14888 | Wisdom prevents us from being ruled by the moment |
14857 | The highest wisdom has the guise of simplicity |
14863 | Unlike science, true wisdom involves good taste |
20262 | Don't use wisdom in order to become clever! |
20383 | The wisest man is full of contradictions, and attuned to other people, with occasional harmony |
14890 | Suffering is the meaning of existence |
18290 | But what is the reasoning of the body, that it requires the wisdom you seek? |
7170 | 'Wisdom' attempts to get beyond perspectives, making it hostile to life |
2922 | All intelligent Romans were Epicureans |
18330 | Judging by the positive forces, the Renaissance was the last great age |
2900 | I revere Heraclitus |
2913 | Thucydides was the perfect anti-platonist sophist |
20255 | Early 19th century German philosophers enjoyed concepts, rather than scientific explanations |
20260 | Carlyle spent his life vainly trying to make reason appear romantic |
7848 | Philosophy begins in the horror and absurdity of existence [Ansell Pearson] |
7846 | Nietzsche thinks philosophy makes us more profound, but not better [Ansell Pearson] |
7834 | Great philosophies are confessions by the author, growing out of moral intentions |
4520 | I don't want to persuade anyone to be a philosopher; they should be rare plants |
4424 | A warlike philosopher challenges problems to single combat |
2909 | Thinking has to be learned in the way dancing has to be learned |
14861 | Philosophy ennobles the world, by producing an artistic conception of our knowledge |
14885 | The first aim of a philosopher is a life, not some works |
14887 | You should only develop a philosophy if you are willing to live by it |
2930 | The main aim of philosophy must be to determine the order of rank among values |
14889 | Philosophy is pointless if it does not advocate, and live, a new way of life |
14862 | Philosophy is more valuable than much of science, because of its beauty |
14878 | It would better if there was no thought |
14881 | Why do people want philosophers? |
14876 | Philosophy is always secondary, because it cannot support a popular culture |
14854 | Deep thinkers know that they are always wrong |
20256 | What we think is totally dictated by the language available to express it |
20107 | How many mediocre thinkers are occupied with influential problems! |
7167 | Words such as 'I' and 'do' and 'done to' are placed at the point where our ignorance begins |
7196 | Pessimism is laughable, because the world cannot be evaluated |
7137 | Is a 'philosopher' now impossible, because knowledge is too vast for an overview? |
14833 | Comedy is a transition from fear to exuberance |
18303 | Reject wisdom that lacks laughter |
7080 | Metaphysics divided the old unified Greek world into two [Critchley] |
20265 | The desire for a complete system requires making the weak parts look equal to the rest |
23183 | Different abilities are needed for living in an incomplete and undogmatic system |
2892 | Wanting a system in philosophy is a lack of integrity |
20352 | Nietzsche has a metaphysics, as well as perspectives - the ontology is the perspectives [Richardson] |
14860 | Kant has undermined our belief in metaphysics |
23188 | Bad writers use shapeless floating splotches of concepts |
7132 | Philosophers should create and fight for their concepts, not just clean and clarify them |
20121 | Grammar only reveals popular metaphysics |
14859 | If philosophy controls science, then it has to determine its scope, and its value |
20143 | Scientific knowledge is nothing without a prior philosophical 'faith' |
23212 | A text has many interpretations, but no 'correct' one |
4545 | Could not the objective character of things be merely a difference of degree within the subjective? |
20379 | Reason is just another organic drive, developing late, and fighting for equality |
4530 | Reason is a mere idiosyncrasy of a certain species of animal |
2896 | I want to understand the Socratic idea that 'reason equals virtue equals happiness' |
4523 | What can be 'demonstrated' is of little worth |
4531 | Our inability to both affirm and deny a single thing is merely an inability, not a 'necessity' |
4541 | Everything simple is merely imaginary |
2897 | With dialectics the rabble gets on top |
4417 | Only that which has no history is definable |
2898 | Anything which must first be proved is of little value |
14853 | Truth finds fewest champions not when it is dangerous, but when it is boring |
20380 | Why should truth be omnipotent? It is enough that it is very powerful |
11090 | Why do we want truth, rather than falsehood or ignorance? The value of truth is a problem |
23199 | What is the search for truth if it isn't moral? |
23202 | Like all philosophers, I love truth |
20357 | Truth was given value by morality, but eventually turned against its own source |
23520 | Truth has had to be fought for, and normal life must be sacrificed to achieve it |
2914 | One must never ask whether truth is useful |
20235 | Like animals, we seek truth because we want safety |
4534 | 'Truth' is the will to be master over the multiplicity of sensations |
18305 | To love truth, you must know how to lie |
4548 | Only because there is thought is there untruth |
5652 | True beliefs are those which augment one's power [Scruton] |
4508 | The truth is what gives us the minimum of spiritual effort, and avoids the exhaustion of lying |
