What do you think of Nietzsche?

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I was watching Baby Face (1933), starring Barbara Stanwyck recently (I highly recommend it). In the movie, there is a reference to Nietzsche:



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_NkcRllnmFo

https://www.loc.gov/static/programs/nat ... y_face.pdf

Worth investigating, but his focus is on neurotypical neurology, not ND.

The "Will to power" is more an NT thing, imo.

Nietzsche' s philosophy, like any philosopher's of the continental tradition, is largelly a mumble jumble of inconsistent thought patterns expressed in a poetical way. I know one thing, if you have read Nietzsche and claim you understand anything, you are lying.

Rand isn’t cool or edgy, and I’m not aware that a lot of young people are really all that turned on to her. Rand is really more about common sense than anything else with a healthy dose of Aristotle. You can learn the same things just spending time with your grandparents.

That said, I think Ayn Rand uniquely formulates philosophy into plain language more easily understood than a lot of philosophers, including Nietzsche. She borrows a lot of concepts from Nietzsche, too. The popularity of Atlas Shrugged I think is due to it being an easy read. Well, with the exception of the John Galt speech, which is a sort of Objectivist manifesto, it’s an easy read. The Galt speech begins with a primer on philosophy and the logical law of identity which is the cornerstone of Objectivism: A thing is what it is, or A=A. I think a lot of philosophy is detached from reality, whereas Objectivism emphasizes dependence only on self.

He was German and his books were written in German. So, any translation of such would loose it’s poetry and make it hard to read.

There is the thing were the Nazis adopted it as their own and came up with their own interpretations.

His sister who inherited the rights to his writings was either pro nazi or anti nazi. I forget.

I think it is interesting that he went insane at a rather young age. I kinda like Albert Camus who was French and died at a young age in a car crash in 1940+\-. Nietzche is pre 1900. He is famous for saying “God is Dead” and stuff like that.

It is interesting. I pick and choose ideas rather than look for a system to run my life by. I think he had some good analogies on the same level as the “prisoners in the cave that have only seen shadows”. I guess that is Greek.

To sum it up with Nietzsche in the prevalent pop culture, you have both a nazi “super menche” vibe and a “god is dead” vibe coupled with the fact he went crazy.

I view Nietzscheanism as a failed attempt to instill meaning in a meaningless world. He replaces Schopenhauer's "Will to Live" with "Will to Power" - the objective of life transforms from rejecting life to maintain happiness to rejecting happiness to maintain life, even if it is baseless and harms others. This inspires a crass egoism that can justify any destructive ideology, including National Socialism, Randian libertarianism, and left-wing deconstruction. His views on truth, accurate in an absolute sense, are a prologue to postmodernist madness. Once you're willing to let go of all presumptions about the world and ego, I find Schopenhauer to be the better atheistic philosopher.

Cragg testily replies “more chance than a man. A woman, young, beautiful, like you, can get anything she wants in the world. Because you have power over men! But you must use men! Not let them use you. You must be a master! Not a slave. Look, here, Nietzsche says, ‘All life, no matter how we idealize it, is nothing more nor less than exploitation.’ That's what I'm telling you! Exploit yourself! Go to some big city where you will find opportunities. Use men! Be strong! Defiant! Use men to get the things you want!”

Sounds horrible to me, even it it was correct that life was "nothing more nor less than exploitation." And I don't think it is. You've only got to lay off the exploitation for a minute and you've put a hole in that particular sweeping assertion. I think when a person completely swallows the idea that life is a competitive jungle and that their role is to rip off or to be ripped off, they become part of the problem.

Nietzsche is pretty based. Though I only read one of his books ("Thus Spoke Zarathustra") and don't know anything else from him. I particularly like Zarathustras harsh criticism of the state and religion, and that he proposes the creation of new values and for humans to become more advanced.

He was a good linebacker for the Packers...