Life Lessons from Nietzsche (Book Review)

John Armstrong, Life Lessons from Nietzsche, London: Pan Macmillan, 2013. ISBN 978-1-4472-4560-5, £6.99, $11.99, pp. 120.

Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900) was one of the most daring and ambitious thinkers of the nineteenth century. He felt that the prevailing values of society were obstacles to the good life and attempted to bring about a revolution in ethics. All his life, even though he was single, he believed that marriage could be wonderful. He also believed, despite his lack of both, that power and fame were tremendous honours and great resources. He held good health in the highest esteem, as central to the good life, even though he was frequently ill. He believed in the value of a life of action, despite being cooped up in small lodgings, poring over his books. He asserted the importance of strong, healthy instincts, which he regarded as far more important than his own special skill – the acquisition of scholarly knowledge.

The book elaborates nine lessons from Nietzsche, which the author has done well to elicit. Lesson one: ‘How to Find Your True Self’. The chapter begins with a long citation from Nietzsche’s book Schopenhauer as Educator, in which he talks about the tendency of human beings to become something other than their true selves. He denounces such behaviour, calling it cowardly and pinning it down as a result of laziness. “Their greatest fear”, he writes, “is the heavy burden that uncompromising honesty and nakedness of speech and action would lay on them.... Your true self does not lie deeply hidden within you. It is at an infinite height above you – at least, above what you commonly take to be yourself.”

The second chapter is entitled ‘On Visiting the Pyramids’ and deals with the importance of history in life. He first asks the odd question: ‘What is history for?’ and then goes on to show us the essential character of history in relation to three different areas in man’s life: his action and struggle, his conservatism and reverence, his suffering and his desire for deliverance. Corresponding to these, he denotes three kinds of history: Monumental, Antiquarian and Critical. Monumental history offers man inspiration from past events and persons. Antiquarian history awakes in man the desire to preserve the past because he sees himself in those things or events. Critical history can be quite dangerous since it involves destroying the past and supplanting it with a new present. The danger lies in the limits of destruction and construction. Critical history in Nietzsche’s words is “a conflict between our innate, inherited nature and our knowledge, between a stern, new discipline and an ancient tradition; and we plant a new way of life, a new instinct, a second nature, that withers the first.”

‘Dealing with Conflict’ is a short chapter. Basic conflict lies at the root of life. On the one hand we want to be in control of things but on the other hand we are yearning for release, for wild joy and uninhibited desire. The following chapter is entitled ‘The Troubled Path to Freedom and Maturity’. Growth and development are slow, painful processes. They involve an interior struggle, which if we face and overcome courageously, will enable us to be fulfilled persons.

‘On Changing One’s Mind’ reminds us that we constantly do so and that there is nothing ignoble about it. This may seem ridiculous when one considers small situations, choices, and so on, but will make greater sense when one is referring to life-changing ones. Nietzsche teaches us that it is alright to make the latter kind of choices (and perhaps we need to make some) provided that we realize the need for them. Nietzsche has a knack of saying things that shock people, as for example his statements: “God is dead. We have killed him”. His aim at making such statements is to shock us into grasping the true import of the message. The sixth chapter, ‘The Merits of Shock Therapy’ elaborates this theme.

The seventh chapter, ‘Be a Noble not a Slave’ once again returns to the point that we live in fear. We prefer to be passive rather than brave and strong. Nietzsche says, “Wile the noble man lives in trust and openness with himself, the man of ressentiment [French for ‘resentment’] is neither upright nor naïve nor honest and straightforward with himself.” He proposes a kind of virility that eggs us to take charge of our life and achieve our goals. The eight chapter deals with an important theme: How to deal with people we disagree with? Instead of avoiding them or retaliating, Nietzsche indicates the path of understanding. He concerns himself with trying to understand the reason for the dislike. The author observes, “You learn from your experience not simply by having it, but by analyzing it.”

The conclusion, which I have also considered as a chapter because of its content, is entitled ‘On Keeping a Notebook’, but nothing inside even hints at it. Herein we find a string of apparently disconnected insights drawn from Nietzsche’s writings. They are presented sequentially but have little bearing on each other. It’s almost as if the author squeezed the remaining lessons into this one chapter but what is nice is that the lessons are emphasized well. They are like parting thoughts at the end of the journey. The book is readable and recommended to students of philosophy and those interested in learning to live better.