File spoon-archives/nietzsche.archive/nietzsche_2000/nietzsche.0001, message 13


Date: Thu, 20 Jan 2000 07:55:38 -0800
From: Paul Weighell <pweighell-AT-earthlink.net>
Subject: Re: Truth and the enahncement of the quality of life


Arnold Schwarzeneger and Ayn Rand are saying the same thing - Nietzsche seems moe and
more a psyschologist a la Alfred Adler than a Philosopher.
Maybe Danto`s book title, "Niet. as Philosopher" wasn`t so snobby as I initially
thought.
"Gen. of Morals" as kindergarten/pop culture psychology, anyone?

Daniel J. Dzenkowski wrote:

> At 06:41 PM 1/19/00 +0000, John Wallisswrote:
> >As I said, I'm interested in Ns ideas and have read both the sources and a
> >few commentaries, however I'm stumped on one issue - the Will To Power.
> >As far as I'm aware N is saying all attempts to truth are a reflection of
> >WTP - the question then is therefore is this a version of the 'liar's
> >paradox', i.e. Nietzsche the philosopher of the WTP saying that the WTP is
> >the
> >basis of all forms of truth?
> >I'm also interested in his argument in BGE about willing 'untruth' and the
> >relationship of truth to instinct. by this is he meaning that he doesn't
> >object to Christianity because its 'wrong' as such but because its life
> >negating in some way.
>
>         I don't think that Nietzsche is so concerned with truth.  Plato was
> looking for truth and pretty much from that point on mainstream philosophy
> has concerned itself with finding truth.  Where has this gotten us?
>         Philosophy has gotten away from discovering a way to make the quality of
> life better by placing such a heavy emphasis on finding truth.  This goes
> back at least to Socrates reason=happiness=virtue, and I am assuming here
> that truth plays a heavy part in reason.  Nietzsche is fighting against
> philosophy, much as Wittgenstein and Diogenes of Sinope did.  Nietzsche
> does not say that un-truth is better than truth, but that through exploring
> all of the possibilities of truth and untruth, instead of restricting
> yourself to truth, that you will be more able to enhance the quality of
> your life.
>         Ok, onto the will to power.  In  Zarathustra On Self-Overcoming "And life
> itself confided to me:'Behold' it said, 'I am that which must always
> overcome itself.  Indeed, you call it a will to procreate or a drive to an
> end, to something higher, farther, more manifold: but all this is one, and
> one secret.' "
>         The drive to overcome yourself over and over again to become something
> greater than you previously were.  The will to power is the basic drive
> that underlies every aspect of life.  Similar to Freud and with the forces
> of Thanatos and Eros.  The will to power has nothing to do with truth it is
> about life and in some strange way that is the highest truth, but the point
> is to leave logic and reason out of the equation and place instinct as the
> highest priority against them.
>         Nietzsche objects to Christianity, since it denies the value of the
> instincts, which are based in part on the physical world.  Instinct is a
> product of the body and the mind (Nietzsche does not see them separately).
> Christianity solely wants to concentrate on the mind.  So Christianity is
> life-denying, because it does not include the physical and devalues it
> through its teachings.
>
> LambdaC are you out there?
> Daniel J. Dzenkowski
>
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