--- date: '2023-11-30' description: the man that was most mistakenly understood id: Nietzsche modified: 2026-06-05 15:08:28 GMT-04:00 seealso: - '[[thoughts/Philosophy and Nietzsche|Deleuze intepretation of Nietzche]]' tags: - philosophy - philos1aa3 title: Nietzsche's Life created: '2023-11-30' published: '2023-11-30' pageLayout: default slug: thoughts/Nietzsche permalink: https://aarnphm.xyz/thoughts/Nietzsche.md generator: quartz: v4.6.0 hostedProvider: Cloudflare baseUrl: aarnphm.xyz full: https://aarnphm.xyz/llms-full.txt --- _1844-1900_ Theology, acquainted with Greek philosophy _Twilight of the Idols, 1889_ ## Problem of [[thoughts/Socrates|Socrates]]. **Decadent: in decline, decay. “Doing a bad thing carefully.”** > An unexamined life is not worth living. Only Knowledge alone makes life worth living Importance things in life: goodness, happiness, depends on reasons, arguments → bizarre equations. > Maybe something wrong with this? What drives Socrates from this demands with reasons and knowledge? What are the motives? Hume: Common life Plato: Turns away from appearance, material life to know the true being Artist: playful presentation, loving life for the work Philosophers: Not joy, serious, engaged in serious business, striving to know the truth. Invent nothing, contemplate what is, what is true, “being qua being” > One must be all means stretch out one’s fingers and make the attempt to grasp this amazing finesse, that the value of life cannot be estimated. (269) Life is not a closed books, but evolving still. ## God is Dead _God of the philosophers_ Atheism Denis Diderot: “It is … very important not to mistake hemlock for parsley; but to believe or not to believe in god, is not important at all” Nietzsche: “God is dead”. Means optimism, faith in science, the redemptive power of knowledge is “dead”, that is, unconvicing, hard to take seriously. _Nihilism: The highest values are devaluing themselves_ How do we have duty on truth? Doesn’t need reasons to be atheism? For N, believing god is passing into the past, and have no feature. Science has devitalise god. So to die the superior value of truth. Value of Truth is problematic. #### From _Thus Spoke Zarathustra_ Contrast between Nobility and goodness _noble spirits vs. good_ nobility > good noble people: maintain nobility, might considered by other as setback not become “a churl” (churlish, misanthropic, a hater of humanity) #### Morality as Anti-Nature Critiques in Christianity, - Anti-nature because anti-difference, when nature is all difference - Anti-nature because it values people all the same, when in nature, by nature, we are amazingly different. Security with “herd mentality” Regards as sign of decline, docile (democracy, or [[thoughts/John Stuart Mill|John Stuart Mill]]‘s instution) > Obstacles that are good for us: Becomes who we are Herd = human society - like sheep: unhappy on our own. Watch each other carefully, follow into our line - all herd: All animals all nervously watch each others Peace is overrated, as defeats kind of challenges to grow for leaders herd = security (survival values, of Europe at this time?) Everything modern people thinks good is bad, things judges to be evil could turn out to be good in the future. Decadent: arts and philosophy ⇒ artists wants to play with empiricists, doesn’t care about the truth (philosophers’ motive) Arguments against morality: One rule for everything Judge everything by one rules: Morality reduces human to [[singularity.canvas|singularity]] Object to Kant’s Morals, but not [[thoughts/John Stuart Mill|John Stuart Mill]]‘s Utilitarianism Respect for others is imposed on us ⇒ refused to embrace > Morals compromise creativity, and value more creativity more than morals (beyond good and evil) ## What I Owe the Ancients _The Birth of Tragedy, 1872_ Greek tragic drama - Aeschylus, _Oresteia_ - Sophocles, _Oedipus the King_ - Euripides, _Bacchae_ > Why do we enjoy tragedies? Why do we enjoy watching people suffer? > “All becoming and growing - all that guarantees a future - involves pain.” (282) > “Art is worth more than truth.” Shares’ [[thoughts/Plato|Plato]]‘s view of democracy. Values life of creativity, to invent new values. Acknowledges death, suffering, tragedy. Not defects, or overcome by science. Knowledge can demoralise people (Knowledge is good) Knowledge is a very thing that it is good. Knowledge is not the path to virtue and happiness > Science tells us no good in itself, no purposes in itself. Values are selected by us, not stumbled upon. Life has no values, since we cannot see all that life has to offer. It is a place for adventure. Creating values is science not do, but art can ⇒ art is more important than truth.