The contemplation behind Nietzsche’s philosophy projects the meaning of values and their importance to existence. Regarding nature, Friedrich Nietzsche emphasizes that humans are at a development stage that is not final but transitional. Subsequently, living can never become too complacent or gratified with their accomplishments without putting their claim of being human at risk. This retrospective paper seeks to analyze how Nietzsche’s thoughts on genealogy, the eternal return, will to power, and the overman intersect with daily life.
Nietzschean genealogy institutes a radical critique concerning the knowledge origins from three different angles through the exploration of power and body. The philosopher presents genealogy as being parodic, opposing the idea of history as recognition or reminiscence, and argues that it is directed against what is real (Nietzsche 95). He relates genealogy to the routine modern days’ morality conception. Philosophical texts and histories usually trace several facets of everyday life back to a particular principle, event, or instead linearly track through time evolution concept. For instance, impacts of economic, social, and political life can be traced from Jesus’ crucifixion by historians.
Nietzsche’s eternal recurrence concept idealizes that all events repeat themselves using a similar sequence, namely an eternal circles series. This ideology is a fundamental aspect of the philosopher’s mature writings. Nietzsche succinctly concludes on his thought the moment he addresses “Everything has returned” to the reader (Nietzsche 136). With the aspect of eternal return, life is the only experience available to humanity. People continually experience life similarly to each other across time. A person’s driven purpose and existence originate from the life individuals share each day. The principle idea remains that people will undoubtedly make the most out of life.
Nietzsche accentuates the prevalence of the idea of the will to power over the will to live. The will exists only where there is life, making the will to power more meaningful (Nietzsche 213). The will to power puts into description what was centrally Nietzsche’s belief as to humans’ core and propeller. When a person makes another indebted to them, that creates an improved sense of power; they ought to extend the power possessed because the beneficiary finds it advantageous to sideline with the giver. In everyday life, people tend to seek the balance of power with others, which makes the will to power more dominant than the will to live.
Nietzsche portrays an overman as an individual leading a life not geared towards merely living every day with no meaning (Nietzsche 115). Thus, the present life of such an individual has more value than of the past and future. This is the aspect of knowledge that the present conditions cannot change or shift. An overman indefinitely affects history, perceives life in the form of Dionysian realization, and involves diversion of the Dionysian principle into creativity. Additionally, the limitation realization and attitude make someone encounter life, be satisfied, recognize that all the parts create what they are, and get happy.
Conclusively, the aspects of genealogy, the eternal return, will to power, and overman are broadly applicable to our daily lives. In particular, genealogy is sacrificial since it attacks the truth and objects to history as a body of knowledge because we live in a world where daily events repeat themselves. Besides, the will to power elucidates Nietzsche’s core belief as to the humans’ driving force, while the concept of overman depicts a situation of a past and future that does not reflect the present situation of humanity.
Work Cited
Nietzsche, Friedrich. The Portable Nietzsche. Edited by Walter Kaufmann, Penguin Publishing Company, 1976.