What Is Your Idol?

@Yoh Asakura @philostam

In the spirit of this thread's theme, I think it's worth abstracting an aspect of Nietzsche's thought from his personality, and that is the wider concept of existential authenticity. I'm not widely read in philosophy myself, though I do have a little knowledge of the core thinking of its great people. I think one of the great idols of our time, one that almost all of us fall foul of in some form, is inauthenticity. This is when we live our lives derivatively - when we forgo the gift to be truly ourselves and default to living out the life path laid down by others who have been forceful in expressing their own in a publicly compelling way - and what's worse is that usually we do not even realise we are doing it.

Not everyone has the life gifts to forge their own way in the world from first principles - we cannot all be geniuses of the psyche or of the philosophy of life. That doesn't matter because these guys have given the world so many tracks and maps to follow. It's not whether we use what they have discovered and described that scores our authenticity, but whether we follow their paths consciously, critically and with a free will. So someone who explicitly chooses to follow Christ, Nietzsche, Buddha, Marx, etc, while in full possession of their power to choose is being authentic, someone who simply defaults to one or more of these is not, and that to me is a potential candidate for idolatry. That choice is not a one off by the way, but an ongoing one because, like life itself, things continuously unfold and refold.
 
I think Nietzsche was a bit of a fraud. Yeah he was articulate and creative, and had good education in the Classics, but 30% of his work is just he praising himself and criticizing others. Sure he had some insightful ideas that influenced others, but I don't see how his work can really help anyone. His work seems more like self-medicine and self-justification than anything else. He's an artist that had to create to make himself feel better, but he did it in a a very egotistical and alienating way. Similar to Schopenhauer, yet another such case - but at least that one had something more humane about him.

None of this people created anything lasting, were happy, had good relationships and/or a family. At least if you're a genius, try contributing to humanity like Newton, Tesla, Einstein etc. Of course, artists are important too, but as an artist you have to be a bit more humane and sensitive, not just bashing others and praising yourself.

It's been long since I read Nietzsche or was remotely interested in him, and I don't even care about being objective though. That's just my opinion and I don't even bother revisiting it, since I have better things to do. :D

Nietzsche is as much a fraud as Jesus, because aside from his megalomania Nietzsche is writing with an ancient ethic in mind that despised humility. Well, given you're not so versed in the classic Achilles in the Odyssey praises himself for his virtue and military prowess. It's not a Christain or egalitarian ethic, so stop judging it with those eyes and values. Influenced others is an understatement, Friedrich Nitzsche is one of the most influential philosophers of the 21st century behind Heidegger and Wittgenstein. You're not particularly creative and interested in striving towards a noble existence, so you wouldn't see how his work can help someone. Sigmund Freud, Carl Jung, Ernest Hemingway, Abraham Maslow, Alfred Adler, Michel Foucault, Gissele Deleuze, Edmund Husserl, Arnold Toynbee, Oswald Spengler, Hannah Ardent, Josehp Cambell, Carl Rogers, Thomas Mann, Paul Tillich, C.S. Lewis, Mark Rothko, Theodore Adorno, Karl Jaspers, B.F skinner, Richard Feynman, and Rene Gerad were all influenced by Nietzsche just to name a few. Objectively very few philosophers influence philosophers, poets, psychologist, historians, novelist, theologians, and some physicists only Aristotle, Plato, Hegel, and Socrates have achieved similar or greater. Given Nietzsche's philosophy was about living in a way that life justifies itself for the creative and gifted- is it unusual that his philosophy would be a mode of self-justification? Again, not really a valid criticism that's like criticizing the bible for being about God and Jesus.

None of them created anything lasting that you know of, but again you don't seem to know very much. Given Newton, Tesla, and Einstein were influenced by the philosophers of their times and the eminent ones of the past that they had access to; I think you're just myopic in your evaluation of how intellectual and creative progress works. How do you think you get creative and original ideas? It takes a lot of reading and surveying of other people's ideas. Tesla, Newton, and Einstein's were avid readers and as I've mentioned before they read their fair share of philosophers given it's an activity of general rigorous thinking on any topic that might interest one and Newton, Einstein, and Tesla were all in the business of thinking. It's not until relatively recently in the time of specialization that your standard physicist or engineer isn't reading philosophy, but given I've not actually observed this in most of the physicist and some engineers I've meat, I think generally people who are interested in doing the greatest amount of thinking they can typically study things like philosophy, mathematics, chess, physics, and chemistry that's the norm I've observed. You sure have a habit of talking about people and things you actually know very little about. Dunning Kruger much?

