23. Ethics / C. Virtue Theory / 4. External Goods / b. Health
The popular view is that health is first, good looks second, and honest wealth third [Plato]
     Full Idea: I'm sure you know the list of human advantages in the party song: 'The very best is health, Second good looks, and third honest wealth'.
     From: Plato (Gorgias [c.387 BCE], 451e)
     A reaction: This invites the obvious question of why anyone wants these three things, with the implied answer of 'pleasure'. But we might want them even if we couldn't use them, implying pluralism.
24. Political Theory / B. Nature of a State / 1. Purpose of a State
As with other things, a good state is organised and orderly [Plato]
     Full Idea: As in every case (an artefact, a body, a mind, a creature), a good state is an organised and orderly state.
     From: Plato (Gorgias [c.387 BCE], 506e)
24. Political Theory / D. Ideologies / 5. Democracy / c. Direct democracy
A good citizen won't be passive, but will redirect the needs of the state [Plato]
     Full Idea: The only responsibility of a good member of a community is altering the community's needs rather than going along with them.
     From: Plato (Gorgias [c.387 BCE], 517b)
25. Social Practice / B. Equalities / 1. Grounds of equality
Do most people like equality because they are second-rate? [Plato]
     Full Idea: Callicles: It's because most people are second-rate that they are happy for things to be distributed equally.
     From: Plato (Gorgias [c.387 BCE], 483c)
25. Social Practice / B. Equalities / 4. Economic equality
Does nature imply that it is right for better people to have greater benefits? [Plato]
     Full Idea: Callicles: We only have to look at nature to find evidence that it is right for better to have a greater share than worse.
     From: Plato (Gorgias [c.387 BCE], 483d)
25. Social Practice / E. Policies / 5. Education / b. Education principles
Education is contrary to human nature [Nietzsche]
     Full Idea: Education runs contrary to the nature of a human being.
     From: Friedrich Nietzsche (Unpublished Notebooks 1872-74 [1873], 30 [06])
     A reaction: Tell me about it!
25. Social Practice / E. Policies / 5. Education / d. Study of history
We should evaluate the past morally [Nietzsche]
     Full Idea: For the past I desire above all a moral evaluation.
     From: Friedrich Nietzsche (Unpublished Notebooks 1872-74 [1873], 29 [096])
     A reaction: There is a bit of a contradiction with Idea 14819, of only a few years later. He was always interested in a historical approach to morality, but I'm not sure if his ethics gives a decent basis for moral assessments of remote historical eras.
25. Social Practice / F. Life Issues / 6. Animal Rights
Protest against vivisection - living things should not become objects of scientific investigation [Nietzsche]
     Full Idea: Protest against vivisection of living things, that is, those things that are not yet dead should be allowed to live and not immediately be treated as an object for scientific investigation.
     From: Friedrich Nietzsche (Unpublished Notebooks 1872-74 [1873], 29 [027])
     A reaction: Wow. How many other people had come up with this idea in 1873?
26. Natural Theory / C. Causation / 3. Final causes
We do not know the nature of one single causality [Nietzsche]
     Full Idea: We do not know the nature of one single causality.
     From: Friedrich Nietzsche (Unpublished Notebooks 1872-74 [1873], 19 [121])
26. Natural Theory / D. Laws of Nature / 4. Regularities / a. Regularity theory
Laws of nature are merely complex networks of relations [Nietzsche]
     Full Idea: All laws of nature are only relations between x, y and z. We define laws of nature as relations to an x, y, and z, each of which in turn, is known to us only in relation to other x's, y's and z's.
     From: Friedrich Nietzsche (Unpublished Notebooks 1872-74 [1873], 19 [235])
     A reaction: This could be interpreted in Armstrong's terms, as only identifying the x's, y's and z's by their universals, and then seeing laws as how those universal relate. I suspect, though, that Nietzsche has a Humean regularity pattern in mind.
29. Religion / A. Polytheistic Religion / 2. Greek Polytheism
The Greeks lack a normative theology: each person has their own poetic view of things [Nietzsche]
     Full Idea: The Greeks lack a normative theology: everyone has the right to deal with it in a poetic manner and he can believe whatever he wants.
     From: Friedrich Nietzsche (Unpublished Notebooks 1872-74 [1873], 19 [110])
     A reaction: There is quite a lot of record of harshness towards atheists, and the trial of Socrates seems to have been partly over theology. However, no proper theological texts have come down, or records of the teachings of the priests.