POST #9: Nietzsche's Passages
Topic: Write up analysis on the selected passages: label the passage and give a brief summary and analysis (interpretation) of it. Do this for each one separately.
Nietzsche’s Passages
Death of God:
In the Passage Nietzsche uses the madman as his speaker to illustrate the idea that God is dead. The madman was running around looking for God, causing ridicules and arousing curiosity in bystanders. When asked about God, the madman replies, “We have killed him—you and I”. Using this phrase, Nietzsche is trying to express that God is dead in the hearts of modern men because rationalism and science have killed Him. Presuming that the “God is dead” theory is true, Nietzsche urges his readers to give up accepted standards of morality and find a new mode of being (transvaluation of values).
Truth:
In the first paragraph, Nietzsche tells a story about a star on which clever animals with knowledge once lived. However, the civilization only lasted for one minute. The purpose of the story was to illustrate the aimlessness of the human intellect appears in nature. The second paragraph compares humans with a mosquito. While humans may think the world revolves around them, the mosquito may feel that it is the flying center of the world, too. Humans are blinded by their conceitedness. “…the constant fluttering around the single flame of vanity is so much the rule and the law that almost nothing is more incomprehensible than how an honest and pure urge for truth could make its appearance among men,” criticizes Nietzsche. Humans do not know themselves and choose to live in an illusion. Nietzsche ends the passage by depicting the irony that humans allegedly want truth however is not concerned with the knowledge that can lead them to the truth.
Morality as Anti-Nature:
In the first passage, Nietzsche categorizes passion into two phases – the first phase as being merely disastrous from stupidity and the latter phase where passions “spiritualize” themselves. Then, Nietzsche condemns the Christian’s view of passion. Using an excerpt from the New Testament as an example: “If the eye offend thee, pluck it out,” Nietzsche demonstrates the Christians’ concept of destroying passions and cravings as a preventative measure against their stupidity. Nietzsche despises such attempt to excise passion because he believes passions can be spiritualized. In the second passage, Nietzsche further criticizes people’s use of castration as a mean to fight against cravings. Then he ends the passage with a line filled with bold words and meanings: “the most poisonous things against the senses have been said not by the impotent, nor by ascetics, but by the impossible ascetics, by those who really were in dire need of being ascetics ...”
Jesus:
Nietzsche praises Jesus in both passages 33 and 35. Nietzsche beings passage 33 by saying that anything that puts a distance between God and man is a sin. Then, he accentuates that it is the action and not beliefs that sets Christians aside from the rest of the people. Therefore, only a new way of life, not a new faith, can lead to the psychological reality in “salvation”. In passage 35, Nietzsche praises God for saving mankind by showing them how to live, and he gives a few examples of how Jesus’ demeanors bequeath a way of life to man.
Paul:
Nietzsche challenges Paul in both passages 41 and 42. In passage 41, he calls St. Paul impudent because he thinks St. Paul gave a logical quality to an indecent conception that “if Christ did not rise from the dead, then all our faith is in vain!” Nietzsche criticizes Paul for preaching shameless doctrine of personal immortality for personal gains. In passage 42, Nietzsche compares and contrasts Buddhism and Christianity, “Buddhism promises nothing, but actually fulfills; Christianity promises everything, but fulfills nothing”. Here Nietzsche blames this vainness in Christianity on St. Paul. He says the life, the teaching, and the death of Christ, the meaning and the law of the whole gospels are gone because St. Paul was changing meanings in Christianity in his favor. Nietzsche concludes that Paul has established priestly tyranny through falsification.
Myth of Eternal Recurrence:
In this passage, Nietzsche discusses the issue of eternal life. Nietzsche starts off the passage by asking how the reader would feel, if one day a demon appears and announces eternal life for him or her with no choice to opt out of the cycle. In sum, Nietzsche first portrays how eternal life is and then asks whether the reader will resent or crave for the eternal life.
Free Spirit:
In this passage, Nietzsche describes the idea that “God is dead,” or the lost of belief in the Christian God, as the greatest recent event and the meaning of his cheerfulness. The idea that “God is dead” implies the breakdown of Christianity. Nietzsche is happy because he always despises many Christian ideals. Now given the demise of God, there is a possibility that these corrupt Christian ideals will also no longer exist. This is great news for philosophers who wish to explore the philosophical world without Christian beliefs as hindrances. However, Nietzsche also discusses the possible confusion in morality that the death of God may bring to the majority of people. Overall, this passage discusses the possible effects of God’s death.
