Nietzsche's greatest inspiration
Great opening paragraph to Julian Young's wonderful philosophical biography on Jarfff's #2 thinker, man oh man i love this idea of living your life in such a way that in all seriousness you could declare da capo, again, over and over again.
We've messed up before, we've lived through things we never want to live through again, but what if we lived after those events that justified those rough times.
It was not a simple procedure, Nietzsche's idea was a tortuous path he took, which ended in a sad state of lunacy, but it sure is captivating to me, it's just the kind of thing i need to approach my specific life circumstances in the best manner conceivable.
Enough of me babbling, here is that first paragraph:
We've messed up before, we've lived through things we never want to live through again, but what if we lived after those events that justified those rough times.
It was not a simple procedure, Nietzsche's idea was a tortuous path he took, which ended in a sad state of lunacy, but it sure is captivating to me, it's just the kind of thing i need to approach my specific life circumstances in the best manner conceivable.
Enough of me babbling, here is that first paragraph:
"NIETZSCHE'S GREATEST inspiration, he believed, was the idea that if one is in a state of perfect mental health one should be able to survey one's entire life and then, rising ecstatically to one's feet, shout ‘Da capo! – Once more! Once more! Back to the beginning!’ – to ‘the whole play and performance’. In perfect health one would ‘crave nothing more fervently’ than the ‘eternal return’ of one's life throughout infinite time – not an expurgated version with the bad bits left out, but exactly the same life, down to the very last detail, however painful or shameful. His own particular task was to become able to do this, to reach a point where he could shout ‘Da capo!’ to his own life. Let us see what he had to contend with before reaching that point." (from "Friedrich Nietzsche: A Philosophical Biography" by Julian Young)
