Zapffe views the human condition as tragically overdeveloped, calling it "a biological paradox, an abomination, an absurdity, an exaggeration of disastrous nature."[1] Zapffe viewed the world as beyond humanity's need for meaning, unable to provide any of the answers to the fundamental existential questions.
The tragedy of a species becoming unfit for life by over-evolving one ability is not confined to humankind. Thus it is thought, for instance, that certain deer in paleontological times succumbed as they acquired overly-heavy horns. The mutations must be considered blind, they work, are thrown forth, without any contact of interest with their environment. In depressive states, the mind may be seen in the image of such an antler, in all its fantastic splendour pinning its bearer to the ground.
— Peter Wessel Zapffe, The Last Messiah[1]
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After placing the source of anguish in human intellect, Zapffe then sought as to why humanity simply didn't just perish. He concluded humanity "performs, to extend a settled phrase, a more or less self-conscious repression of its damaging surplus of consciousness" and that this was "a requirement of social adaptability and of everything commonly referred to as healthy and normal living." — The Last Messiah Wikip
For some human animals this (metacognitive curse) is the case; for the rest (most), however, they live like "other animals ... doing what it needs to get by" – thus, they are masses (the "m" is silent), euphemistically called "the flock" by their priests. "Circum et panem!" (e.g. reality tv, social media, video games, shock-jock radio, online gambling-porn-shopping, etc).We must produce and consume, but we cannot help but judge that which we produce or consume. Other animals get the sweet bliss of JUST doing what it needs to get by. We cannot. — schopenhauer1
. In depressive states, the mind may be seen in the image of such an antler, in all its fantastic splendour pinning its bearer to the ground. — schopenhauer1
It all comes down to the fact that first principles are always of survival, and in humans that is economics (not the abstract study of, but the production and consumption aspect of everyday life). — schopenhauer1
Isolation is "a fully arbitrary dismissal from consciousness of all disturbing and destructive thought and feeling".[4]
Anchoring is the "fixation of points within, or construction of walls around, the liquid fray of consciousness".[4] The anchoring mechanism provides individuals with a value or an ideal to consistently focus their attention on. Zapffe also applied the anchoring principle to society and stated that "God, the Church, the State, morality, fate, the laws of life, the people, the future"[4] are all examples of collective primary anchoring firmaments.
Distraction is when "one limits attention to the critical bounds by constantly enthralling it with impressions".[4] Distraction focuses all of one's energy on a task or idea to prevent the mind from turning in on itself.
Sublimation is the refocusing of energy away from negative outlets, toward positive ones. The individuals distance themselves and look at their existence from an aesthetic point of view (e.g., writers, poets, painters). Zapffe himself pointed out that his produced works were the product of sublimation.
Those who hide from this total freedom, in a guise of solemnity or with deterministic excuses, I shall call cowards. Others, who try to show that their existence is necessary, when it is merely an accident of the appearance of the human race on earth – I shall call scum. But neither cowards nor scum can be identified except upon the plane of strict authenticity. Thus, although the content of morality is variable, a certain form of this morality is universal. Kant declared that freedom is a will both to itself and to the freedom of others. Agreed: but he thinks that the formal and the universal suffice for the constitution of a morality. We think, on the contrary, that principles that are too abstract break down when we come to defining action. To take once again the case of that student; by what authority, in the name of what golden rule of morality, do you think he could have decided, in perfect peace of mind, either to abandon his mother or to remain with her? There are no means of judging. The content is always concrete, and therefore unpredictable; it has always to be invented. The one thing that counts, is to know whether the invention is made in the name of freedom. — Existentialism is Humanism
Human intelligence isn’t just one peculiar (and questionable) mutation among others, like some antler. — Joshs
Do you really think he meant literally that the whole of human self-reflection is one mutation, or is being metaphorical to what the outcome is like? At least be charitable. — schopenhauer1
The tragedy of a species becoming unfit for life by over-evolving one ability is not confined to humankind. — schopenhauer1
Which ability is he claiming has been over-developed? — Joshs
So please don't take things too pedantically.. Like "Oooh what does "self-reflection" really mean?" — schopenhauer1
Whatever he means by it , he clearly means to separate off some specific intelllectual capacity of thinking from others, and I argue that he is mistaken here and is succumbing to a Romantic illusion about the bliss of ignorance or some such thing — Joshs
as if one could be ‘excessive’ in these processes of thinking, as if the child is happier than the adult , the primitive happier than the modern, the animal happier than the human. — Joshs
our ability for self-reflection is basically how I'd sum it up — schopenhauer1
as to why humanity simply didn't just perish — The Last Messiah Wikip
We broke our primal urge to survive when we questioned it for the first time. What remained afterwards was a collection of excuses; some more useful than others. But we have yet to prove that any one of those excuses justifies our existence. If we had, there wouldn't still be such a heated debate about the topic. — Bird-Up
All who truly saw this flaw have perished. More who see it will die tomorrow. We are merely the survivors of this realization; each with our own unique set of excuses and distractions that keep us going. Each with our own delusion. Do the dead pity us? — Bird-Up
Anchoring is the "fixation of points within, or construction of walls around, the liquid fray of consciousness".[4] The anchoring mechanism provides individuals with a value or an ideal to consistently focus their attention on. Zapffe also applied the anchoring principle to society and stated that "God, the Church, the State, morality, fate, the laws of life, the people, the future"[4] are all examples of collective primary anchoring firmaments.
It does not matter if you are studying ECON 101 or ECON 501, the First Principles in Econ hold just as true as the First Principles in the cornerstone sciences. They simply do not change (with any regularity). — Rocco Rosano
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