Philosopher of the future.
I am a philosopher, a critic, an essayist. Though I don`t profess to be an academic philosopher like Russell or those philosophers like Kant or Descartes. I am a philosopher of the Nietzschean variety. Now I do admire Russell. I don`t admire Kant. I am indifferent towards Descartes. But why is philosophy such an important theme amongst other themes in my life? Probably because I want to understand why I exist and I am told philosophy may hold the answers. But philosophy just makes everything abstract or at least it seems so. So much of philosophy is hypothesis and every philosopher has had his superstitions and they have let them guide their ideas and thoughts and this became their philosophy. Like Kant, for example, and his ‘categorical imperative’. Kant was only a moralist disguised as a philosopher.
"Theology has ruined philosophy. Infected it. Moral imperatives, a priori philosophy, categorical imperatives are all found within Kant. The concept of morality as the essence of the world lies in Kant. Kant fails to realise that moral phenomena is only interpreted. No such moral order of the universe exists only an interpretation of moral phenomena."
The above is Nietzsche ‘philsophizing with a hammer’. Nietzsche said the search for truth is the highest task and must be won by hard times. Every insight into truth is a sacrifice.
Now I don`t worship Nietzsche like one worships a God; I certainly don`t fear Nietzsche! but he is one of the most important philosophers of the modern era and he also heralds a coming age of new philosophers, like myself. He is important because he is the precursor of existentialism as a creative force for change in the individual and hence for the world over. He is terrifying and shocking; but who said everything has to be agreeable for it to be true!?
Nietzsche didn`t declare himself a nihilist but he did nihilate a lot in his ideas. Nihilism is Europes inheritence from Hellenistic values and to a great degree Christian-ecclesiastical values. My interpration on nihilism is manifold in that it signifies an epoch in the modern age which will press humanity to define new values and take the place of God which in Nietzschean terms means: God is dead. We will have to become like gods so as to become worthy of his death. Nietzsche here means that the coming philosophers of the future will be creators of values and no longer those of the Kant variety.
Nietzsche used the word ‘nihilism’ in the context of the Christian or the Buddhist who has ran into the woods of fantasy to escape life or reality and to posit an imaginary world beyond this one which is more real; more true. Thus for Nietzsche the nihilist nihilates life; he says ‘No’ to life instead of ‘Yes’. He negates instead of affirms. Nietzsche embodies this in:
"When the centre of gravity of life is placed, not in life itself, but in "the beyond"--in nothingness--then one has taken away its centre of gravity altogether. The vast lie of personal immortality destroys all reason, all natural instinct--henceforth, everything in the instincts that is beneficial, that fosters life and that safeguards the future is a cause of suspicion."
But everyone is a nihilist - we all say ‘No’ and ‘Yes’ even at the same time in one breath! I do not believe in a ‘beyond’ a place where souls are judged or anything like that. I don`t believe in personal immortality. So I don`t qualify in Nietzsche`s use of the term ‘nihilist’ one who nihilates life. However I do nihilate the moral circus of values that we have inherited from the inversion and trans-valuation of values from Christianity so in a sense that does make me a nihilist but not in the way Nietzsche used it and applied it.
Nietzsche is my teacher and I have been influenced by his ideas greatly. I have read all his books and I have read his Nachlass on the Will To Power. He continues to influence me and he will probably never fail to inspire me.
"Theology has ruined philosophy. Infected it. Moral imperatives, a priori philosophy, categorical imperatives are all found within Kant. The concept of morality as the essence of the world lies in Kant. Kant fails to realise that moral phenomena is only interpreted. No such moral order of the universe exists only an interpretation of moral phenomena."
The above is Nietzsche ‘philsophizing with a hammer’. Nietzsche said the search for truth is the highest task and must be won by hard times. Every insight into truth is a sacrifice.
Now I don`t worship Nietzsche like one worships a God; I certainly don`t fear Nietzsche! but he is one of the most important philosophers of the modern era and he also heralds a coming age of new philosophers, like myself. He is important because he is the precursor of existentialism as a creative force for change in the individual and hence for the world over. He is terrifying and shocking; but who said everything has to be agreeable for it to be true!?
Nietzsche didn`t declare himself a nihilist but he did nihilate a lot in his ideas. Nihilism is Europes inheritence from Hellenistic values and to a great degree Christian-ecclesiastical values. My interpration on nihilism is manifold in that it signifies an epoch in the modern age which will press humanity to define new values and take the place of God which in Nietzschean terms means: God is dead. We will have to become like gods so as to become worthy of his death. Nietzsche here means that the coming philosophers of the future will be creators of values and no longer those of the Kant variety.
Nietzsche used the word ‘nihilism’ in the context of the Christian or the Buddhist who has ran into the woods of fantasy to escape life or reality and to posit an imaginary world beyond this one which is more real; more true. Thus for Nietzsche the nihilist nihilates life; he says ‘No’ to life instead of ‘Yes’. He negates instead of affirms. Nietzsche embodies this in:
"When the centre of gravity of life is placed, not in life itself, but in "the beyond"--in nothingness--then one has taken away its centre of gravity altogether. The vast lie of personal immortality destroys all reason, all natural instinct--henceforth, everything in the instincts that is beneficial, that fosters life and that safeguards the future is a cause of suspicion."
But everyone is a nihilist - we all say ‘No’ and ‘Yes’ even at the same time in one breath! I do not believe in a ‘beyond’ a place where souls are judged or anything like that. I don`t believe in personal immortality. So I don`t qualify in Nietzsche`s use of the term ‘nihilist’ one who nihilates life. However I do nihilate the moral circus of values that we have inherited from the inversion and trans-valuation of values from Christianity so in a sense that does make me a nihilist but not in the way Nietzsche used it and applied it.
Nietzsche is my teacher and I have been influenced by his ideas greatly. I have read all his books and I have read his Nachlass on the Will To Power. He continues to influence me and he will probably never fail to inspire me.