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> He was fond of the Nietzsche quote: “he who has a why to live can bear almost any how”, and he supplements this idea with his experiences in surviving Auschwi
by sctb 2y ago
> He was fond of the Nietzsche quote: “he who has a why to live can bear almost any how”, and he supplements this idea with his experiences in surviving Auschwitz and helping others in his clinical work.
It seems to me as though this "why to live" must transcend one's own life in order to have this effect. From this perspective, your epidemic of meaning might reflect a consensus world-view which is overly individualized.
- canuckthrow 2y ago[flagged]
- anon373839 2y agoNo, I don’t think that’s correct. A person’s sense of meaning is often rooted in something social, but it doesn’t have to be. For example, many artists find meaning in creation. Not because the work product lives on or because other people appreciate it, but for the act itself.
- atlas_hugged 2y agoArtists are probably not the best example of happy people, but I understand your intent
- ikekkdcjkfke 2y agoProbably rooted in evolution to only apply effort and pain on rewarding activities
- t0bia_s 2y agoSure, but at the end it doesn't matter if artist doing what he likes secretly if his happiness is not expressed in interaction with others.
- Barrin92 2y agoNietzsche intended to say the radical opposite, from Ecce Homo: "My formula for greatness in a human being is amor fati: that one wants nothing to be different, not forward, not backward, not in all eternity. Not merely bear what is necessary, still less conceal it—all idealism is mendacity in the face of what is necessary—but love it" For him there were no transcendent values, ideologies, gods, what have you. People weren't individualist enough. To him it wasn't about latching onto some cause but to, in his words, become who you are. Affirm your own will and say yes to the world even if you, like in one of his thought experiments, lived in the worst world imaginable, on repeat, forever.
- alfiedotwtf 2y agoIt’s almost as if Nietzsche was a nihilist :)
- daseiner1 2y agoIt’s arguable that the chief through line of his corpus is the attempted overcoming of nihilism. He viewed nihilism as one of the largely inevitable outcomes of the failing of transcendentals to provide meaning. Thus he attempts to overcome modern ennui via the construction of a strictly immanent conception of the world. Labeling him a “nihilist” is misleading. Owing to the conflation of nihilism with a dour, depressive outlook, many are surprised to find out that his writing is in fact consistently joyous.
- t0bia_s 2y agoVirtues can be measured only in confrontation with others. Living for yourself is not a way to have happy life.