Nietzsche’s Passages
Death of God:
In the Passage Nietzsche uses the madman as his speaker to illustrate the idea that God is dead. The madman was running around looking for God, causing ridicules and arousing curiosity in bystanders. When asked about God, the madman replies, “We have killed him—you and I”. Using this phrase, Nietzsche is trying to express that God is dead in the hearts of modern men because rationalism and science have killed Him. Presuming that the “God is dead” theory is true, Nietzsche urges his readers to give up accepted standards of morality and find a new mode of being (transvaluation of values).
Truth:
In the first paragraph, Nietzsche tells a story about a star on which clever animals with knowledge once lived. However, the civilization only lasted for one minute. The purpose of the story was to illustrate the aimlessness of the human intellect appears in nature. The second paragraph compares humans with a mosquito. While humans may think the world revolves around them, the mosquito may feel that it is the flying center of the world, too. Humans are blinded by their conceitedness. “…the constant fluttering around the single flame of vanity is so much the rule and the law that almost nothing is more incomprehensible than how an honest and pure urge for truth could make its appearance among men,” criticizes Nietzsche. Humans do not know themselves and choose to live in an illusion. Nietzsche ends the passage by depicting the irony that humans allegedly want truth however is not concerned with the knowledge that can lead them to the truth.
Morality as Anti-Nature:
In the first passage, Nietzsche categorizes passion into two phases – the first phase as being merely disastrous from stupidity and the latter phase where passions “spiritualize” themselves. Then, Nietzsche condemns the Christian’s view of passion. Using an excerpt from the New Testament as an example: “If the eye offend thee, pluck it out,” Nietzsche demonstrates the Christians’ concept of destroying passions and cravings as a preventative measure against their stupidity. Nietzsche despises such attempt to excise passion because he believes passions can be spiritualized. In the second passage, Nietzsche further criticizes people’s use of castration as a mean to fight against cravings. Then he ends the passage with a line filled with bold words and meanings: “the most poisonous things against the senses have been said not by the impotent, nor by ascetics, but by the impossible ascetics, by those who really were in dire need of being ascetics ...”
Jesus:
Nietzsche praises Jesus in both passages 33 and 35. Nietzsche beings passage 33 by saying that anything that puts a distance between God and man is a sin. Then, he accentuates that it is the action and not beliefs that sets Christians aside from the rest of the people. Therefore, only a new way of life, not a new faith, can lead to the psychological reality in “salvation”. In passage 35, Nietzsche praises God for saving mankind by showing them how to live, and he gives a few examples of how Jesus’ demeanors bequeath a way of life to man.
Paul:
Nietzsche challenges Paul in both passages 41 and 42. In passage 41, he calls St. Paul impudent because he thinks St. Paul gave a logical quality to an indecent conception that “if Christ did not rise from the dead, then all our faith is in vain!” Nietzsche criticizes Paul for preaching shameless doctrine of personal immortality for personal gains. In passage 42, Nietzsche compares and contrasts Buddhism and Christianity, “Buddhism promises nothing, but actually fulfills; Christianity promises everything, but fulfills nothing”. Here Nietzsche blames this vainness in Christianity on St. Paul. He says the life, the teaching, and the death of Christ, the meaning and the law of the whole gospels are gone because St. Paul was changing meanings in Christianity in his favor. Nietzsche concludes that Paul has established priestly tyranny through falsification.
Myth of Eternal Recurrence:
In this passage, Nietzsche discusses the issue of eternal life. Nietzsche starts off the passage by asking how the reader would feel, if one day a demon appears and announces eternal life for him or her with no choice to opt out of the cycle. In sum, Nietzsche first portrays how eternal life is and then asks whether the reader will resent or crave for the eternal life.
Free Spirit:
In this passage, Nietzsche describes the idea that “God is dead,” or the lost of belief in the Christian God, as the greatest recent event and the meaning of his cheerfulness. The idea that “God is dead” implies the breakdown of Christianity. Nietzsche is happy because he always despises many Christian ideals. Now given the demise of God, there is a possibility that these corrupt Christian ideals will also no longer exist. This is great news for philosophers who wish to explore the philosophical world without Christian beliefs as hindrances. However, Nietzsche also discusses the possible confusion in morality that the death of God may bring to the majority of people. Overall, this passage discusses the possible effects of God’s death.
posted by Mavis Chao at 4:48 PM
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