Nietzsche on Guilt, Conscience, Pain, and Memory (Patreon)

If Freud is one of my favourite psychologists, then Nietzsche is one of my favourite philosophers.

He dedicated much of his work to future generations, as he thought himself "posthumous" rather than of his time. 

There are still only a few of us today who can stomach Nietzsche's harsh truths. He has some very bitter pills to swallow regarding morality and virtue.

• 0:00 On the Genealogy of Morals 
• 1:55 how does one give the man-animal a memory? 
• 2:35 only that which hurts incessantly is remembered 
• 3:55 the most powerful aid to memory is pain 
• 5:45 Alyona the pawnbroker 
• 6:40 the festivity of punishment  
• 8:40 punishment hardens and deadens 
• 11:10 bad conscience as illness

If you want to explore more of Nietzsche, this is how I rank his works (ordered for best books to start with):

1) Thus Spoke Zarathustra 

The übermensch (man as something to be overcome), the idea of eternal recurrence, justice, revenge, equality, and virtue as cowardice are all addressed in this powerful work of poetic philosophy.

This book also has some of my favourite Nietzsche quotes:

Your bad love of yourselves makes solitude a prison to you.

The true man wants two things: danger and play. For that reason he wants woman, as the most dangerous plaything.

Mistrust all in whom the urge to punish is strong! Mistrust all those who talk much about their justice!’

Let us also be enemies, my friends! Let us divinely strive against one another!

2. The Birth of Tragedy 

This is where Nietzsche gets into the Apollonian and Dionysian duality of aesthetics. Powerful stuff for those who want to go beyond Aristotle's Poetics. 

3. Twilight of the Idols / The Anti-Christ 

This is another great one for quotes, includes most of Nietzsche's major ideas, and is a vicious assault on Christianity.

What does not kill me makes me stronger.

He who has a why to live for can bear almost any how.

That for which we can find words is already dead in our hearts. So, then, there is a certain contempt in speaking.

4. On the Genealogy of Morals 

This is the one I'm quoting from in the above video, and contains three treatises: good and evil, guilt and bad conscience, meaning of ascetic ideals

This is where we get into Nietzsche's profound ideas surrounding pain, meaning, and memory.

5. Human, All Too Human 

Here is where you can see Nietzsche's development of the aphoristic style of philosophising. His writings on "man and woman" and "man alone with himself" are rather controversial, even to this day.

I believe this is one of the books that the Nazis used to justify their actions. Strange though as Nietzsche thoroughly hated anti-semitism.

This is also Nietzsche at his most troll-like, pithy, ironical, funny, and offensive

After those books, I would recommend exploring, in this order, Beyond Good and Evil, The Gay Science, Ecce Homo, and The Will to Power. 

We also have two podcasts out regarding sections from Nietzsche's Thus Spoke Zarathustra and Human, All Too Human here and here.

Happy philosophising!