Compiled and edited by Chen Yong
One. Only when a person is always loyal to himself can he achieve great things
2. Meet Schopenhauer
One day in the late autumn of 1865, an extraordinary day for Nietzsche, he found a book on an old book stall called The World as Will and Appearance, written by Schopenhauer. He casually opened it and looked at it, and couldn't help but be deeply attracted. The book is full of melancholy, bitterness, despair, Nietzsche likes this sad style, in the depths of his heart he seems to have communicated with the author for a long time, even the author's style and style, Nietzsche is very fond of, he held the book on his chest and drove home. He later recalled the incident: "When I got home, I leaned back on the couch and read the precious book I had just received, and I began to let that powerful but dull genius take over my heart." Every line in the book calls for detachment, negation, and detachment. I saw a mirror that profoundly reflected the whole world, life, and my heart. ”
Schopenhauer was a famous German philosopher, and by the time Nietzsche read his book, the philosopher had been dead for nearly six years. The book "The World as Will and Appearance" is Schopenhauer's masterpiece, and it is through this book that he became the founding father of the voluntarist philosopher. Schopenhauer said, "Without will, therefore there is no appearance, no world." So what remains before us is nothingness. ”
This pessimistic attitude towards life is closely related to the times in which he lived. At that time, the whole of Europe was trampled by Napoleon's iron hooves, leaving only a desolate and ruined area. So Schopenhauer wondered if there was a benevolent God, or even whether life itself meant anything.
It is not surprising that these ideas of Schopenhauer resonated greatly in Nietzsche's heart, Nietzsche was worried from an early age, the successive deaths of his father and brother, moving around, made him have a feeling of helplessness about life, and his personality liked to think positively about philosophical issues and life, and when he was not fully thinking about the meaning of life, Schopenhauer's whole set of pessimistic philosophical systems not only amazed him, but also made him admire more than enough. Nietzsche had originally had doubts about Christian doctrine and God, so he received a strong support from Schopenhauer, which gave his spiritual world a sense of fulfillment, and he no longer had to blame himself for the idea of dissatisfaction with life, but on the contrary, he could look at the pain of life positively and calmly.
Although Nietzsche later embarked on the exact opposite path to this spiritual teacher, he always had a great respect for Schopenhauer, and he once warned those around him: "In our time, those who feel deep pain must understand Schopenhauer." At the same time, Nietzsche admired Schopenhauer's personality in the depths of his soul, and he praised Schopenhauer for having a noble sense of honesty, profound insight, and astonishing consistency. And Schopenhauer's never compromised, never arrogant academic attitude gave him a deep shock.
3. Military experience
Due to his poor health, Nietzsche's time in the army was short. But these short military careers enriched Nietzsche's bland life experiences and brought inspiration to some of his philosophical ideas.
In 1867, the Kingdom of Prussia broke out the Austro-Prussian War with the Austrian Empire in order to unify Germany and provide a rapidly developing environment for German capitalism. Nietzsche, as a recruit, trained hard every day, but the thought of Schopenhauer filled him with strength. He once said: "Even if I came home exhausted and sweaty, as soon as I saw Schopenhauer's picture, I felt relieved." ”
In the tense days of training as a soldier, Schopenhauer,the spiritual idol gave Nietzsche the courage and determination to continue training, which can also be said to be the double influence of Schopenhauer's will-based willism on his thoughts and behavior.
Although life in the barracks was tense and vigorous, Nietzsche's innate melancholy and loneliness were not alleviated by this, and deep down in his heart he always felt an inexplicable loneliness coming at him, which could not be dispelled by any military training. During his training as a soldier, Nietzsche could not find a scholarly friend, let alone a confidant, which was a painful thing for Nietzsche, who loved to study and think about problems. In order to dispel the bitterness and loneliness in his chest, Nietzsche alone in the intermittent stage of training, still unable to release the scroll, studying hard. During this period, his main study was the famous philosopher Democrys of Ancient Hope, who was more and more interested in Democrys because Christian theology had attacked Democrys and considered his ideas extremely dangerous.
Just as his research on Democrys was deepening and his experience was increasing, an unfortunate thing happened. During military training, Nietzsche accidentally fell off his horse. As a result of this accident, Nietzsche's dream of becoming an officer was shattered. But Saion's loss of fortune also brought benefits, giving him plenty of time to conduct bold research on issues of interest to him during his recovery. He enjoyed a completely free life, not swayed by university courses, nor did he need to spend time on academics or communication, liberated from heavy military work, calmed down to filter his thoughts, and made in-depth and meticulous thinking and summarizing of many ordinary inspirations, which laid a good foundation for him to write esoteric philosophical treatises in the future.
