21 December 2005
SPIRIT: Nietzsche Can Save Your Life
Dateline: Turin, Italy
Friedrich Nietzsche, late 19th century German philosopher, saves lives. Just by reading his books. Those who have lost their way who discover this possibly crazy, definitely syphillitic genius, have become redeemed.
It was in this Italian village that Herr Nietzsche sought refuge from the world and wrote some of the best books ever written. What is it about this nutty kraut that has the power to save lives? Experts have not discovered the cause yet, but the empirical evidence mounts. Lost soul after lost soul has read the 'god is dead' philosopher and found meaning in life again.
Walter Kaufman has done some nice translations of this first 'modern philosopher' into English (Nietzsche should be read in German if possible, he was a great writer.) Beyond Good and Evil along with The Geneaology of Morals are two good books to start with. Later, right before he goes crazy, Nietzsche writes maybe his best books. Twilight of The Idols, The AntiChrist and Ecce Home (his twisted autobiography.) These will put the fear of god back into those for whom life has 'lost its savor.'
Twilight of The Idols might be his best book of all. It is a short tome; it was to have been the first of a series (never completed because Nietzsche could not speak or move much for the last ten years of his life.) In this he gets to the core of his philosophy. The following quote is particularly representative.
From the Hollingdale translation done for Penguin Classics:
"What alone can our teaching be? - That no one gives a human being his qualities: not God, not society, not his parents or ancestors, not he himself....No one is accountable for existing at all, or for being constituted as he is, or for living in the circumstances and surroundings in which he lives....One is necessary, one is a piece of fate, on belongs to the whole, one is in the whole, there exists nothing for that would be to judge, measure, compare, condemn the whole....But nothing exists apart from the whole!.... - That no one is any longer made accountable, that the kind of being manifested cannot be traced back to a causa prima, that the world is a unity neither as sensorium nor as 'spirit', this alone is the great liberation - thus alone is the innocence of becoming restored....The concept 'God' has hitherto been the greatest objection to existence....We deny God; in denying God, we deny accountability; only by doing that do we redeem the world. -
(Penguin Books, Copywright 1990)
Gnaw on that bone for a minute and get refueled spiritually pronto for your next holiday party.
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Friedrich Nietzsche, late 19th century German philosopher, saves lives. Just by reading his books. Those who have lost their way who discover this possibly crazy, definitely syphillitic genius, have become redeemed.
It was in this Italian village that Herr Nietzsche sought refuge from the world and wrote some of the best books ever written. What is it about this nutty kraut that has the power to save lives? Experts have not discovered the cause yet, but the empirical evidence mounts. Lost soul after lost soul has read the 'god is dead' philosopher and found meaning in life again.
Walter Kaufman has done some nice translations of this first 'modern philosopher' into English (Nietzsche should be read in German if possible, he was a great writer.) Beyond Good and Evil along with The Geneaology of Morals are two good books to start with. Later, right before he goes crazy, Nietzsche writes maybe his best books. Twilight of The Idols, The AntiChrist and Ecce Home (his twisted autobiography.) These will put the fear of god back into those for whom life has 'lost its savor.'
Twilight of The Idols might be his best book of all. It is a short tome; it was to have been the first of a series (never completed because Nietzsche could not speak or move much for the last ten years of his life.) In this he gets to the core of his philosophy. The following quote is particularly representative.
From the Hollingdale translation done for Penguin Classics:
"What alone can our teaching be? - That no one gives a human being his qualities: not God, not society, not his parents or ancestors, not he himself....No one is accountable for existing at all, or for being constituted as he is, or for living in the circumstances and surroundings in which he lives....One is necessary, one is a piece of fate, on belongs to the whole, one is in the whole, there exists nothing for that would be to judge, measure, compare, condemn the whole....But nothing exists apart from the whole!.... - That no one is any longer made accountable, that the kind of being manifested cannot be traced back to a causa prima, that the world is a unity neither as sensorium nor as 'spirit', this alone is the great liberation - thus alone is the innocence of becoming restored....The concept 'God' has hitherto been the greatest objection to existence....We deny God; in denying God, we deny accountability; only by doing that do we redeem the world. -
(Penguin Books, Copywright 1990)
Gnaw on that bone for a minute and get refueled spiritually pronto for your next holiday party.
##33##