4538 | Judgements can't be true and known in isolation; the only surety is in connections and relations |
14880 | Logic is just slavery to language |
7188 | Logic tries to understand the world according to a man-made scheme |
7144 | Logic must falsely assume that identical cases exist |
7145 | Logic is not driven by truth, but desire for a simple single viewpoint |
23196 | Logic is a fiction, which invents the view that one thought causes another |
23186 | Numbers enable us to manage the world - to the limits of counting |
20361 | We need 'unities' for reckoning, but that does not mean they exist |
4533 | Logic and maths refer to fictitious entities which we have created |
20360 | We Germans value becoming and development more highly than mere being of what 'is' |
7079 | Nietzsche resists nihilism through new values, for a world of becoming, without worship [Critchley] |
20359 | The nature of being, of things, is much easier to understand than is becoming |
18317 | The 'real being' of things is a nothingness constructed from contradictions in the actual world |
18315 | We get the concept of 'being' from the concept of the 'ego' |
23211 | Events are just interpretations of groups of appearances |
14869 | If some sort of experience is at the root of matter, then human knowledge is close to its essence |
7153 | We can't be realists, because we don't know what being is |
18316 | The grounds for an assertion that the world is only apparent actually establish its reality |
20123 | First see nature as non-human, then fit ourselves into this view of nature |
4525 | There are no facts in themselves, only interpretations |
4543 | There are no 'facts-in-themselves', since a sense must be projected into them to make them 'facts' |
7174 | Categories are not metaphysical truths, but inventions in the service of needs |
7175 | Philosophers find it particularly hard to shake off belief in necessary categories |
4484 | Nihilism results from valuing the world by the 'categories of reason', because that is fiction |
4546 | We realise that properties are sensations of the feeling subject, not part of the thing |
20105 | Storms are wonderful expressions of free powers! |
4544 | A thing has no properties if it has no effect on other 'things' |
7189 | Maybe there are only subjects, and 'objects' result from relations between subjects |
7207 | Counting needs unities, but that doesn't mean they exist; we borrowed it from the concept of 'I' |
18314 | In language we treat 'ego' as a substance, and it is thus that we create the concept 'thing' |
20362 | We saw unity in things because our ego seemed unified (but now we doubt the ego!) |
20376 | We begin with concepts of kinds, from individuals; but that is not the essence of individuals |
7161 | The essence of a thing is only an opinion about the 'thing' |
7134 | Something can be irrefutable; that doesn't make it true |
7186 | There are no necessary truths, but something must be held to be true |
4528 | For me, a priori 'truths' are just provisional assumptions |
20126 | The strength of knowledge is not its truth, but its entrenchment in our culture |
4537 | We can't know whether there is knowledge if we don't know what it is |
20258 | Most people treat knowledge as a private possession |
14875 | Belief matters more than knowledge, and only begins when knowledge ceases |
4485 | Every belief is a considering-something-true |
4421 | Philosophers have never asked why there is a will to truth in the first place |
7154 | We can't use our own self to criticise our own capacity for knowledge! |
14858 | Being certain presumes that there are absolute truths, and means of arriving at them |
4487 | A note for asses: What convinces is not necessarily true - it is merely convincing |
23201 | The 'I' does not think; it is a construction of thinking, like other useful abstractions |
7146 | Belief in the body is better established than belief in the mind |
14866 | It always remains possible that the world just is the way it appears |
23207 | Appearance is the sole reality of things, to which all predicates refer |
4539 | The forms of 'knowledge' about logic which precede experience are actually regulations of belief |
20119 | We became increasingly conscious of our sense impressions in order to communicate them |
4529 | All sense perceptions are permeated with value judgements (useful or harmful) |
2878 | We see an approximation of a tree, not the full detail |
7156 | Sense perceptions contain values (useful, so pleasant) |
7181 | Pain shows the value of the damage, not what has been damaged |
7129 | Perception is unconscious, and we are only conscious of processed perceptions |
18309 | The evidence of the senses is falsified by reason |
4532 | We can have two opposite sensations, like hard and soft, at the same time |
14830 | Intuition only recognises what is possible, not what exists or is certain |
20250 | We may be unable to remember, but we may never actually forget |
23197 | Memory is essential, and is only possible by means of abbreviation signs |
20122 | We have no organ for knowledge or truth; we only 'know' what is useful to the human herd |
20140 | We shouldn't object to a false judgement, if it enhances and preserves life |
23206 | Schematic minds think thoughts are truer if they slot into a scheme |
