Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

The Twilight of Nietzsche

spiked-online.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

31–40 of 58 posts

Re: The Twilight of Nietzsche

#31

Post by fedeb95 »

mikrl wrote: post #11
fedeb95 wrote: post #2

As any article confusing life with literature (or philosophy), ultimately, confusing the author personal life with his ideas, or reaching conclusions between the two, this is mainly garbage. Live your life, read Nietzsche (or whoever else): does it make sense to you? That matters. As Wittgenstein put it, philosophy is like stairs. Once you reach a certain height, you can throw them away.

>ultimately, confusing the author personal life with his ideas, or reaching conclusions between the two, this is mainly garbage Hard disagree. You cannot truly understand a person’s thought without understanding the person’s life. Even a hardcore logician like Russell, you know he was an academic during such and such a period of history which influenced his worldview and that which he found important. Maybe I’m just…

There can be value in understanding where a thought came from: the problem is reducing all of the thought to its provenance. Nietzsche was sick, hence you must restate the validity of his arguments. This argument is garbage. Try to prove it, you will fail. You can disagree with Nietzsche: do so in the realm of philosophy, not in that of biography. Otherwise, your thoughts too will be just what you had for breakfast

Re: The Twilight of Nietzsche

#32

Post by fedeb95 »

maxbendick wrote: post #7
fedeb95 wrote: post #2

As any article confusing life with literature (or philosophy), ultimately, confusing the author personal life with his ideas, or reaching conclusions between the two, this is mainly garbage. Live your life, read Nietzsche (or whoever else): does it make sense to you? That matters. As Wittgenstein put it, philosophy is like stairs. Once you reach a certain height, you can throw them away.

I think diving into his personal life can be very useful with Nietzsche. I can't say the same with every philosopher though. Wonderful Wittgenstein quote, btw. Nietzsche's almost constant sickness helps explain concepts like the eternal return and will-to-power. Always keep an eye out for "health", "cure", and "convalescence" in his writing (great example: the preface to The Gay Science). Nietzsche's romantic failure…

It doesn't explain the concepts, it explains how the concepts may (big may!) have been originated. It's way, way better to read about what texts Nietzsche read and which didn't.

Re: The Twilight of Nietzsche

#33

Post by HKH2 »

drewcape wrote: post #27
bergenty wrote: post #24

I don’t understand his underlying premise. Life doesn’t need meaning, just existence is blissful. In fact meaning is this context is meaningless. “What is the meaning of life?” is a nonsensical question/sentence.

Call it a guide rail. What should you orient yourself towards during your life?

Your question presupposes that you should orient yourself towards something in particular.

Re: The Twilight of Nietzsche

#34

Post by bheadmaster »

bergenty wrote: post #26
tsol wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>just existence is blissful Erm.. citation needed. I'd say all the existential angst in the first world disproves that.

I’m speaking for myself.

Then saying "MY existance is blissful" would be more precise.

Though it would boil your comment down to "My existance is blissful, I don't need a meaning of life", in which case, good for you. Other people may differ though.

Re: The Twilight of Nietzsche

#35

Post by circular_lights »

dang wrote: post #21
circular_lights wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Quoted post unavailable.

Maybe so, but please don't fulminate on HN. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html edit: and please don't snark or post shallow dimissals, as you did in https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33632057

ok, thanks for the warning.

Re: The Twilight of Nietzsche

#36

Post by bheadmaster »

cr4nberry wrote: post #23

Something to keep in mind with Nietzsche is that he made enemies out of both Christianity and egalitarian ideology. A lot of the criticisms of him come from these two crowds, and a lot of it is an ad hominem attack on his character Why do these folks dislike him so much? Because no one saw their flaws and latched onto them as viciously as he did It's one thing to point out his own fragility and the obvious contrast w…

Christians call him a nihilist, when it is Christianity that is nihilistic - denial of everything carnal for the ideal of post-death salvation.

Re: The Twilight of Nietzsche

#37

Post by drewcape »

HKH2 wrote: post #33
drewcape wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Call it a guide rail. What should you orient yourself towards during your life?

Your question presupposes that you should orient yourself towards something in particular.

Yes, indeed.

* Do you believe that you (personally) have some kind of freedom?

* If so, you would have to decide how to use that freedom. Otherwise, it's not really freedom, is it?

* Finally, in order to make any decision you have to put yourself in some coordinates, orient yourself. Otherwise, it's not a decision, but a random choice. Remember that avoiding coming up with any decision is also a decision.

Re: The Twilight of Nietzsche

#38

Post by fedeb95 »

nyolfen wrote: post #13
mikrl wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>ultimately, confusing the author personal life with his ideas, or reaching conclusions between the two, this is mainly garbage Hard disagree. You cannot truly understand a person’s thought without understanding the person’s life. Even a hardcore logician like Russell, you know he was an academic during such and such a period of history which influenced his worldview and that which he found important. Maybe I’m just…

“It has gradually become clear to me what every great philosophy up till now has consisted of – namely, the confession of its originator, and a species of involuntary and unconscious autobiography; and moreover that the moral (or immoral) purpose in every philosophy has constituted the true vital germ out of which the entire plant has always grown.” -- F. Nietzsche

that's very different from saying that biography can improve or disprove something! As a matter of facts, Nietzsche writes here about moral purpose of philosophy. "Autobiography" here is a trick; confirming that you must separate author life from texts. In German, Nietzsche uses the word "mémoires", which are an author own recollections of experiences. The "Auto" part in the translations, coming from the Greek autòs, meaning self, is the key part here. A description of Nietzsche's sickness made by someone else is hardly an autobiography.

Re: The Twilight of Nietzsche

#39

Post by Veen »

dmm wrote: post #8

> He devised [eternal recurrence] in 1881, at a time of personal crisis and romantic rejection, and one must conclude that it was a consolatory comfort blanket. That doesn't sound comforting to me. Wow my life sucks right now but at least I'll be able to relive it exactly as it is again-and-again forever.

I always read 'eternal return' as a sort of decision making procedure. Is the thing you are about to do such that you wouldn't mind doing it forever as time repeats?

Re: The Twilight of Nietzsche

#40

Post by bheadmaster »

Veen wrote: post #39
dmm wrote: post #8

> He devised [eternal recurrence] in 1881, at a time of personal crisis and romantic rejection, and one must conclude that it was a consolatory comfort blanket. That doesn't sound comforting to me. Wow my life sucks right now but at least I'll be able to relive it exactly as it is again-and-again forever.

I always read 'eternal return' as a sort of decision making procedure. Is the thing you are about to do such that you wouldn't mind doing it forever as time repeats?

In contrast with Christianity, where this life is to be "endured" for the promise of afterlife, "eternal return" is exactly the opposite - "enduring" this life is the worst possible decision, as you'll just have to "endure" it again and again for eternity. In context of "eternal return", good decisions are those that make life worth living for the sake of itself - embracing life completely and doing whatever you can to enhance your will to power (which Nietzsche sees as the source of all that which is good).
Post reply on HN