Here is a more honest take on ideas and innovative thinking:

I'm not even going to address Schopenhauer, but he is one of the greatest philosophers of all time, no matter what you may think of his person.

I don't care if you're interested in Nietzche or want to reread him. You simply don't understand him and are misrepresenting facts. You don't have to be objective, but I'll crack down on you're thinking when you're not, because other people have better things to do with their time than read bullshit.

I am sharing this video, because as Sherlock Holmes says, “It is a capital mistake to theorize before one has data. Insensibly one begins to twist facts to suit theories, instead of theories to suit facts

 
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It's funny, recently I saw on twitter that Schopenhauer's mother wrote to him that he was a bitter loser and a failure who didn't use the conditions and wealth available to contribute anything to the world or made it a better place. Brutal, but spot on.

Honestly, if you're gonna be secluded all day in your room and have no friends or family, at least make something of it like Tesla did. We should not be idolizing these people.

Okay, to hell with Schopenhauer's mothers' beef with him and jealousy over his status as a well-regarded writer and philosopher. Schopenhauer, Kant, and Hegel are rare in that they achieved fame and notoriety in their life-time and their achievements are pretty well known.

You and people like you shouldn't, because you don't and won't; however, people who want to be philosophers or well-informed should do careful study of at least some of the greatest philosophers of all time or they can forget about anyone outside of an internet forum who doesn't know much taking their ideas seriously.

Honestly, if you don't do something well, then shut up in telling other people how they should do it or be as people. I thought you liked personal freedom, so why are you telling everyone else who they shouldn't and shouldn't idolize? People have the freedom to value who and whatever they want; I thought that was your point in why you didn't really care about if someone was a free spirit or not.

Well, Hegel had a big family as did Euler and they were historical creative geniuses who spent a lot of time in isolation though to be fair when they became famous, they had many assistants and collaborators. Also, Jesus and Christianity are why historically western thinkers associated being a creative genius with celibacy and devotionalism. Though, I hope you know that the great C.G. Jung spent many hours alone pursuing his ideas, though he had a family and many assistants. Einstein had a family though he was terrible husband to his first wife. Yeah, Newton was likely Aspergers, but given so is Terrence Tao a modern mathematical genius and he has a family, your thinking is just conflationary. Correlation isn't causation. You're acting more like a troll, than a paragon of wisdom. Also, since when did moralizing about the possible ethical shortcomings of creative geniuses ever become a reason to discredit their achievements and intellectual and creative greatness?
 
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@Yoh Asakura @philostam

In the spirit of this thread's theme, I think it's worth abstracting an aspect of Nietzsche's thought from his personality, and that is the wider concept of existential authenticity. I'm not widely read in philosophy myself, though I do have a little knowledge of the core thinking of its great people. I think one of the great idols of our time, one that almost all of us fall foul of in some form, is inauthenticity. This is when we live our lives derivatively - when we forgo the gift to be truly ourselves and default to living out the life path laid down by others who have been forceful in expressing their own in a publicly compelling way - and what's worse is that usually we do not even realise we are doing it.

Not everyone has the life gifts to forge their own way in the world from first principles - we cannot all be geniuses of the psyche or of the philosophy of life. That doesn't matter because these guys have given the world so many tracks and maps to follow. It's not whether we use what they have discovered and described that scores our authenticity, but whether we follow their paths consciously, critically and with a free will. So someone who explicitly chooses to follow Christ, Nietzsche, Buddha, Marx, etc, while in full possession of their power to choose is being authentic, someone who simply defaults to one or more of these is not, and that to me is a potential candidate for idolatry. That choice is not a one off by the way, but an ongoing one because, like life itself, things continuously unfold and refold.

Spot on and well put as usual @John K
 
It's funny, recently I saw on twitter that Schopenhauer's mother wrote to him that he was a bitter loser and a failure who didn't use the conditions and wealth available to contribute anything to the world or made it a better place. Brutal, but spot on.

Honestly, if you're gonna be secluded all day in your room and have no friends or family, at least make something of it like Tesla did. We should not be idolizing these people.

What's most ironic to me is that your screen name is philotasm, obviously a play on philosophy and orgasm, yet you seem to know sparsely much seriously about philosophy and have little regard for the philosophy of the creative genius of that past that produced true intellectual and imaginative orgasms of ideation for the number of people who actually took the time to seriously read what they wrote and sought to sincerely understand it. Given these realities you have yet to hit any real intellectual g-spot in my mind, but then again, you're competing with Nietzsche, Schopenhauer, and a whole host of other philosophers and artists who you feel have wasted their lives.