14872 | Our knowledge is illogical, because it rests on false identities between things |
14879 | The most extreme scepticism is when you even give up logic |
4423 | We assume causes, geometry, motion, bodies etc to live, but they haven't been proved |
23209 | Each of our personal drives has its own perspective |
4420 | There is only 'perspective' seeing and knowing, and so the best objectivity is multiple points of view |
4486 | The extreme view is there are only perspectives, no true beliefs, because there is no true world |
6579 | Nietzsche's perspectivism says our worldview depends on our personality [Fogelin] |
7149 | Comprehending everything is impossible, because it abolishes perspectives |
7169 | Is the perspectival part of the essence, or just a relation between beings? |
7183 | 'Subjectivity' is an interpretation, since subjects (and interpreters) are fictions |
7182 | 'Perspectivism': the world has no meaning, but various interpretations give it countless meanings |
7133 | There are different eyes, so different 'truths', so there is no truth |
2877 | Morality becomes a problem when we compare many moralities |
20270 | There is no one scientific method; we must try many approaches, and many emotions |
7139 | Explanation is just showing the succession of things ever more clearly |
14873 | If we find a hypothesis that explains many things, we conclude that it explains everything |
18323 | Any explanation will be accepted as true if it gives pleasure and a feeling of power |
23184 | The mind is a simplifying apparatus |
7131 | The intellect and senses are a simplifying apparatus |
7152 | With protoplasm ½+½=2, so the soul is not an indivisible monad |
7130 | Unity is not in the conscious 'I', but in the organism, which uses the self as a tool |
4536 | It is a major blunder to think of consciousness as a unity, and hence as an entity, a thing |
20115 | All of our normal mental life could be conducted without consciousness |
20117 | Only the need for communication has led to consciousness developing |
7155 | Consciousness exists to the extent that consciousness is useful |
7143 | Consciousness is a 'tool' - just as the stomach is a tool |
20118 | Only our conscious thought is verbal, and this shows the origin of consciousness |
23190 | Consciousness is our awareness of our own mental life |
20116 | Most of our lives, even the important parts, take place outside of consciousness |
20120 | Whatever moves into consciousness becomes thereby much more superficial |
14868 | Our primary faculty is perception of structure, as when looking in a mirror |
23191 | Minds have an excluding drive to scare things off, and a selecting one to filter facts |
20363 | Leaves are unequal, but we form the concept 'leaf' by discarding their individual differences |
18310 | The 'highest' concepts are the most general and empty concepts |
14870 | We experience causation between willing and acting, and thereby explain conjunctions of changes |
20131 | We can cultivate our drives, of anger, pity, curiosity, vanity, like a gardener, with good or bad taste |
20355 | The ranking of a person's innermost drives reveals their true nature |
23213 | The greatest drive of life is to discharge strength, rather than preservation |
20757 | The powerful self behind your thoughts and feelings is your body |
20378 | Just as skin hides the horrors of the body, vanity conceals the passions of the soul |
20242 | Things are the boundaries of humanity, so all things must be known, for self-knowledge |
20249 | Our knowledge of the many drives that constitute us is hopelessly incomplete |
4551 | Great self-examination is to become conscious of oneself not as an individual, but as mankind |
2932 | 'Know thyself' is impossible and ridiculous |
7157 | We think each thought causes the next, unaware of the hidden struggle beneath |
18289 | Forget the word 'I'; 'I' is performed by the intelligence of your body |
20368 | There are no 'individual' persons; we are each the sum of humanity up to this moment |
7148 | The 'I' is a conceptual synthesis, not the governor of our being |
7138 | The 'I' is a fiction used to make the world of becoming 'knowable' |
4527 | Perhaps we are not single subjects, but a multiplicity of 'cells', interacting to create thought |
2291 | A thought comes when 'it' wants, not when 'I' want |
2871 | Wanting 'freedom of will' is wanting to pull oneself into existence out of the swamp of nothingness by one's own hair |
7135 | 'Freedom of will' is the feeling of having a dominating force |
4414 | Philosophers invented "free will" so that our virtues would be permanently interesting to the gods |
20231 | People used to think that outcomes were from God, rather than consequences of acts |
23210 | That all events are necessary does not mean they are compelled |
20374 | Consciousness is a terminal phenomenon, and causes nothing |
14867 | It is just madness to think that the mind is supernatural (or even divine!) |
4419 | People who think in words are orators rather than thinkers, and think about facts instead of thinking facts |
7171 | Rationality is a scheme we cannot cast away |
2899 | The fanatical rationality of Greek philosophy shows that they were in a state of emergency |
20381 | It is psychology which reveals the basic problems |
23192 | Concepts don’t match one thing, but many things a little bit |
