Full Idea
How is it that we satisfy our stronger inclinations at the expense of our weaker inclinations? - In itself, if we were a unity, this split could not exist. In fact we are a multiplicity that has imagined a unity for itself.
Gist of Idea
Our inclinations would not conflict if we were a unity; we imagine unity for our multiplicity
Source
Friedrich Nietzsche (Unpublished Notebooks 1881-82 [1882], 12[35])
A Reaction
Plato had the same thought, but stopped at three parts, rather than a multiplicity. What Nietzsche fails to say, I think, is that this 'imagined' unity of the mind is not optional, and obviously has a real link to the one body and the one life.
Book Reference
Nietzsche,Friedrich: 'The Joyful Science, and 1881-82 fragments (v 6)', ed/tr. Del Caro,Adrian [Stanford 2023], p.428
Related Idea
Idea 2127 The mind has parts, because we have inner conflicts [Plato]