Single Idea 7834

[catalogued under 1. Philosophy / D. Nature of Philosophy / 1. Philosophy]

Full Idea

It has gradually become clear to me what every great philosophy has hitherto been: a confession on the part of its author, and a kind of involuntary and unconscious memoir, ...with moral intentions being the real germ of its life.

Gist of Idea

Great philosophies are confessions by the author, growing out of moral intentions

Source

Friedrich Nietzsche (Beyond Good and Evil [1886], §006)

Book Reference

Nietzsche,Friedrich: 'Beyond Good and Evil', ed/tr. Hollingdale,R.J. [Penguin 1973], p.19


A Reaction

This attitude is what places Nietzsche as the parent of post-modernism, and is the reason why most 'continental' philosophers seem to have given up the attempt to simply reason about life. It is anti-Enlightenment, and it is wicked.