On a very different level of the ideas of existentialism. Or what would later become known as existentialism. We have a most colorful and exciting philosopher by name of Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche. Nietzsche was a very controversial philosopher. He was known for his pointed and some times vicious attacks on Christianity as well as many other philosophers from the past, including Socrates because all in all he felt that Socrates was the one that urged humanity to think in terms of other-worldliness. Nietzsche felt that not only was it a ridiculous idea that there be the watchful eye of God on us at all times but he lamented the idea that working dutifully to earn one's pass to heaven completely undermined what it meant to be in this life at this time. He even felt that ideas in politics that promised new ways of life in the future undermined the importance of the present. He felt that once you are dead, it was what one had done with his life that was to be the legacy for the those you leave behind.
In the book "The Gay Science" Nietzsche tells us at one point about a lunatic that walks into a market and announces aloud. "God is dead, and we have killed him!!" This is of course is met with the condescending stares and jokes from the people in the market place. But the fact implied therein is that God IS dead and it was indeed humans who had killed him with their immorality, and that the people are incapable of comprehending what they had done.
While Nietzsche was infamous for the use of "God is dead" he was not the first the first to use the term. Several early philosophers used the term to illustrate the moral state of the world. or to simply say that "God is dead" is to say that we don't believe in God anymore and that is why he is dead.
But was Nietzsche's style. He used a lot of exclamation points to help convey his passion for what he was saying. When he wrote he would often exaggerate to the point that his ideas could easily be lost or misunderstood.
Misunderstood is perhaps the best way to in one word sum up Nietzsche. A man with such passion and enthusiasm. And so many people think he was a man of doom and gloom and depressing nothingness of being. This is not true.
You don't have to agree that Nietzsche was right. But it is worth an attempt to look past Nietzsche's scathing criticisms and see what his ultimate point was.
The Ultimate thing that Nietzsche was trying to tell us is this. You are here now. If you want your life to have meaning and you want your life to be worth living it is up to you to adopt the values and rules and moral codes that you will live by that bring you aesthetic joy,and are ethical so that you don't tread on others. He wanted us to know that what makes us good or bad people is what we do. What we do is essentially what we are and it is up to us to "become who we are" as he would've put it.
Nietzsche was born into a luthern family. His father died when he was young and he was raised by is mother, and aunts and sister who were all devoutly Christian. As Nietzsche grew up in this environment he began to see essentially what Kierkagaard had seen in the idea that people weren't as religous as they claimed to be. That being a Christian had become something hollow and empty and blaze'. It was simply to go along with the herd to be a Christian. But as opposed to reinventing Christianity as Kierkagaard had wanted to do. Nietzsche would just have soon have seen it wiped away.
Nietzsche also believed that when philosophers do what they do which is to philosophize, They tend to cover the areas in their lives that give them trouble. This is true in both Kierkagaard and Nietzsche himself. And from what I have seen most any other philosopher in history.
Nietzsche felt that to be beautiful is mans greatest achievement,but, by beautiful he meant not in the sense of physical beauty but in the honing and sculpting of a person over time that makes them beautiful. Education and experience and thought and character are the important things to Nietzsche'. He simply despised the fact that people herded themselves to church with no idea of what it was they believed in.
Nietzsche's beliefs were those of deep, life altering acceptance of one's gifts and talents, as well as their flaws and limitations. He was a realist through and through. Though Not a pessimist as some might think.
I'm a fan of Nietzsche in the sense that he has a way of shocking you into seeing what it is that he's talking about. His vicious attacks on the herd mentality of Christianity was not to show his hatred for Christians so much as it was a vehicle for forcing others to consider what he was saying.
I suggest Nietzsche for anyone who wants to read a book with an intense perspective on life . He will take you for a wild ride. And you will most likely be changed by what you read weather you agree or not.
But this is basically the other perspective of existentialism in that we exist, and we are here for a limited time and to take action to make our lives what we want it to be.
I think Nietzsche was a rational man on the side of the atheists.
More to come
thanks for reading.
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