Assorted Thoughts and Wandering Shadowy Reflections
Modernity was born with this guy, he perfected the art of free thinking, an early book of his was Voltairian, Human, All Too Human. He kept progressing, never quite at peace.
I first read Nietzsche in 1995, and it was in an environment that demonized him, reading him was a form of rebellion.
Nietzsche for me is like a diamond, reflecting both what came before, and what came after, an example of before is Montaigne, and an after example is E.M. Cioran.
Some think he's just good for disgruntled teenagers, the truth about Nietzsche is he is thinker who was alive, his thoughts pulsate, no other philosopher is quite like him, which is why some object to him being called a philosopher in the first place.
I invite anyone who likes to, to share their thoughts, positive, negative doesn't matter, and thus enrich this page of Similar Worlds. :)
Thanks so far for your contributions to this page, i shall add here that i've not a scholarly knowledge of FWN, and i further see that scholarliness is something you can totally dispense with here. A fascinating thing is that he seems to matter both to those who admire and hate him, says something.
His message was aristrocratic, elitist, and individualistic. It was enlivened by humor and attitude, the world had some trouble adjusting, but i make it clear here he was misunderstood by those who shaped the horrors of WWII, he caught glimpses of it when he said such phrases as do not mistake me for who i'm not, and so forth, he was prophetical too.
Politics seems to overshadow his significance, i have very little affection for politics, and reading Nietzsche goes real fine and dandy with that predisposition.
Talk on peoples, and have fun, i might sleep soon though, please don't delete anything, i'd like to see what y'all had to say while snoring away. :)
This page is a permanent link to the reply below and its nested replies. See all post replies »
I have to say that I struggle with having any appreciation for Nietzsche. Some of his ideas are appealing but, the fact is, he suffered from mental illness. Which makes me wonder how much of his work was actually the product of his psychosis.
@room101 I think a lot of mentally ill people think he was wise. Wise men and women know that his philosophy was based in evil and when brought to the fore things like nazi Germany happen.
SW-User
@room101 Good point,, there is a hysteria involved in his best work, i see it as a plus, makes it more exciting, one shouldn't seek ultimate truth from him, all he meant to do imo was to spark further thinking, which struggling can be a part of.
@hippyjoe1955 Try reading some history before you bleat on about what wise people do and don't do.
It was his sister, Elisabeth Förster-Nietzsche, who took his unpublished works (after his death) and adapted them to suit her Nazi views. She then gave them to Hitler who co-opted them into the Nazi ideology.
@room101 Yawn. Did you even read what you wrote? Better yet did you understand what I wrote. Nietzsche was long dead but that doesn't take away from that fact that his thoughts were a major part of the nazi philosophy. Nazis could read and likely could read better than you.
@SW-User I wouldn't go so far as to say that there is hysteria involved lol. And isn't making us think what a philosopher is supposed to do?
I don't know, as I say, I'm a bit ambivalent about Nietzsche.
SW-User
@room101 Yes, that is their function, he had strong views, and he could present them in an interesting manner, wasn't till 1888 i think when he went unhinged, till then pretty cogent!! Twilight of the Idols however was pretty clear in that year.
From the heights iow, more a poet than a stuffy ole professor ....:)
@room101 Who cares about his sister. It has nothing to do with the points I made. His philosophy was the basis. How it was adapted and by whom it was adapted is beyond the FACT that it was HIS philosophy.
@room101 The foundation did not change. It was adapted but not foundationally changed. His insanity led to insane times and is still part of today's progressivism which I think is the reason you are trying to deflect the evil of nazism by blaming his sister. Progressivism of which nazism was a part is evil whether it was under nazis or today's liberals.
@hippyjoe1955 See. A lot of people co-opted Nietzsche. You can't say Nietzche's ideas were the foundation for Nazism. If you had read Nietzche you'd realize that he was critical of both anti-Semitism and nationalism. [i]In Beyond Good and Evil[/i] he's flat out critical of pan-German political identity and flat out argues for a unification of Europe. [i]In Ecco Homo[/i] he flat out criticizes German nationalism and identifies nationalism as a cultural neurosis. He was openly critical of anti-Semitism and broke with his editor over his anti-Semitism. Wagner's pan-Germanism and anti-Semitism was at the heart of his [i]Nietzsche Contra Wagner[/i]. Nietzche mocked anti-Semites including his sister and husband. That's about as damn anti-Nazi as it gets.
@SW-User I'm sorry about hippyjoe crashing your post. He has some issues I'm afraid.
The work of Nietzsche is deserving of praise, of that I have no doubt. And some of it is challenging, especially to a religious mindset. Maybe I need to take another look. I've often found that, as I get older, I look at some of the philosophies that I enjoyed in my younger years, and they seem somehow less. Maybe Nietzsche will have an opposite effect.
@CopperCicada I can say it and I did say it and you denying it does not take away from the fact that it WAS one of the foundational philosophies behind nazis. Of course 'progressives' like you and the other idiot don't want to admit that their philosophy is evil so they try to deflect. Doesn't work nor does it stand up to intellectual investigation.
@hippyjoe1955 I'm not a progressive. I've just read the primary sources you're claiming to reference. Both Nietzche and of the Nazis. As Bataille pointed out, the Nazis consciously and intentionally distorted Nietzche, just like Nietzche's sister. If Nietzche was alive during the 3rd Reich they would have put him in an oven. The underpinnings of Nazism are more volkish nationalism and racialism.
@hippyjoe1955 Another possibility is this: [i]read the books yourself[/i]. If you claim to read Nietzche and come up with him being a racialist nationalist you didn't read very well.
@CopperCicada What has Nietzche have to do with nationalism? His philosophy was all about unbridled free will and the ability/need to change things to your own liking.
@CopperCicada The nazis were progressives. Their philosophy was not aberrant to many in the US and Canada. Even Roosevelt thought they were wonderful people until they started a war. The rest of your nonsense is pure nonsense. Move along son you are clueless.
@hippyjoe1955 You're the one whose clueless. Hitler had far right wing nationalist views. I'm going to have to ask for proof:
[quote]Every manifestation of human culture, every product of art, science and technical skill, which we see before our eyes today, is almost exclusively the product of the Aryan creative power. This very fact fully justifies the conclusion that [b][c=#BF0000]it was the Aryan alone who founded a superior type[/c][/b] of humanity; therefore he represents the archetype of what we understand by the term: MAN. He is the Prometheus of mankind, from whose shining brow the divine spark of genius has at all times flashed forth, always kindling anew that fire which, in the form of knowledge, illuminated the dark night by drawing aside the veil of mystery and thus showing man how to rise and become master over all the other beings on the earth. Should he be forced to disappear, a profound darkness will descend on the earth; within a few thousand years human culture will vanish and the world will become a desert.[68][/quote]
@hippyjoe1955 The only nonsense here is, as usual, yours. The Nazi's were not socialist, or progressive, or liberal progressives, or whatever ridiculous name you want to give them. Their tenents are pretty clear at this point, and none of them fall into line with what liberal progressives actually think.
Here, not that you will read it, but Snopes has a great article, draws from tons of sources, shows both sides.
