Skewed Perceptions of Nietzsche

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Victor Eremita
 
Reply Sat 29 May, 2010 02:37 am
@hue-man,
Nietzsche began his writing as a philologist. And Nietzsche alludes to the Iliad in a few of his books.
 
Theaetetus
 
Reply Sat 29 May, 2010 05:00 am
@GoshisDead,
Twirlip;169316 wrote:

(I'm just leaving this in for context.)

Do you really mean this? I'm really surprised.

I'm not trying to affect moral superiority here; I am in no position to; if anything, I am likely to be your moral inferior, because for instance you do socially useful voluntary work (see above), whereas I do nothing but cower away from the world.

But I do think that the attitude you seem to be expressing here is an immoral one, so I question what you mean, and whether I am reading it correctly.

You're not leaving much room for doubt as to your meaning, I must say!

(Also, I do seem to detect traces of Nietzsche in your words.)

It's a strange thing. When I was embroiled in a thread where I got into hot water for making fun of something Alan posted and then withdrew (I'm sure you remember those shenanigans), you were the one person who confirmed what had actually happened. That may have been because you had access to more information that anyone else - this seems to fit with what you say about the voluntary work you do! - but whatever the reason for it, I appreciated it deeply. That was a case of morality in action: a morality that is related to a concern for the truth, not succumbing to relativism and the confusion of truth with power. I may have read too much into it. Smile


I am highlighting a general mode of thinking in the world, which lies at the heart of what makes a community. I feel I am obliged to help those that I may have daily content as I can as I feel necessary. But to say that I am morally obliged to help people in distant countries for something I have no control over is ridiculous. I care more about family and community. I don't really care about country and world.

Other than that, I was playing devil's advocate to Extrain's thinking from ivory towers. He reacted as I though he would.


This idea that we need to assist people
GoshisDead;169380 wrote:
Twirl:
It is one thing to have a personal moral stance about an issue, quite another to have an abstract stance about an issue. I am harassed constantly in the forum when I say something in the abstract that is connected to an emotionally charged issue. Theatetus did not say that he didn't oblige himself to help those in need, only that there was no real force outside himself that could do it. Given all the influential forces that attempt to make it a mandate to help those in need, if it were truly obligatory to help, one of them would have probably succeeded in doing so. The fact that Theatetus does help in spite of the various pulls of his environment and psyche that make it hard to is a testament to his abstract stand. I know you aren't judging him negatively in any real way, I just thought this needed to be said.

Cheers,
Russ


Thanks! I couldn't have said it better myself. I just feel lucky that I don't have to type my name in my own posts.
 
Fido
 
Reply Sat 29 May, 2010 05:26 am
@Victor Eremita,
Victor Eremita;170298 wrote:
Nietzsche began his writing as a philologist. And Nietzsche alludes to the Iliad in a few of his books.

I might have known that...
 
jgweed
 
Reply Sat 29 May, 2010 07:11 am
@hue-man,
Nietzsche's inaugural lecture at Basel was entitled "Homer and Classical Philology" (1869):
Friedrich Nietzsche - Homer and Classical Philology


In a handwritten book of essays presented to Cosima Wagner (1872), one of the titles was "Homer's Contest."

The Nietzsche Channel has yet to bring up on its new site the English Translation, but the German is available:

Nietzsche Source - Digitale Kritische Gesamtausgabe (eKGWB)

We sometimes forget that Nietzsche was, as an academic, a part of the German development of classical philology and was well acquainted with the Greek authors. His first published book, The Birth of Tragedy (1872) grew from this academic interest.
 
Twirlip
 
Reply Sat 29 May, 2010 08:43 am
@Theaetetus,
Theaetetus;170315 wrote:
But to say that I am morally obliged to help people in distant countries for something I have no control over is ridiculous. I care more about family and community. I don't really care about country and world.

Charity begins at home, but must it end there?

(I know this is all off-topic.)
 
Fido
 
Reply Sat 29 May, 2010 11:39 am
@jgweed,
jgweed;170336 wrote:
Nietzsche's inaugural lecture at Basel was entitled "Homer and Classical Philology" (1869):
Friedrich Nietzsche - Homer and Classical Philology


In a handwritten book of essays presented to Cosima Wagner (1872), one of the titles was "Homer's Contest."

The Nietzsche Channel has yet to bring up on its new site the English Translation, but the German is available:

Nietzsche Source - Digitale Kritische Gesamtausgabe (eKGWB)

We sometimes forget that Nietzsche was, as an academic, a part of the German development of classical philology and was well acquainted with the Greek authors. His first published book, The Birth of Tragedy (1872) grew from this academic interest.

I don't ever forget... Language is history... But what a person sees life through, the lense is not so important to what is seen as the person seeing...Certain things in history struck Nietzsche's eyes starkly... It is only natural for one without the whole range of vision a balanced personality would have given him... If you were to look at one photo as a positive, and then as a negative, you would see things in the second not seen in the first... He admits early on to a negative perception of qualities like God and Morals which most people see as positives.. Perhaps he was able to correct the vision of others, but it is as likely that he blinded many...

---------- Post added 05-29-2010 at 01:45 PM ----------

Twirlip;170359 wrote:
Charity begins at home, but must it end there?

(I know this is all off-topic.)


Morality is community, and morality begins at home... What we see too often it the appeal by some to treat the symptoms of diseases they have themselves spread far and wide... People in balance with nature, when that balance has been lost do often need help... Many times they simply needed to be left alone to begin with, by force of law, and the power of arms... Primitives are a part of our human heritage as well as our world community... They deserve our protection more than our attention... So long as freedom is present as the tyranny of the individual, caring humanity will always be busy picking up the pieces of shattered lives...
 
Reconstructo
 
Reply Sat 29 May, 2010 03:00 pm
@Fido,
Fido;170246 wrote:
One cannot accurately express the phenomenology of thought... What Nietzsche says is reflected well in the beginning of the Illiad, where the poet invokes the Goddess, to sing through him of the wrath of Achilles...
But as a philologists, it is possible that Nietzsche may have heard of the book...



Oh, I completely agree that he wasn't writing anything new in that quoted passage. I just thought that that side of Nietzsche wasn't talked about much.
 
 

 
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