Dec 11 2008
Nietzsche says…
The following is an interesting excerpt from Nietzsche’s essay ‘On the Advantage and Disadvantage of History for Life’.
“Socrates took it to be a malady approaching insanity to imagine that one possesses a virtue when one does not possess it: and certainly such imagination is more dangerous than the opposite delusion of suffering from a shortcoming, from a vice. For through this delusion it is perhaps still possible to become better; the former imagination, however, will daily make a man or an age worse…”
This is an interesting opinion, what do you think about it? Is imagining you have some trait more detrimental than imagining you don’t have it?
I agree with him, rather under-confidence than over-confidence; our world is full of those who speak firm-footed on nothing, hence problems.
3 Responses to “Nietzsche says…”
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One’s superego, or “ideal self,” is always there to guide one’s improvement, but those who have that malady you describe, believe that they’ve already become their superego. This leads to discounting, ignoring, or even harming anyone that challenges their perceived perfect self.