The practice of judging and condemning morally, is the favorite revenge of the intellectually shallow on those who are less so, it is also a kind of indemnity for their being badly endowed by nature, and finally, it is an opportunity for acquiring spirit and BECOMING subtle –malice spiritualizes. They are glad in their…
Morality as attitude -is opposed to our taste nowadays. This is ALSO an advance, as it was an advance in our fathers that religion as an attitude finally became opposed to their taste, including the enmity and Voltairean bitterness against religion (and all that formerly belonged to freethinker- pantomime). It is the music in…
You need to have been born for any higher world; to say it more clearly, you need to have been bred for it: only your descent, your ancestry can give you a right to philosophy – taking that word in its highest sense. Even here, “bloodline” is decisive. The preparatory labor of many generations…
A backyard can be sublime. I confess to having no background in landscape design. Anyone potentially may pay attention, admire the form and colors of a well cared for lawn, accent shrubs, etc.. The preponderance of the work is what I call “hand-work” -weeding, pruning with a hand cutter, picking up debris, arranging fallen stems…
These days, by contrast, when only the herd animal gets and gives honor in Europe [America], when “equal rights” could all too easily end up as equal wrongs (I mean, in waging a joint war on everything rare, strange, privileged, on the higher man, higher soul, higher duty, higher responsibility, on creative power and…
But true philosophers are commanders and legislators: they say “That is how it should be!” They are the ones who first determine the “where to?” and “what for?” of people… True philosophers reach for the future with a creative hand and everything that is and was becomes a means, a tool, a hammer for…
Thursday sunrise dawns with a clear sky. These are paradisiacal days. A friend’s dahlias are in full bloom, several are on display here at Starbucks. We shouldn’t be deceived though, everything is not well here in paradise. The New York Times published a report showing that upward mobility, the income of working class whites…
In fact, these philosophers [of the future] admit to taking pleasure in saying no, in dissecting, and in a certain level-headed cruelty that knows how to guide a knife with assurance and subtlety, even when the heart is bleeding. They will be more severe (and perhaps not always with themselves alone) than humane people…
This passage is haunting. Europe of the late 19th century was on the cusp of shattering events. July 28, 1914 was the inception of WWI, and September 1st, 1939 the Wehrmacht invaded Poland, arguably a continuation of the earlier conflict. Nietzsche wrote in 1886 describing the social and moral dislocations of the modern era….
Just finished reading an essay, Attuned to the Aesthetic by Tom Cochrane. The author proposed, suggested that beauty is a ground for morality. I did enjoy the essay, not simply because I also endorse his thesis, but because the seven pages were beautifully written, a smooth read. Could we say that to be involved…
