Mostly, Nietzches work dwells on creation and on ones
self development. Zarathustra was introduced as a man who left his own home and set out into the wilderness. Having ten years of being enlightened he decided to comeback to proclaim to civilization what he learned, that there is a better way to live. Zarathustra believe that knowledge is not only for him, that is why he wanted to share it to people. As for me, I believe that Nietzche is trying to say that it is important to share our knowledge. It is like whenever we learn something, we should not be satisfied by just keeping it to ourselves. It is just part of the journey, the destination should be the learning of the individual that we shared our knowledge to. In here, it was also said that God is not dead. Hearing that was not very pleasing at first, because I believe in God. But as we tackle it, I had a deeper understanding in it. From what I learned, according to St. Thomas Aquinas, our existence depends mainly on our relationship with God. But as of the moment, this thought had died from the hearts and soul of men. We became exposed to mass media and to all the superficial pleasures that we later on set as our gods. Nietzsche is saying that the things we idolize are being the gods of us. It then limits our potentialities in getting our hearts desire. Because of this, we fail. And this is the problem that Nietzsche wants to resolve. He wants to take us back by eliminating our own ideas of god and be just response of ourselves. Not depending on anything that hinders us from having the best in us. Nietzsche also wants us to realize that being an overman or superman to be our end goal. Being a superman does not mean just having great strength, rather a man who is independent. Independent in the sense that he does not need anyone, he puts his faith in himself and relies to no one. And that is very different from the people nowadays, I admit even I myself relies on a lot of things. To the tightrope walker who is above nothingness, Zarathustra said that he should weigh himself down to be stable. This again in Nietzsches emphasis that on going down to earth, we can reach superman. We should live our lives on pressure points, points where we are close to death because through these points that a new world is open up. Nietzsche demands us to do all these things to bring us back to this idea of being or existing without the shrouds of predetermined roles that the society has imposed on us. He wants us to live fully and create something great from nothingness. On the chapter of the three metamorphoses, Zarathustra spoke about the three transformations of the spirit. As defined in the dictionary, metamorphosis is the processs of transformation, an act of change, from an immature form to an adult form. And I believe that this transformation describes the stages we need to be in to, in order to eliminate the ideas of gods that we have right now. According to
Zarathustra, a persons spiritual journey starts from a camel,
then transforms into a lion, then become an innocent child. Hardship, it is what I picture when I think of a camel. I think that Zarathustra is trying to compare us to a camel, being burdened by the society. Just obeying and accepting what the society gives us. Not learning to say no and not even questioning. This is because we are already blinded by the rules and we just wanted to fulfill the predetermined roles that the society imposed on us. So there, the second metamorphosis begins when people starts to ask questions. Learning why we do things, wanting to know things. And being in that doubtful stage would lead us to some certain point in life which I may say is dark, we can not say, most probably it would not be good. And that would change us from being the camel that just obeys, to a lion who seeks for freedom who felt chained from a very long while. There was also a dragon that was mentioned, and I believe that is represents the gods we have right now. It is like the lion needs to kill the god in order to be response for himself, for him to be independent. Having the dragon killed would mean that there would be no rules, laws or obligation left for the lion. And for creation to take place another transformation is needed, something that has nothing and can create, which is the child. The terminal metamorphosis is a child which represents purity. Who is eager to learn, seeking for truth, gaining something real and not just imposed by the society. Every moment is an act of creation. We need tuth to be able to create. In order for us to have this transformation, we need to see the real light, not just the blinding light.
Ψυχήas Differentiated Unity in the Philosophy of Plato Author(s) : Robert W. Hall Source: Phronesis, Vol. 8, No. 1 (1963), pp. 63-82 Published by: Stable URL: Accessed: 15/08/2013 18:25