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Nietzsche on Solitude

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31–39 of 39 posts

Re: Nietzsche on Solitude

#31

Taking this one step further, I wonder if increasing urbanization leads to more and more groupthink, because of increasing proximity. If solitude is key for forming a unique creative perspective, in effect to make sure you don't 'drink out of everyone's cistern' as Nietzsche says, living in cities would be a bad thing, rather than good.

"He who would keep clean among men, must know how to wash himself even with dirty water. "

Re: Nietzsche on Solitude

#32
post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

> 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. I wouldn't ascribe too much significance or meaning to 'Christian' teaching. It has no basis in science or empiricism.

And actually some quite important founders of Christianity (Jesus, Joseph) spent some time alone, in the desert and I don't think it's pictured as a 'bad' thing in the bible.

Re: Nietzsche on Solitude

#33
post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

I'm the same way, and I've heard that repeated a few times now. I have to wonder though, does anyone actually "recharge" when they're with a group of people or do they just have a higher tolerance for spending time with others before they need to be alone? If you can't tell, I don't really buy the introvert/extrovert distinction and I haven't seen any evidence that anyone can spend unlimited amounts of time with othe…

If you read through the comments here, there are people that go crazy when alone, and people which go crazy when in groups. It's kinda like saying you don't buy gravity. Sure, we don't fully understand all of the details, but to say the dichotomy doesn't exist isn't logical.

Re: Nietzsche on Solitude

#34
post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

I'm the same way, and I've heard that repeated a few times now. I have to wonder though, does anyone actually "recharge" when they're with a group of people or do they just have a higher tolerance for spending time with others before they need to be alone? If you can't tell, I don't really buy the introvert/extrovert distinction and I haven't seen any evidence that anyone can spend unlimited amounts of time with othe…

I find my best thinking is done when I'm having lunch with friends/coworkers or dinner/drinks with family/friends.

When I hear new ideas or bounce thoughts off of others, it relieves my concerns I've built up on, or confirms my suspicions.

So it does recharge me in a way - my creativity well.

Re: Nietzsche on Solitude

#35
post #6
post #4

No solitude no peace of mind. No peace of mind no innovation. No innovation no future. I think it was Goethe, another great German thinker and poet, who once said: "In der Einsamkeit geschehen die größten Dinge." - "In Solitude the greatest Things happen." P.S. I'm not sure if my 'tanslation' reflects the original meaning of the sentence. Please, feel free to correct me if I'm wrong.

Your translation seems good enough to me, but on the other hand I can't find a source for your quote using Google

Closest that I could find was: "Talent is nurtured in solitude … A creation of importance can only be produced when its author isolates himself, it is a child of solitude."

Re: Nietzsche on Solitude

#36
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…

Christian teachings that man needs to be joined to a church in order to be whole may have less to do with what a man really needs and more to do with what leaders of churches think they need....

On separate (but related) note: I understand cults generally very strongly discourage solitude and periods of deep introspection. Keep everyone busy so they don't have time to figure out what we are doing with their money and their daughters. Or something like that.

Re: Nietzsche on Solitude

#37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm the same way, and I've heard that repeated a few times now. I have to wonder though, does anyone actually "recharge" when they're with a group of people or do they just have a higher tolerance for spending time with others before they need to be alone? If you can't tell, I don't really buy the introvert/extrovert distinction and I haven't seen any evidence that anyone can spend unlimited amounts of time with othe…

If you read through the comments here, there are people that go crazy when alone, and people which go crazy when in groups. It's kinda like saying you don't buy gravity. Sure, we don't fully understand all of the details, but to say the dichotomy doesn't exist isn't logical.

Well sometimes I go crazy when I'm alone, and other times I go crazy when I'm with a group. The reason I don't buy the dichotomy is that if these two things can be true for the same person, is there any value in making the distinction? They seem to describe moods (that some people have more often than others) rather than personalities.

Re: Nietzsche on Solitude

#38
post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

I'm the same way, and I've heard that repeated a few times now. I have to wonder though, does anyone actually "recharge" when they're with a group of people or do they just have a higher tolerance for spending time with others before they need to be alone? If you can't tell, I don't really buy the introvert/extrovert distinction and I haven't seen any evidence that anyone can spend unlimited amounts of time with othe…

> I have to wonder though, does anyone actually "recharge" when they're with a group of people or do they just have a higher tolerance for spending time with others before they need to be alone?

In American and Australian societies, extraverts outnumber introverts 10 to 1. Growing up a fairly severe introvert as an American had me labeled as that weird loner outcast from a young age. Always spending time with other people is the norm. Spending a lot of time alone is seen as weird and antisocial. I've known kids whose parents have sent them to shrinks and medicated them because of such "antisocial behavior" as sitting in their room for days on end reading books.

In cities, most people literally don't have 10 minutes of alone time. I certainly didn't and it drove me to the brink of insanity after a number of years. Outside of cities, most people have families and also have little time alone.

That said, introvert/extrovert isn't an on/off switch. It's a spectrum. A sliding scale.

Re: Nietzsche on Solitude

#39
post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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. I wouldn't ascribe too much significance or meaning to 'Christian' teaching. It has no basis in science or empiricism.

Whereas the grandparent post and Nietzsche's thoughts are thoroughly empirical...

Psychology is a science, yes, and it holds that time spent alone is perfectly normal and for a large section of the population absolutely necessary for mental health.
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