Saturday, April 07, 2007

Whatever Is Done From Love...

"Whatever is done from love always occurs beyond good and evil."

- Nietzsche, Beyond Good and Evil


What do you suppose Nietzsche means by "love" here?

2 comments:

The Geezers said...

Well, Brenden could undoubtedly place this quote exactly in its proper context, but from my memory of Beyond Good & Evil, the idea seemed to be that good and evil was an unfortunate byproduct of a dualistic world vision, where object and subject, observer and observed were always separate. Nietsche wasn't talking about romantic love here, but was defining it as a state of non-dual awareness. Love is an act of completely non-judgmental acceptance. In this regard, his concept is very Buddhist, very NewTestament.

He would see genuine love as a mystical condition rather than an expression of chemical romance.

Paul Sunstone said...

Hi Mystic! Thank you for an extraordinarily astute comment! I think you're quite right that Nietzsche is talking about a sort of love which transcends the observer/observed divide. Though, do you think it escapes many people who read that famous New Testament injunction to "love you neighbor" that the love being spoken of is not what they themselves might mean by love?