Like Nietzsche, I tend to think envy and resentment are most often the motivations behind moralizing and the moral criticism of historical and exceptional figures. As much as I may not agree with Jesus or Marx, they were great historical figures and true expressions of genius even if ultimately, they are more than geniuses, they were definitely creative geniuses.
 
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Honestly, if you're gonna be secluded all day in your room and have no friends or family, at least make something of it like Tesla did. We should not be idolizing these people.

Now let me see, in the history of revolutionary ideas, in western history, you have Jesus, Luther, Calvin, Voltaire, Thomas Pain, Rosseau, Muhamad, Marx, and Nietzsche being the only ones who's thinking actually lead to full on wars, revolutions, conflicts, and historical events. Granted Nitzsche influenced the Nazis, still the man was a great philosopher and as much as Jung may have wished he changed the world through his psychology even modern cinema is more influenced by Nietzsche's philosophy, to add, Stanley Kubrick and Quiton Tarantino are both influenced by Nietzsche here's a sample of films:
The 15 Best Movies Influenced by Nietzschean Philosophy – Taste of Cinema – Movie Reviews and Classic Movie Lists



Now, Shakespeare, Plato, and Jesus are the only figures that come to mind in western history who's influence towers over Nitzsche, and it is not a waste of life to produce a philosophy, religion, or worldview that powers the thinking and imagination of any number of people, creative, and intellectual enterprises, no that's called being significant or making an impact. Even if it's not engineering or natural science, because people forget engineers and scientist are people too, so they need inspiration and ideas to believe in like the rest of us. Jung's overall influence isn't even as far reaching as Nietzsche though that might change as time goes on in the 21st century, yet, again Nietzsche was one of if not the most influential philosopher of the 20th century and is still influential well into this century.

Jung also influenced film just not as much as Nietzsche here's a sample:
The 10 Best Movies Influenced By Carl Jung – Taste of Cinema – Movie Reviews and Classic Movie Lists

Again, you don't have respect him or value him, but he was more the genius's genius as there has been a genius in our more recent history.
 
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Of course I stand for personal freedom, what I wrote was MY opinion.

I do respect creative geniuses, I can give you a list of artists/philosophers that I respect, admire and have learned a lot from if you're interested. The list is very long but doesn't include Nietzsche and Schopenhauer, simply because they didn't have any positive influence on me. It's fine, we're all different.

I doubt anyone will be swayed by my opinion, people here can think for themselves and I'm not an authority on philosophy anyway. I'm just a normal dude with an internet connection.
 
Of course I stand for personal freedom, what I wrote was MY opinion.

I do respect creative geniuses, I can give you a list of artists/philosophers that I respect, admire and have learned a lot from if you're interested. The list is very long but doesn't include Nietzsche and Schopenhauer, simply because they didn't have any positive influence on me. It's fine, we're all different.

I doubt anyone will be swayed by my opinion, people here can think for themselves and I'm not an authority on philosophy anyway. I'm just a normal dude with an internet connection.

I better understand, thanks for clarification.

I am interested, go for it.
 
On The Psychology of Creativity by Jordan Peterson, because I think generally in western culture artists and philosophers are idealized less than scientist and engineers and I think this explains well why:

 
How do you think you get creative and original ideas?

Heroic doses of phenethylamine-based entheogens and entactogens, lysergic acid diethylamide, N, N-dimethyltryptamine, alkaloids such as mescaline, and substituted tryptamine alkaloids like good ol’ psilocin.

I’m not recommending those things, but you said original ideas, so the use of heroic doses removes one’s ability to use language, or recognize glyphs, and in my experience, that’s a great place to start.

Cheers,
Ian
 
Heroic doses of phenethylamine-based entheogens and entactogens, lysergic acid diethylamide, N, N-dimethyltryptamine, alkaloids such as mescaline, and substituted tryptamine alkaloids like good ol’ psilocin.

I’m not recommending those things, but you said original ideas, so the use of heroic doses removes one’s ability to use language, or recognize glyphs, and in my experience, that’s a great place to start.

Cheers,
Ian

Understood, I know what I must do.
 
