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vergeblich - in vain
I was just now looking at Nietzsche's "Late Notebooks," also familiar under the title "Will to Power." The difference between the older and more widely distributed "Will to Power" version (trans. Kaufmann) and the one I'm reading (ed. Bittner; trans. Sturge; CUP) is that the latter is organized by notebook and date, while the Kaufmann version assembles scattered aphorisms under thematic headings. Thus it could be argued the Bittner and Sturge version is a more straightforward presentation of Nietzsche's thoughts.
Anyway, I'm reading along in Notebook 5, summer 1886 - autumn 1887. I get to aphorism 59, p. 113.
It reads:
Precondition for scientific (wissenschaftlich) work: a belief in the shared and lasting character of scientific work, so that the individual can work away on even the smallest point, confident of not working in vain. This -- -- --
There is one great paralysis: working in vain, struggling in vain. -- --
The ages of accumulation, where force and means of power are found which will one day be used by the future. Science as an intermediate stage which gives the intermediate, more multifarious, more complicated beings their most natural discharge and satisfaction: all those for whom the deed is inadvisable.
As the editor points out in a footnote, wissenschaflich refers not just to the natural sciences, but also to the humanities and social sciences.
What I enjoy about this aphorism is watching Nietzsche come upon what at least seems like a completely new idea in the middle of something else and then how he handles it. As he begins the aphorism, he is writing about the kind of mental environment that makes the scientific worldview possible; sustainable. One of the conditions for it is that the whole effort be continued across lifespans and is accumulable. And then Nietzsche stumbles on it: the scientific worker, even when working on the "smallest point," will be "confident of not working in vain." He tries to keep going with his original point, or maybe the forward motion of his first idea kept him moving until he had written "This" to begin the next sentence, but then he screetches to an absolute halt. Full stop.
Nietzsche signals his mental state by following the "This" of the following sentence with three -- count 'em -- three big dashes. He has had to stop to at least note the power of this one idea, which plays a role in but perhaps exceeds the current topic. And so a new paragraph is called for, where the general significance of the notion vergeblich can be noted. "There is one great paralysis: working in vain, struggling in vain. -- -- "
The rest of aphorism 59 completes the thought it started with. Having discovered it, Nietzsche employs the notion of 'vergeblich' in a key entry that Nietzsche titles "European Nihilism," aphorism 71 of the same Notebook. This is one of Nietzsche's more "worked out" aphorisms, and so is a bit longer than usual, and is divided up into 16 mini-sections. Here's most of sections 4 and 5:
4. . . . [B]elief in the absolute immorality of nature, in the absence of purpose and meaning, becomes the psychologically necessary affect once belief in God and an essentially moral order can no longer be sustained. Nihilism appears now not because unpleasure in existence is greater than it used to be, but because we have become generally mistrustful of a 'meaning' in evil, indeed in existence itself. One interpretation has perished; but because it was regarded as the interpretation, there now seems to be no meaning at all in existence, everything seems to be in vain.
5. It remains to be shown that this 'In vain!' constitutes the character of our present nihilism. Mistrust of our previous valuations intensifies until it arrives at the question: 'Are not all "values" just decoys that prolong the comedy without ever getting closer to a denouement?' Continuing with an 'In vain', without aim and purpose, is the most paralyzing thought, especially when one realizes one's being fooled and yet has no power to prevent oneself being fooled.
By Swifty | June 29, 2007 in Nietzsche | Permalink
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"""One interpretation has perished; but because it was regarded as the interpretation, there now seems to be no meaning at all in existence, everything seems to be in vain."""
Fritz again hits fairly close to the mark: Belle-lettrists, thy name is Vanity! Serio, what upset FN so much was the death of teleology, of that grand Hegelian march of the Idea through History: Darwin more or less cuts off the dialectic at its knees (or at least embeds humans in Nature---that naturalism may be considered vulgar by both theists or marxist-hegelians--the real vulgarity, however, consists of clinging to the Hegelian bombast). Nietzsche apparently felt that the amoral world of Darwinism (and the physical sciences as whole?) entailed nihilism--not sure if that is such a viable inference: values may still be constructed and negotiated, a posteriori as it were. For all of his macho bluster, Nietzsche remains on the side of the humanists.
