“If I never loved I never would have cried. I am a rock. I am an island” (Simon). K. is that rock. He lives cautiously, seeking order and logic. K. is removed. Removed from his relationships, his work, the entirety of his life. He runs on “…foresight, prudence, and regularity…” (90) as Nietzsche would tell us of the rational man. We see K’s rationality in his quest for an upper hand on the court, his need to keep up appearances at the bank, and in his constant search for logic. K.’s rationality makes him ignorant of the absurd, and that ignorance becomes the cause of his demise. K. tries to make sense of everything he encounters throughout his trial. Any hint he unearths concerning the Court he builds into his understanding of it. He thinks …show more content…
K. studies the altarpiece and sees an armored knight. “He was leaning on his sword…bare except for a stray blade of grass or two. He seemed to be watching attentively some event…It was surprising that he should stand so still without approaching nearer to it” (Kafka 205). This knight stands apart from the melee, sword bare; tangentially connected but fundamentally uninvolved with the possible action of life. The painting gives us a portrait of K., he stands apart, sword bare. (This bare sword only confirms K.’s assurance of his innocence.) The knight is removed, like the rational man, and therefore like …show more content…
is killed by his own rationality. K.’s mental model demands an explanation for the Court, and without accepting the Court’s authenticity that demand cannot be fulfilled. The only power the Court has over K. is the power he gives to it. K. never truly fights the court, instead he wrestles with it in his mind, ultimately inventing a false logic he then has to follow. When the two men come to execute K., he considers resisting, but ultimately “…realize[s] the futility of resistance” (Kafka 225). His contrived logic says that with two stronger men taking him away, resistance must be futile. So he follows that logic and allows the execution—even encourages it: “He set himself in motion…They suffered him now to lead the way…” (Kafka 225). K.’s rational mind walks him to the executioner’s block. As he dies he thinks “‘Like a dog!’” (Kafka 229) and those words demonstrate the ultimate power he’s given to the Court. His own false logic has demanded his death. K.’s demise is a warning. Kafka creates a canvass with K., his lack of a last name allowing us to project our own experiences onto his form: “In The Trial the hero might have been named Schmidt or Franz Kafka. But he is named Joseph K. He is not Kafka and yet he is Kafka. He is an average European. He is like everybody else” (Camus 129). Kafka uses the canvass of Joseph K., rejecting ignorance of the absurd, and perhaps instructing us to reject that ignorance as well. Kafka, like Nietzsche, warns us against living
In philosophy “Nihilism” is a position of radical skepticism. It is the belief that all values are baseless and nothing is known. The word “Nihilism” itself conveys a sense of abolishing or destroying (IEP). Nietzsche’s work and writings are mostly associated with nihilism in general, and moral nihilism especially. Moral nihilism questions the reality and the foundation of moral values. Nietzsche supported his view on morality by many arguments and discussions on the true nature of our inner self. Through my paper on Moral Nihilism, I will explain 5 major arguments and then try to construct a deductive argument for each, relying on Nietzsche’s book II “Daybreak”.
Nietzsche: Philosophizing Without Categorizing. How are we to philosophize without "Ism?" For, although defining a person in terms of an Ism is dangerous--both because it encourages identification of the individual with the doctrine and because it denies her the possibility of becoming that, as a human, she is heir to--grouping people according to a doctrine to which they subscribe is a convenient mental shortcut. Although grouping people into verbal boxes entails the danger of eventually seeing all of the boxes as equal, or similar enough to make no difference, the necessity of seeing the totality of a single human being is impossible. And although the qualities of my existence, or anyone else's existence (an individual's isness), are constantly undergoing a process, both conscious and unconscious, of revaluation and change, the change is usually not great enough over short lengths of time to qualify as noticeable.
Enter here The ear splitting crackle from a whip is heard as a master shouts orders to a slave. This to most people would make them comfortable. The idea of slavery is one that is unsettling to most people. This is because most people feel it is unmoral or morally wrong to own another human being. However Nietzsche would not necessarily believe this because he did believe in a morality that fits all. Ethics and morality are completely objective and cannot be one set of rules for everyone. Ethics and morality that are more strictly defined are for the weak, the strong do not need a set of rules because they can take care of themselves.
Friedrich Nietzsche’s The Gay Science offered us only a glimpse of what Nietzsche has to offer. By bringing his teachings into high school classrooms and becoming a standard high school curriculum can truly benefit and further enrich a young student’s education.
. . I can't execute [him] at all" (Suess 36). This simple statement reveals how a man in an important position of power, the executioner, has ideals that include human rights and justice at the heart of his profession. Although it seems ridiculous for someone with such a grisly job to be so pure of heart, this is actually how it should be. In a strong government, if a job with the purpose of killing wrongdoers must exist, it should not be given to biased people with a nasty streak, instead it should be given to people who understand the clear line between right and wrong, and are not afraid to advocate for it. Furthermore, Suess describes the executioner in a warm light when he says "in spite of his business, he really seemed to be a very pleasant man" (Suess 34). Not only does the executioner have good intentions at heart, but he is someone who the people can look up to in hard times. If he can remain lighthearted with such a dark profession, then what are they to worry about with their simple, everyday problems. Besides running the kingdom, that is the job of the government: keep the people
One of the first trials encountered in this class was that of Alfred Dreyfus, a Captain in the French military who was accused of treason for passing French intelligence to the Germans. However where many parallels can be found lies in the subsequent actions taken by the French military and legal system. Dreyfus was convicted on treason and sentenced to be transported to Guiana and serve in a penal colony. As a result he was removed from his legal proceedings, he no longer had access to his case nor any of the officials who had any power to change his case. Kafka’s depicts this process similarly in The Trial, Josef K. has very little to no access to his case and absolutely none surrounding its details, while he is not physically removed from the case he is removed from the case based on the inaccessibility of the courts, the judges and even legal counsel. Dreyfus was similarly removed from the country in order to serve his sentence and it was not until others began to p...
