Does anybody remember the show Beyond 2000? I saw it in class, and I can't tell the difference between me actually remembering that show or me fabricating the memory, as usual. But, it featured Australian (who, when I was younger, I'm sure, thought were British) correspondents who would report about the latest crazes in technology. We saw it in class. Mmm, technology.
Three questions assigned to me in History class two weeks ago... Only now do I do them.
What is Nietzsche's view on human nature?
...man must understand that life, which abounds in cruelty, injustice, uncertainty, and absurdity, is not governed by rational principles. There exist no absolute standards of good and evil, no timeless principles, whose truth can be demonstrated by reflective reason. The hgierh world of metaphysics is a myth; so too is the Christian heaven. Nothing is true. There is only naked man living in a godless, chaotic, meaningless, and absurd world. The strong must face this reality. The weak cannot, so they invent fables about a higher reality and a future life.1
Nietzsche seemed most unsatisifed with the current state of life, where logic ruled men's minds and hearts. He attacked value and tradition for their lack of insite towards his only ultimate truth: there aren't any ultimate truths.
A world bound by intellect and logic suffocated man's true calling to creativitiy, and creativity alone is most natural. Ironic how Nietzsche's philosophy, packed with insight and big words, calls for for the abandonment of "excessive intellect" and logic. And in the absent of this excess lie man's natural instinct, which Christianity sought to prohibit. Christianity, said Nietzsche, was "the religion of pity", used to amass the weak linked by their disdain for the strong.
Explain the concept of "God is dead".
Thus proclaimed Nietzsche, like a magician unveiling the truth behind the illusion. Religion is a social construct, no more, no less. Thus, man cannot make map anything religion offers to a sort of universal meaning or truth to life. There is nothing in life, and there is nothing in religion. With God away, there aren't any higher planes of existence.
Nietzsche cited this void as man's opportunity to take control, by indulging in instinct and creating values of his own.
What is the superman/ubermensch?
As he described Europe as a land with a vast herd and no shepherds, a certain type of man was to emerge, the superman. The superman, unbound by politics and religious values, would rise above the masses and assert the individual. In the face of Christianity's "thou shalt not," the superman insists, "I will." Dimensions like good and evil have no meaning, as his values are his own. He would exemplify man's true call to power, where man craves and exhibits power. They were a breed of energy and creativity, free of society's impositions.
1 An Intellectual History of Modern Europe, Perry, 295-298
Questions to answer
Nietsches view on human nature
The concept of god is dead
What is the superman/ubermencsch
The date is 1880, 1914, years of crisis, reference to, but not in the text
Writing about the subconscious, non rational behavior, philosopher
Catalysts of change, imperialism, indusitrliams (2nd industrial revolution)
Coal and iron, steal oil electicty in the 2nd one
Feeding the indusitrialied poor with canned goods (spam, anyone?)
Challenges to bourgeois liberalism -- this is a question on the final, political economical social etc
Internationalism vs nationalism (study of propaganda, beginning of)
West is best
West and the rest
Problems surfacing in this decade lead to the first world war
Marxists - own means of production equals power
"fell on deaf ears"
Pressure to democracy and access to education in the 1880s
Rise of the white collar worker (marxist confusion at)
They are proletariage by wage, bourgeois by value
Econimcs, economic nationalism vs free trade
Eikreisunqpolitik - politcs ofencriclement
Britain and france hold germany down (those to blame for the world war)
Does marxist philosphy resemble wikisim?
Professor wants to do a study on the history of tasters, those who died in the tasting of food for royalty
Fin de siecle, french phrase, end of the century)
Nietsche says it's a period of overripeness
The rise Avant-guarde movements (cutting edge)
Crises ideologies, streams of thought
The role of intellect and reason in man's behavior
Embourgeoisement (an insult)
Applie pie diplomacyy, a slogan for imperialism
Ethnocentrism
Xenophobic
Oxford english dictionary (oed)
Heatehn, non0european, non-christian (a definition that surfaced in the oed
Marxist revisionism
Reform is a superstructure
Social democractic party, with orhodox marxist beliefs
Change in the super structure to leak into the substructure (that's their dedication)
Lenin's revisionism - eastern marixsm, vanguard, russian marxism (lenanism)
Nietzsche, nihilism, debunking, pessimistic
Greatest defend of the individual
Morality avenge quirks decadents (keywords of a missing quote that I never wrote down)
Says death is the ultimate phobia
Only man ponders immortality/mortality
Hates Christianity
Nationalism
Bourgeois something… (who hates these things? And bourgeoise what?)
The rise of herd culture, says Nietzsche
Mediocre means ordinary
Genius and the truth individual
Conspiracy against creative genius
The Conspiracy is composed of two things
- Bourgeoise values
- Christian piety/humility
Both of which are pesudo values
Together, the values negate each other
This makes everyone the same, the dwarfing effect (I say great equalizer)
Why does freud say men come together to form a society?
Define what Jung means by the unconscious?
Freud's view of man's nature, definitions of id, ego, super ego, and the description of the Oedipus Complex