Posted by: Perezoso | Jul 6, 2007 12:16:55 PM
They have names for us, too: "scoffers and mockers." Whereas we become arrogant at the thought of chemists (alchemists), they see us for what we are: "legions of scribblers, drudges of the pen." Of course, the irony to meditate upon from this "most paralyzing thought" is that Nietzsche is not paralyzed by it and nor are we. Indeed, we (here) seem to be nodding knowingly at it, no?
Is it the paralysis we wonder at, or the fact that this here is what we all have decided is least likely vain? Isn't that vanity? Those who have recognized the profound uselessness of writing, writing about thinking--those who had wished 'to change the world' with their words (and there are still too many of them about!) but discovered it couldn't be done, not in the way they intended, not without marketing--are busying themselves with other, more 'meaningful' tasks. Then what compels us to muck about in sorcery? Are you trying to make me read more Nietzsche? Would the world be a better place if everyone read the books you've read? Will governments see the light if only you teach a generation to read? What are you toiling at?
Now, here's a terrible thought, that is MINE (has nothing to do with Nietzsche, Nietzsche is a pretense for my profundity): we are here because we are condemned to arrogance. Those of us left standing know that no matter what, in any case we would be arrogant and look down upon the little people suffering away (this is the meaning of our 'knowing' nodding); and we have driven ourselves into the wretched life of the ascetic so that someday we might become worthy of the arrogance we cannot escape. Is it a perfect spell? Are you arrogant for disagreeing with me, asserting your superiority of thought? Or is it the same old circle, the German loop, coming up from the come down, nothing more to say... dash dash dash
(Take note of my most misanthropic yearnings to date)
Posted by: Cornchops | Jul 11, 2007 10:33:15 PM
misanthropic yearnings
These sorts of yearnings appear quite regularly on the Lit. blogs, usually alongside some quotes from Nietzsche. Tho' I am not one for psychoanalysis, one might speculate on the motivations for Nietzsche-related blog-posts: FN was, ah think it's fair to yawp, a militarist and would-be aristocrat, and opposed in principle to democracy, feminism, even Reason (in Enlightenment sense). The lad who decides to fly the Nietzsche flag, as it were, thus advocates, at least by implication, a certain anti-democratic, militaristic individualism, does he not. It's sort of a desperate move--a King's gambit, the Nietzschean gambit, which, unlike marxism, say, works against all sorts of sinister opponents, be they leftist multiculturalists, technocapitalists, dyke-o-crats, or theists..............the vanity is that the Nietzschean remains convinced that his old-school opening still has a shot in Hades................
Posted by: | Jul 13, 2007 11:28:57 AM
did you mean'opining'?
Posted by: Cornchops | Jul 15, 2007 11:57:32 PM
Sir Cornchops, another "whither Nietzsche?" post does not avail much, does it? Blog Nietzsche, or write bad checks, sell heroin to the kids at the malt shoppe: it's all about the same. He wrote some great speeches for the loser pep rally (rather superior to the bizarre onto-psychology of sludgemeisters such as Levinas--or Derrida), but it's so subjective, capricious. Herr Swiftchen's Kant posts perhaps a bit more relevant in a sense ( the would-be filosopher, pro. or pauper, begins by demonstrating Kant's errors). One could imagine like John Dillinger chanting ""Was mich nicht UMBRINGT macht mich STÄRKER!!!!!!!!!" while loading up his clips and then heading out to Arbeiten.
Posted by: Perezoso | Jul 16, 2007 10:41:40 AM
Ah the PoMo Nietzsche: he has doubts, questionings, misgivings. Take away that big Bavarian 'stache--not to say the Will to Power, the denial of the social contract, the admiration of Roman emperors, his pal Wagner, the denunciations of socialists and liberals, women, xtians.......----and Fritz, is...... nearly parisian, eh. The kinder-gentler, cafe-Fritz.
Posted by: Perezoso | Jul 24, 2007 2:29:24 PM
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