23189 | Concepts are rough groups of simultaneous sensations |
23187 | Whatever their origin, concepts survive by being useful |
23205 | Thought starts as ambiguity, in need of interpretation and narrowing |
20266 | It is essential that wise people learn to express their wisdom, possibly even as foolishness |
22501 | Nietzsche classified actions by the nature of the agent, not the nature of the act [Foot] |
4411 | It is a delusion to separate the man from the deed, like the flash from the lightning |
18299 | The will is constantly frustrated by the past |
4554 | The concept of the 'will' is just a false simplification by our understanding |
18313 | The big error is to think the will is a faculty producing effects; in fact, it is just a word |
4552 | There is no such things a pure 'willing' on its own; the aim must always be part of it |
7209 | There is no will; weakness of will is splitting of impulses, strong will is coordination under one impulse |
14820 | People always do what they think is right, according to the degree of their intellect |
14856 | Our judgment seems to cause our nature, but actually judgment arises from our nature |
20133 | The 'motive' is superficial, and may even hide the antecedents of a deed |
20251 | Actions done for a purpose are least understood, because we complacently think it's obvious |
22500 | Nietzsche failed to see that moral actions can be voluntary without free will [Foot] |
23198 | Aesthetics can be more basic than morality, in our pleasure in certain patterns of experience |
7194 | Experiencing a thing as beautiful is to experience it wrongly |
14842 | Why are the strong tastes of other people so contagious? |
20271 | Beauty in art is the imitation of happiness |
18326 | Beautiful never stands alone; it derives from man's pleasure in man |
14835 | Artists are not especially passionate, but they pretend to be |
20101 | Without music life would be a mistake |
20370 | All evaluation is from some perspective, and aims at survival |
20354 | The ruling drives of our culture all want to be the highest court of our values |
7201 | Knowledge, wisdom and goodness only have value relative to a goal |
20243 | Human beings are not majestic, either through divine origins, or through grand aims |
2894 | Value judgements about life can never be true |
18322 | When we establish values, that is life itself establishing them, through us |
2895 | The value of life cannot be estimated |
2893 | In every age the wisest people have judged life to be worthless |
18321 | To evaluate life one must know it, but also be situated outside of it |
18308 | A philosopher fails in wisdom if he thinks the value of life is a problem |
20268 | Most dying people have probably lost more important things than what they are about to lose |
14831 | No one has ever done anything that was entirely for other people |
7205 | Altruism is praised by the egoism of the weak, who want everyone to be looked after |
4505 | How can it be that I should prefer my neighbour to myself, but he should prefer me to himself? |
14855 | Simultaneous love and respect are impossible; love has no separation or rank, but respect admits power |
20252 | Marriage is too serious to be permitted for people in love! |
20236 | Marriage upholds the idea that love, though a passion, can endure |
20263 | Fear reveals the natures of other people much more clearly than love does |
18301 | We only really love children and work |
20113 | Friendly chats undermine my philosophy; wanting to be right at the expense of love is folly |
18319 | Love is the spiritualisation of sensuality |
14815 | We get enormous pleasure from tales of noble actions |
7141 | A living being is totally 'egoistic' |
2886 | The distinction between egoistic and non-egoistic acts is absurd |
2882 | Morality originally judged people, and actions only later on |
2903 | A good human will be virtuous because they are happy |
2872 | In the earliest phase of human history only consequences mattered |
4509 | Utilitarians prefer consequences because intentions are unknowable - but so are consequences! |
20233 | Punishment has distorted the pure innocence of the contingency of outcomes |
4426 | A bad result distorts one's judgement about the virtue of what one has done |
7168 | Modest people express happiness as 'Not bad' |
18307 | I want my work, not happiness! |
4558 | We have no more right to 'happiness' than worms |
4500 | It is a sign of degeneration when eudaimonistic values begin to prevail |
2891 | Only the English actually strive after happiness |
14884 | The shortest path to happiness is forgetfulness, the path of animals (but of little value) |
14849 | We can only achieve happy moments, not happy eras |
7159 | The only happiness is happiness with illusion |
7197 | Pleasure needs dissatisfaction, boundaries and resistances |
4550 | Pleasure and pain are mere epiphenomena, and achievement requires that one desire both |
2902 | Healthy morality is dominated by an instinct for life |
7136 | Morality is a system of values which accompanies a being's life |
20230 | The very idea of a critique of morality is regarded as immoral! |
7163 | Morality is merely interpretations, which are extra-moral in origin |
18311 | Philosophers hate values having an origin, and want values to be self-sufficient |
18324 | There are no moral facts, and moralists believe in realities which do not exist |
