Spoke Zarathustra Research Articles

An Ethos of Affirmative Laughter in Nietzsche’s Zarathustra

AbstractIn Thus Spoke Zarathustra (2006), Nietzsche presents Zarathustra as a sage and parodic prophet, who acquires and offers insight over the narrated journey of his spiritual development. Nietzsche’s conception of Zarathustra as a gift (to “all and none”) endorses learning as the kind of emulation condensed into Zarathustra’s complex formulation: rather than “corpses that I carry with me wherever I want . . . I need living companions who follow me because they want to follow themselves—wherever I want.” Thus I aim, firstly, to follow the text closely to see what is given. However, noting that Zarathustra is deeply imbued with figures of laughter, I also impose an interpretation. “Repeating differently,” as demanded by Zarathustra, I outline a practicable, spiral‐shaped “learning curve” of traversal and return to various “shades of laughter,” advancing from the worst laughters to “golden laughter,” which embraces complexity. This represents what it means to laugh well. In so doing, I hope to demonstrate that the complex ethos of affirmative laughter in Zarathustra remains strikingly pertinent for a contemporary era urgently tasked with embracing complexity.

차라투스트라의 ‘베푸는 덕’과 ‘가르침의 선사’의 의미 탐색

차라투스트라의 ‘베푸는 덕’과 ‘가르침의 선사’의 의미 탐색

인성교육으로 니체의 『차라투스트라는 이렇게 말했다』 읽기 - 서울대학교 “독서세미나-고전에 길을 묻다”를 중심으로

이 글은 인성교육으로 니체의 『차라투스트라는 이렇게 말했다』 읽기 교육을 서 울대학교의 “독서세미나-고전에 길을 묻다”를 중심으로 소개하였다. 왜 그리고 어 떻게 읽는가에 대해 이야기했으며, 아울러 책 선정 과정에서 논란이 되었던 인성교 육 적합성 문제와 학술대회 발표를 할 때 논평자가 제기한 ‘배후의 사드성’ 문제에 대해서도 다루었다. 이 책을 읽게 하는 까닭은 무한경쟁으로 시기심과 절망감이나 증오심에 빠진 젊 은이들에게 자기를 긍정하고 삶을 돌아보는 성찰의 기회를 제공하고 싶어서다. 읽 는 방법으로는 훈고학적 태도에서 벗어나 고전을 읽으며 내 삶이나 우리 삶의 문 제나 태도를 되짚어보는 방법을 권장한다. 이 책 읽기는 인성교육에 적합하다. 이 책은 시기심 대신 자긍심을 갖도록 가르 치는데 바람직한 사람의 성품을 기르는 게 인성교육이라면 바람직한 사람의 성품인 자긍심을 기르는 교육도 인성교육일 수 있기 때문이다. 더 나아가 자긍심이 넘 쳐 시기심이 없는 사람은 남의 것을 빼앗아 차지하고 싶은 악한 마음이 들기 어렵다. 그러한 사람은 오히려 기꺼이 베풀고 싶어 하는 선한 마음이 들기 쉽다. 한편 무한경쟁의 사회 현실 속에서 시기심을 극복하고 자긍심을 가지라는 가르침 배후에서 사드를 느낄 수도 있지만 사회가 거세된 순수 자아가 아니라 사회 속 자아로 자아 성찰 교육을 제대로 하면 사드를 덜 느끼고, 사회에 대해서도 비판적으로 성찰하게 될 것이다.

The New Testament in Nikolay Rainov’s Novel "Between Desert and Life"

The text offers a parallel and juxtaposing reading of the canonical evangelical texts and Nikolay Rainov’s novel Between Desert and Life. It is known that in his complicated transformation of the New Testament, the writer implants theosophical ideas in his narration radically changing the meaning and the message. Which is more, his incarnation of God is, in a strange way, evil and misanthropic. The interpretation shows closeness between passages of the novel and the book N. Rainov was translating at that time (1919) – Thus Spoke Zarathustra.

