Overcoming Fear of Heights: a Reflection on the Will to Power
Life wants to build itself up into the heights with pillars and steps; it wants to look into vast distances and out toward stirring beauties: therefore it requires height. And because it requires height, it requires steps and contradiction among the steps and the climbers. Life wants to climb and to overcome itself climbing (The Portable Nietzsche 213).
Traditionally we have associated climbing heights with reaching God. An example of this can be found in the biblical story of humans building the tower of Babel in an attempt to reach heaven (New International Version, Gen. 11:4). Since “God is dead” in Nietzsche’s “Thus Spoke Zarathustra” (The Portable Nietzsche 124), then we must
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If the will to power is what drives animals, then surely this is something to be overcome by the overman. We must create our future as we walk the steps into the heights in order to find redemption from suffering. Our creative will is our destiny (The Portable Nietzsche 199). Those who will the sameness of the herd are unable to move beyond the will to power (Writings from the Later Notebooks 77). In order to will, we need one who commands, not obeys (The Portable Nietzsche 226, 258). Again there must be a contradiction here, because in willing we not only command ourselves, but also obey at the same time (Beyond Good and Evil, 19). This is what it means for life to overcome itself through the climbing, for even in commanding itself, life must act as its own judge of good and evil (The Portable Nietzsche 226). Of course, this judgement is fundamentally impossible, whether we are currently living or have already had all there is to experience of life (474). Since we can’t judge from outside, we must create values for the life we want to live (490). This informs us that the necessary transformations, or steps beyond man, must come from within: “what is good and evil no one knows yet, unless it be he who creates… that anything at all is good and evil - that is his creation” (308). Since God is dead, we …show more content…
Is this where we will look down on ourselves (265)? Or are we rather looking away from ourselves, as God must have done when he created the world (143)? In order to take in these beautiful views, Zarathustra must continue his ascent higher, climbing over himself even above the sky and stars (265). If we are indeed to gaze upon “vast distances” and “stirring beauties”, then this can only be a view of how far we’ve come from the last man to reach the overman; a panoramic view of his own evolution and overcoming of man awaits the overman. However, if the eternal recurrence is true, then ultimately there is no final height to be reached, only the constant transformation and becoming. Life proclaims to Zarathustra that it is “that which must always overcome itself”, something that is always aspiring to move higher (227). Man is not an end, but a means - something to be overcome, a bridge over an abyss that will reach the overman (126). Man is not something that can be merely “skipped over” like a jester (311). In order to become the overman, one must go through various transformations (137-139). Thus the constant climbing is
Jonathan Kozol revealed the early period’s situation of education in American schools in his article Savage Inequalities. It seems like during that period, the inequality existed everywhere and no one had the ability to change it; however, Kozol tried his best to turn around this situation and keep track of all he saw. In the article, he used rhetorical strategies effectively to describe what he saw in that situation, such as pathos, logos and ethos.
A fresh recruit to a discarded system is Mr. Jaime Escalante. In the film, Stand and Deliver, he had to adapt in his environment in James A. Garfield High School when, without prior notice, he was assigned to teach Mathematics instead of Computer. Quickly, as he set foot in the classroom, he had, most probably, a better discernment in human behavior. The reality of the high school he was employed in, he understood and tried to completely remove the universal gap between a traditional teacher and a disregarded student.
We have grown weary of man. Nietzsche wants something better, to believe in human ability once again. Nietzsche’s weariness is based almost entirely in the culmination of ressentiment, the dissolution of Nietzsche’s concept of morality and the prevailing priestly morality. Nietzsche wants to move beyond simple concepts of good and evil, abandon the assessment of individuals through ressentiment, and restore men to their former wonderful ability.
“Thoughts in the Presence of Fear” is a manifesto written by Wendell Berry, dated October 11, 2001. It is a post-September 11 manifesto for environmentalists. Berry uses terms such as “we” and “they” as he expresses his ideas, regarding how our optimism for a “new economy” was founded upon the labors of poor people all over the world. I will conduct a rhetorical analysis of four sections of Berry’s manifesto; Sections XI, XII, XIII, and XIV; and discuss his use of ethos, logos, and pathos. Berry uses pathos more often in his paper, to instill feelings of guilt and fear in his readers. While many areas of his paper can be thought of as logos, Berry makes little use of ethos.
In the book Into the Wild, Jon Krakauer wrote about Christopher McCandless, a nature lover in search for independence, in a mysterious and hopeful experience. Even though Krakauer tells us McCandless was going to die from the beginning, he still gave him a chance for survival. As a reader I wanted McCandless to survive. In Into the Wild, Krakauer gave McCandless a unique perspective. He was a smart and unique person that wanted to be completely free from society. Krakauer included comments from people that said McCandless was crazy, and his death was his own mistake. However, Krakauer is able to make him seem like a brave person. The connections between other hikers and himself helped in the explanation of McCandless’s rational actions. Krakauer is able to make McCandless look like a normal person, but unique from this generation. In order for Krakauer to make Christopher McCandless not look like a crazy person, but a special person, I will analyze the persuading style that Krakauer used in Into the Wild that made us believe McCandless was a regular young adult.
