Friedrich_Nietzsche - Untimely_Meditations_(Cambridge_Texts_in_the_History_of_Philosophy__1997)

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On the uses and disadvantages of history for lifespectively breathe th is unhistorical atmosphere within which everygreat historical event has taken place, he might, as a percipientbeing, raise himself to asuprahistoncal vantage point such as Niebuhronce described as the possible outcome of historical reflection. 'History,grasped clearly and in detail', he says, 'is useful in one way atleast: it enables us to recognize how unaware even the greatest andhighest spirits of our human race have been of the chance nature ofthe form assumed by the eyes through which they see and throughwhich they compel everyone to see - compel, that is, because theintensity of their consciousness is exceptionally great. He who hasnot gras ped this quite definitely and in many instances will be subjugatedby the appearance of a powerful spirit who brings to a givenform the most impassioned commitment.' We may use the word'suprahistorical' because the viewer from this vantage point couldno longer fe el any temptation to go on living or to take part in history;he would have recognized the essential condition of all happenings- this blindness and injustice in the soul of him who acts; hewould, indeed, be cured for ever of taking history too seriously, forhe would have learned from all men and all experiences, whetheramong Greeks or Turks, from a single hour of the first or of thenineteenth century, to answer his own question as to how or to whatend life is lived. If you ask your acquaintances if they would like torelive the past ten or twenty years, you will easily discover which- ofthem is prepared fo r this suprahistorical standpoint: they will allanswer No, to be sure, but they will have different reasons fo ranswering No. Some may perhaps be consoling themselves: 'but thenext twenty will be better'; they are those of whom David Humesays mockingly:And from the dregs of life hope to receiveWhat the first sprightly running could not give.Let us call them historical men; looking to the past impels themtowards the fu ture and fires their courage to go on living and theirhope that what they want will still happen, that happiness lies behindthe hill they are advancing towards. These historical men believethat the meaning of existence will come more and more to light inthe course of its process, and they glance behind them only so that,from the process so far, they can learn to understand the present andto desire the future more vehemently; they have no idea that, despitetheir preoccupation with history, they in fact think and act unhistorically, or that their occupation with history stands in the service,not of pure knowledge, but of life.65
Untimely MeditationsBut our question can also be answered differently. ' Again with aNo - but with a No for a different reason: with the No of the suprahistoricalman, who sees no salvation in the process and for whom,rather, the world is complete and reaches its finality at each andevery moment. What could ten more years teach that the past tenwere unable to teach!Whether the sense of this teaching is happiness or resignation orvirtue or atonement, suprahistorical men have never been able toagree; but, in opposition to all historical modes of regarding thepast, they are unanimous in the proposition: the past and the presentare one, that is to say, with all their diversity identical in all that istypical and, as the omnipresence ofimperishable types, a motionlessstructure of a value that cannot alter and a significance that is alwaysthe same. Just as the hundreds of different languages correspond tothe same typically unchanging needs of man, so that he whounderstood these needs would be unable to learn anything newfrom any of these languages, so the suprahistorical thinker beholdsthe history of nations and of individualfrom within, clairvoyantlydivining the original meaning of the various hieroglyphics andgradually even coming wearily to avoid the endless stream of newsigns: for how should the unending superfluity of events not reducehim to satiety, over-satiety and finally to nausea! So that perhaps theboldest of them is at last ready to say to his heart, with GiacomoLeopardi:Nothing lives that is wonhyThy agitation, and the earth deserves not a sigh.Our being is pain and boredom and the world is din - nothing more.Be calm.But let us leave the suprahistorical men to their nausea and theirwisdom: today let us rejoice for once in our unwisdom and, asbelievers in deeds and progress and as honourers of the process, giveourselves a holiday. Our valuation of the historical may be only anoccidental prejudice: but let us at least make progress within thisprejudice and not stand still! Let us at least learn better how toemploy history for the purpose of life! Then we will gladly acknowledgethat the suprahistorical outlook possesses more wisdom thanwe do, provided we can only be sure that we possess more life: forthen our unwisdom will at any rate have more future than their wisdomwill. And in order to leave no doubt as to the meaning of thisantithesis of life and wisdom, I shall employ an ancient, tried-andtestedprocedure and straightway propound a number of theses.66
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CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESSCambridge
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IIntroductionin particular had a sp
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IntroductionHuman, that by the time
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Introductionanything disingenuous a
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IntroductionUntimely Meditations, i
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IntroductionIn 1886, after he had a
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Introductionhence to significant pa
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IntroductionPeter Gast at the very
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IntroductionBasel and the academy f
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Introduction25 Letter to Malwinda v
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Chronology18 January 1871Mid:June 1
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Chronology18 December 1879LateJuly
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Further readingThe standard German
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Further readingPeter Berkowitz, Nie
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Note on the textR. J. Hollingdale's
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Note on the textattack upon the sov
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Untimely Meditations
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1Public opinion in Germany seems al