Bhishma as a Superman in the Mahabharata

This article explores and interprets Bhishma, one of the great heroes in the classical epic the Mahabharata, from the perspective of superman that the great philosopher Nietzsche postulates in his great work Thus Spoke Zarathustra. The superman is one of the alluring concepts in the domain of entire philosophy. He has his own ideals, standards, and thus becomes the creator of his own self. Sacrificing himself for the morals and dignity, he becomes an emblem for the righteousness, truth, and virtues. He stands for the sake of justice and righteousness, and suffers to rise himself even beyond the dualities of the world. Nietzsche’s superman is a man transcendent. Bhishma, in the great epic the Mahabharata, also establishes his own values. He suffers a lot, but does not surrender. As a superman, the more difficulties he faces, the more he fills himself with new vibrations and vitalism in his life. His great pledge and his self sacrifice for the truth really transform him into a superman. Therefore, the creative evolution of Bhishma mirrors the genuine ideals of the superman. This paper applies the qualitative approach, and attempts to add a new dimension while interpreting and exploring the ideations of superman in one of the great heroes from the longest epic the Mahabharata.

Nietzsche’s eternal return and the Question of hope

This article discusses Nietzsche’s notion of eternal return of the same with regard to its impact on central discussions of Jewish-Christian notions of hope and redemption within modern intellectual history. It attends especially to the aesthetic dimension of Nietzsche’s doctrine in The Gay Science and Thus Spoke Zarathustra, and to the interpretations of it by Heidegger and Löwith. Whereas Heidegger discusses the doctrine in The Gay Science in light of an aesthetic-tragic heroism, Löwith presents it in Thus Spoke Zarathustra as a metaphysical truth aiming to surpass the time of Dasein and reconcile free will and fate. In both cases, the doctrine can be read as an expression of an aesthetic redemption in which the subject is no longer a creature waiting to be redeemed in the future, but a creator of an aesthetic or poetic redemption here and now. This view is problematized by thinkers in the modern Jewish Messianic tradition, such as Benjamin and Adorno. They connect the notion of eternal return to the realm of myth and suggest a messianic exodus from this realm. But they also point to the problems with such an exodus, something that points to a more dialectical notion of hope and redemption.

Eternity’s Death in Modernity: A Case of Murder? Of Resurrection?

ABSTRACT The death of God and the death of eternity stand at the portals of modernity. Hegel’s Phenomenology of Spirit, which Kojève called the modern counterpart to the Bible, concludes with the death of God. Despite Hegel having shown that everything, even God, has a time nucleus, at the level of ‘Absolute Knowing’, he takes eternity back into play, conceiving it as a structure of time, rather than a realm outside time. Thus, he wrenches a concept of eternity from time itself. Even though Hegel and Nietzsche are philosophical antipodes in many senses, we notice an ambivalent relation in Nietzsche’s works towards eternity as well. Nietzsche, the author of Thus Spoke Zarathustra, the other ‘anti-Bible’ of modernity, proclaims eternity to be dead, while at the same time conceiving of an eternal recurrence, that of a dynamic eternity. First, it is argued that for both, eternity is essentially related to action and deed. Second, both highlight the importance of the past in reaching an adequate understanding of time and with it of eternity. Consequently, it is argued that modernity does not offer a vision of the future but a vibrant and often painful consciousness of the past.

Unpublished Fragments from the Period of Thus Spoke Zarathustra (Summer 1882–Winter 1883/84)

<i>Unpublished Fragments from the Period of</i> Thus Spoke Zarathustra <i>(Summer 1882–Winter 1883/84)</i>

니체의 『차라투스트라는 이렇게 말했다』에 나타난 ‘교육공동체’의 의미와 특징 분석

니체의 『차라투스트라는 이렇게 말했다』에 나타난 ‘교육공동체’의 의미와 특징 분석

A Modern Polytheism? Nietzsche and James

ABSTRACTS Richard Rorty has argued that Friedrich Nietzsche and William James are both polytheists in the deflationary sense that they are both pluralists about human value. I argue that there is a more philosophically significant sense in which Nietzsche and James might be called polytheists: both advocate a life of openness and receptivity to multiple and potentially incommensurable sources of inspiration outside of our conscious control. The value of these sources is accessed in experiences in which one feels that one is given something in an experience that one could not have obtained through conscious effort. I argue that this moment of passivity plays a crucial role in both James’s treatment of religious experience in The Varieties of Religious Experience and Nietzsche’s account of the state of inspiration he experienced while composing Thus Spoke Zarathustra, and that their deep similarity on this point suggests that Nietzsche is closer to Jamesian religion than he is to Rortyan secularism.