Nietzsche's second enlistment was because of the Franco-Prussian War. The Franco-Prussian War was a major and influential war in the history of Germany and France, and for Nietzsche it was the greatest event of his life, a turning point in his thinking.
Due to his physical injuries and his natural weakness, Nietzsche could only serve as a caretaker in this battle. On the front lines, he saw the terrible consequences of the war. In his letter, he wrote: "... The bullets went through their bone marrow, the bones were broken, some people were wounded everywhere, and some people's skin and flesh were rotten, and now it seems that I was able to survive the rotten stench, and I was able to sleep and eat, which is a miracle..."
The war between Prussia and France resulted in a large number of casualties, which made Nietzsche more and more resistant and even disgusted with the war, more and more difficult to understand human war, and at the same time deepened his understanding of German culture as a culture of barbarism and ignorance, which formed the basis of the views of many of his later writings.
It was through his military experience that Nietzsche's philosophical ideas had a perceptual basis, and he was not happy about the victory in Germany, but on the contrary sad. Those battle scenes made him deeply feel that the highest and strongest will to life was not expressed in the poor competition for survival, but in the will to fight, in the will to power and superiority. This is the essence of man, the meaning of life, the value of the will, all of which became an important part of Nietzsche's philosophy. It can be said that it was in the life of the army and the harsh conditions of war that Nietzsche discovered something of the essence of many things and phenomena in the world.
4. Career
Nietzsche's career began dramatically.
When he was in college, he published an article on linguistics in a magazine called the Rhine Museum, which was actually looked at by the famous linguist Professor Litchell, praised and enthusiastically recommended the 24-year-old Nietzsche to teach at the University of Basel. As early as the University of Bonn, Nietzsche met Professor Litchell, and he admired and respected this famous linguist with rigorous academic discipline and artistic temperament. Nietzsche abandoned theology and specialized in classical linguistics because of the influence of Professor Richer.
In this way, Nietzsche was transformed into an iron rice bowl that was admired by everyone, from a student to a professor, on an equal footing with a group of white-bearded old men.
After teaching at the talented university in Basel, Nietzsche gave a lecture entitled Homer and Classical Linguistics. In the face of numerous experts and scholars, Nietzsche was not timid, and he talked freely. In this speech, Nietzsche bravely argued that linguistics is not a pure science, but is closely intertwined with art. All linguistic activity should be conceived and contained in a certain philosophical worldview, so that after the individual or the details of separation from each other are eliminated like all that can be discarded, only their totality, i.e., consistency remains.
The ideas of these geniuses were like a spring breeze blowing into people's frozen hearts, and everyone gave him warm applause for his speech. Because of Nietzsche's brilliance, the school not only gave him a raise, but also the high society opened its doors to him, and the famous nobles rushed to invite him to lectures and banquets. Nietzsche was often overwhelmed.
Soon after, however, Nietzsche became bored with socializing and socializing, and even his interest in his beloved linguistics was greatly diminished, and he became suspicious of the value of linguistic research, just as he had denied theology in the past, and now Nietzsche was rejecting linguistics again. For Professor Richer, Nietzsche also believed that the scope of the supervisor's research was too narrow.
At this moment, he realized that he was not a piece of material for being a scholar.
He didn't want to bury himself in the pile of books all day to nibble on other people's old things, he liked new and profound things, and he thought very deeply about life and the value of life. The sound of the wind, thunder, rain and snow in nature can make his sensitive and sentimental heart restless, his restless soul is always looking for something, everything in his hand is not what he is looking for, he longs to find a space that makes his heart infinitely satisfied.
It was at this time that he began to realize that he was a polyhedron, that the parts that made up himself were always in contradiction, and that the lonely tree of philosophical genius began to thrive. In the heart of a friend, he wrote: "... I live in a gray cloud of loneliness, especially at parties, and I can't refuse the pressure of human socializing, and I have to be in the venue with all kinds of hands. These people call me "Professor," and they themselves are carried away by this title, and they think I am the happiest person under the sun..."
To be continued, please continue to pay attention to nietzsche's fate counterattack to change the world series of biographical stories - chapter 1, section 5.