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David Strauss, the confessor and th
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David Strauss) the confessor and th
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Untimely Meditationsbe without this
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Untimely MeditationsAnd that is the
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Untimely MeditationsIithat they are
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Untimely Meditationscovered any par
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Untimely Meditationsthe semi-thinke
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Untimely Meditationsperish and at b
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Untimely Meditationsand their perpe
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Untimely Meditationsthe hieroglyphi
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Untimely Meditationsthat he does no
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Untimely Meditationsible, against t
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Untimely Meditationsevent is a joke
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Untimely Meditationshas to be caugh
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Untimely Meditationsanything of tha
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Untimely Meditationsof all and in t
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Untimely Meditations5But I have und
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Untimely Meditationswhat we all do
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1'[...Untimely Meditationsrigid but
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Schopenhauer as educatorception and
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Schopenhauer as educatorthe more of
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---, ISclwpenhauer as educatorappea
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Schopenhauer as educatorthose named
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--:Sclwpenhauer as educatorfrom one
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Untimely Meditationsunfruitful - a
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Untimely Meditationssimilar wandere
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Untimely Meditationsso as to sweep
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Untimely Meditationslook. Conversel
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Untimely Meditationsmanner of moder
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Untimely MeditationsExperience unfo
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IIUntimely Meditationsregard to how
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Untimely Meditationsappearance is s
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Untimely Meditationswanted to say:
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Untimely MeditationsI. !that it is
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Untimely Meditationsany tree ever b
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AVNER OIL EXPLORATION (LIMITED PART
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Untimely Meditations2It would be st
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Untimely Meditationsin the unaltera
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Untimely Meditationspower, fame, pl
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Untimely Meditationshow uncommon su
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Untimely Meditationsmost vital of q
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Untimely MeditationsWagnerian refor
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Untimely Meditationsmore evil and r
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Untimely Meditationsremote regions:
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Untimely Meditationsmost superficia
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Untimely Meditationssort; and he th
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Untimely Meditationsomnipresence of
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-."Untimely Meditationsreturns home
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Untimely Meditationsmanifestation.
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Untimely Meditationslonging to desc
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Untimely Meditationsdramatic song r
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i\! -, I, I,I!-lnUntimely Meditatio
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iIIUntimely Meditationscreativity;
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IUntimely MeditationsIIperformance
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Untimely MeditationsOne hardly need
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Untimely Meditationsforcefulness an
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Untimely Meditationsfor generations
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Untimely Meditationstension between
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11'1 ';Untimely Meditationswhole se
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Untimely Meditationsthe property of
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Untimely Meditationsfo rm of alumin
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Untimely MeditationsIf we venture t
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Untimely Meditationsthese propositi
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Untimely MeditationsWotan by refere
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Glossary of namesGOTISCHED, Johann
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Glossary of namesany other art. A w
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Notesp. 44, 1. 12 Voltaire (p. 219)
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Notesp. 104, 1. 33 only by the hist
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Notesof The Ring of the Niebelungen
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Indexabstraction, and fe eling 81-2
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Indexegoismand history 71, 75indivi
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Indexindependence (cont.)and Wagner
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IndexOn the uses and disadvantages
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IndexScience (cont.)and greed 169hi
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Indexwill (cont.)to live 1 10, 145t
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Friedrich_Nietzsche - Untimely_Meditations_(Cambridge_Texts_in_the_History_of_Philosophy__1997)

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