14807 | The history of morality rests on an error called 'responsibility', which rests on an error called 'free will' |
14823 | Ceasing to believe in human responsibility is bitter, if you had based the nobility of humanity on it |
14824 | It is absurd to blame nature and necessity; we should no more praise actions than we praise plants or artworks |
22473 | Nietzsche said the will doesn't exist, so it can't ground moral responsibility [Foot] |
4521 | None of the ancients had the courage to deny morality by denying free will |
2904 | The doctrine of free will has been invented essentially in order to blame and punish people |
20234 | Morality prevents us from developing better customs |
3793 | We must question the very value of moral values |
2860 | The most boring and dangerous of all errors is Plato's invention of pure spirit and goodness |
14812 | Intellect is tied to morality, because it requires good memory and powerful imagination |
2921 | Philosophy grasps the limits of human reason, and values are beyond it |
2933 | Why do you listen to the voice of your conscience? |
4496 | 'Conscience' is invented to value actions by intention and conformity to 'law', rather than consequences |
18297 | We created meanings, to maintain ourselves |
1568 | Nietzsche felt that Plato's views downgraded the human body and its brevity of life [Roochnik] |
7190 | Our values express an earlier era's conditions for survival and growth |
7147 | Values are innate and inherited |
20128 | Each person has a fixed constitution, which makes them a particular type of person [Leiter] |
22503 | Nietzsche could only revalue human values for a different species [Foot] |
14810 | Originally it was the rulers who requited good for good and evil for evil who were called 'good' |
20141 | Higher human beings see and hear far more than others, and do it more thoughtfully |
18293 | The noble man wants new virtues; the good man preserves what is old |
8041 | The superman is a monstrous oddity, not a serious idea [MacIntyre] |
20135 | Nietzsche's higher type of man is much more important than the idealised 'superman' [Leiter] |
23440 | Nietzsche's judgement of actions by psychology instead of outcome was poisonous [Foot] |
23208 | Caesar and Napoleon point to the future, when they pursue their task regardless of human sacrifice |
23193 | Napoleon was very focused, and rightly ignored compassion |
2883 | Noble people see themselves as the determiners of values |
4408 | The concept of 'good' was created by aristocrats to describe their own actions |
20136 | There is an extended logic to a great man's life, achieved by a sustained will |
20358 | The highest man can endure and control the greatest combination of powerful drives |
20369 | The highest man directs the values of the highest natures over millenia |
20138 | Christianity is at war with the higher type of man, and excommunicates his basic instincts |
20353 | The 'will to power' is basically applied to drives and forces, not to people [Richardson] |
20129 | All animals strive for the ideal conditions to express their power, and hate any hindrances |
4506 | There is a conspiracy (a will to power) to make morality dominate other values, like knowledge and art |
4514 | The basic tendency of the weak has always been to pull down the strong, using morality |
20237 | Moral feelings are entirely different from the moral concepts used to judge actions |
20238 | Treating morality as feelings is just obeying your ancestors |
22471 | Nietzsche thought it 'childish' to say morality isn't binding because it varies between cultures [Foot] |
2875 | That which is done out of love always takes place beyond good and evil |
2868 | Nature is totally indifferent, so you should try to be different from it, not live by it |
20248 | People do nothing for their real ego, but only for a phantom ego created by other people |
2885 | The noble soul has reverence for itself |
4409 | Only the decline of aristocratic morality led to concerns about "egoism" |
3259 | Nietzsche rejects impersonal morality, and asserts the idea of living well [Nagel] |
4517 | Egoism is inescapable, and when it grows weak, the power of love also grows weak |
4518 | The question about egoism is: what kind of ego? since not all egos are equal |
4519 | The ego is only a fiction, and doesn't exist at all |
18327 | A wholly altruistic morality, with no egoism, is a thoroughly bad thing |
4416 | Basic justice is the negotiation of agreement among equals, and the imposition of agreement |
4418 | A masterful and violent person need have nothing to do with contracts |
20246 | If you feel to others as they feel to themselves, you must hate a self-hater |
4560 | The Golden Rule prohibits harmful actions, with the premise that actions will be requited |
4555 | The great error is to think that happiness derives from virtue, which in turn derives from free will |
14818 | First morality is force, then custom, then acceptance, then instinct, then a pleasure - and finally 'virtue' |
2935 | No two actions are the same |
22475 | Moral generalisation is wrong, because we should evaluate individual acts [Foot] |
20134 | Moralities extravagantly address themselves to 'all', by falsely generalising |
20103 | You are mastered by your own virtues, but you must master them, and turn them into tools |
