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标题:Friedrich Nietzsche: 2 Principles For Becoming Who You Are
Nietzsche believed that the fundamental task of philosophy was to teach us how to ‘become who we are’ — our highest potential.
His writing touched on almost every aspect of the human condition. Nietzsche had a profound belief in the possibilities of human beings. His body of work touched a wide range of topics, including morality, religion, reason, human suffering, power, consciousness, and the meaning of existence.
Thus Spoke Zarathustra is one of his most influential works — he discusses the limitations of humans and our inability to overcome our weaknesses.
Life is a transitional process
“No one can construct for you the bridge upon you must cross the stream of life; nobody but yourself alone,” says Nietzsche. In the book, Nietzsche argues that life is a transition. He talks about Übermensch — a Superhuman or Overman.
The symbol of the Übermensch also alludes to Nietzsche’s notions of “self-mastery”, “self-cultivation”, “self-direction”, and “self-overcoming”.
To Nietzsche, humanity is a bridge, a transitional species. We’re a bridge between apes and superman. And his whole point is to through the process is the inevitable transformation to become your best self.
He encourages us to elevate ourselves to our full potential. He writes, “I teach you the overman. Man is something that shall be overcome. What have you done to overcome him?”
The overman, according to Nietzsche is a powerful being who has overcome all his inner fears, weaknesses, and deficiencies, and thus one who has achieved greatness.
Nietzsche argues that we are responsible for ourselves. He thought everyone should strive to become a master of themselves and constantly extend and grow. For him, life is best affirmed by a striving for excellence.
He was convinced that self-understanding was one way to achieve self-mastery and greatness. And that people are doomed to stumble around without any real direction in life.
“This process of becoming, as Nietzsche encourages his readers to think, is not geared towards a final destination or goal. The key of the process is the ongoing engagement, the re-examination and re-challenging of one’s beliefs, rather than a system of achieving a certain state of being,” writes Kat Sark of Suites Culturelles.
Both pain and pleasure give meaning to human existence
“You need chaos in your soul to give birth to a dancing star.” Nietzsche said that. He thought that the complete affirmation of life was the highest state a human being could attain BUT it wasn’t without suffering.
Nietzsche’ life was riddled with adversity — he didn’t even live long enough to bear witness to his own success. He spent the majority of his adult life battling illness while writing alone in Switzerland.
He once observed, “What if pleasure and displeasure were so tied together that whoever wanted to have as much as possible of one must also have as much as possible of the other.”
According to Nietzsche, one must experience suffering and pain if one is to achieve greatness. As he put it: “It is out of the deepest depth that the highest must come to its height.”
For Nietzsche, both the pains and pleasures of life is what gives human existence meaning because the struggles build resilience, challenge us to do better and help us transition into our best selves.
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