Friedrich Nietzsche’s On Truth and Lies in a Nonmoral Sense represents a deconstruction of the modern epistemological project. Instead of seeking for truth, he suggests that the ultimate truth is that we have to live without such truth, and without a sense of longing for that truth. This revolutionary work of his is divided into two main sections. The first part deals with the question on what is truth? Here he discusses the implication of language to our acquisition of knowledge. The second part deals with the dual nature of man, i.e. the rational and the intuitive. He establishes that neither rational nor intuitive man is ever successful in their pursuit of knowledge due to our illusion of truth. Therefore, Nietzsche concludes that all we can claim to know are interpretations of truth and not truth itself.
Franz Kafka, b. Prague, Bohemia (then belonging to Austria), July 3, 1883, d. June 3, 1924, has come to be one of the most influential writers of this century. Virtually unknown during his lifetime, the works of Kafka have since been recognized as symbolizing modern man's anxiety-ridden and grotesque alienation in an unintelligible, hostile, or indifferent world. Kafka came from a middle-class Jewish family and grew up in the shadow of his domineering shopkeeper father, who impressed Kafka as an awesome patriarch. The feeling of impotence, even in his rebellion, was a syndrome that became a pervasive theme in his fiction. Kafka did well in the prestigious German high school in Prague and went on to receive a law degree in 1906. This allowed him to secure a livelihood that gave him time for writing, which he regarded as the essence--both blessing and curse--of his life. He soon found a position in the semipublic Workers' Accident Insurance institution, where he remained a loyal and successful employee until--beginning in 1917-- tuberculosis forced him to take repeated sick leaves and finally, in 1922, to retire. Kafka spent half his time after 1917 in sanatoriums and health resorts, his tuberculosis of the lungs finally spreading to the larynx.
While Kierkegaard’s analysis of the superiority of the Knight of Faith in relation to those who follow the aesthetic life or ethical life is correct, he fails to acknowledge that faith can be rooted in joy and love, and can be far more spiritual and fulfilling than faith alone. This is the angst-ridden and unfortunate symptom of an existential despair, and does not truly reflect the complicated relationship between man and God.
...has failed to help him deal with his inner emotions from his military experience. He has been through a traumatic experience for the past two years, and he does not have anyone genuinely interested in him enough to take the time to find out what's going on in his mind and heart. Kreb's is disconnected from the life he had before the war, and without genuine help and care from these people he lived with, and around all his childhood life, it's difficult to return to the routines that everyone is accustomed to.
... thrive in the totalitarian driven society, like the executors, give up all instincts that would allow them to thrive in competitive, naturally selective reality and screams, “Like a dog!...as if the shame of it should outlive him” (Kafka Ch. 10). People’s perspectives and influences on an individual are more important than how an individual lives their lives, and that was Josef K.’s weakness in this totalitarian and bureaucratic environment.
To fully understand this story, it’s important to have some background information on Franz Kafka. He was born into a German speaking family in Prague on July 3rd, 1883. He was the oldest of six children. His father Harmann Kafka was a business man. His mother Julie Kafka was born into a wealthy family. Kafka considered the vast differences in his paternal and maternal relatives as a “split within himself” (Sokel 1). Kafka felt that “the powerful, self-righteous, and totally unselfconscious personality of his father had stamped him with an ineradicable conviction of his own inferiority and guilt” (Sokel 1). He felt the o...
While the language can be plain at times, it is mostly strong. I believe the diction of the Trial indicates that the writer has some form of education… I also believe the diction of the Trial is indicative of Kafka’s geographical region.
All of Friedrich Nietzsche quotes were made before the age of 44. For the last 11 years of his life, he had no use of his mental capabilities. While many of Friedrich Nietzsche quotes were focused on religion, or the fallacy of it, it would be interesting to see what he would have written about later in his life and if his opinion would have changed. Although, the statement 'God is dead' did come from him, so there would likely have been no change in how he viewed religion. Many of his quotes are focused on human behavior and existence, and following are some that moved me.
The main character of The Trial is Joseph K. Yet through out the book he is referred to as simply K.. There is no coincidence that Kafka created the character K. as the protagonist of The Trial. The significance was that Kafka was trying to represent himself through the character by giving a close enough name to his without merely stating his own name in the place of the protagonist of the novel. Kafka did this with another one of his characters, and related them to his life in a significant way through the book. For instance Kafka wrote this book at the time where he was engaged to his fiancé Felice Bauer. Another other character in the book, by the name of Fraulein Burstner, is a neighbor of K.. K. has a love for Fraulein Burstner. In Kafka?s manuscripts, and rough drafts for The Trial he refers to Fraulein Burstner as simply F.B., which happens to be the same initials that his future wife had (Brod 170). K. loses touch with Fraulein Burstner early in the book, and through out the book K. want to see her more than anything. K. receives a glimpse of Fraulein Burstner upon a balcony as he walked down the street before he is stabbed to death. Kafka at the time of writing The Trial was deeply in love with his fiancé, Felice Bauer, and wanted to see her more than anything, when he wrote this book he felt a longing to be with her. Yet, the engagement was broken off shortly afterwards. The use of characters in The Trial par...