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Gary Spangler's avatar

Conformity kills…if nothing else the human spirit. Thanks so very much for injecting the thoughts from great minds into our days.

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Alejandro Martín Gómez's avatar

This guy was pure and brutally honest with a spark never seen in any other philosopher

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Diane N's avatar

He is one of my most favorites! So wise!

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Joshua Stevens's avatar

Nietzsche is my favorite philosopher as well. I've got a continuous series that I publish on Substack covering his famous book, Thus Spake Zarathustra. You can study that book, implement the ideas in your life, and dramatic make your life better. I earned a job promotion from what I learned in Thus Spake Zarathustra. The idea of Will to Power can take someone very far in life if they consciously act upon it.

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Aug 29Edited
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Joshua Stevens's avatar

https://15cc.substack.com/

The "series" is probably close to 20 articles that I wrote on Thus Spoke Zarathustra alone. I also have some articles on Goethe's philosophy, to whom Nietzsche was also greatly influenced by. Nietzsche also considered Goethe to be one of the few Ubermench to ever live.

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Wizdom App's avatar

Philosophical questions like these spark essential debates. Great post!

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Joanne A martinez's avatar

Doubt can cause us to believe nothing is true, therefore, can inhibit knowledge.

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Magnum Opus's avatar

Yoooooooooo 😄🙏🏽👍🏽 I literally just wrote this on my publication! Thanks so much! 💯💯💯 I appreciate the effort to share! 🙌🏽

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Abi Locke's avatar

Can we ever truly know anything is true? But the element of doubt will encourage us to examine whether it is our truth and to expand what we know about it.

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John James O'Brien's avatar

The “ends justifies the means” is a rationalization itself justifying the worst excesses of human behaviour—it holds no limit so long as “the ends” are supportable. I tend to replace it in my mind, when someone posits that, “any behaviour is acceptable to achieve “X” result.” Personally, I hold that the means shape the results, so in circumstances when we proceed down methods at odds with the principles that ground the results, we must think thrice and take deliberate measures not to lose the progress we think we have made.

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Darrell P Baker's avatar

"Do the ends justify the means in moral decision-making, or must actions be judged independently of their outcomes?"

Sometimes.

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Diane N's avatar

Doubt vs. skepticism are very different. Knowing the difference is key.

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Joshua Bond's avatar

"Question № 01: Do the ends justify the means in moral decision-making, or must actions be judged independently of their outcomes?"

Ends-and-means are "one-thing" ("a violent war begets a violent peace" [Gandhi]) so any discussion of 'ends justifying means' in non-logical, non-sensical. If it is true that "by their fruit shall ye know them" then by Gandhi's angle on means/ends, the means will exhibit the same characteristics as the fruit.

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Joshua Stevens's avatar

Quote 2 response...The ruling elite prefer to keep everyone trapped in the herd of other people and not be their own person. We're kept in the herd by social pressure, economic pressure, and legal pressure. The most difficult and subversive thing to do in life is to act and think on your own.

I wrote an article on this last year: https://15cc.substack.com/p/3-steps-to-becoming-who-you-really

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Richard ball's avatar

No thief, however skillful can rob one of knowledge,

And that is why knowledge is the best and safest treasure to acquire.

Frank l Baum

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Evro's avatar

I personally think a doubt is a short of natural proof checker .

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Pierce Bales's avatar

Here’s a good one;

“What is most difficult?…Is it this:

Stepping into filthy waters when they are the waters of truth, and not repulsing cold frogs and hot toads.”

Thus Spake Zarathustra

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IsThisTheRoomForAnArgument's avatar

Hmm, Nietzsche is the Kaiser of Axioms, isn't he, or is he the Emperor with his New Clothes?

LinkedIn contains many of these bite-sized quotes that get loads of Likes. Here's a recent one that had me laughing, because so many HR people "Love" it:

"I've learned to have strong opinions held loosely rather than loose opinions held strongly".

https://www.linkedin.com/posts/jeff-wilbanks-b58bb029_i-recently-had-a-chat-with-a-head-of-hr-about-activity-7226935815967326208-8tL6

One of Nietzsche's most famous is repeated here in Quote1: "if you gaze long into an abyss, the abyss also gazes into you". An abyss is an inanimate object, so how can it "gaze" at all? :-)

Quote2: what if those who think differently are deliberately trying to corrupt youth, you squalid little grotesquely-moustachioed man?

Quote3, alluding to Quote2 perhaps, reads like the opening line to a children's story - "Once upon a time ... there was a twinkling star ... and its name was Friedrich".

Quote4: when did the definition of slavery become someone who does not devote two-thirds of the day to themselves? The UK has The Modern Slavery Act of 2015 which requires UK companies to identify and eliminate slavery in their supply chains, so should we be reporting people wholesale to the Anti-Slavery Commissioner and the Police?

Quote5: "The reasons and purposes for habits are ALWAYS lies" [my emphasis]. Are the reasons and purposes for YOUR habits, Dear Reader, lies?

====

Now, if he turned these statements into questions while also contextualising them and removing the ridiculous aspects of generalisation, do you think he'd deserve to be taken more seriously? Or do you prefer your Nietzsche In The Altogether?

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Jeff Cvitkovic's avatar

The first quote is particularly eerie to me, when you consider that Nietzsche himself went mad due to his work not being recognized in his own life. Literally he struggled to get anything published and was madly jealous of others who did have success. He was obviously a genius, but clearly, especially in that first quote about staring into the abyss, was speaking from profound, and troubling, experience.

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