On The Psychology of Creativity by Jordan Peterson, because I think generally in western culture artists and philosophers are idealized less than scientist and engineers and I think this explains well why:


Didn't watch but the issue for me is pride. C.S Lewis wrote that pride is the greatest sin of all, since it isolates you both from God and other people. Pride is inherently competitive. It is satisfaction derived from having more virtue (be it intelligence, money, looks etc.) than other people. Creativity is also a virtue; I see it a gift from God and job of an artist is to translate that gift to other people. True creativity isn't voluntary. As soon as an artist becomes too proud of "his" art, you can be sure that he will loose God's gift soon.

The problem with Nietzsche is precisely pride and self-conceit which stems from his isolation and social rejection. That's why I see him as a very immature person and don't take him seriously at all. To me, he's a man-child, a poor soul craving love and affection.
 
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Didn't watch but the issue for me is pride. C.S Lewis wrote that pride is the greatest sin of all, since it isolates you both from God and other people.

I understand, but this would again mean you're judging Nietzsche from the standpoint of Christian values, not on the merits of his arguments or his achievements as a philosopher. This is like judging someone's German with the rules of English grammar. Nietzsche is writing a philosophy that is rooted in a historical context where Christianity did not exist and it's in pride that the Christian's anger bulks at the reality that someone would dare to question the reality and validity of their most cherished values and beliefs which is the irony. Nietzsche is trying to get one to actually question what they think and believe, if you reject it based on what you are already think and believe which you're free to, then you really shouldn't say you understand his philosophy. This may be why to you it mascaraed as life affirming, because you assume that the Ancient Greeks were less creative and fulfilled than modern Christians because they didn't believe pride is inherently competitive or there was something wrong in being inherently competitive, yet much of the Christian Art of the Renaissance was based on the artistic achievements of these Ancient Greeks.

Creativity is also a virtue; I see it a gift from God and job of an artist is to translate that gift to other people.

Perhaps you've changed your thinking on God, but I thought it was plain to you that God does not actually exist? What has brought about your change in thinking? Creativity is a feature of human cognition to generalize, bend, reshape, and reconstruct memory and perception. One can be creative without they inherently being more than high in trait openness with a sufficient amount of specific knowledge in certain areas of expertise like painting or chess, you're not a better person than someone else for being creative you have differing cognition and training. Unless you mean something else by virtue. Well, Homer damn sure didn't believe in Yahwe nor had issues with competition though the Greeks certainly believed hubris and being myopic were deplorable; neither did Aeschylus, Sophocles, Aristophanes, or Euripides, for that matter and they sure seem plenty creative. Plato and Socrates share your way of thinking though they believed it came from the muses not Jesus or Yahwe. Empirically speaking, creativity is partly voluntary and partly involuntary; it really depends on what you're talking about like ideation versus editing and where you're at in the creative process with something like the research phase or the development phase.

The problem with Nietzsche is precisely pride and self-conceit which stems from his isolation and social rejection.

I think you're at least somewhat prideful and self-conceited if this what you really think about Nietzsche's philosophy. It's lazy thinking. Now, you being someone who values Carl Jung so much, I have to ask if you, "see him as a very immature person and don't take him seriously at all." wouldn't that say more about you than Nietzsche or rather your shadow? Given Nietzsche is a philosophical genius and you're not? Granted he doesn't share your moral attitudes and beliefs, but his philosophy should be taken seriously if you're going to be a philosopher or present yourself as one who is into philosophy and thinking. Then again maybe you can hang around echo chambers and enclaves of people who feel like you do and already believe what you do that will just affirm you on your virtue signaling, but this defeats the point of general rigors thinking i.e. the activity of philosophy. You would be isolated and socially rejected in a room of real philosophers. Does this make you a person not worth taking serious in other settings? Nietzsche is indeed a terrible Christain, he absolutely fails to pass the Christian sniff test, but if you're grading the philosophy of someone who's not a Christain philosopher on their alignment with Christian moral values, then it's hard not to believe you don't understand what you're reading, you've never read Nietzche and are just being a troll, or are a lazy thinker or you don't like or care about philosophy none of which to me means you should settle on your current ideas about Nietzsche or share them with other people who are interested in philosophy. You of course are free do whatever you want, but to me you either genuinely try to understand something or you admit that you could simply be talking out of your ass when you do talk about something, otherwise you'll come off as disingenuous or misinformed or an idiot to those people who do understand what you're talking about.

Also, I hope you see how I loosely played off of C.S. Lewis' style of argument in Mere Christianity in this response. To me if Paul Tillich and C.S Lewis both thought Nietzsche was worth taking seriously, you had better have a better reason for why you don't take Nietzsche seriously that doesn't have anything to do with Christain values when one of the most influential theologians of the 20th century and lay Christian writers were influenced by him.

