Wednesday, April 24, 2013

Dissonance and Egoism

The interpretation, e. g. perhaps Rand's, of Nietzsche as a proponent of Selfishness is plainly refuted by #33 in the 'Expeditions of an Untimely Man' section of Twilight of the Idols.  There, he applies two of his cardinal theses--that the 'individual' is an "error", and that Egoism, as, like any Moral doctrine, a contingently useful fiction, is of value to only 'strong' types.  Now, what primarily distinguishes 'strong' from 'weak' for him is the mindfulness of the fundamental Dissonance of human existence, i. e. as expressed by the affirmation of Eternal Recurrence.  Accordingly, each of the following exemplifies weakness--the abstraction of Nietzsche's writings from their Dionysian context; the advocacy of Egoism as universally valid; and, conceiving the 'individual' as a factual atom.

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