If he dident call that passage "GOD IS DEAD" nobody would have read it.
If he dident call that passage "GOD IS DEAD" nobody would have read it.
Bank heist in Kathmandu, it was a slaughter
The day Buddha was born it rained tea instead of water
He still overstepped his bounds in regard to selection and purposefulness in the natural world.Originally Posted by Cthulhu
For that reason his ideals are still indefensible from a scientific stand point.
It's not his fault, he lived in a certain era, but it's still wrong.
Yet sadly, his ideas are still taught today. And everytime I hear some pretentious puffery about the evolution of culture in the human species, that has no empirical evidence to back it, I wanna hack someone's head off.
If you don't have proof, you don't make factual claims.
This man had no problem making claims...
he didn't advocate Social Darwinism
I disagree, I think he did.
Master morality has its own values and stands above good and evil; slave morality is kindness, humility, and sympathy. Masters surpass the mediocrity of the common person.
That is social Darwinism.
Even if he doesn't want to call it that directly.
Hardly, as someone else put it "All higher civilizations, according to Nietzsche, arose from the barbarians, who with their will and desire for power, have preyed upon the weaker, moral and peaceful societies. A healthy society does not exist for its own sake, but exists for the sake of a higher type of person."and opposed the strong taking advantage of the weak.
He didn't call the passage "God is Dead." It's called "The Madman." Of course it was meant to be inflammatory, but it wasn't merely a gimmick, and to think you can divorce it from the rest of his philosophy is naive. His ideas are built on a firm rejection of religion and metaphysical justifications. The funny thing is, that passage is not nearly the most vehement rejection, in fact the character is lamenting the death of god, not declaring it angrily.
This passage is far more concerned with the social repurcussions of society moving away from the all-encompassing influence of religion as the only means to view the world. There are plenty of passage where Nietzsche viciously attacks religion and believers, but this is not even one of them.THE MADMAN----Have you not heard of that madman who lit a lantern in the bright morning hours, ran to the market place, and cried incessantly: "I seek God! I seek God!"---As many of those who did not believe in God were standing around just then, he provoked much laughter. Has he got lost? asked one. Did he lose his way like a child? asked another. Or is he hiding? Is he afraid of us? Has he gone on a voyage? emigrated?---Thus they yelled and laughed
The madman jumped into their midst and pierced them with his eyes. "Whither is God?" he cried; "I will tell you. We have killed him---you and I. All of us are his murderers. But how did we do this? How could we drink up the sea? Who gave us the sponge to wipe away the entire horizon? What were we doing when we unchained this earth from its sun? Whither is it moving now? Whither are we moving? Away from all suns? Are we not plunging continually? Backward, sideward, forward, in all directions? Is there still any up or down? Are we not straying, as through an infinite nothing? Do we not feel the breath of empty space? Has it not become colder? Is not night continually closing in on us? Do we not need to light lanterns in the morning? Do we hear nothing as yet of the noise of the gravediggers who are burying God? Do we smell nothing as yet of the divine decomposition? Gods, too, decompose. God is dead. God remains dead. And we have killed him.
"How shall we comfort ourselves, the murderers of all murderers? What was holiest and mightiest of all that the world has yet owned has bled to death under our knives: who will wipe this blood off us? What water is there for us to clean ourselves? What festivals of atonement, what sacred games shall we have to invent? Is not the greatness of this deed too great for us? Must we ourselves not become gods simply to appear worthy of it? There has never been a greater deed; and whoever is born after us---for the sake of this deed he will belong to a higher history than all history hitherto."
Here the madman fell silent and looked again at his listeners; and they, too, were silent and stared at him in astonishment. At last he threw his lantern on the ground, and it broke into pieces and went out. "I have come too early," he said then; "my time is not yet. This tremendous event is still on its way, still wandering; it has not yet reached the ears of men. Lightning and thunder require time; the light of the stars requires time; deeds, though done, still require time to be seen and heard. This deed is still more distant from them than most distant stars---and yet they have done it themselves.
It has been related further that on the same day the madman forced his way into several churches and there struck up his requiem aeternam deo. Led out and called to account, he is said always to have replied nothing but: "What after all are these churches now if they are not the tombs and sepulchers of God?"
Source: Friedrich Nietzsche, The Gay Science (1882, 1887) para. 125; Walter Kaufmann ed. (New York: Vintage, 1974), pp.181-82.]
Last edited by Cthulhu; 03-22-2010 at 09:31 PM.
"God is dead' - Nietzsche
"Nietzsche is dead" - God
"Only the day after tomorrow belongs to me. Some are born posthumously" - Nietzsche
Many of the truly great thinkers and artists of 20th century needed to pass through Nietzsche's thought before formulating their own. Many do not agree with his more specific or personal points, but to dismiss him because of his idiosyncrasies is to miss the power of his critique entirely.
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