Suffering and the Nietzschean Affirmation of Life in the Work of Bad Religion

Friedrich Nietzsche wrote that Zarathustra “the godless”, whose students “remain faithful to the earth, and [...] not believe those who speak [...] of otherworldly hopes” (Thus Spoke Zarathustra, Preface, 3) was a proponent of a life fulfilled with meaning and creativity, in spite of all the abominable suffering and unavoidable hardships it entails. Ultimately, he wanted to “see as beautiful what is necessary in things” and “to be only a Yes-sayer” (The Gay Science, 276). This article looks at how the lyrics of one of the most respected and well-known punk rock bands worldwide, Bad Religion, encapsulate the above-mentioned ideas of the German philosopher. Lyrics from several songs of the band’s discography, ranging from 1982 to 2013, are briefly discussed. The themes explored in these songs, examined in parallel with Nietzsche’s ideas, revolve around suffering, nihilism, the afterlife, amor fati, and, finally, affirming life by creating a personal sense of purpose. Whilst Bad Religion’s work is not moralistic (most thoroughly echoed in the line “no Bad Religion song can make your life complete” from the song “No Direction”), the lyrics analyzed nevertheless demonstrate that the band actively assumes a stance towards life, one which is characterized by creating a sense of purpose through personal expression, emblematized both in the punk attitude per se, as well as in the writings of Friedrich Nietzsche.

Revaluations through Dance: Friedrich Nietzsche's Thought in Isadora Duncan's Speech The Dance of the Future

Friedrich Nietzsche's influence on Isadora Duncan's work, in particular his idea of the Dionysian, has been widely discussed, especially in regard to her later work. What has been left underdeveloped in critical examinations of her work, however, is his influence on her earlier choreographic work, which she defended in a famous speech held in 1903 called The Dance of the Future. While commentators often describe this speech as ‘Nietzschean’, Duncan's autobiography suggests that she only studied Nietzsche's work after this speech. I take this incongruity as a starting point to explore the connections between her speech and Nietzsche's work, in particular his Thus Spoke Zarathustra. I argue that in subject and language Duncan's speech resembles Nietzsche's in important ways. This article will draw attention to the ways in which Duncan takes her cues from Nietzsche in bringing together seemingly conflicting ideas of religion and an overturning of morality; Nietzsche's notion of eternal recurrence and the teleology present in his idea of the Übermensch; and a renegotiation of the body's relation to the mind. In doing so, this article contributes not only to scholarship on Duncan's early work but also to discussions of Nietzsche's reception in the early twentieth century. Moreover, the importance Duncan ascribes to the body in dance and expression also asks for a new understanding of Nietzsche's own way of expressing his philosophy.

Zarathustra and Transhumanism: Man is Something to Be Overcome

In Sorgner's 2009 paper Nietzsche, the Overhuman, and Transhumanism, he argues, contra Bostrom, that the transhumanist movement's postman is fundamentally similar to Nietzsche's overman. In this paper, Sorgner's thesis is challenged. It is argued that transhumanism, as presented both popularly and academically, is fundamentally incompatible with Nietzsche's overman, as presented in Thus Spoke Zarathustra . This argument focuses on three significant characteristics's of Zarathustra's description of the overman: the role of earthly existence, immortality, and the rejection of collective values.

Nietzsche and Gadamer on Truth and Interpretation

At the first glance, Nietzsche does not appear in the Gadamerian text as a crucial figure. Nonetheless, a careful reading will dissipate this first impression. Gadamer mentions Nietzsche on several occasions, and two of them are extremely significant. The first occasion is Gadamer’s dialogue with Derrida; the second is Gadamer’s interpretation of Thus Spoke Zarathustra. The latter is noteworthy insofar as it shows how Gadamer develops a hermeneutical reading of an enormously complicated book. The first is even more significant insofar as it concerns the concept of hermeneutics: to distinguish hermeneutics from a deconstructive reading, Gadamer and Derrida resort to Nietzsche as the key figure. The aim of this paper is to examine the question of truth and interpretation in Nietzsche’s and Gadamer’s respective philosophies, their differences and similarities.