I think you and Nietzsche are different people and that he was the wiser and more mature of the two of you, just my opinion as a third-party observer. Nietzsche had a much more nuanced, rich, and multi-dimensional way of thinking about things such that it's easy to understand how you and a lot of other people can so easily misunderstand him.
 
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Didn't watch but the issue for me is pride. C.S Lewis wrote that pride is the greatest sin of all, since it isolates you both from God and other people. Pride is inherently competitive. It is satisfaction derived from having more virtue (be it intelligence, money, looks etc.) than other people. Creativity is also a virtue; I see it a gift from God and job of an artist is to translate that gift to other people. True creativity isn't voluntary. As soon as an artist becomes too proud of "his" art, you can be sure that he will loose God's gift soon.

The problem with Nietzsche is precisely pride and self-conceit which stems from his isolation and social rejection. That's why I see him as a very immature person and don't take him seriously at all. To me, he's a man-child, a poor soul craving love and affection.

I already know you are fully capable in believing things what I'm doubtful of is that you think rigorous enough and know enough to understand Nietzsche.
 
Since you have no problems "analyzing" me, I will also say that your project a very unhealthy attachment to the "creative genius" figure and simultaneously disdain for normal people who were not in the right part of the world, to the right parents or with the right natural abilities to "understand" Nietzsche. Guess what, if Nietzsche wrote for the top 0.1%, that's a terrible business idea - because ultimately your ideas need to benefit the world. Maybe that's the reason why normal people like scientists and not tortured geniuses? Because someone like Einstein actually benefited the world, and was not a dick about it? And didn't write poetic prose in praise for himself and other "free spirits".

I can only hope for your own sake you're really so special as you think, and I wish you well on your evolution to the over-man species.
 
This is the email that Steve Jobs sent to himself as a reminder. I wonder why people love him and not Nietzsche...

"I did not breed or perfect the seeds.
I do not make any of my own clothing.
I speak a language did not invent or refine
I did not discover the mathematics I use.
I am protected by freedoms and laws I did not conceive of or legislate, and do not enforce or adjudicate.
I am moved by music I did not create myself.
When I needed medical attention, I was helpless to help myself survive.
I did not invent the transistor, the microprocessor, object oriented programming, or most of the technology I work with,
I love and admire my species, living and dead, and am totally dependent on them for my life and well being.


Sent from my iPad”
 
Also, about my nickname that fascinates you so much.

1) I chose it like 10 years ago
2) I am, in fact, a fan of wisdom. I can call myself a fan of philosophy, even if I don't care for 90% of the academic philosophers. What is wisdom? For sure not isolating yourself and over-think your way into mental collapse like Nietzsche did lol.

Maybe that's the INTJ way. Bobby Fischer did the same. Poor guy didn't know that you can be a chess genius AND a normal person at the same time, and that that's gonna lead to a better life and a longer career.
 
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Since you have no problems "analyzing" me, I will also say that your project a very unhealthy attachment to the "creative genius" figure and simultaneously disdain for normal people who were not in the right part of the world, to the right parents or with the right natural abilities to "understand" Nietzsche.

I respect exemplary and great things, because they are difficult to achieve, unlikely to occur, ephemeral, and often times more beneficial than what is most typical and normative. I don't disdain normal; I don't like when people overestimate their knowledge, are lazy in their thinking, and project their beliefs onto matters they haven't taken the time to understand, exceptional or unexceptional, because high IQ or low IQ, the easiest person to fool "you're right" is yourself, so do your due diligence not to bullshit yourself. Well, creative geniuses can be just as guilty of bias, prejudice, and faulty thinking as your average person. For instance, Francis Galton was completely wrong about where eminent performance and achievement comes from, yet he invented psychometrics and empirical psychology in his error. Very few people can fuck up so royally and spectacularly while still achieving great feats, so as much as I may be able to criticize Galton, he was a creative genius factually speaking. He changed psychology from the direction of a philosophical exercise to an empirical science whether he was morally correct to our modern values is not the point to me. In like manner, I don't care if Michael Jordan subscribes to the same set of values as me. He's one of the greatest basketball players ever. Tiger Woods could have cheat on his wife 200 times, nobody has been a better golfer to date- Is more my point or the thrust of my argument.

