The Nietzsche Podcast

In this episode, we’re exploring how Arthur Schopenhauer’s philosophy culminates in the idea that we must deny the will-to-live. This second part will take us through Schopenhauer's view of art, his idea of genius, and how the Platonic forms relate to aesthetics. Finally, we'll discuss the final end of Schopenhauer's philosophy: nothingness. Unlike other noted pessimists, who fixated on mortality, and the finitude of a human life, Schopenhauer insists that being itself is always indestructible. Death isn't even a way out of the horror of existence. Thus, it becomes imperative that the knowing subject discover through reason how to negate the will and to become free of the blind, ceaseless striving that creates his suffering. For the episode image, I decided to go with young Schopenhauer. Since he wrote World as Will and Representation at 28 years old and never changed his mind about the contents of the book, young Schopenhauer and old Schopenhauer represent exactly the same Platonic Idea. And since time is simply an illusion of the phenomenal world, why not go from old to young? Next week, we'll discuss Nietzsche's essay, Schopenhauer as Educator.

Arthur Schopenhauer (1788-1860) is known today as the ultimate pessimist among philosophers. Among Nietzsche's influences, perhaps none can be said to be more significant than Schopenhauer. Given that Nietzsche promoted a life philosophy that was ultimately "yes-saying" and full of determination to embrace this world and all its suffering, it may be surprising to some who are not familiar with Schopenhauer to learn that Nietzsche was so enamored with him. As Charlie Huenemann says, the young Nietzsche was "lit afire" by the famous pessimist upon first discovering his work at Schulpforta. We can even perhaps credit Schopenhauer's writing with enticing Nietzsche to consider an academic path other than philology, and to eventually throw in his own contribution and critique of the German idealists and their movement. The core ideas of Schopenhauer's that we'll cover in part one will be Schopenhauer's metaphysics, which is contained in books I and II of the first volume of the World as Will and Representation. Thus, the first episode will unravel the puzzle of what exactly the title means: what is it to say that the world is representation, or that the world is will? Or, as Schopenhauer claims - that it is both entirely, and that both perspectives on the world each elucidate some different aspect of it? This episode will provide a bridge from the byzantine, tortured Kantian metaphysics that had dominated German philosophy into the rebellious, anti-metaphysica stance of Nietzsche. Next week, we'll discuss the second aspects of will and representation, which involves a discussion of ethics and aesthetics. Please support us on Patreon, anything helps, Zarathustra bless: https://www.patreon.com/untimelyreflections

This is the first episode with my new mic set-up! Enjoy that crisp, crystal-clear vocal quality on my end, for the first time during one of my conversations with a guest. Apparently the bitrate was wreaking havoc on my normal mic setup, but thankfully the problem is finally solved. In this Untimely Reflections, I have a conversation with Matt Keck, the co-host of Beyond Talking Points. Matt is an anarcho-capitalist, who recommended the topic of archotropism, which is a theory of power set forward by youtuber/podcaster Popular Liberty. In the course of the conversation, we discuss how it is that economic wealth relates to power, why it is that the morality of the elites counter-intuitively tends towards leftism, the future of China, and how authoritarian modes of governance can create fragile systems. Even though Matt and I have very different views of government and the state, we share a lot of common insights on the nature of power and power relationships. As you may have noticed, I spoke with Matt's co-host, who is also named Matt, in the second episode of Untimely Reflections: https://anchor.fm/dashboard/episode/e16slnt You can listen to Beyond Talking Points here: https://open.spotify.com/show/5Hag3O3dJr64F6VNs7rF3w

In America, we celebrate Halloween with costumes and trick or treating. In Germany, Allerheiligen is a holiday of paying respects to the dead, and showing reverence for all the saints of the Catholic Church. In Mexico, Dia de los Muertos involves the building of shrines and offering of food to the deceased. Among the ancient Celts, there was Samhain, a time in which the veil between worlds became thinner. Where do all these death holidays come from, and why do so many cultures, with different religious traditions, set aside a day for the ritualized celebration of the dead? And, most importantly for the subject of this podcast... what can Nietzsche tell us that can help understand this anthropological puzzle? Today, we're talking all things Halloween, from a Nietzschean lens. We discuss the effect of darkness and night upon the psyche, the overactive imagination and collective dream state of early man, how we never stop believing in fairytales, and why rituals help spiritualize the wicked thoughts and feelings of mankind. Join us for a special, creepy episode of The Nietzsche Podcast. Muahahahahaha! Episode art: Hans Baldung — Die Hexen (“The Witches”, 1510), courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