20198 | Many virtues are harmful traps, but that is why other people praise them |
22476 | Nietzsche thought our psychology means there can't be universal human virtues [Foot] |
2881 | Virtue has been greatly harmed by the boringness of its advocates |
7165 | Virtue is wasteful, as it reduces us all to being one another's nurse |
7193 | Virtue for everyone removes its charm of being exceptional and aristocratic |
20375 | Virtues must be highly personal; if not, it is merely respect for a concept |
4493 | Be natural! But how, if one happens to be "unnatural"? |
4494 | Not "return to nature", for there has never yet been a natural humanity |
4498 | 'Love your enemy' is unnatural, for the natural law says 'love your neighbour and hate your enemy' |
14817 | The 'good' man does the moral thing as if by nature, easily and gladly, after a long inheritance |
4511 | We would avoid a person who always needed reasons for remaining decent |
4512 | Virtue is pursued from self-interest and prudence, and reduces people to non-entities |
7191 | What does not kill us makes us stronger |
20372 | The instinct of the herd, the majority, aims for the mean, in the middle |
14809 | All societies of good men give a priority to gratitude |
20272 | Honesty is a new young virtue, and we can promote it, or not |
20240 | The Jews treated great anger as holy, and were in awe of those who expressed it |
20244 | Christianity replaces rational philosophical virtues with great passions focused on God |
20274 | The cardinal virtues want us to be honest, brave, magnanimous and polite |
18291 | Virtues can destroy one another, through jealousy |
20382 | The four virtues are courage, insight, sympathy, solitude |
7151 | Courage, compassion, insight, solitude are the virtues, with courtesy a necessary vice |
4510 | A path to power: to introduce a new virtue under the name of an old one |
4515 | Modesty, industriousness, benevolence and temperance are the virtues of a good slave |
4516 | Many virtues are merely restraints on the most creative qualities of a human being |
14816 | Justice (fairness) originates among roughly equal powers (as the Melian dialogues show) |
4559 | When powerless one desires freedom; if power is too weak, one desires equal power ('justice') |
20257 | Cool courage and feverish bravery have one name, but are two very different virtues |
15606 | Military idea: what does not kill me makes me stronger |
4557 | The supposed great lovers of honour (Alexander etc) were actually great despisers of honour |
20112 | Pity consoles those who suffer, because they see that they still have the power to hurt |
14821 | Apart from philosophers, most people rightly have a low estimate of pity |
4275 | You cannot advocate joyful wisdom while rejecting pity, because the two are complementary [Scruton] |
2879 | In ancient Rome pity was considered neither good nor bad |
4407 | Plato, Spinoza and Kant are very different, but united in their low estimation of pity |
18328 | Invalids are parasites |
4425 | The overcoming of pity I count among the noble virtues |
20259 | Teach youth to respect people who differ with them, not people who agree with them |
18287 | People now find both wealth and poverty too much of a burden |
14841 | Many people are better at having good friends than being a good friend |
14843 | Women can be friends with men, but only some physical antipathy will maintain it |
18295 | If you want friends, you must be a fighter |
7185 | Replace the categorical imperative by the natural imperative |
2915 | Each person should devise his own virtues and categorical imperative |
20267 | Seeing duty as a burden makes it a bit cruel, and it can thus never become a habit |
4415 | Guilt and obligation originated in the relationship of buying and selling, credit and debt |
2934 | To see one's own judgement as a universal law is selfish |
2859 | The idea of the categorical imperative is just that we should all be very obedient |
4507 | The categorical imperative needs either God behind it, or a metaphysic of the unity of reason |
14811 | In Homer it is the contemptible person, not the harmful person, who is bad |
2884 | The morality of slaves is the morality of utility |
4501 | Utilitarianism criticises the origins of morality, but still believes in it as much as Christians |
20111 | We could live more naturally, relishing the spectacle, and not thinking we are special |
20104 | Nietzsche tried to lead a thought-provoking life [Safranski] |
2880 | The greatest possibilities in man are still unexhausted |
7164 | Not feeling harnessed to a system of 'ends' is a wonderful feeling of freedom |
4489 | If faith is lost, people seek other authorities, in order to avoid the risk of willing personal goals |
20125 | The ethical teacher exists to give purpose to what happens necessarily and without purpose |
18286 | The greatest experience possible is contempt for your own happiness, reason and virtue |
7847 | Initially nihilism was cosmic, but later Nietzsche saw it as a cultural matter [Ansell Pearson] |
9782 | Nietzsche urges that nihilism be active, and will nothing itself [Zizek] |
23214 | For the strongest people, nihilism gives you wings! |
7198 | Nihilism results from measuring the world by our categories which are purely invented |
7078 | The freedom of the subject means the collapse of moral certainty [Critchley] |
