Why Happiness Destroys Our Capacity For Greatness, According to Nietzsche
Exploring Friedrich Nietzsche's views on happiness, including why he believed that it hinders our ability to achieve a sense of purpose, meaning, and greatness.
Friedrich Nietzsche was an interesting dude.
He had quite an eventful life; he was constantly battling various illnesses, was considered a philosophical failure for his entire life (his work took off posthumously), and was known to be extremely eccentric. You might not know this, but his work actually went on to inspire Jerry Siegel, the creator of DC Comics’ Superman. This fact is still heavily debated amongst DC Comics fans, but personally, I think Nietzsche’s work was a direct inspiration. Remember Superman’s “up, up, and away!” catchphrase? Check out the following quote from Nietzsche’s Thus Spoke Zarathustra.
“I long to be up, out, and away to the Superman!” - Friedrich Nietzsche, Thus Spoke Zarathustra, ch. 43
Nietzsche’s philosophy touched on a variety of subjects, and in this post, we’ll be exploring his views on happiness. His ideas will be in stark contrast to Aristotle’s (which we covered last week), and I wanted to include him within this series so I could offer a varied vi…