PHIL 101 Lecture Notes - Lecture 20: Atheism, The Strong
Document Summary
Western civilization began to doubt the existence of god. No gods means no human purpose no meaning to life. Humans must act like gods as creators of values. Allegories: reader must interpret allegories to discover hidden, abstract meaning or truth behind stories. Excerpt: have you not heart of that madman who lit a lantern in the bright morning hours, ran to the marketplace, and cried incessantly; i seek god! The madman jumped into their midst and pierced them with his eyes. Zarathustra, the prophet, descends from cave mountain top after being ten years alone. One day, zarathustra decides to go down to the people to descend the mountain and preach about the overman. According to nietzsche, what is great in man is that he is a bridge and not a goal. Human beings are not the end of the evolutionary process. The human race is a bridge leading to a higher being, the overman: the overman.
