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Philosophy: A Guide to Happiness (Part 6) – Friedrich Nietzsche

Jason Cooper — Sat, 05 Jun 2010 20:18:40 +0000

Nietzcshe suggested for us to become like 'Supermen' by using hardship in life to strengthen our 'Will'

Watch the first video of a six part series: Philosophy: A Guide to Happiness (Part 1) – Socrates

This is the 6th and final post featuring a series of documentaries written and presented by popular British philosopher Alain de Botton.

This 6 part series is an entertaining, practical and psychobabble-free self-help course for the philosophically minded.

Here, de Botton, brings us six thinkers who have influenced history, and their ideas about the pursuit of the happy life. Here we have then:

Socrates
Epicurus
Seneca
Michel de Montaigne
Arthur Schopenhauer
Friedrich Nietzsche

Episode 6 of 6: Nietzsche on Hardship

British philosopher Alain De Botton explores Friedrich Nietzsche’s (1844-1900) dictum that any worthwhile achievements in life come from the experience of overcoming hardship. For him, any existence that is too comfortable is worthless, as are the twin refugees of drink or religion.

You may be also interested to know that this particular series was derived from the book The Consolations of Philosophy, which is a very good read, and was part responsible for encouraging me to pursue philosophy so that I could apply it to my life.

Friedrich Nietzsche’s Key Concept Of Wellness For Us All To Follow

Jason Cooper — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 09:28:03 +0000

The following excerpt is from an interesting article by Donald B Ardell, who feels that we can all learn to develop our minds and achieve general well-being if we applied practical philosophy at the workplace and to our everyday lives.

Ardell calls upon none other than the iconoclastic philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche to demonstrate a key concept in his own philosophy on overcoming difficulties toward finding total fulfillment in life:

‘If REAL wellness were offered at worksite wellness functions, employees would learn life skills large and small, particularly in the areas of philosophy and human happiness. As it is, worksite wellness is largely a medical endeavor focused on risk reduction and prevention, neither of which contributes much to the work setting as a learning environment. If philosophy were on the worksite wellness agenda, workers would have continuous opportunities to increase their capacities for reason, exuberance and liberty toward higher quality of life.

I’m often asked for practical examples of what employees might learn if skills taught included meaning and purpose, global awareness, personal responsibility, happiness, applied ethics and philosophy, to name just a few quality of life-type topics.

Here is one illustration from the rich field of practical philosophy.The example draws on a key concept of Friedrich Nietzsche.’

Read the full article here…

The Nietzsche Philosophy: Become a Superman to Protect yourself Against Swine Flu

Jason Cooper — Sat, 12 Sep 2009 08:33:03 +0000

That Which Does Not Kill us Makes us Stronger

I’m not worried about Swine Flu killing me like the rest of the world. With all the scaremongering from every media source you can think of you’d think I’d be running down to the pharmacy to buy me one of those silly face masks. I’ve already seen a few people in public wearing them and I’ve got to say they look rather bizarre and funny too – it just goes to show what lengths human beings would go to when frightened.

So instead I have chosen to follow the fine example of none other than the iconoclastic Superman, Friedrich Nietzsche and grow a moustache 4 times the size than is usual.

The German philosopher, Nietzsche who was filled with nothing but sarconic wit, subversive ego and tragic wisdom suffered from illness most of his life, but he refused to to be defeated by it.

Instead, Nietzsche thought himself as a Superman who can overcome his illness and overthrow every convention of society that attempted to subjugate his own “Will to Power”. It also seemed to me that Nietzsche’s moustache represented his own philosophy of defiance and overpowering will against all odds.

I too wish to be a Superman and want to use Nietzsche’s moustache as a self-empowering inspiration for me to achieve anything in life as well as protect myself against any nasty viruses.

The many benefits of having a Nietzsche Superman moustache are:

protects against Swine Flu (that’s if you believe all the hype about a disease that came from a pig – I eat bacon for god’s sake!)
cheaper than buying a face mask
can impersonate Tom Selleck
can use it as a homeless shelter for birds
can become the greatest ventriloquist in the world because nobody can see your mouth move
can become a big hit with the girls - because every woman loves a handsome man with a moustache which she can stroke at night

I just need to know what shampoo and conditioner Nietzsche used to keep his moustache in such tip-top condition…one more pic for the ladies!