Guess what, if Nietzsche wrote for the top 0.1%, that's a terrible business idea -
Nietzsche hated capitalism, because he valued great religious, artistic, scientific, athletic, and militaristic achievements and one can see in the history of imminent and great achievement in these things that trying to be merely practical is insufficient. Power is not practical it's influential, thus Nietzsche was more so trying to start something like a cultural revolution rather than starting a business or guaranteeing here and now concrete success. For instance, again, Jesus was crucified, and Socrates was forced to drink Hemlock, yet Jesus is the founder of Christianity, and its central figure and Socrates is considered the father of modern western philosophy. Jesus did not have a business plan and at the time given the vast majority of power in Ancient Rome was concentrated among the aristocratic class and in Jerusalem the religious leaders who were supported by the Roman Aristocratic class, it wasn't a good idea for Jesus to oppose them, but because he did people show up every Sunday to read about his life and teachings. They imitate him and make art devoted his or what they believe to be his likeness. I don't make Freshmen read Socrates through Plato, because Socrates had a solid business idea. Commerce and intellectual and creative greatness are different arenas, and you better know which court you're playing on, because oftentimes they don't align, sometimes they do, but in most cases they don't, because businesses tend to thrive on well-established yet little known trends, ways of seeing, and doing things, mostly innovating in production, use or function, and marketing. Being a Free Spirit on the other hand requires your trying to found a new way of being, seeing, or thinking which tends to undermine what is already well established even if not widely known.

Maybe that's the reason why normal people like scientists and not tortured geniuses? Because someone like Einstein actually benefited the world, and was not a dick about it?

Again, word to the wise, don't talk about things you don't know very much about. Einstein said, “Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity.” Also, who did Einstein's ideas benefit the most? GPS companies, Nuclear Arms dealers, The Government, or Scientist who are employed by the government? Most people like science, because they understand that it benefits them in a direct practical way like medicine, electricity, and Wi-Fi, and their culture tells them to, but aside from scientist most people don't really understand or know what science is and how any of the branches function. To add, if the government tells people to start licking cattle a good number of people will do so normal or unusual, because being socially deferential is just how humans tend to be. Further, Einstein isn't a moral paragon or held any less feelings of elitism than Nietzsche he just didn't publicize them. His personal diaries contain a noticeable number of entries that some might describe as being xenophobic, sexist, and elitist.

Einstein's travel diaries reveal 'shocking' xenophobia | Manuscripts and letters | The Guardian

Albert Einstein's travel diaries reveal his racist, misogynistic side - The Washington Post

Well, Socrates wrote nothing down for himself or other philosopher, but that doesn't make him any less a philosophical genius based on what we have of what was written down. People generally dislike Nietzsche because he influenced the Nazis and was Anti-Christian morality and well most western countries have a long history of Christianity and there was a very bloody and long war fought against the Nazis, so like people do, Nietzche and his philosophy was a scapegoat for all that emotional and historical baggage which is why even to this day people like yourself who clearly isn't a very careful student of philosophy aren't ambivalent about Nietzsche but opposed to him, unless you're also a Christian, but again C.S. Lewis and Paul Tillich read the guy and were influenced by him, because more than aphorisms about free spirits and self-deification, he wrote The Genealogy of Morals, The Misuse and Abuse of History, On Truth and Lies in an Extra-Moral Sense, Lectures on The Presocratics: Why they are Pre-Platonics, The Birth of Tragedy, The Twilight of the Idols, The Anti-Christ, Untimely Meditations, The Dawn, works that if you truly like philosophy make it hard not to appreciate his philosophical genius even if you don't agree with his other works or ideas, because nobody, in the history of philosophy, has the same oxymoronical, original, ironic, and liminal kind of thinking and takes things to their logical extremes like Nietzsche, but then again you truly have to appreciate philosophy to think and feel such a way about his writing which again I am doubtful is true of you.
 
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This is the email that Steve Jobs sent to himself as a reminder. I wonder why people love him and not Nietzsche...

"I did not breed or perfect the seeds.
I do not make any of my own clothing.
I speak a language did not invent or refine
I did not discover the mathematics I use.
I am protected by freedoms and laws I did not conceive of or legislate, and do not enforce or adjudicate.
I am moved by music I did not create myself.
When I needed medical attention, I was helpless to help myself survive.
I did not invent the transistor, the microprocessor, object oriented programming, or most of the technology I work with,
I love and admire my species, living and dead, and am totally dependent on them for my life and well being.


Sent from my iPad”

I know some people who worked with Steve Jobs, and they thought he was an asshole. Do you know very much about how Steve Jobs operated as a person?
 
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