Sublime

Only someone who is finite can be free, since only someone who is finite can engage the question of what is worth doing with her time and grasp her own life as being at stake in how she leads her life. An infinite being could never lead a free life, since her own life could never be at stake in her activities. Indeed, an infinite being would have n

It seems to me, for reasons I will later outline, the only way to properly pose and answer this question in a modern context is through Heidegger’s engagement with Nietzsche, since this engagement, in particular, seeks to think through and combat the metaphysics of modernity by using Nietzsche as its representative.

Because it is not given what we should do or who we should be, there is always a question of with whom and with what we should keep faith.

D'abord philologue, Nietzsche devient philosophe après le choc de la lecture du Monde comme volonté et comme représentation, l'ouvrage dans lequel Schopenhauer fournit un modèle de sagesse pratique en esquissant le portrait d'un genre de Bouddha européen qui pratiquerait la pitié, la contemplation esthétique ou l'abstinence sexuelle appelée dans le

What reached a decision in me at that time was not a break with Wagner … [instead] I was overcome by impatience with myself; I saw that it was high time for me to recall and reflect on myself. All at once it became clear to me in a terrifying way how much time I had already wasted … It was then that my instinct made its inexorable decision against

smaller than its reputation.

‘He has the feeling,’ Kafka writes in another aphorism, ‘that merely by being alive he is blocking his own way.’

par l’essence même de la pensée schopenhauerienne, qu’il dit “émotionnelle, pleine de tensions, agitée de violents contrastes : l’instinct et l’esprit, la passion et la rédemption5”. Mann décréta sur-le-champ que la découverte de Schopenhauer était une expérience bien trop précieuse pour ne pas la partager. Il l’intégra aussitôt dans sa propre œuvr