Talk:Philosophy in the Tragic Age of the Greeks

Schopenhauer, Jean Paul, & Spir

Nietzsche quoted paragraphs from three writers who were not ancient Greeks. The first was Arthur Schopenhauer, who had an enormous influence on Nietzsche. The second was Jean Paul Richter. The third was Afrikan Spir, a writer who is little known today.

One quote from Schopenhauer's The World as Will and Representation was an explanation of the concept of reality. Schopenhauer and Heraclitus saw reality as activity. For them, the essential being of reality was actuality. "The consequence," Schopenhauer wrote, "of the activity of any material object upon another is recognized only insofar as the latter now acts differently from what it did before upon the immediate object. Reality consists of nothing other than this." Note that, for Schopenhauer, the "immediate object" was his name for the observing subject's own body.

Another quote is a description of the strife that occurs throughout nature, Without this continual struggle amond all things, nature would not exist.

At the end of the book, Nietzsche refers to Schopenhauer's work in order to explain how some observers assume that, because their own subjective minds are capable of purposeful creation, objective nature was created for a purpose.

Jean Paul's quote is in relation to the aphoristic style of writing, which Nietzsche favored in several of his books. Jean Paul stated that great things should be stated briefly and obscurely. In this way, poor minds will see it as nonsense. Therefore, they will leave it alone and not try to mistranslate it. Low minds tend to read their own opinions into sayings that may be very profound.

Afrikan Spir wrote Thought and Actuality (Denken und Wirklichkeit) as an analysis of Kant's transcendental idealism. Nietzsche's quoted paragraph shows how Spir made implications from Kant's writings and then ridiculed those implications. Spir did not cite Kant's actual words. Nietzsche quoted Spir in order to present an argument against Parmenides' assertion that change was only apparent, not real.

The "P" Word

Ed Witten, Steven Weinberg, and Brian Greene do not like philosophy. But you can hear echoes of Thales when they seriously state that the world is really made of these tiny, vibrating strings that you can't see.Lestrade 12:42, 8 December 2005 (UTC)Lestrade

Anaxagoras's Creative Nous

In the final words of his section on Anaxagoras, Nietzsche has Anaxagoras's nous creating the world as a free spirit plays a game. The freedom of the nous-mind and the unfreedom of the world are reminiscent of Schopenhauer's Will (but without mind) and its determined, unfree production, the world. After Nietzsche had brought his book to the point in which it confirms Schopenhauer's philosophy, he stopped writing.

Tragic Age

Nietzsche does not mention the tragedians, except for a passage about Euripides at the end of the book. That playwright is referred to as a free spirit, similar to the creative nous.

Question?

Am I the only one who feels that the sectioning and such of this article may be off? Certain parts are way too short, and it's hard to tell what it's about. Niki Whimbrel 18:00, 29 May 2006 (UTC)

The sections of the article correspond exactly to the sections of the book. Each section of the article is a short digest, epitome, or summary of the contents of the book's section.Lestrade 01:11, 30 May 2006 (UTC)Lestrade

Okay, then why not merge the two prefaces? The section for the later preface is mostly wasted, imo. Niki Whimbrel 12:51, 30 May 2006 (UTC)

Merge them, delete them, do whatever you want. Nietzsche wrote a second, very short preface to explain how his book was different from other books. He restricted himself to three anecdotes about each philosopher. In so doing, he thought that he was conveying each philosopher's most personal ideas and thereby communicating the individual personality. Have you read the book? For the benefit of today's lazy, indolent readers, I should mention that it is a only little over 100 pages long. Isn't that a relief?Lestrade 14:51, 30 May 2006 (UTC)Lestrade

I'm sorry if anything I've said has been taken as an insult--I'm doing a speech on Nietzsche for Lit. Perhaps I shall read it. Anyway, I hope that your over-obvious level of stress decreases soon. Niki Whimbrel 01:48, 31 May 2006 (UTC)

How can you write a speech on Nietzsche without reading his books? You can find most of of Philosophy in the Tragic Age of the Greeks if you search the Web for "Nietzsche Channel". If you only plan to have a superficial understanding of Nietzsche, your best bet is to read Ecce Homo, his entertaining intellectual autobiography. You can find many interesting thoughts in it.Lestrade 15:05, 31 May 2006 (UTC)Lestrade

Lecture & Notes

In the summer of 1872, Nietzsche lectured at the University of Basel on Pre-Platonic philosophers. Ten students attended his lectures. In 1873, he wrote the notes for Philosophy in the Tragic Age of the Greeks, which was never completed.Lestrade (talk) 02:28, 6 November 2010 (UTC)Lestrade