…Another indicator that a religious spirit, a christian spirit, is present even if unconsciously, is the practice of reconcilliation of texts.
For example, some give the advice, that in view of apparently contradicting statements by his subject philosopher, (Nietzsche’s apparent anti anti-semitism in contrast with his at times racialist and vagueously racist and interpreted by this poster as anti-semitist) that one must pursue a unification, a reconcilliation of those only superficially opposed views into a coherent whole.
Many presumptions exists in such an advice including a belief in the consistency of the philosopher. The philosopher must have had a system, from beginning to end, in which, if we only could discover it, different and opposite views are placed under one coherent perspective about the subject.
It could not be that the man simply changed his opinions, his philosophy as he went along.
I offer a different advise. When you find a person with contradicting statements, views, an indication of a deep person with two souls within his chest, do not pretent to reconcille what does not need to be unified. Two spirits exists, yet one is dominant. To find which one is the dominant one, one must look at the actions of a person, because the stronger belief is that which has enough force to overcome one’s own inertia.
So in the case of Nietzsche, to use a free sample from the world of philosophy, you have a man whose actions declared him an anti anti-semite. Whatever else Nietzsche wrote, for whatever motives, to provoke, to sensionalize, perhaps just to popularize his work in Germany and to appeal to the only people listening- the anti-semites…whatever the reasons we conjure up for statements that can be taken as racist of anti-semitist, what he wrote only has value if also practiced, acted upon.
Don’t just write that you’re a great humanist, I would say to Jefferson, while you hold 300 slaves at the end of your whip. Your life does not live up to the principles of your philosophy. But a generation will come which will believe words that you did not believe. People that will believe that indeed “all men are created equal” even those at the end of your whip.
O- “…what he wrote only has value if also practiced, acted upon.” That was the point which both of you missed completely.
bdhanes asked me more questions than the post was even worth. He says:
— What responses are you looking for?
O- Shoot, I was simply making a point, not begging for answers/responses.
— “Your life does not live up to the principles of your philosophy.”
O- No, not “principles” but life.
Nietszche could not become the Ãœbermensch. We can aspire to our ideals. I believe there is value in them and value in aspiring to them, even if we cannot reach them.
O- You missed the point again. The entire paragraph reads:
“So in the case of Nietzsche, to use a free sample from the world of philosophy, you have a man whose actions declared him an anti anti-semite. Whatever else Nietsche wrote, for whatever motives, to provoke, to sensionalize, perhaps just to popularize his work in Germany and to appeal to the only people listening- the anti-semites…whatever the reasons we conjure up for statements that can be taken as racist of anti-semitist, what he wrote only has value if also practiced, acted upon.”
This is not about being unable to live up to one’s ideals, but that in some cases you’ve conflicting statements from one person, but my suggestion is that instead of trying to reconcille the statements, that one looks at the person’s actions to see where his mind is really at. Instead of reconcilling words with more words, let’s try to reconcille the words with actions.