The world inside

Self-cultivation Nietzsche-style

We’re thinking together, with Nietzsche, about lifecraft - how to follow your own unique path, free from customary morality. That is, free from socially inherited expectations about how people should feel, think and act.

The previous two posts have looked at this from the perspective of the basic needs of ordinary human life - life lived in bodies like ours. That is, we thought about how to craft a life externally - with what we eat, how we exercise, how we rest and so on.

Today we turn inwards to ask about our inner lives. This is the realm of instinct, conscience and emotion. It is that pre-conscious, sub-conscious, un-conscious self that is so often the first to arrive on the scene. Whatever the situation - our first response comes from this primal place, our inner world.

All of us harbour in ourselves hidden gardens and plantations.

Nietzsche, The Gay Science §9

As we do this, remember that lifecraft always has two elements. The first is about having the toolkit to free yourself from moral groupthink, from customary morality. The second is about gaining the knowledge and skills you need to create the life that is best suited to you as a unique individual.

Instinct

When the instinct of life compels us to act, pleasure proves that the act is right … What could be more destructive than working, thinking, feeling, without any inner need, any deeply personal choice, any pleasure? as an automaton of 'duty'?

Nietzsche, The Anti-Christ §11