2876 | The thought of suicide is a great reassurance on bad nights |
14844 | People do not experience boredom if they have never learned to work properly |
9306 | To ward off boredom at any cost is vulgar |
20102 | Flight from boredom leads to art |
20130 | It is absurd to think you can change your own essence, like a garment |
14808 | Over huge periods of time human character would change endlessly |
20275 | Most people think they are already complete, but we can cultivate ourselves |
6869 | Nietzsche thinks the human condition is to overcome and remake itself [Ansell Pearson] |
2874 | Man is the animal whose nature has not yet been fixed |
7150 | By developing herd virtues man fixes what has up to now been the 'unfixed animal' |
7177 | Virtues from outside are dangerous, and they should come from within |
4513 | Virtuous people are inferior because they are not 'persons', but conform to a fixed pattern |
20132 | To become what you are you must have no self-awareness |
20106 | Nietzsche was fascinated by a will that can turn against itself [Safranski] |
4504 | Morality used to be for preservation, but now we can only experiment, giving ourselves moral goals |
2936 | Imagine if before each of your actions you had to accept repeating the action over and over again |
6842 | Nietzsche says facing up to the eternal return of meaninglessness is the response to nihilism [Critchley] |
20124 | Reliving life countless times - this gives the value back to life which religion took away |
20137 | The great person engages wholly with life, and is happy to endlessly relive the life they created |
7172 | Existence without meaning or goal or end, eternally recurring, is a terrible thought |
20144 | Eternal recurrence is the highest attainable affirmation |
7166 | Man is above all a judging animal |
18296 | An enduring people needs its own individual values |
14822 | If self-defence is moral, then so are most expressions of 'immoral' egoism |
14838 | The state aims to protect individuals from one another |
20367 | Individual development is more important than the state, but a community is necessary |
23203 | The great question is approaching, of how to govern the earth as a whole |
20142 | The state begins with brutal conquest of a disorganised people, not with a 'contract' |
18294 | The state coldly claims that it is the people, but that is a lie |
20371 | Nietzsche thinks we should join a society, in order to criticise, heal and renew it [Richardson] |
14852 | Culture cannot do without passions and vices |
20108 | Every culture loses its identity and power if it lacks a major myth |
4495 | The high points of culture and civilization do not coincide |
20229 | No authority ever willingly accepts criticism |
20139 | Only aristocratic societies can elevate the human species |
20373 | A healthy aristocracy has no qualms about using multitudes of men as instruments |
23200 | The controlling morality of aristocracy is the desire to resemble their ancestors |
20254 | People govern for the pleasure of it, or just to avoid being governed |
7204 | The upholding of the military state is needed to maintain the strong human type |
20273 | The French Revolution gave trusting Europe the false delusion of instant recovery |
14846 | If we want the good life for the greatest number, we must let them decide on the good life |
22394 | Democracy diminishes mankind, making them mediocre and lowering their value |
18331 | Democracy is organisational power in decline |
18332 | The creation of institutions needs a determination which is necessarily anti-liberal |
23194 | People feel united as a nation by one language, but then want a common ancestry and history |
14819 | Slavery cannot be judged by our standards, because the sense of justice was then less developed |
18304 | Saints want to live as they desire, or not to live at all |
4491 | In modern society virtue is 'equal rights', but only because everyone is zero, so it is a sum of zeroes |
7173 | Rights arise out of contracts, which need a balance of power |
23204 | To be someone you need property, and wanting more is healthy |
2911 | True justice is equality for equals and inequality for unequals |
14847 | Laws that are well thought out, or laws that are easy to understand? |
14814 | Execution is worse than murder, because we are using the victim, and really we are the guilty |
20232 | Get rid of the idea of punishment! It is a noxious weed! |
18300 | Whenever we have seen suffering, we have wanted the revenge of punishment |
14836 | People will enthusiastically pursue an unwanted war, once sacrifices have been made |
20253 | Modern wars arise from the study of history |
18320 | To renounce war is to renounce the grand life |
14845 | Don't crush girls with dull Gymnasium education, the way we have crushed boys! |
14886 | Education is contrary to human nature |
14839 | Interest in education gains strength when we lose interest in God |
14848 | Education in large states is mediocre, like cooking in large kitchens |
14834 | Teachers only gather knowledge for their pupils, and can't be serious about themselves |
2908 | There is a need for educators who are themselves educated |
2889 | One repays a teacher badly if one remains only a pupil |
14883 | We should evaluate the past morally |
20261 | History does not concern what really happened, but supposed events, which have all the influence |
