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Saturday, December 11. 2010

A little Nietzsche for Advent

From Prof. Sean Kelly's Navigating Past Nihilism (h/t, reader BL):



“God is dead,” Nietzsche wrote in a famous passage from “The Gay Science.”  “God remains dead.  And we have killed him.”


There is much debate about the meaning of Nietzsche’s famous claim, and I will not attempt to settle that scholarly dispute here.  But at least one of the things that Nietzsche could have meant is that the social role that the Judeo-Christian God plays in our culture is radically different from the one he has traditionally played in prior epochs of the West.  For it used to be the case  in the European Middle Ages for example ─ that the mainstream of society was grounded so firmly in its Christian beliefs that someone who did not share those beliefs could therefore not be taken seriously as living an even potentially admirable life.

Posted by The Barrister at 14:58 | Comments (6) | Trackbacks (0)

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My favorite graffiti piece: "Nietzsche is dead, God"
#1 Blasco on 2010-12-11 17:04 (Reply)
My gloss on it is that God doesn't work anymore as an explanation.
#2 rhhardin (Link) on 2010-12-11 19:25 (Reply)
He meant that what had grounded society and individuals was no longer there. It was not a comment about religion or really God, per se, but about the oncoming existential angst that had started in his time and is now commonplace.

For those who believe in God today religion is not the center of existence and meaning like it was 200 years ago (for example today you can believe in God AND evolution AND the big bang AND so on). Taking out this plank - God is the answer to all questoins and Everything - has left many, even those who believe in God, without moorings and feeling empty. The role that religion served is gone and is "dead".

Nietzsche's answer to this problem was to find a center of meaning within yourself, to become fully actualized in order to find that mooring (so to become his "uberman"). He was at the crossroads of religion, philosophy and psychology for his time, and whether or not you agree with him, he was prophetic about how empty and angst-ridden the world was to become.
#3 stuckinsd on 2010-12-11 19:37 (Reply)
He really gets the bum rap of all time in the philosophy world --he actually spent his career warning against just such an ideology a-coming.
#4 buddy larsen spam on 2010-12-12 09:16 (Reply)
financialsensearchive.com/stormwatch/geo/pastanalysis/2008/0829.html
#5 buddy larsen spam on 2010-12-12 09:18 (Reply)
thenational.ae/arts-culture/books/bloodlands-europe-between-hitler-and-stalin?pageCount=0

(h/t Arts & Entertainment Daily)

I wrote a long post, tying all three of the above comment entries into one, with included quotes from the book ref --and some thoughts --and the Dread Red Lettered Spam Cop would not let it pass --i tried everything, for 30 minutes (incl a coffee refill break for morale) --and finally gave up and deleted the whole thing save for the three clipped and shorn briefs --which i had to post seperately. What gives with that beast? It's like totally arbitrary and a major irritant, if i may ingratefully say.
#6 buddy larsen spam on 2010-12-12 09:25 (Reply)

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