Philosophers have a birth defect. They are cursed, destined to philosophize without a historical sense. Even without realizing it, we take for granted the moral prejudices of our own times. For better or worse, language and the cultural software we inherit both play a role in shaping our thought. For all these reasons, philosophers of all ages have fallen victim to habitual errors: of beginning from the conclusion, of inverting the effect and cause, in assuming that if something gladdens the heart, it must be true. In this episode, we’re doing a deep dive into the Nietzschean method for understanding habitual errors in philosophical thinking. With the toolkit Nietzsche provides, we can dissect the propositions of philosophers, religions and cultures. Our main targets in this episode will be Kant and Schopenhauer, Nietzsche’s influences and treasures of German philosophy — but after all, one repays a teacher badly if he remains a student only!

This is the twentieth episode of the podcast! Maybe the smallest of milestones, but we decided to celebrate. It's a bit unusual for me to do two Untimely Reflections in a row, but hopefully it'll be as fun for everyone else as it was for me. Today, I'm sitting down with my wife Amberly to talk about a movie we just watched, "When Nietzsche Wept" by director Pinchas Perry. Amberly knows very little about philosophy or Nietzsche, but knows a lot about movies, and especially what makes something a bad movie. Well, she's going to need those skills, because this film was disappointing in almost every respect. Based on a book by Irvin Yalom, the film unfortunately repeats a lot of myths about Nietzsche, some of underlay his entire portrayal in the story, and Nietzsche is mostly sidelined in lieu of Dr. Breuer, whose midlife crisis is the central narrative of the film. It really made me wish for a good film adaptation of Nietzsche's life.  We'll return to our regularly scheduled lecture series next week. Special thanks to Amberly for being willing to watch this long-winded and tortured film with me, which, in her words, "has the production value of a Wishbone historical recreation!"

In this episode, I'm chatting with my friend Karl Nord about Ayn Rand's Romantic Manifesto, Nietzsche's Use and Abuse of History for Life, whether H.P. Lovecraft's characters have volition, the use of deus ex machina in Brandon Sanderson's Mistborn series, the depressing spirit of Von Trier films, morality in art and as art, and the alchemical power of aligning the artistic and the political.

What is the point of history? What is the point of our acquisition of knowledge? Is there a way for man to live unhistorically? And supposing that we cannot do without history, are there uses for it which are helpful? Are there uses which are harmful? Today we take a deep dive into the Untimely Meditations essay, On the Use and Abuse of History for Life. In this essay, Nietzsche reveals his love of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, the famous German playwright and author of Faust. This essay is a statement of Nietzsche’s allegiance to one side of German culture - embodied in the likes of Goethe and Schopenhauer - against another thread spun out of the tradition of German Idealism, represented by Hegel. In Goethe, Nietzsche finds the all-important maxim that all learning must be in the service of quickening one’s activity and enriching one’s life. Episode art: Clio, by Gentileschi Artemisia (1632). Clio is the Greek Muse of History. (Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons)

Dive into a personal journey through Nietzschean philosophy, reflecting on transformative insights gained from works like 'Thus Spoke Zarathustra'. Explore the shift from Zen Buddhism to embracing life's desires with all their complexities. The discussion of master and slave moralities uncovers how they shape societal norms, while the interplay of resentment and consciousness reveals the duality of human behavior. Join in on an enlightening exploration that encourages deeper engagement with Nietzsche's ideas and their modern relevance.

This episode is the culmination of several weeks of episodes on the topic of morality, drives, the body, free will, reason v/s the passions, and the master and slave morality. With all that we've learned as a foundation, in this episode we will give a generic definition of the phenomenon of morality from the Nietzschean perspective, and explore Nietzsche's explanation for why man engages in morality-building. At the deepest foundations, Nietzsche believes that mankind moralizes from the same underlying, driving force that is behind all life: the will to power. We will explore just what the will to power means, which Zarathustra says is synonymous with the process of self-overcoming. We will then examine how it is that the will to power produces our second-order drives, such as the will to truth, or the drive to obey the community's morality. We'll conclude by examining the practical applications of Nietzsche's level of "moral meta-analysis", how we can use this analysis to turn a critical eye to different world-historical moral systems, and, finally, what this understanding will to power means for our lives.  This episode draws on the arguments of Walter Kaufmann from his book, Nietzsche: Philosopher, Psychologist, Antichrist. I also recommend this very helpful post by Lebensmaler on the Nietzsche subreddit: Polysemy of the Word Morality in Nietzsche's Writing.  Episode art: Rembrandt -- Moses with the Ten Commandments (Courtesy of Wikimedia commons)