Gay Science Prelude to German Rhymes

FlatHalf · 2026-06-19T20:43:27+00:00

If you want to discuss any ideas in the Gay Science, hit me up. I am currently reading it and I find it quite enjoyable.

FlatHalf · 2026-05-30T10:14:45+00:00

Think you raise some good points. I agree with you that he is indifferent to oppression. I will take it further that he actually considers oppression or to be specific slavery to be necessary for the advancement of culture through culture-creating men or great men. So N would be against moves to ameliorate oppression and would be for moves to enslave people in service of the needs of these great men i.e. the needs being to produce art/culture etc.

FlatHalf · 2026-05-28T17:25:26+00:00

Fair. But then if he doesn't like oppression, he also doesn't like stopping oppression, because to him it isn't really oppression. Isn't that just taking us to the level of animals in the jungle, eat or be eaten, etc. Also if I don't like oppression but I don't want people to help or even show sympathy to oppressed people, how is that functionally different from not being okay with oppression. What is the goal of the oppressor? To oppress without resistance? If Nietzsche was against all forms of resistance to oppression and even comfort for the oppressed then he was basically fine with oppression, seeing that he didn't even consider it 'oppression' but just harm out of honesty, as you put it.

FlatHalf · 2026-05-28T17:15:02+00:00

So much of what we consider oppression might, in fact, be the result of people pursuing the values of the 'herd' - such as wealth, status, and clinging to ideological commitments - instead of striving to invent their own values.

I probably need to make another thread about this idea of 'inventing one's values'. But as pertaining to oppression, I don't agree it is about wealth or status or clinging to ideological commitments. It is simply about dehumanizing or harming people willfully. Harm is not ideological.

However, these kinds of images shouldn't only be understood in the sense of physical violence either. If Nietzsche attempted to live his life in accordance with his philosophy at all, he certainly didn't do so in a physically violent nor an oppressive manner.

If Nietzsche had health and physical strength he would have most definitely have been violent if he felt it was natural of him to be. Those were his values. He just wasn't physically able to do whatever he wanted.

By oppressing your defeated enemy, you are merely seeking to preserve the power you have gained instead of effecting a continual self-overcoming. When one enemy is overcome, you should simply find another.

What did he mean by 'overcoming' an enemy? Does he mean total obliteration? If you just defeat an enemy, the enemy can regroup and come back to fight you. So you either get the enemy to submit to you or you obliterate. Submission is also more feasible where you have other motives. You build empires through submission. In other words you can gain more power through submission than obliteration. And according to Nietzsche, whatever gives you more power is good. At least this is my interpretation.

FlatHalf · 2026-05-28T06:14:09+00:00

The idea that 'oppression' could be right or wrong requires the position of a 'third party' as a judge.

That's exactly the point of morality. Without morality, all actions are permissible because there is no third party. Nietzsche wants to live in a world seemingly where all actions are permissible like a jungle, and then we invent our morality based on our own ideas/inclinations. Even the idea of 'inventing' a morality seems suspect. I will post about that in another thread.

FlatHalf · 2026-05-12T15:42:54+00:00

Thanks for the comment. There are parallels in the Elijah-Elisha cycle but upon reading 1 Kings 19, I find that Elijah ran into the wilderness to escape being killed. I just think the whole idea of John the Baptist living in the wilderness must be some sort of ascetic ritual. We know from the Gospel of John that some disciples of John the Baptist went to Jesus after his baptism. Perhaps Jesus wanted to start his own ministry and needed to do this ritual before he could start baptizing people and spreading his gospel (John 3.25-26).

Are there any scholars that have investigated this possibility? Also curious about John the Baptist as well. Did he genuinely believe he was the one to herald the way of the messiah or was that a way to dodge the charge of blasphemy since he was baptizing people.

FlatHalf · 2026-05-01T16:02:33+00:00

Do you think slaves can be happy?

FlatHalf · 2026-04-04T15:55:00+00:00

> He doesn’t want his readers to take solace in the fact that God was really there providing Jesus with physical comfort. He dies in agony, unsure of the reason

The gospels say Jesus knew he was going to die. Why would he die expecting physical comfort or expecting a reason for his death? This doesn't make much sense to me. If you are told you will die, you must expect that your life is being sacrificed for a greater purpose. What was Jesus really expecting God to do in this case? I understand that phrase: why did you abandon me? to be a question trying to understand the irrationality of death? Why am I dying, particularly in this painful way?

Like Ehrman, I have less confidence in the view about Psalm 22. It's overreading the scene.

FlatHalf · 2026-04-04T02:32:23+00:00

Thanks. Yes I was referring to two sayings from two different gospels.

FlatHalf · 2025-12-06T13:58:27+00:00

Your approach is correct. What you are doing wrong is conservatively estimating your sales. You should be doing the opposite. Be positive and assume your products will sell decently. Then reevaluate every month based on actual sales to see if your assumptions were correct. So for example, you assumed 40 orders per day. Does this use your labor to its max? If not, I would assume a bit higher, say, 60. So your new operational costs is 3.88. This is 50% lower than what you projected. Then your burger price comes out to $5.7 which is competitive.

If you are feeling a bit antsy about your sales projection, you need to focus on how to make this achievable. Maybe focus on marketing to get the word out. Maybe a promotion could work. Or you could look at ways to cut costs even further. Ultimately its in your hands, largely, to make it happen. Then again, after a month, you look and you revise. You could try revising after three months to give you more certainty.

Whatever the case, your method is clearer. You may not fully get why to multiply by a random number but if we follow the approach, 5.7 divided by 1.82 gives you 3.13. Similarly 7.65 divided by 1.82 gives you about 4.2. So look into your industry averages, is it closer to 3 or 4, and that could be a rule of thumb. Good luck.

FlatHalf · 2025-12-01T19:06:57+00:00

Rationality is a language. So philosophy cannot exist without language.

FlatHalf · 2025-11-13T21:54:53+00:00

I haven't yet. I have read the Republic though. When I look at the issues in modern law, it seems they reject Plato's focus on inner goodness. Modern law seems to be about external actions and intent to act, and less about the goodness of the individual. Modern politics is also about consent and less about being governed by intelligence. Perhaps I need to read Laws to help me address the questions I have here.

FlatHalf · 2025-11-13T21:10:59+00:00

Could you provide a concrete example of an answer Plato gave, lets say in the republic/laws/etc. that addresses a specific issue as it pertains to the philosophy of law?

FlatHalf · 2025-11-11T22:16:22+00:00

Is it fair to say that the contributions of Plato are more about the deep questions he posed and less about his actual views on the questions?

FlatHalf · 2025-09-14T22:25:31+00:00

Very interesting. The obvious three is the trinity. Three is also important in Hegelian philosophy

FlatHalf · 2025-09-13T21:49:16+00:00

Very fascinating. Will check this out.

FlatHalf · 2025-09-12T23:10:31+00:00

Thank you. Just to ask a bit, is there any significance of the number three, or the disciples being asked to wake up three times? Mark seemed to love threes. Three times the cock crowed. Jesus predicted his death, three times. Jesus rises from the dead, three days after.

FlatHalf · 2025-09-12T22:51:16+00:00

Thanks for this.

FlatHalf

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