Hosseini’s purpose of writing the Kite Runner was to teach the readers the different ethnic groups in Afghanistan. The main character, Amir, is a Pashtun and Pashtuns are Sunni Muslims, then there are Hazara’s that the Pashtuns do not get along with. Hazara’s are not welcomed by the Pashtuns because they are different social classes.
Pollan’s article provides a solid base to the conversation, defining what to do in order to eat healthy. Holding this concept of eating healthy, Joe Pinsker in “Why So Many Rich Kids Come to Enjoy the Taste of Healthier Foods” enters into the conversation and questions the connection of difference in families’ income and how healthy children eat (129-132). He argues that how much families earn largely affect how healthy children eat — income is one of the most important factors preventing people from eating healthy (129-132). In his article, Pinsker utilizes a study done by Caitlin Daniel to illustrate that level of income does affect children’s diet (130). In Daniel’s research, among 75 Boston-area parents, those rich families value children’s healthy diet more than food wasted when children refused to accept those healthier but
...Hence he concluded that individuals of a society governed by capitalism risked falling into a state of nihilism bereft of meaning. Moreover, the solution he believed was that of a superhuman. A superhuman understands life’s lack of intransience and consequentially looks within for meaning. However, life’s transitory quality results in the superhuman having to constantly recreate in order to overcome the continuously new obstacles thrown at him. Correspondingly, Nietzsche ascertains the quest for satiation of one’s hedonistic insatiable desires, is the greatest strength for a superhuman. This is chiefly due to it being the underlying source for man’s insatiable desire to overcome. Coincidentally, the syntax, as noted by Ginsberg, is one of a pyramidal structure. The monotonic crescendo, symbolizes Solomon’s growing madness and its correlation with a heightened joy.
First of all, Nietzsche emphasizes that human’s ultimate goal should be state of the overman, who is constantly overcoming himself and destroying old ...
The movie trailer “Rio 2”, shows a great deal of pathos, ethos, and logos. These rhetorical appeals are hidden throughout the movie trailer; however, they can be recognized if paying attention to the details and montage of the video. I am attracted to this type of movies due to the positive life messages and the innocent, but funny personifications from the characters; therefore, the following rhetorical analysis will give a brief explanation of the scenes, point out the characteristics of persuasive appeals and how people can be easily persuaded by using this technique, and my own interpretation of the message presented in the trailer.
Nietzsche studies the etymological origins of the good and the bad, and how the dichotomy evolved into one between the good and the evil. Through the close study of the roots of the words and the meanings they take, he proposes that the good and evil as we know of now emerged from the struggles of the will to power of the ‘Nobility class’ who possess the master morality, and the will to power of the ‘Priestly class’ who are driven by the slave morality; however, Nietzsche thinks that both classes are limited, and we have to hope that the sovereign individuals will spring up in the future, who are superior to the two, and worthy of becoming alike.
Friedrich Nietzsche was a critic and a German Philosopher from the 18th century. Nietzsche was the father of psychoanalysis and he formulated several philosophical concepts that have greatly contributed to the understanding of human nature. Nietzsche ideas had been misinterpreted by many people over time specifically, due to his style of writing. Nietzsche style of writing was adopted to strengthen his arguments on various controversial topics. In this paper, I will discuss Nietzsche’s idea of naturalistic morality, master morality, self-mastery morality, and how they connect with the affirmation of nature and strength.
The Letter from Birmingham Jail was written by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in April of 1963. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was one of several civil rights activists who were arrested in Birmingham Alabama, after protesting against racial injustices in Alabama. Dr. King wrote this letter in response to a statement titled A Call for Unity, which was published on Good Friday by eight of his fellow clergymen from Alabama. Dr. King uses his letter to eloquently refute the article. In the letter dr. king uses many vivid logos, ethos, and pathos to get his point across. Dr. King writes things in his letter that if any other person even dared to write the people would consider them crazy.
“Hills like White Elephants” by Ernest Hemingway is about a couple, the American and Jig, who contemplate whether or not to have an abortion. The premise of the story seems simple enough, but the outcome is highly debated. Critics argue that the baby was kept by the couple ( Renner ) and others claim the baby was aborted.( Fletcher ) Others have even simplified the story, claiming that the issue was not resolved because the couple was drunk by the end of the story. ( Sipiora ) Although the conclusion is in questions many have agreed with the idea that the couples relationship would be changed and would end prematurely. ( Wyche ) Dialogue is the main technique in conveying this argument but we can only understand the complexity of Hemingway’s work by looking at the story as a whole. By looking at the many symbols, intrinsically and
Lifting his lofty head above the clouds / And like a steeple overpeers the church. / But we’ll pull down his haughty insolence…” (3.1:942-945).