Philosophers are the source of madness.
Now, when we hear that a person is studying philosophy, we often kindly advise him, "Don't be crazy." In fact, of all the philosophers in history, only one has become a madman, and it is this one that has a great influence. He is Nietzsche.
The source of Nietzsche's madness is probably impossible to know, because Nietzsche is dead. However, many studies show that Nietzsche's madness has little to do with philosophical research. Nietzsche's last madness was mainly because he witnessed his father's death as a child and the genetic diseases that accompanied him all his life, especially migraine. Nietzsche always thought that because his father died at the age of thirty-five, he who inherited his father's migraine, myopia, dizziness and headache would definitely die at the age of thirty-five, that is, the age when his father died. At the same time, due to the early death of his father, Nietzsche was raised by his mother, aunt and other women with his sisters. Therefore, Nietzsche was deeply influenced by them and psychologically "feminine". When I was a child, Nietzsche had a big head, a small figure, squints but superior intelligence, and was introverted and arrogant. Being with his sister all the time, Nietzsche never played with other peers. He is afraid of them and doesn't know how to talk to them. All these laid the foundation for Nietzsche's later lonely wandering. But we have to face up to the fact that in Nietzsche's philosophy, his almost paranoid demand for willpower may also be due to this factor. Because Nietzsche thinks that genius equals neuropathy. And a strong will needs a superman.
That poor horse
Nietzsche's crazy legend is because of a horse. At that time, Nietzsche, although weak and often confused, was able to go out for a walk and relax when he was awake. However, in the evening of 1889, when Nietzsche walked on the same road as usual, the tragedy happened.
Nietzsche saw an old horse struggling there with a heavy cart, but the owner of the horse brutally waved a whip and beat the horse severely. Nietzsche immediately rushed forward to hug the horse and cried, "My poor brother." Then Nietzsche went crazy.
This is related to Nietzsche's "master slave morality". Here, Nietzsche expounds the moral differences between master and slave. In the master's morality, it is a celebration of life, while the slave's morality is a resentment against the master.
In the Theory of Moral Genealogy, Nietzsche traced the Christian moral concept back to the period he called "slaves rebelled by virtue of morality", and he described the "resentment" of the members at the bottom of society towards those at the top who were powerful and noble. Noble members regard "good" and "bad" as the standard to distinguish values, think that their social advantages prove their superiority, and despise those members at the bottom. The slaves found that they could not face the fact that they were conquered by the strong, so they conceived a set of "imaginary revenge", describing those strong people as "evil" and describing themselves as "good", and thus constructed a Christian moral view. Through this moral concept, incompetent and weak members are entitled to live on the earth. In his second monograph, Nietzsche described the social scene before this moral concept (which he called "traditional morality") appeared. Before that, the power of violence to hurt people came from a person's ability, just like animals have the ability to remember and make promises, and the punishment for breaking promises is to be hurt by violence. Therefore, according to Nietzsche, the tradition of imposing punishment does not come from any moral goal or theory. "Bad result" is also a concept that existed in society before morality appeared. If man is no longer free to wander around and plunder, his violent animal nature will turn to vent on himself. In the third article, Nietzsche discussed the concept of "perfect abstinence" in Christian morality. Nietzsche believes that what is hidden behind this abstinence concept is only a series of absurd and unfounded superstitions. Even in modern society, these superstitions are still trying to corrupt mankind in new "secret" forms.
God is dead.
This is Nietzsche's most famous proposition, and it can also be said to be a famous saying of Nietzsche. Some people even say that this is the reason why Nietzsche went crazy. Because after saying that God is dead, Nietzsche said, "I am God." God represents the ethical requirements of Christianity, just as Confucius represents the ethics of Confucianism. When Nietzsche said that God is dead, such a proposition directly led to the central argument of existentialism in later generations: if there is no God, there is no inevitable value or moral law. If there is no necessary value or moral law, how should human beings treat themselves? Of course, Nietzsche's saying that "God is dead" does not mean that God, a substantive material entity, is dead, but that Christian morality and ethics have been criticized in Nietzsche's theory. In Look, This Man, Nietzsche recorded a clear and vivid statement when he exposed the moral essence of Christianity. He said: "The blind worship of Christianity is a typical sin-a sin against life." The most terrible thing is "the concept of a good man, because it means that a person stands on the side of all weak, sick, declining-self-enduring things."
