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Nietzsche on Solitude

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Re: Nietzsche on Solitude

#11

Post by a8da6b0c91d »

yannis wrote: post #3

>go into solitude so as not to drink out of everybody's cistern. When I am among the many I live as the many do, and I do not think I really think. After a time it always seems as if they want to banish my self from myself and rob me of my soul. I always liked this piece, as it fits with me being able to be alone for days on end, without missing anyone's company.

The flip side of this is people tend to get weird and ornery without a proper community enforcing standards of behavior. It's pretty common to not even realize how unacceptably eccentric you're getting. Bear in mind that Nietzsche wound up totally insane.

The traditional christian teaching is that solitude is bad. Man is a social animal and can only properly develop joined to family and community and church, fulfilling duties and obligations to each.

Re: Nietzsche on Solitude

#13

Post by adventured »

dhimes wrote: post #10
ThomPete wrote: post #9

It's all about enjoying your own company. I have always seen the ability to endure solitude as one of the primary reasons why some people are successful. The ability to enjoy your own thoughts, process, reflexions and the self-discipline to stay with them no matter what they are is what build up intuition.

Perhaps that is the advantage offered by a trait like narcissism.

No, because narcissism does not mean: self-reflection, introspection, consideration for one's own thoughts, pondering ideas, inwardness, etc.

Rather, it would be more like this: I think I'm the greatest. I'm so much smarter than everyone else. Whatever I do will be extraordinary.

Narcissism tends to be empty of substance, because by definition it means an exaggeration.

It doesn't take long to realize that's of no benefit to a process of thinking when it comes to problem solving, invention, or innovation. The more time spent on congratulating yourself on artificially inflated views about your own abilities or accomplishments, the less time spent actually doing. Narcissism is a detriment to achieving great output, to the extent of the narcissism, as it's wholly a waste of thought and time.

Re: Nietzsche on Solitude

#14

Post by sravfeyn »

Solitude and Silence are foundation for individual growth as per Indian philosophy. In the words of Sri Aurobindo (1), a modern Indian philosopher and mystic,

"The love of solitude is a sign of the disposition towards knowledge; but knowledge itself is only achieved when we have a settled perception of solitude in the crowd, in the battle and in the mart"

1 - http://nptel.ac.in/courses/109101002/16

Re: Nietzsche on Solitude

#15

Post by dhimes »

adventured wrote: post #13
dhimes wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Perhaps that is the advantage offered by a trait like narcissism.

No, because narcissism does not mean: self-reflection, introspection, consideration for one's own thoughts, pondering ideas, inwardness, etc. Rather, it would be more like this: I think I'm the greatest. I'm so much smarter than everyone else. Whatever I do will be extraordinary. Narcissism tends to be empty of substance, because by definition it means an exaggeration. It doesn't take long to realize that's of no ben…

I think you just made all that up! Narcissism is orthogonal to achievement, in the sense of having a drive to achieve.

Re: Nietzsche on Solitude

#16

Post by DarkTree »

TeMPOraL wrote: post #7
thirdsun wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sure, it's always a question of balance - I enjoy spending time with my friends, but I need frequent and long breaks, which sometimes leads to confusion and misunderstandings ("Why would stay in alone tonight?"). Maybe it's an introvert thing but I'm often surprised when I see people that need other people around them constantly and rate time spent alone as wasted.

I couldn't put my finger on the phenomena until I read that comic one day: [0]. It's about energy generation and expenditure - extroverts gather their energy from human interaction, introverts have to expend it on those social moments. I keep sending this picture to people who know me personally and are surprised I consider myself introverted - after all, how someone who is seen publicly speaking so often and finds i…

Yeah I can completely relate to this and have attributed it to being introverted as well. I am extremely social when I do attend social events, often being the most talkative if it's a group of 4 or less, but need to recharge alone the day after whereas my friends will continue to want be around each other. They often accuse me of being horrible at communication and making the effort to hang out with them, but to me, it's a simple matter of needing to be alone for a period of time, which I assume they are not familiar with as they all seem on the extrovert side of the spectrum. Sure, it's important for me to override that sense of wanting to be alone to catch up with friends and be a better communicator/friend, but it is in no way natural for me.

Re: Nietzsche on Solitude

#17

Post by mafribe »

a8da6b0c91d wrote: post #11
yannis wrote: post #3

>go into solitude so as not to drink out of everybody's cistern. When I am among the many I live as the many do, and I do not think I really think. After a time it always seems as if they want to banish my self from myself and rob me of my soul. I always liked this piece, as it fits with me being able to be alone for days on end, without missing anyone's company.

The flip side of this is people tend to get weird and ornery without a proper community enforcing standards of behavior. It's pretty common to not even realize how unacceptably eccentric you're getting. Bear in mind that Nietzsche wound up totally insane. The traditional christian teaching is that solitude is bad. Man is a social animal and can only properly develop joined to family and community and church, fulfilli…

But is it always clear that the community sees as "proper [...] standards of behavior" is actually a proper standard of behaviour, or the sign of a dysfunctional community?

Re: Nietzsche on Solitude

#19

Post by anonydsfsfs »

a8da6b0c91d wrote: post #11
yannis wrote: post #3

>go into solitude so as not to drink out of everybody's cistern. When I am among the many I live as the many do, and I do not think I really think. After a time it always seems as if they want to banish my self from myself and rob me of my soul. I always liked this piece, as it fits with me being able to be alone for days on end, without missing anyone's company.

The flip side of this is people tend to get weird and ornery without a proper community enforcing standards of behavior. It's pretty common to not even realize how unacceptably eccentric you're getting. Bear in mind that Nietzsche wound up totally insane. The traditional christian teaching is that solitude is bad. Man is a social animal and can only properly develop joined to family and community and church, fulfilli…

Nietzsche was likely driven insane by CADASIL leading to frontotemporal dementia[1]. CADASIL is a genetic disorder and has nothing to do with being solitary.

[1] http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18575181 and http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17087793

Re: Nietzsche on Solitude

#20

Post by ak39 »

Kenji wrote: post #8

Solitude makes me insane. Yes, I am more productive, but I also become highly unstable. It's a tradeoff. At the end of the day, I value my mental wellbeing more than my productivity. But good friends are hard to find, and I'd rather be alone than put up with the wrong people. Edit: Now I really feel like reading Nietzsche again.

I relate to this. I like the way you make it clear that given a choice between sanity and productivity, you choose the former. But is this not a false dichotomy, I wonder? I hope!

For me, prolonged absence of close company quickly begins to feel like low-grade depression ... or general melancholy. I used to enjoy solitude, but the years and the birth of my children has shifted most of the time I used to crave for myself. I don't crave solitude as badly anymore. In fact I fear being left alone. Also our recent financial set backs and a few deaths in the family has left me questioning the idea of being productive entirely.

The funny thing is that I'm not entirely honest when I get the company I crave ... I begin to display fickle emotions of wanting solitude immediately because I feel I'm not productive.

I'm really in purgatory right now with exactly that: sanity vs productivity.

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