"You've (taken a vow of silence) because of Friedrich Nietzsche? ... All right." This assignment's pretty self-explanatory. First explain what you think Nietzsche is saying, then give your opinion on whether his views have, or at least had, value. Most of you did the blog post setting out a thesis on this very topic; now just develop it into a full-length paper, providing at least one real-world OR fictional example. While I hate to set any limits on your creative expression in this context, Nietzsche would appreciate that some people need a "push" to begin their pursuit of greatness. In that spirit, here are the requirements:
1.) The page limit (2-4) refers to a paper written in 11 or 12 point font, using a standard typeface and the "normal" margin setting on Word, GoogleDocs, etc. If you cannot come up with a full 2 pages worth of responses to a thinker as controversial as Nietzsche, then you're not yet really thinking about what he's saying. Even today, if you mention the century-old name "Friedrich Nietzsche" to many people, they will react with disgust. That alone is a sign his ideas remain powerful. Confront what he's saying: you and your life are all you have; live greatly. 2.) This is a paper based on what Nietzsche called "perspectivism" - the idea that "the world" is only ever "the world FOR some Subject," a living being who sees things from their own perspective (in Kant's terms, there exists only a multiplicity of phenomenal worlds, no "noumenal world" except the totally impersonal forces described by physics which Schopenhauer and Nietzsche describe as the Cosmic Will to Life/Power). SO YOUR PAPER NEEDS TO BE BASED ON YOUR OWN PERSPECTIVE TO GET A GOOD GRADE. Be original, be opinionated, be offensive even - but back it up, because as sarcastic and playfully malicious as Nietzsche gets, THIS IS STILL PHILOSOPHY, and you have to provide reasons for your subjective views (or explain why such reasons are impossible...) 3.) You must quote Nietzsche at least twice. You cannot quote the one about "whatever doesn't kill me makes me stronger" or the "when you gaze into the abyss" one either. You can, however, ask me to see any or all of the quotes we used in our writing and discussion of Nietzsche excerpts last week. You are also free to quote from a second source like this page from Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy on Nietzsche, as long as you give me the website information (and if you plan on going to college, please get into the habit of doing so in an MLA works cited page, even if it's only one source).
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorArchives
April 2016
Categories |