The source of contempt for words such as weakness, friendliness and beauty is the superman and strong will that Nietzsche has always emphasized and practiced. He believes that the spiritual life of Europeans for two thousand years is centered on believing in God, and man is God's creation and appendage. The value of life, everything of people is pinned on God. Although the foundation of God's existence has begun to disintegrate since the Enlightenment, people still believe and worship God because there is no new belief. He said that he was the murderer of God through the mouth of a madman, and pointed out that God should be killed. Christian ethics fetters people's minds and suppresses people's instincts. To set people free, we must first kill God. Nietzsche believes that the decline of Christianity has its historical inevitability. It has changed from the religion of the oppressed to the religion of the rulers ruling the oppressors, and its decline is a historical necessity. In the world without God, people have gained unprecedented opportunities and must establish new values, values centered on human will. Therefore, traditional moral values should be liquidated. Traditional moral concept is the last refuge of God, which deeply permeates people's daily life and corrodes people's hearts.
Superman and strong will
Nietzsche's body has been in a state of illness and his life is extremely poor, which is a heavy blow to anyone and easy to make people fall into depression. On the contrary, Nietzsche has always asked himself to be strong and live. Compared with Schopenhauer's pessimism, Nietzsche who inherited Schopenhauer is much more positive. Schopenhauer is in absolute negative pessimism, thinking that only by cutting off the source of life can human beings be freed from eternal pain, while Nietzsche is striving for progress. He also believes that human beings are in eternal pain, but the goal of human beings is to become superman. Superman, in Nietzsche's book, is defined as a person who has a strong will and can control his own destiny perfectly.
Passing through Frankfurt, he saw a group of cavalry marching in the city. Suddenly Nietzsche's inspiration flooded out: "For the first time, I feel that the powerful and supreme' will to life' is not a tragic struggle for existence, but a' will to fight', a' strong will' and a' super will'!" Nietzsche wants to establish a new philosophy, a philosophy that puts the will of life above rationality and an irrational philosophy. As a challenge to reason, he put forward the theory of strong will, which replaced the position of God and traditional metaphysics. The core of the theory of strong will is to affirm life and life. Strong will is not a secular force, but an instinctive, spontaneous and irrational force. It determines the essence and meaning of life. Nietzsche compared the different characteristics of strong will and rationality. The characteristics of rationality are: calm, accurate, logical, straightforward and abstinence; The characteristics of strong will are: passion, desire, wildness, initiative and fighting. Nietzsche believes that a strong will comes from life and belongs to life, which is the real life. Although life is short, as long as you have strong will, create will and become a strong spiritual person, you can realize your own value. As the highest value measure, strong will not only affirms the value of life, but also defends the inequality in the world. In Nietzsche's view, human beings, like natural life, have strong and weak points. The strong are always in the minority, and the weak are in the majority. History and culture are created by a few strong people, who naturally rule the weak. Nietzsche overthrew the hierarchy of God and affirmed the hierarchy of man.
Nietzsche also put forward his superman philosophy, that is, the philosophy of building an ideal life. Superman is the symbol of life ideal, the ideal goal pursued by Nietzsche and the realm of life. Nietzsche is very disappointed with modern people and modern life. He dreams of improving people and bringing up new people, that is, superman. Superman is not a concrete person, but an illusory image. Superman has the momentum and style of earth, ocean and lightning. Nietzsche believes that superman does not exist in reality, but is an ideal image of future people. Superman put forward the value goal for real life; Superman is man's self-transcendence.
The purpose of Nietzsche's advocating life is to realize a strong will, expand himself and become a superman who controls everything. Superman is the highest value of human beings, so we should despise all traditional moral concepts, do whatever we want, and realize ourselves by enslaving the weak and the public. At the same time, he especially opposed gender equality, freedom of marriage and women's liberation. In his view, the way people treat women is "don't forget your whip".
Nietzsche said, "My works will not be valued until one hundred years later."
"I am afraid that one day I will be respected and distorted by the least qualified people ..."
Perhaps Nietzsche had a premonition when he saw his brother-in-law with anti-semitism and fascist thoughts. Later, Nietzsche's philosophy was really distorted and tampered with by his sister Elizabeth, and as an echo of fascism, Nietzsche suffered decades of fascist stigma. It was not until some scholars snatched all Nietzsche's manuscripts from Elizabeth's hand, rearranged and rearranged all the texts tampered with, deleted and distorted by Elizabeth that Nietzsche was rehabilitated.