The Origins of the Gods: Conservative Activist IndiansSUNY Press, 1991 M01 1 - 227 pages Based on Nietzsche's critique of religion and culture, and engaging the contemporary offshoots of that critique, this book assesses the myths of origins that have been used to articulate the fundamental attitude toward the relationship between shame and beauty. In reconsidering some of the myths upon which the West is based, from Hesiod and Greek mythology to Plato and the Bible, Hans pursues the ways in which we have habitually separated shame and beauty in order to create the grounds that would provide us with the authority for our lives we think we need. By juxtaposing Socrates' repression of violence in The Republic and Nietzsche's conception of the overman, the author revises the network of relations that are associated with the religious, the aesthetic, and the political, asserting that the religious derives from the aesthetic rather than the other way around, and establishing a necessary connection between the political and the aesthetic. Hans aims to raise yet again the questions embodied in Nietzsche's attempt to prompt humans to face the true status of their actions in the world: are we finally able to address our shame without immediately projecting it onto another or repressing it? If so, what changes might we see in the psychological, social, and political worlds we would create out of such an acknowledgment? What value is to be found in accepting the uneasy relationship between shame and beauty upon which our lives rest? While The Origins of the Gods provides no definitive answers to such questions simply because none are possible, it makes use of such queries in order to reassert the great importance of Nietzsche's affirmation of the value of the world as it is. It argues that this affirmation has something crucial to offer if we are willing to forgo an authorized existence and confront the beauty and shame from which our lives are inevitably constituted. |
Contents
In the Beginning There Was | 1 |
In the Beginning There Was Beauty | 25 |
In the Beginning There Was Shame | 67 |
In the Beginning There Was Shame and Beauty | 111 |
In the Beginning There Was Beauty and Shame | 155 |
At the End | 199 |
Notes | 220 |
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Common terms and phrases
abject Adam and Eve aesthetic animals argue asserts assume awareness axiology begin Berger bodily body bury capable comes conception confront construe context create creatures culture deal declared demonstrates denial deny desire egalitarian eternal return evil face fact fear feel shame flows force gaze gods Hesiod hide imagine indifference individual inevitably Julia Kristeva kind kitsch knowledge Kundera less lives ment midst Milan Kundera millennia mode monotheism myths natural world Nietzsche notion Oedipus once one's original original sin Ouranos and Kronos ourselves overman perceive philosopher kings planet play of difference political polytheism precisely predicated problem prompts question reason regime religious repression response revulsion sacrifice seek self-awareness self-loathing self-pity self-righteousness sense sexual sexual revolution shit simply smell social system society sociopolitical socius Socrates species structure suggests Tereza things tion tree turn unalterable Unbearable Lightness V. S. Naipaul viewpoint violence Wallace Stevens
References to this book
Nietzsche and Depth Psychology Jacob Golomb,Weaver Santaniello,Ronald Lehrer No preview available - 1999 |