[MD] Navigating Past Nihilism

[118]

Hi Marsha,

Thanks for starting this.

Yes, Nietzsche was an interesting guy, I used to read a lot of his
stuff many years ago.  Of course he did go crazy, which I guess
happens to the best of us...  There is a notion that Nietzsche was an
athiest, but I think this is the wrong interpretation.  He claimed
that the Christian God was dead, and that bad things were going to
happen to Western civilization because of this loss.  This points to a
very Theistic sentiment, that is, the importance of God.  He thought
most people were stupid and had no will to power, and his so called
will left him sitting alone in a room most of the time.  So, he had a
loud bark.  Between him and Dostoyevsky one can get to some dark
places.  However one can also use them for illumination in a positive
way.

He did not espouse nihilism, but bemoaned it.  If we believe in Truth,
it is easy to get to Nihilism.  This is why Quality is so important.
Which is why I like the title you use.

Mark

On Mon, Dec 6, 2010 at 4:11 AM, MarshaV <valkyr at att.net> wrote:
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> FYI:
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> “Nihilism stands at the door,” wrote Nietzsche.  “Whence comes this uncanniest of all guests?”  The year was 1885 or 1886, and Nietzsche was writing in a notebook whose contents were not intended for publication.  The discussion of nihilism ─ the sense that it is no longer obvious what our most fundamental commitments are, or what matters in a life of distinction and worth, the sense that the world is an abyss of meaning rather than its God-given preserve ─ finds no sustained treatment in the works that Nietzsche prepared for publication during his lifetime.  But a few years earlier, in 1882, the German philosopher had already published a possible answer to the question of nihilism’s ultimate source.  “God is dead,” Nietzsche wrote in a famous passage from “The Gay Science.”  “God remains dead.  And we have killed him.”
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> http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/12/05/navigating-past-nihilism/?pagemode=print
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