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« A Particulate Matter | Main | Endgame! »

January 25, 2008

Nietzsche on prozac

I watched a documentary on the life and thinking of Nietzsche the other day.  In general it was quite interesting.  The thing that struck me however was that the various experts and biographers interviewed went on and on about his struggles with the giant questions of good and evil and the future of a world
where god is dead but never once mention that he was clearly suffering from manic depression and perhaps other mental ailments as well. 

Now mental illnesses are of course of a physiological nature having to do with synopses and transmission of protein between neurons and whatnot.  As a result, had Nietzsche lived today it is likely he would be
diagnosed and put on some drugs to try restore "normalcy" to his brain functions.  I wonder what he would have written about then?  Would his writing have been as poignent and influential?  I'm not sure.  But I thought it was interesting to speculate on the likely fateof philosophers in the light of current and future medicine. 

Oh, my other thought was the whole God is dead thing. That was great and extremely relevent
for the 19th century.  My reinterpretation for the 21st century: God is resurrected as Man.

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