Nabokov and Nietzsche: Problems and Perspectives by Rodgers Michael (review)

SEER, 97, 3, JULY 2019 542 this project, Tsiolkovskii’s project is based on a preference for superior, perfect beings over lesser organisms, which reproduce spontaneously. Striding toward the perfection of human beings involves the right to eliminate that which is lesser in order to ensure that reproduction is governed by reason, not natural chaos. Whereas Tsiolkovskii’s and almost all the other texts in this volume project a self-assured belief in the scientific and in technological progress, the final entry, ‘Immortality Day’, and the only piece of narrative fiction, imagines the consequences of achieving immortality. It seems particularly fitting to conclude the collection with this text because it questions the ethical and social values of the natural and biological limits which Russian Cosmism sought to overcome. Department of Languages, Literatures, and Cultures Zdenko Mandušić Saint Louis University Rodgers, Michael. Nabokov and Nietzsche: Problems and Perspectives. Bloomsbury Academic, New York, 2018. xi + 176 pp. Illustrations. Notes Bibliography. Index. $110.00: £88.00. Michael Rodgers’s monograph is the first to fully examine the intersection between Nabokov’s fiction and Nietzsche’s philosophy. A more predictable version of this book might simply apply Nietzsche’s philosophical work to Nabokov’s books or scrupulously trace an unmistakable line of influence from, say, Thus Spoke Zarathustra to Mary or Pnin — in which there are direct references to the eternal return or to Nietzsche (p. 29). Rodgers offers a much richer and more complex engagement with Nabokov and Nietzsche, as his book exemplifies the productive ways literature and philosophy can be read together, can reflect but, more importantly, challenge each other. This method of interpretation is apparent in Rodgers’s subtitle, Problems and Perspectives. Rodgers’s book highlights the ‘fundamental problems in Nabokov’s writing that make his work perplexing, mysterious, and frequently uneasy’ and claims that ‘Nietzsche’s philosophy provides fresh, but not always palatable, perspectives in which to understand these problems. Such a Nietzschean framework, in turn, illustrates that the uneasy aspects of Nabokov’s work are not only intelligible, but can also offer the reader manifold rewards’ (p. 19, author’s emphasis). Whilst this description appears to suggest that all the ‘problems’ of Nabokov’s fiction might be solved, conclusively, when read alongside Nietzsche’s philosophy, such a resolution would be inauthentic to both Nabokov’s and Nietzsche’s writings, where, perhaps, struggling with the problems is the point. Rodgers’s book does not attempt to package REVIEWS 543 Nabokov or Nietzsche in a ‘palatable’ way for the common reader (a type of reader, as Rodgers notes, that Nabokov despised) but to offer ways in which unease is a necessary part of the engagement with these writers and where ‘[t]he recognition of such discomfort aims to wrestle power from Nabokov’s hands into the reader’s, allowing us to “argue back” rather than simply being patted on the head for puzzle-solving’ (p. 159). Nabokov and Nietzsche is well organized and develops from a justification for interpreting Nabokov’s work through Nietzsche’s philosophy — see, for instance, Figures 1 and 2 of Nabokov’s 1918 notebook that includes Thus Spoke Zarathustra in a list of to-be-read books (and which was subsequently marked by Nabokov as having been read [pp. 12–13]) — to a positioning of Nabokov as Nietzsche’s ‘rebellious disciple’ (p. 17) who, in true Nietzschean fashion, overcomes the philosopher through a creative revaluation. The book progresses along these lines in three parts: 1) ‘Nietzschean engagements’; 2) ‘Nietzschean readings’; and 3) ‘Beyond Nietzsche’. The first chapter of part one focuses on temporality and memory. Whilst most interpretations of Nabokov’s literaryphilosophical interest in time and memory look at his admiration for Marcel Proust (in Lectures on Literature) and his reading of and reinterpretation of Henri Bergson (as most obviously noted in Strong Opinions and in Van Veen’s response to Bergson in Ada), Rodgers claims that looking to Nietzsche can illuminate ‘aspects of Nabokov’s conception of memory’ that this earlier scholarship fails to address (p. 24). The chapter does not fail to deliver an interesting examination of how Nietzsche’s concept of eternal recurrence — ‘one of the few ideas directly attributable to Nietzsche that...

Ethics, Indigenous Ethics, and the Contemporary Challenge: Attempt at a Report on Ethics for the Filipino Today

Ethics, Indigenous Ethics, and the Contemporary Challenge: Attempt at a Report on Ethics for the Filipino Today

A solidão em ‘Zaratustra’ como elemento indicativo para a formação humana

O presente artigo tem como objetivo destacar a solidão como um elemento necessário para a formação humana e colhe nas obras Assim falava Zaratustra e O Anticristo os aspectos formativos da solidão tanto em seu sentido literal como em seu sentido figurado. Em termos metodológicos concentramo-nos numa ideia de interpretação para investigar o sentido e a possível variação no uso do termo solidão por Nietzsche. Tomando o pensador alemão como referencial teórico, diferenciamos o isolamento e o abandono da solidão, sendo que aqueles enfraquecem a vida humana e esta pode tonificá-la. Concluímos, portanto, que a solidão em Zaratustra contém elementos que podem conduzir o ser humano a uma busca do melhor ou do mais elevado de si, em outros termos, ao além-homem. Por fim, a coragem para a vida na solidão emerge como um aspecto necessário da formação humana.&#x0D;

