Modern European Philosophy: Week 11

As previously noted, there is no week 10 here because I skipped Marx and Engels for wine and cheese. It was also a matter of cost/benefit analysis: one third of a day of an expensive two day conference had way more value than one class out of 12.

I barely have a concept of what we talked about in class this week, despite staying awake the whole time. The topic was Nietzsche and all I know is that I barely took any notes while listening to the Prof read selections from the text aloud and then not expand on them much.

Nietzsche  didn't like Christianity and he stated that "G-d is dead." He thought that Jesus was different for each person because everyone projects his or her own image onto Jesus, and in a way is worshiping him- or herself. Similarly, Nietzsche believed that all philosophies of the past were built on the emotions of each philosopher, and therefore weren't terribly valid. Nietzsche was looking for an ethic that went beyond emotions and beyond good and evil.

Other random tidbits from my notes:

• Personal immortality is a lie; Jesus has the same status as the tooth fairy, the Easter bunny, and Santa Claus
• Nietzsche likes that humans evolved from animals and have instincts
• People who are fearful are the ones who don't do anything: self-preservation can make you go hide in a hole or it can make you go destroy the enemy
• It is immaterial whether a philosophy is true or false: the Romans built their empire based on the belief that they were superior. It was that belief itself, rather than its veracity, that allowed the Romans to build said empire
• Similarly, each religion thrives on the belief that it is right and others are wrong

And that's about it. Interesting stuff, but sort of random. For the final class, we FINALLY get to Existentialism. The whole reason I took the class and we only get to spend one measly week on it. At least I will enjoy the reading!