Do you take the Peig Sayers or the Friedrich Nietzsche view of life? |
The history of philosophy is a history of extremes. Rousseau believed humans are inherently good. Hobbes saw them as innately evil. Rene Descartes believed the mind, or “soul”, is a different substance to the body. Gilbert Ryle said only physical matter exists – there is no “ghost in the machine”.
This love of dichotomies stretches through the ages. Polarisation may be problematic in politics but it’s a necessary part of philosophy. Creating a dichotomy helps to draw out key concepts or buried assumptions.
A personal favourite is William James’s distinction between “tough-minded” and “tender-minded” thinkers. The former are irreligious, pluralistic and empiricist (going by “facts”), the latter religious, dogmatical and idealistic. Think of the Social Democrats versus Independent Ireland and you have the gist of it.
Key intellectual fault lines globally today centre on morality and the rule of law. But there is another dichotomy that is relevant to our current predicament. It can be expressed as a standoff between the German thinker Friedrich Nietzsche and Great Blasket Island folklorist Peig Sayers. In one corner, an advocate for self-determination through the “will to power”. In the other, an embodiment of fatalism.
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