El eterno retorno: análisis de la concepción temporal en la serie Dark de Netflix

El presente trabajo analiza la conceptualizacion del tiempo tratada en la serie para television Dark (Daran bo Odar y Jantje Friese, 2017), transmitida por la plataforma digital Netflix. El argumento presenta la concepcion del tiempo como algo ciclico, fundamentada en la idea del eterno retorno, recogida por Friedrich Nietzsche en sus obras La gaya ciencia (1882) y Asi hablo Zaratustra (1883). A diferencia de la idea filosofica, Dark plantea la posibilidad real del funcionamiento del tiempo como un bucle eterno, lo cual produce la eliminacion de las concepciones clasicas de pasado, presente y futuro, debido a que los personajes pueden moverse entre estos tiempos e influir sobre los hechos que suceden antes o despues. A traves de los capitulos la serie fundamenta esta idea, se apoya en elementos de la ciencia ficcion como los viajes en el tiempo, los agujeros de gusano y las invenciones humanas orientadas a cambiar y alterar el curso de los hechos en una sola linea temporal para demostrar como las acciones de una persona en diferentes estados configuran la realidad en la que vivimos.

The Poetic Transformation of the Nietzsche’s Philosophy in the Early Works of V. V. Mayakovsky

This paper is devoted to the study over F. Nietzsche’s influence on the early works of V. Mayakovsky. Particular attention is paid to the problem of the genesis of important poetic elements and motifs in the early works of Mayakovsky, as well as the connection of the main idea of Nietzsche with the cultural situation at the beginning of the 20th century in Russia. Nietzsche, who rejected general Western ideas and the idea of absolute truth, had a great influence on the development of philosophy and literature in the 20th century. In Russia, the spread of Nietzscheanism was facilitated by the atmosphere of overcoming decadent moods and searching for new values of the early 20th century, especially in the context of the revolution. Nietzsche’s philosophy, represented by ‘the revaluation of all values’, is wholly intertwined with the aesthetic essence of Russian Futurism, primarily by the pathos of revealing the creative possibilities of the individual, free from the power of all kinds of dogma. For Mayakovsky, especially his philosophical novel Thus Spoke Zarathustra, which expresses his later philosophy such as the doctrine of the ‘&#220;bermensch’ and the idea of ‘eternal recurrence’, was also an important poetic source. This paper compares Nietzsche’s philosophical novel Thus Spoke Zarathustra and early works of Mayakovsky, especially his play Vladimir Mayakovsky: A Tragedy, in terms of themes, motifs and vocabularies, and furthermore examines how Nietzsche s later philosophy, represented by ‘&#220;bermensch’, ‘eternal recurrence’ and ‘theomachism’, was reflected in the early works of Mayakovsky. This is essential to identify the origin of the Mayakovsky works and understand the essence of his Futurism, characterized by ‘hyperbolic lyricism’ and ‘tragedy’.

Algirdas J. Greimas’s Egology

Then it spoke to me without voice : “You know it, Zarathustra ?” And I cried with fright at this whispering, and the blood left my face ; but I remained silent. Then it spoke to me again : “You know it, Zarathustra, but you do not say it !” Friedrich Nietzsche, Thus Spoke Zarathustra 1. The Egological Perspective1 Egology is a philosophical analysis, conception or theory of a specific being : a person. This notion was introduced by Edmund Husserl, but retrospectively the problematics of egology is manifest throughout the history of Western philosophy. It turns especially important in the modern era, as the subject — the ego — becomes the point of departure, the core, and the ground of philosophical thought. In this context, the egology of Algirdas Julius Greimas designates an understanding, more or less clearly articulated or implicitly assumed, of what and how a person is, what constitutes the contents, limits, and conditions of this being. Greimas was not only a semiotician but also an essayist and journalist, who frequently discussed or at least touched upon the problematics of a person and personhood in his writings. Greimas’s egology may also be discussed in another sense : as his understanding, perception, and image of his own I. Such things are expressed in special texts nowadays termed “egodocuments”. The theoretical status of this “second” egology is neither entirely clear nor unequivocal. Perhaps, it should rather be called “egography,” even if some remarks that Gre