Friedrich Nietzsche’s
“ZEAL OF SCIENCE”
Psst, psst…! Hey man, I dare you! Walk without a spindle! Make your own life! Take the man! But what kind of person does the German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche outline for this challenge? He does not lead us to such a man, but merely insinuates riddles, as if he were saying: Follow me… those who can. So we’re going to find out by sailing. On the horizon his land looms. The first thing to come is “becoming across the river.” The path is always going up and moving forward, and when we are confident that we have reached the top of the mountain, it reveals the abyss that awaits us. He sends us out, but not without exclaiming: you can fly!
In The Gay Science, Nietzsche addresses those whose “ears are related” to his own. He does not want to be understood in any way, but by those who, according to him, are of a nobler mind and taste. There is a clear difference between these “preparatory people” (no one is convinced that they ever lived to such a challenge) and “others”. Nietzsche himself is a heroic orgy: an artist and a sage. He must create the ultimate masterpiece: himself. But, in order to do so, he must first destroy his greatest creature: God.
The first part of the voyage is the departure from certain lands. We must navigate away from the invincible “truths” of morals, science and religion, since only convenient errors/lies have been accepted in order to maintain the appearance of survival. The “superior class” of man does not allow for what is in respect for “reasonable” things is do, what cattle is, not for himself. The very thing that is in perspective applies its strength and reason to the preservation, development, elevation, promotion, and expansion of power. Although Nietzsche defines it as ideal, he advises against doing it at the risk of all. Only those who pursue this conviction of “exception” recognize that if more people had “friends of common sense” humanity would have perished long ago.
But the “higher species” can and should exercise its intellectual awareness and be able to see the difference. By doing this, he contributes to the well-being of the herd – while challenging his beliefs, he reinforces the “errors beneficial to the herd”. The very potential that Nietzsche outlines must emphasize the notions of good and evil and understand that they are perspectives. It is good if it benefits me, or bad if it comes unwillingly. Good or bad is nothing in itself. The only standard of “validity” is man’s opinion. Indeed, the “wheels” of history move because there is always something missing. Although these desires seem evil to those whose interests they affect, without them we should perish. These desires correspond to passion, to the will to possess, to the will to power.
The very thing that Nietzsche thinks is that he never gives up his lust for that fallacy called “rationality”. Willpower is decisive for independent leadership and stability. It is neither to be obeyed, nor to be commanded, but to be experienced in itself. They must have their own laws, joys, and rights.
So our “ship” leaves the land of society, tradition and culture. Nietzsche challenges us again and again to rise to the task of the phenomenon he proposes, knowing that the few will prevail. Man, in order to outline it, tells his readers about false values, the giving of which is most destructive. For the benefit of the cattle, man is forced to renounce himself as a man, to renounce the will that would benefit himself and not others. But now “weakened, extinct personality that denies itself, is no longer fit for all good. It is no longer worth giving to give neither here nor in heaven.
Hence Nietzsche pushes that very thing out of the past. The challenge becomes proportionally more difficult as one enters deeper into the “waters” of self-discovery. Now, “best conquerors”, we must sail from the “continent” itself: God. Nietzsche particularly objects to the Christian concept of God because of what he believes to have happened. Nietzsche believes that Christianity imposes shame and guilt on someone which is very harmful for their self-esteem.
Unlike Ralph Waldo Emerson, Nietzsche does not believe that God “speaks” to us through nature. By rejecting what is, to be, and to be. Don’t “do” each other. He who believes in the world and without purpose is subject to the same determination. In this sense the very thing that he designs is unthinkable, not unique.
And so “God is dead” and here we are at the point of Reducination. In IV, Nietzsche warns: “You enter a different system.” The philosopher knows that the road from here is intolerable for most people. We feel that we have “fired” all our ships. “But fear not,” Nietzsche seems to say; “… there is still one thing where you are going; a prodigious “I”, a vessel that, when well trained, will keep you born. But when we begin to look at hope and the land, it is an island. It is easy to look back and be proud of how far we have traveled, he turns the rudder impiously again.
A colossal work must also be done at this point. Roads to nowhere and still hopes that we will be lost? Is there no sense of having “high flying”, no elevation, no ultimate enlightenment? “No, but it’s still YOU,” he reassures us. It is interesting to note that in this context Nietzsche wrote about Gay Science. As he declares in the prologue, he emerges from the illness that subjected him to “a long and slow pain that has its time”. “by the tyranny of pain, by which we burn like green wood.” Nothing like the pain of the body to force one mercilessly into one’s testimony. The pain of the body does not give inducements. In no way have I “transcended” the self. The perampala himself, which Nietzsche had devised in this book, could have been a way of preparing himself for the return of the inexorable illness.
Is “eternal return” a way of saying yes to life even in pain? Moreover, he writes about those who are convalescing – the medium of both, seeing sickness and health equally. Hence, all the thought process “Above, Outside, Outside… desire…”, must be thought out while searching for the illness rest to pain In that case the “tyrant of pride” denied him such support.
Nietzsche’s promise of “no way out” of his eternal “recourse” functions to enable us to allow the pool that allows itself to flow down to create a higher and higher raised embankment. But our navigation ends in the sea, the immeasurable sea of self. The sea is “clear again”. Our departure and destination. We must never set foot there again. Is it our will?