18329 | Sometimes it is an error to have been born - but we can rectify it |
18302 | Man and woman are deeply strange to one another! |
14882 | Protest against vivisection - living things should not become objects of scientific investigation |
4422 | The end need not be the goal, as in the playing of a melody (and yet it must be completed) |
7176 | 'Purpose' is like the sun, where most heat is wasted, and a tiny part has 'purpose' |
7195 | If the world aimed at an end, it would have reached it by now |
2905 | 'Purpose' is just a human fiction |
14865 | We do not know the nature of one single causality |
4542 | Science has taken the meaning out of causation; cause and effect are two equal sides of an equation |
4553 | We derive the popular belief in cause and effect from our belief that our free will causes things |
14825 | In religious thought nature is a complex of arbitrary acts by conscious beings |
14871 | Laws of nature are merely complex networks of relations |
7206 | Things are strong or weak, and do not behave regularly or according to rules or compulsions |
7140 | Chemical 'laws' are merely the establishment of power relations between weaker and stronger |
7142 | All motions and 'laws' are symptoms of inner events, traceable to the will to power |
14826 | Modern man wants laws of nature in order to submit to them |
23195 | Laws of nature are actually formulas of power relations |
23185 | In chemistry every substance pushes, and thus creates new substances |
20241 | Enquirers think finding our origin is salvation, but it turns out to be dull |
7178 | The utility of an organ does not explain its origin, on the contrary! |
7179 | Survival might undermine an individual's value, or prevent its evolution |
7180 | Darwin overestimates the influence of 'external circumstances' |
4535 | A 'species' is a stable phase of evolution, implying the false notion that evolution has a goal |
4497 | The concept of 'God' represents a turning away from life, and a critique of life |
18292 | I can only believe in a God who can dance |
7192 | Remove goodness and wisdom from our concept of God. Being the highest power is enough! |
2920 | A God who cures us of a head cold at the right moment is a total absurdity |
7158 | Morality kills religion, because a Christian-moral God is unbelievable |
7199 | It is dishonest to invent a being containing our greatest values, thus ignoring why they exist and are valuable |
4488 | Those who have abandoned God cling that much more firmly to the faith in morality |
7162 | Morality can only be upheld by belief in God and a 'hereafter' |
4502 | Morality cannot survive when the God who sanctions it is missing |
18312 | The supreme general but empty concepts must be compatible, and hence we get 'God' |
2931 | God is dead, and we have killed him |
18298 | Not being a god is insupportable, so there are no gods! |
2887 | I am not an atheist because of reasoning or evidence, but because of instinct |
2906 | By denying God we deny human accountability, and thus we redeem the world |
14864 | The Greeks lack a normative theology: each person has their own poetic view of things |
14827 | The Greeks saw the gods not as their masters, but as idealised versions of themselves |
7208 | Paganism is a form of thanking and affirming life? |
14850 | Christ was the noblest human being |
14813 | Science rejecting the teaching of Christianity in favour of Epicurus shows the superiority of the latter |
14832 | The Sermon on the Mount is vanity - praying to one part of oneself, and demonising the rest |
14837 | Christ seems warm hearted, and suppressed intellect in favour of the intellectually weak |
20245 | Christianity hoped for a short cut to perfection, that skipped the hard labour of morality |
20247 | Christianity was successful because of its heathen rituals |
2867 | Christianity is Platonism for the people |
7160 | Christian belief is kept alive because it is soothing - the proof based on pleasure |
4499 | Primitive Christianity is abolition of the state; it is opposed to defence, justice, patriotism and class |
2901 | How could the Church intelligently fight against passion if it preferred poorness of spirit to intelligence? |
2917 | Christianity is a revolt of things crawling on the ground against elevated things |
18325 | Christians believe that only God can know what is good for man |
2918 | The story in Genesis is the story of God's fear of science |
14828 | Religion is tempting if your life is boring, but you can't therefore impose it on the busy people |
4410 | The truly great haters in world history have always been priests |
20269 | 'I believe because it is absurd' - but how about 'I believe because I am absurd' |
2919 | 'Faith' means not wanting to know what is true |
2916 | The great lie of immortality destroys rationality and natural instinct |
20264 | The easy and graceful aspects of a person are called 'soul', and inner awkwardness is called 'soulless' |
18288 | Heaven was invented by the sick and the dying |
18306 | We don't want heaven; now that we are men, we want the kingdom of earth |
7203 | In heaven all the interesting men are missing |
18318 | People who disparage actual life avenge themselves by imagining a better one |
7200 | A combination of great power and goodness would mean the disastrous abolition of evil |