the philosopher as traveler - Nietzsche

These go along with my other philosopher as traveler posts.

Always at home.— One day we reach our goal and now point with pride to the long travels we undertook to reach it. In fact, we were not even aware of traveling. But we got so far because we fancied at every point that we were at home.

Brief habits.— I love brief habits and consider them an inestimable means for getting to know many things and states, down to the bottom of their sweetness and bitternesses; my nature is designed entirely for brief habits, even in the needs of my physical health and altogether as far as I can see at all— from the lowest to the highest. I always believe that here is something that will give me lasting satisfaction—brief habits, too, have this faith of passion, this faith in eternity—and that I am to be envied for having found and recognized it; and now it nourishes me at noon and in the evening and spreads a deep contentment all around itself and deep into me so that I desire nothing else, without having any need for comparisons, contempt or hatred. But one day its time is up; the good things part from me, not as something that has come to nauseate me but peacefully and sated with me as I am with it—as if we had reason to be grateful to each other as we shook hands to say farewell. Even then something new is waiting at the door, along with my faith—this indestructible fool and sage!—that this new discovery will be just right, and that this will be the last time. That is what happens to me with dishes, ideas, human beings, cities, poems, music, doctrines, ways of arranging the day, and life styles.

Enduring habits I hate, and I feel as if a tyrant had come near me and as if the air I breathe had thickened when events take such a turn that it appears that they will inevitably give rise to enduring habits; for example, owing to an official position, constant association with the same people, a permanent domicile, or unique good health. Yes, at the very bottom of my soul I feel grateful to all my misery and bouts of sickness and everything about me that is imperfect, because this sort of thing leaves me with a hundred backdoors through which I can escape from enduring habits.

Most intolerable, to be sure, and the terrible par excellence would be for me a life entirely devoid of habits, a life that would demand perpetual improvisation. That would be my exile and my Siberia.

Nietzsche The Gay Science §253, §295

I also like Kaufmann's note on §295

This conclusion qualifies the resolve to live dangerously. But some stability and temporary equilibrium are needed to permit the concentration of all mental and emotional resources on the most important problems. One simply cannot question everything at once. The most one can do is to grant nothing permanent immunity.

Scribblings

2/15/2008
A philosopher settling upon a previously defined view of the world is like a life-long climber setting up his residence on a mountaintop and throwing away all his gear. Perhaps he's done with struggle and thus awaits death?

2/23/2008
The philosopher as traveler adopts beliefs for their therapeutic value instead of for their truth value. That doesn't mean the beliefs are not true.

They are not after beliefs, ideas, and truth so much as a better life, better ability to enjoy and respect life.

They've seen those who create the world in their own image and seek instead to explore the world. They discover instead of create not because they don't create but because they embody the attitude of wonder.

When you read the travelers you don't take away their truths, you take away lessons for living. "lessons for living" sounds trite, it's not. Rather, it's overfamiliar through misuse.

the Don Juan of knowledge

The Don Juan of knowledge: he has yet to be discovered by any philosopher or poet.  He is lacking in love for the things he comes to know, but he has intellect, titillation, and pleasure in the hunt and intrigues involved in coming to know--all the way up to the highest and most distant planets of knowledge--until finally nothing remains for him to hunt down other than what is absolutely painful in knowledge, like the drunkard who ends up drinking absinthe and acqua fortis.  Thus he ends up lusting for hell--it is the last knowledge that seduces him.  Perhaps, like everything he has come to know, it will disillusion him as well!  And then he would have to stand still for all of eternity, nailed on the spot to disillusionment, and himself having become the stone guest longing for an evening meal of knowledge that he never again will receive!--For the entire world of things no longer has a single morsel to offer this hungry man.

Nietzsche Dawn §327

A Nietzschean warning for the philosopher as traveler but I don't think it's a real threat (I mean beyond the pursuit of painful knowledge (and the pain involved in the pursuit of knowledge), illusion being so much more comforting and all that). Just as Don Juan would have a hell of a time trying to conquer every woman on the planet, so too does the Don Juan of knowledge quickly encounter a nearly infinite set. The knowledge of abiding in hell would require some commitment but then in some sense he'd be abiding also in his true love, the chase.

I don't think I'm totally understanding this aphorism.  Maybe I shouldn't take the metaphor so far.

more on the philosopher as traveler

1/26/2008

Communication and honesty go hand in hand. You participate in them with others to the extent they have earned your trust.

Some also call what they do when they use people as simply a means "communication".
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Meditations are for honesty, not for truth. In contrast to how philosophy has seen itself.
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Philosophers often speak about "man" or "all men" when they're usually talking about one man, themselves.

This is hardly an original thought, as if thoughts should only be adopted and promoted when they're original. Copyright- what a stupid, horrendous, inhuman lesson. A widely adopted and enforced, self refuting concept. Nothing is ever entirely your own, at best it's your own "and".
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In contrast to Descartes you don't pursue that which you cannot doubt but rather pay attention, where you are. I actually think this is what he did though it's not how we've traditionally understood it. This whipping boy (Dubito, ergo cogito, ergo sum) should be lauded for waking again a false consciousness.
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Each other philosophy is a journey. Similar to a journey in the world. You see the landscape, the way of being and you learn. These journeys provide methods with which to engage the world, to understand.

A philosopher is then a master of approach, of method. He may be a fountain of knowledge and wisdom but that's not where his true value lies.

2/10/2008

Examining other philosophers with an eye toward objective truth is like attempting to learn from an athlete by examining their currently held records.

What is learned is in the person, in her way of being in and perceiving the world. What we gain is a new attitude and approach, not new metaphysical clutter. So what we're looking for is relevancy and humanity.