File spoon-archives/nietzsche.archive/nietzsche_2000/nietzsche.0009, message 103


From: zatavu-AT-excite.com
Date: Fri, 22 Sep 2000 13:38:03 -0700 (PDT)
Subject: Re: Wilson and Nietzsche



On Fri, 22 Sep 2000 12:45:10 -0700, nietzsche-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu
wrote:

>  At 11:48 AM 9/22/00 -0700, you wrote:
>  
>  >Currently I am getting my PhD in Arts&Humanities
>  >at UT-Dallas, and I am taking a class on Existentialism with Dr.
Alexander
>  >Argyros, who is, obviously, well read in existentialism - and Nietzsche
-
>  >and who is also, coincidentally, at the forefront of the biopoetics
>  >movement, which takes the concepts laid out by Wilson and applies them
and
>  >other aspects of science to literary theory, and he indeed agrees with
me
>  >that Wilson has combined N with evolution.
>  
>  Fascinating, Troy, and having not read Wilson, would you mind giving us a
>  summary? I'm especially curious if the Transhumanists would find any
ground
>  to stand on in Wilson, and therefore Nietzsche. It would seem that
>  Thranshumanism is another "after world" that is an opiate of hope against
>  this world, albeit one that is more earthly. Granted, having a future in
>  mind can be noble, but it seems most of these ideologies stem from a
>  resentment against the present.

Well, I will first admit to my ignorance as to what you mean by
"Transhumanists."

Now, as to Wilson. Wilson states that the first thing we have to realize is
that humans are biological. Which means that we are affected by evolution.
Now, since we evolved primarily in the African Savannahs and from primates,
that should tell us a lot about us. For example, it tells us that many of
our actions are instinctual and irrational and therefore cannot be helped
(this is certainly reflected by N). An example: our fascination with snakes,
which Wilson talks about extensively. Other primates react with fear and
fascination toward snakes, especially poisonous ones and the large
constrictors. Does this not sound familiar? By the age of five, our extreme
interest in snakes is usually focused into one of these two interests: fear
or fascination; usually a bit of both. This is something that is built into
our programming and is therefore irrational (it can be guided, but we cannot
get away from our fascination). Wilson also states that our emotions are
irrational, and that they are what drive us (again, N). And he also states
that humans are selfish, and thankfully so (again, N), because it is this
capacity for increasing selfishness that give us hope for peaceful
coexistence between people, since hard altruism, such as that practiced by
ants, would drive men to be as brutal and warlike as ants. Of course, the
fact that we are altruistic to some degree does at the same time drive our
warlike activities we do have. While N did express some interest in war and
its great generals, he was far more interested in things like culture and
art, which flourish best during peacetime. N, I believe, saw whatever "wars"
he advocated as being personal - the great men fighting against the mediocre
masses. Wilson is, like N., both very pro-science and very pro-art. BOth are
strict materialists in their epistemology and "metaphysics," and both are
quite anti-religion (though Wilson, as I would suspect N. would now, extends
his opposition to religions to the "secular" kind as well, including Marxism
and Freudianism; N. seems to be very much against these things as well
because of his stance against systematic thinking, which Freudianism,
Marxism, and all relgions advocate). As a evolutionist, Wilson opposes the
idea of some sort of "endpoint" to history - something N. is also against
(someone will say that the Ubermensche fits this, but in fact, the
Ubermensche does not, since he is himself always in a state of becoming).
BOth think self-knowledge is what will make men become better (or in N's
case, better than men), and both suggest that active forgetting of the past
will also do the same thing (Wilson points out that as we learn that certain
scientific "facts"  are in fact wrong, we stop teaching them - whereas in
the social sciences and in philosophy, we cannot seem to let go of the past;
he calls for philosophy and the social sciences to therefore become more
like the "hard" sciences in this way).

I'm sure there are plenty more, but these are the things I can think of
right off the top of my head.

Troy Camplin 





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