Nietzsche, The Death of God, the Future of Christianity, & Nihilism | with Ken Gemes

[UpCycleClub]

I know that I am the one who posed that off-handed question @49:25, but holy moly, it generated such a wholesome and deeply insightful response - that is beyond astonishing! From the bottom of my heart, thank you so much.

[jdzentrist]

Thank you for introducing me to Ken Gemes, a very remarkable Nietzsche master! Without any shadow of a doubt, Nietzsche is for all time my favorite--and all I can read is the translations! I'm now beginning a study, though, of Confucius and the Chinese Way. This "way" explicitly precludes "eternal recurrence of the same." However, it is going to land, it seems, in a very "Nietzschean" celebration of life, of strength, of "loyalty to the earth, " which place is our "playground." And on this "playground" we are like children, at every moment discovering what is best, or at least what is better.

[overdogsonly]

This is awesome! And pertinent to the stuff I've been thinking about lately.

[meinking]

To understand why Nietzsche believes values should be esteemed over the base expression of power, one needs only to look at his early writings. Nietzsche believed philosophy should serve Life.

This was Nietzsche's primary contention with Socrates. As great as Socrates was, in the end, he chose Death over Life. Both the 'The Birth of Tragedy' and 'History in the Service of Life' express this well.

[jdzentrist]

Decadence and Creativity: I'm reminded of a "Philosophy Today" article on Nietzsche, with this title, by Joan Stambaugh. This is arguably the heart of the matter, for many of us. I read the article almost half a century ago. My university emphasized Leo Strauss, who also was much influenced by his master, Nietzsche: "decadence" was "translated" as the Aristotelian "convention" ("nomos, " conventional justice or "law"), whereas "creativity" is the other side of this Aristotelian "coin, " namely, NATURE or phusis ("natural right"), Trump?. So, if we are among the few, as opposed to the many, we embody the vitalism/creativity of "natural justice" (Goethe, Spengler, Taylor Sheridan, Napoleon, Caesar or perhaps Trump). The "dunamis"/ "energeia" dynamic also comes to mind. We can't have one, without the other. We have a genius in our midst, a Texan from Cranfills Gap--Taylor Sheridan, creator- writer of "Yellowstone" and "1883", etc. In a recent episode, very chilling, a cowboy makes the decision to shoot a woman and kill her, in order to put her out of her misery (she was stumbling around, dying, with an arrow through her torso, and her head recently scalped). It gives me goosebumps to recall that scene. Shea, the elder cowboy comes along, and says, "You made a decision." Taylor, who started out like Shakespeare as an actor, seems to have read everything, including Nietzsche/Heidegger.

[SeekerAppleSwordSerpent]

Wonderful! What does Gemes think about Dostoevsky’s contributions? Are Nietzsche and Dostoyevsky complimentary? What distinctions come through Dostoyevsky that matter in light of Nietzsche?

[clumsydad]

I'm just reading something about Paul Virilio right now ... pretty interesting, just thought I'd throw that name out there.

[oldhollywoodbriar]

God is alive and well but has anyone seen Nietzsche around lately?

[tylerdavis]

So I guess that makes you two Christians?