Any Nietzsche Fans? Help me!

Professor Smooth · Post by **Professor Smooth** » Tue Oct 11, 2005 9:18 pm

I've tried reading Nietzsche and failed miserably. I need to know what Nietzsche describes as "The Problem of History" in "The Uses and Disadvantages of History for Life."

So, if anyone knows what he calls The Problem of History, any help would be greatly appreciated.

jboyler · Post by **jboyler** » Tue Oct 11, 2005 10:39 pm

http://www.wesleyan.edu/col/comps/Niet1.htm

http://faculty.ed.uiuc.edu/burbules/syl ... ology.html

http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/ ... 35300/pg_5

These are all pretty wordy and obtuse, but what I got out of it goes thusly:

1. Mankind wants to understand history.
2. No one can see the past, so all of our history will be flawed.
3. When our history ends up flawed, we're unhappy, so we try to understand more about it.
4. The more we try to understand and write, the more we get wrong, and the unhappier we are.
5. Our lives suck.

Just my interpretation.

-J

Professor Smooth · Post by **Professor Smooth** » Tue Oct 11, 2005 11:18 pm

Thanks, this will keep me busy for awhile.

Professor Smooth · Post by **Professor Smooth** » Tue Oct 11, 2005 11:50 pm

This is coming along quite well. Now I just need to figure out why art, not morality, is the true metaphysical activity of man.

Back to quote hunting.

jboyler · Post by **jboyler** » Wed Oct 12, 2005 3:51 am

Art reflects what our morality would be if it wasn't dragged down by the neccesities of real life.

-J

Professor Smooth · Post by **Professor Smooth** » Wed Oct 12, 2005 4:09 am

jboyler wrote:Art reflects what our morality would be if it wasn't dragged down by the neccesities of real life.

-J

Not to mention that since humans create art they are, at least theoretically, able to understand art while they're unable to understand morality as "god" created it.

Thanks for you help. I can honestly say I wouldn't have been able to finish this otherwise. I owe you (at least) one.