Theory Video: Roderick on Nietzsche (Patreon)

Rick Roderick on Nietzsche's Progeny [full length]

This video is 8th in the 8-part series, Nietzsche and the Postmodern Condition (1991). Lecture notes: I. Nietzsche says there are no last interpretations of desperate moments, which makes in difficult to conclude. A. Nietzsche had no children, so why the term "progeny"? B. Nietzsche's texts were written to fail. If they are successful no any way it is II. The postmodern condition continued: A. The saturation of modes of information, surveillance, and control are at a level of such intensity that they qualitatively change the nature of our experience. B. In the 19th century, massive forms of production caused by manual labor to be replaced with mechanical labor. C. In the mid to late 20th century, there was a switch from technology that replaces manual labor with technology that replaces mental/intellectual labor and even human experience. 1. We value sports because with the decrease in manual labor, it is a way to vicariously enjoy the pleasure of the body. 2. Everything that was directly lived has now been reduced to an image or representation. D. "Nihilism technologically realized": people born into a culture where an apocalypse is technologically possible are different from Nietzsche's time when nihilism was a matter of the drying up of subjectivity and belief formation. Nietzsche's hope was to create new ones. 1. Nietzsche did not realize that nihilism would become technologically possible. 2. Apocalypse is a utopian ideal. We are much more likely to trod endlessly, solving technical adjustments. E. "Virtual reality suits" provide a prepackaged experience. Commodities are no longer just things of use -- they've become part of what we are. III. Russell described "The growth of unreason in the 19th century". If there is no intellectual difference between sanity and insanity, reason and unreason, truth and falsity -- then the lunatic who believes he's a poached egg should be condemned only because he's in the minority. A final thought: fight to feel and live anything. For more information, see http://www.rickroderick.org A philosophy podcast, The Partially Examined Life, held a detailed discussion of Nietzsche, which can be found here: http://www.partiallyexaminedlife.com/2009/11/10/episode-11-nietzsches-immoralism-what-is-ethics-anyway/