HARKEN! NIETZSCHE IS PIETZSCHE, BUT SARTRE IS SMARTRE.

 

AUTUMN IN WASCANA

Autumn is a beautiful season. But with the leaves swirling around the pumpkins in the ever-present strong gusts of wind, my busking is waning. Furtherance to busking, October pumpkin-sweater weather is never conducive to my traditional white t-shirt and blue jeans busking togs!

PUMPKIN WAY

For munificent guitar busking adventures, I need sunshine and summer breezes. Autumn is not for busking. Autumn is for hiking. Autumn is for thinking! Autumn is for listening to dead people. And listening to dead people can be done by reading, reading, and more reading.

Factoid: We can listen to dead people until the day we die.

Factoid: We all have time to read, but we don’t. Most people do not read. The average person watches 20 or so hours of television each week. The average person plays on their telephone five hours every day and watches twenty or so hours of television every week.

We all have the superpower of being able to talk to the dead, but most of us do not use it. One of our best paths to wisdom is to travel back in time and listen to what some of the dead philosophers have to say. I try not to be addlepated when discussing philosophy, and I do try to dumb it down to my level. So here goes nothing (and everything)!

I shall begin with the German atheist philosopher, FRIEDRICH NIETZSCHE (1844-1900).

Nietzsche was famous for wanting us to be free spirits. Here are some of his quotes:

“God is dead. And we have killed him.” (Nietzsche had a load of haters for this one.)

“That which does not kill us makes us stronger.” (Oh yeah, we’ve all heard this one.)

“If you gaze long into an abyss, the abyss also gazes into you.” (Yikes. This is dark stuff huh.)

Second comes, the ancient Greek philosopher, SOCRATES (470 B.C. – 399 B.C.)

Socrates was mostly famous for his “Socratic” method of teaching, questioning his students with his emphasis being on ethics and self-examination. Here are some of his quotes:

“The unexamined life is not worth living.” (Reflection and introspection are addiction issues for moi.)

“Know thyself.” (I know I am narcissistic know-it-all!)

“I cannot teach anybody anything. I can only make them think.” (I wish I could make my students think!)

Another Greek philosopher was PLATO (428 B.C. – 348 B.C.)

And it just happened, that Plato was a devoted student of Socrates. His famous quotes include:

“The measure of a man is what he does with power.” (Hmmm. I just finished reading the morning news from CNN, FOX, HUFFINGTON POST, and AL JAZZERA before writing this blog post.)

“Ignorance, the root and stem of all evil.” (This is easy to believe.)

“Only the dead have seen the end of war.” 

(This is always fitting, but even more so on the eve of REMEMBRANCE DAY.)

And yet another Greek philosopher is ARISTOTLE (384 B.C. – 322 B.C.)

Aristotle is most famous for the development of “The Scientific Method.” A few of his most famous quotes are:

“We are what we repeatedly do.” (Yes! Our last press release is always indicative of our current behaviors.)

“The more you know, the more you know you don’t know.” (Rabbit holes beget rabbit holes.)

“In all things of nature there is something marvelous.” (My love for Zen and the art of hiking proves this!)

Everyone has at least heard of the Chinese philosopher, CONFUCIUS (551 B.C. – 479 B.C.)

Revered as a great teacher, Confucius is credited with advocating for education to be made available to all. This is likely the most famous quote of Confucius:

“Do not impose on others what you do not wish for yourself.” (The Golden Rule!)

“Everything has its beauty, but not everyone sees it.” (Especially those who are not looking for it.)

“Wherever you go, go with all your heart.” (I’m trying, I’m trying.)

And my last to mention is the French philosopher, JEAN-PAUL SARTRE (1905 – 1980).

Sartre is famous for being awarded the NOBEL PEACE PRIZE IN LITERATURE, but for political reasons, declining it!

Being a founder of my favorite subject, EXISTENTIALISM, Sartre’s quotes are a treat to me.

“Existence precedes essence.” (This is Existentialism in a line.)

“Hell is other people.” Uh huh and ha! You got that right!)

“I am condemned to be free.” (Deep, deep, and deep.)

‘Tis time for a couple true confessions. I am attracted to FRIEDRICH NIETZCHE, probably because his namesake, which looks and sounds close to my own, NEIL FREDRICK (CHILD).

To end, my macedoine mix of some famous philosopher quotes are written proof that I am a total palooka when it comes right down my knowledge of philosophy. Furthermore, I do confess that I do not know if SARTRE was SMARTRE than the very PEITZCHE NITZCHE. I chose to construct such a phrase only because I am a SNAPPY TITLE GUY!

Yes. We have a superpower gift. We can talk to the dead until we are dead. And …

LEST WE FORGET …

"ONLY THE DEAD HAVE SEEN THE END OF WAR" (PLATO)

LEST WE FORGET ...