Beyond Good and Evil, Prelude to a Philosophy of the Future, final section, What is Noble, concludes with a number of aphorisms which seem quite personal. It is as if the author says—“and now the heart of the matter.” I was drawn to Nietzsche from a upbringing of religious fundamentalism. Fundamentalism is both right…
We are well into spring. I worked with a rake clearing up the debris fallen from the two old blue spruce trees, winters leavings. Two garbage containers were filled with twigs, and pine cones. Butter cups are on the cusp of blooming. The tulips will be close behind. I was reminded of the nature…
Coda: the finale of a ballet in which the dancers parade before the audience. The values of a human being betray something of the structure of his soul and where it finds its conditions of life, its true need. It would follow on the whole that easy communicability of need —-which in the last…
What, in the end, is common? Words are acoustical signs for concepts; concepts, however, are more or less definite image signs for often recurring and associated sensations, or groups of sensations. To understand on another, it is not enough that one use the same words; one also has to use the same words for…
Once in a while I experience time dislocation. By that I mean a disruption in my accustomed sequence of things. Time for us is a concatenation of events, causally related, more or less–that we have adapted to. Sometimes something happens to upend those expectations. If you stop to think you can imagine events that…
This weekend I heard this tune on the radio. “Have You Seen Her” by the Chi-Lites moved me. Though I’ve not personally experienced the cause of loneliness depicted in the lyric story line, — I can relate. The point is an old one, succinctly stated by Heraclitus, “Everything changes, and nothing remains.” What time…
April 2nd, the day after my birthday. I awakened this morning thinking of my ancestors, the ones going back to the England of the first millennium. Like the common Anglo-Saxon they surely had a hoe in their hands and planted the fields at this time of year. They came to this country from somewhere…
April 1, 1949 was the day that I was born. I seldom think about it. In past years often I needed a reminder, “Isn’t today your birthday?’ World War II concluded on September 2nd 1945 with the surrender of Japan. Germany surrendered earlier in May. I was born soon after the second great war…
Every people has its own Tartuffery and calls it its virtues— What is best in us we do not know— we cannot know. Nietzsche, Beyond Good and Evil, Peoples and Fatherlands #249
A friend forwarded to me the address of a conservative web site. The site featured an article that explores the negative reaction expressed by the conservative minded to philosophers who specialize in postmodern thought. In our discussion group there is always push back when an essay is offered, authored by Slavoj Zizek or Michele…
