• Log In

The Partially Examined Life Philosophy Podcast

A Philosophy Podcast and Philosophy Blog

Subscribe on Android Spotify Google Podcasts audible patreon
  • Home
  • Podcast
    • PEL Network Episodes
    • Publicly Available PEL Episodes
    • Paywalled and Ad-Free Episodes
    • PEL Episodes by Topic
    • Nightcap
    • Philosophy vs. Improv
    • Pretty Much Pop
    • Nakedly Examined Music
    • (sub)Text
    • Phi Fic Podcast
    • Combat & Classics
    • Constellary Tales
  • Blog
  • About
    • PEL FAQ
    • Meet PEL
    • About Pretty Much Pop
    • Philosophy vs. Improv
    • Nakedly Examined Music
    • Meet Phi Fic
    • Listener Feedback
    • Links
  • Join
    • Become a Citizen
    • Join Our Mailing List
    • Log In
  • Donate
  • Store
    • Episodes
    • Swag
    • Everything Else
    • Cart
    • Checkout
    • My Account
  • Contact
  • Mailing List

Ep. 300: Nietzsche on Relating to History (Part Two)

September 19, 2022 by Mark Linsenmayer Leave a Comment

https://podtrac.com/pts/redirect.mp3/traffic.libsyn.com/secure/partiallyexaminedlife/PEL_ep_300pt2_8-19-22.mp3

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 42:40 — 39.1MB)

Subscribe to get Parts 1 and 2 ad-free, plus a supporter exclusive Part 3, which you can preview.

Continuing from part one on “On the Uses and Disadvantages of History for Life” (1874), we get into the antiquarian use of history and the critical approach to history and Nietzsche's humanistic goals in his essay.

One surprising notion that Nietzsche throws in is that even though we have described him in the past as a defender of human instincts, here he describes our human nature as something culturally acquired. When we criticize history, we're trying to create a "second nature" in ourselves, to create new habits instead of just following tradition. Nietzsche tells us that even though this is difficult, all "first natures" (what we take to be natural and instinctual) were always second natures to start with. Trying to "get back to nature" can't just mean throwing off old strictures, because then you'll just be aimless and lazy. It needs to be an act of creation. This clearly reflects Nietzsche's concern in his later writings that, for instance, in throwing off traditional religion (which of course we should do), we might then become nihilists, believing in (and motivated by) nothing.

Another point made is that history is necessarily constructionist to some degree. One can reinterpret history so as to be inspired by different events. But figuring out the limits of this is interesting: Just as you can't arbitrarily create values to declare various things great according to your whims, you can't just arbitrarily declare that what was considered great is now mundane and vice versa. Part of Nietzsche's project to help us reinvent ourselves is to reinvent how we take history as the foundation of ourselves.

The two "solutions" Nietzsche provides (well, refers to; there's not much explanation of how these would work in practice) are being "unhistorical," which means just being in the moment and not so self-conscious about one's relation to history; and being "suprahistorical," which is seeing through history to find perennial truths.

The second half of this part of the discussion is devoted to answering audience questions, both about this reading and more generally. We compare Nietzsche to Heidegger (note that Heidegger taught a semester-length course on this essay!), think about what Nietzsche would say about social justice critiques of history. We try to recall our past treatment of Emerson. Do we look like what you expected us to look like? Should we do more of these videos.

Next episode: We'll read three classic papers on abortion: "A Defense of Abortion" (1971) by Judith Jarvis Thompson, "On the Moral and Legal Status of Abortion" by Mary Anne Warren (1973), and "Why Abortion is Immoral" by Don Marquis (1989).

Facebooktwitterredditpinterestlinkedinmailby feather

Filed Under: Podcast Episodes Tagged With: Friedrich Nietzsche, philosophy of history, philosophy podcast

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

PEL Live Show 2023

Brothers K Live Show

Citizenship has its Benefits

Become a PEL Citizen
Become a PEL Citizen, and get access to all paywalled episodes, early and ad-free, including exclusive Part 2's for episodes starting September 2020; our after-show Nightcap, where the guys respond to listener email and chat more causally; a community of fellow learners, and more.

Rate and Review

Nightcap

Listen to Nightcap
On Nightcap, listen to the guys respond to listener email and chat more casually about their lives, the making of the show, current events and politics, and anything else that happens to come up.

Subscribe to Email Updates

Select list(s):

Check your inbox or spam folder to confirm your subscription.

Support PEL

Buy stuff through Amazon and send a few shekels our way at no extra cost to you.

Tweets by PartiallyExLife

Recent Comments

  • Mark Linsenmayer on Ep. 302: Erasmus Praises Foolishness (Part Two)
  • Mark Linsenmayer on Ep. 308: Moore’s Proof of Mind-Independent Reality (Part Two for Supporters)
  • Mark Linsenmayer on Ep. 201: Marcus Aurelius’s Stoicism with Ryan Holiday (Citizen Edition)
  • MartinK on Ep. 201: Marcus Aurelius’s Stoicism with Ryan Holiday (Citizen Edition)
  • Wayne Barr on Ep. 308: Moore’s Proof of Mind-Independent Reality (Part Two for Supporters)

About The Partially Examined Life

The Partially Examined Life is a philosophy podcast by some guys who were at one point set on doing philosophy for a living but then thought better of it. Each episode, we pick a text and chat about it with some balance between insight and flippancy. You don’t have to know any philosophy, or even to have read the text we’re talking about to (mostly) follow and (hopefully) enjoy the discussion

Become a PEL Citizen!

As a PEL Citizen, you’ll have access to a private social community of philosophers, thinkers, and other partial examiners where you can join or initiate discussion groups dedicated to particular readings, participate in lively forums, arrange online meet-ups for impromptu seminars, and more. PEL Citizens also have free access to podcast transcripts, guided readings, episode guides, PEL music, and other citizen-exclusive material. Click here to join.

Blog Post Categories

  • (sub)Text
  • Aftershow
  • Announcements
  • Audiobook
  • Book Excerpts
  • Citizen Content
  • Citizen Document
  • Citizen News
  • Close Reading
  • Combat and Classics
  • Constellary Tales
  • Exclude from Newsletter
  • Featured Ad-Free
  • Featured Article
  • General Announcements
  • Interview
  • Letter to the Editor
  • Misc. Philosophical Musings
  • Nakedly Examined Music Podcast
  • Nakedly Self-Examined Music
  • NEM Bonus
  • Not School Recording
  • Not School Report
  • Other (i.e. Lesser) Podcasts
  • PEL Music
  • PEL Nightcap
  • PEL's Notes
  • Personal Philosophies
  • Phi Fic Podcast
  • Philosophy vs. Improv
  • Podcast Episode (Citizen)
  • Podcast Episodes
  • Pretty Much Pop
  • Reviewage
  • Song Self-Exam
  • Supporter Exclusive
  • Things to Watch
  • Vintage Episode (Citizen)
  • Web Detritus

Follow:

Twitter | Facebook | Google+ | Apple Podcasts

Copyright © 2009 - 2023 · The Partially Examined Life, LLC. All rights reserved. Privacy Policy · Terms of Use · Copyright Policy

Copyright © 2023 · Magazine Pro Theme on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in