Aftereffects of the most ancient religiosity. - Every thought·
less person supposes that will alone is effective; that willing is
something simple, a brute datum, underivable, and intelligible
by itself. He is convinced that when he does something-strike
something, for example-it is he that strikes, and that he did
strike because be willed it. He does not see any problem here;
the feeling of will seems sufficient to him not only for the
assumption of cause and effect but also for the faith that he
understands their relationship. He knows nothing of the mechanism
of what happened and of the hundredfold fine work that
needs to be done to bring about the strike, or of the incapacity
of the will in itself to do even the tiniest part of this work. The
will is for him a magically effective force; the faith in the will
as the cause of effects is the faith in magically effective forces.
Now man believed originally that wherever he saw something
happen, a will had to be at work in the background as a cause,
and a personal, willing being. Any notion of mechanics was
far from his mind. But since man believed, for immense periods
of time. only in persons (and not in substances, forces, things,
and so forth), the faith in cause and effect became for him the
basic faith that he applies wherever anything happens-and this
is what he still does instinctively: it is an atavism of the most
ancie11t origin.
The propositions, "no effect without a cause.'' "every effect
in tum a cause appears as generalizations of much more
limited propositions: "no effecting without wiling"; "one can
have an effect only on beings that will"; "no suffering of an
effect is ever pure and without consequences, but all suffering
consists of an agitation of the will" (toward action. resistance,
revenge, retribution). But in the pre-history of humanity both
sets.of propositions were identical: the former were not gen-
realizations of the latter, but the latter were commentaries on
the former.
, When Schoenbauer assumed that all that has being is only
a willing, he enthroned a primeval mythology. It seems that he
never even attempted an analysis of the will because, like
everybody else, he had faith in the simplicity and immediacy of
all willing-while willing is actually a mechanism. that is so
well-practiced that it all but escapes the observing eye.
Against him I posit these propositions: First, for will come
into being an idea of pleasure and displeasure is needed. Second, when a strong stimulus is experienced as pleasure or displeasure, this depends on the interpretation of the intellect
which, to be sure, generally does this work without rising to
our consciousness: one and the same stimulus can be interpreted as pleasure or displeasure. Third, it is only in intellectual
beings that pleasure, displeasure. and will are to be found; the
vast majority of organisms has nothing of the sort. — The Gay Science, 127, Translated by W. Kaufman
On the critique of saints.- To have a virtue, must one really
wish to have it in its most brutal form-as the Christian saints
wished-and needed-it? They could endure life only by
thinking that the sight of their virtue would engender self-
contempt in anyone who saw them. But a virtue with that
effect I call brutal. — The Gay Science, 150, Translated by W Kaufman,
I know these godlike men all too well: they want one to have faith in them, and doubt to be sin. All too well I also know which they have most faith. Verily, it is not in afterworlds and redemptive drops of blood, but in the body, that they too have most faith; and their body is to them their thing-in-itself. But a sick thing it is to them their thing-in-itself. But a sick thing it is to them, and gladly would they shed their skins. Therefore, they listen to the preachers of death and themselves preach afterworlds.
Listen rather, my brothers, to the voice of the healthy body; that is a more honest and pure voice: More honestly and purely speaks the healthy body that is perfect and perpendicular: and it speaks of the meaning of the earth. — On Otherworldly, Thus Spoke Zarathrrusta, translated by Walter Kaufmann
These assessors, thinking they “have it down”, lack the insight, to see, their entire life has been a compromise of integrity, values, ethics: bereft of any standards that a true gnostic will hold themselves to. living an entire life essentially of failures (various kinds) stepped in deceit, lack of love/affection, consideration, violence (all kinds : a life plagued by all kinds of insecurities and failed attempts to mask it… — skyblack
Or is all of this conformity to the highest degree? You have confirmed to everything. Your society, to ideologies, to your flag, to religions ( or its opposite), to narratives, to your philosophies, to your world views, to your prejudices and biases, to the apathy of your old age, to your lack of integrity, to your experiences, to your knowledge. — skyblack
He did it lonely in the darkness of his job staying apart from television or looks. It was a solemn and respectful act. This was the main critical action against politics I have ever seen in my life. — javi2541997
So it could be said that refusing to vote is tantamount to refusing to sign over our lives to other men. — NOS4A2
His idea that one cannot really say anything of "sense" when it comes to ethics, values, and aesthetics, is something that cannot be discussed, is to me, not radical but simply the formal version of the common man's idea of "Well, that's just your opinion, man". — schopenhauer1
That's what happens in this forum, when I point out the falsities which are currently abundant in mathematics and physics. People here say, the principles serve their purposes, so unless I have something better to offer, forget about criticizing those conventions. But since the principles serve their purposes, no one is inclined to look for better ones. Therefore it is necessary to first recognize the principles as bad, and destroy the bad principles, thereby providing the necessary conditions for the development of better ones. The phoenix rises from the ashes. — Metaphysician Undercover
