Friedrich Nietzsche : A Panegyric of a Paradigm Shifter
Good day readers. After a day well spent in the company of my colleagues, and a well methodized discussion about prominent philosophers and their ideologies, I am moved to share with you an encomium of an eighteenth century philosopher, an epitome of revolution and a victim of those sad cases great men whose works were not recognized in their own life time, Friedrich Nietzsche.
After my reading of the book man's search for meaning by Viktor Frankl and his incessant reference to one of the philosopher's quotes
he who has a why to live can deal with almost any how.
And after that, intrigue caught up with me. I was a little boy then, but I will never forget how those words of his had propelled me into the waters of philosophy and in those waters I waded with great delight.
A paradigm shifter
A shortsighted view of the life of Friedrich Nietzsche presents us with a man who was born in a very religious home and at a period similar to the time of Corpernicus and Galilee Galileo, when the Christian faith held a kind of hegemony, any opposing view was considered blatant blasphemy and was perhaps punishable by death. He proceeded to study philology at the University of Basel and was the youngest in the history of the study of philology to be called up to take a professorship in classical philology. He was plagued with series of inimical maldies throughout his lifetime including vascular dementia and other psychological illness and even experienced bouts of strokes which would render him immobile for days even months. He was an anti-christain as well, a very dangerous side to place footings during his time, but yet, this man did not let his illness or opposition affect his mind and revolutionary ideologies, standing by his saying that he who has a why to live for can deal with almost any how.
What I admired the most about him was the central idea of his ideaology, which was, the will to power, contending that our nature was to improve our will to power against obstacles, challenges and even moral institutions. For Friedrich, moral values were relative and almost baseless on a fundamental basis and perhaps, even deleterious. And that was why he was a vehement opposed of the idea of a "supreme God" proclaiming a very statement that shocked both the philosophers and theologist of his day, "God is Dead." A notable Atheist of you ask me, although there is no historical ready record of him referring to himself as such. One of his most notable idea was the mendacity in our understanding of morality, affirmimg that the human idea of morality was based on historical foundations and not on reasonable premises. He remained unmovable amidst many challenges, including the restrictions of his publications, his heartbreaking rejection after proposing three times to a woman named Salome. He maintained that value was a created entity rather than discovered and that perspective was the mirror through which the world should be viewed and that every man had a most basic right to his own perspective. A fact ancient philosophers such as Plato had not considered, viewing the world through a personal perspective instead of a general perspective. Not enough words are enough to discuss this great mind and his accomplishments in the world of philosophical speculations. However, I shall close this panegyric with a passage from one of his revolutionary works, The Antichrist, one which am sure is popular amongst our mordern day philosophical scholars:
What is good? Everything that heightens the feeling of power in man, the will to power, power itself.
What is bad? Everything that is born of weakness.
What is happiness? The feeling that power is growing , that resistance is overcome.
Not contentedness but more power; not peace but war; not virtue but fitness.
