Okay. Here’s a thought, I’ve been reading a ton of Nietzsche lately and I figured that it would be really cool if I could post a section and analyze it.
The Gay Science
By: Friedrich Nietzsche
Section 155
What we lack.
“We love what is great in nature and have discovered it — because in our heads, great human beings are lacking. It was the other way around for the Greeks; their feeling for nature is different from ours.”
What is he talking about? Don’t worry, I can totally translate. He’s starting off with saying that there is a difference between the people today and the ancients. Today, people value the greatness of things in nature.
Like this mountain. Isn’t it magnificent?
Well, that’s just what Nietzsche’s talking about. He’s saying that today’s people find things like mountains, the ocean, and physically large things to be where greatness is. What of the person who sees these great things? Isn’t that person great too for being able to see this greatness?…Nope. We’re pretty much insignificant.
Nietzsche continues with how everything was in the reverse for the ancients. They viewed not external natural objects as great, but the one natural object each individual has domain over as greatness. One’s body and what one can do with one’s body is great.
Why should we care?
Ariel Ceylan
Ariel Ceylan's Blog 