The philosophy endeavor is fulfilled when you reluctantly accept the following truths:

(1) Only the life of greatness is worth living

(2) Your current life is not in alignment with the great life

(3) While you are currently disconnected from greatness, the spirit of the great man is accessible within you

Much of philosophy is a futile attempt to avoid or work around these truths. Once you surrender to these truths, then life becomes about relating in the inner world.

Please expand on this "life of greatness" because I strongly suspect you cannot come up with a concept of greatness that any human being could possibly attain and that life itself (where you die) cannot possibly be "great."

Life can be beautiful but that's a completely different concept.


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It’s a life beyond what you believe to be attainable, correct, which is why you’re not allowed to attain it. This is why I used words like “reluctantly” and “surrender”. The most valuable aspect of philosophy is, through participation in it, you might build enough self contempt to summon the great man within.

The one who identifies and unifies with the great man attains the great life.

The proposition that a being is great is either an analytic judgment or a synthetic judgment (this is Kant).

The being is great as an analytic judgment would mean that the being is in and of itself "greater" than any other bring (intrinsic). Kant utilized the proposition "all bodies are extended" as an extension of a body does not require a comparison to another body. Thus as an analytic judgment the only being (or object) that is truly great within our Universe that could be considered intrinsically great (analytically) is the Universe itself. This is absurd as to say "I'm as great as the Universe." would make one sound ridiculous.

The being is great as a synthetic judgment implies a comparison between the being (or object) and another being (or object). Kant used the proposition "all bodies are heavy" as a synthetic judgement which is false as we know from physics that all objects have intrinsic mass (and no mass is a form of mass) so we exclude that proposition and move towards a clearer example which is that of mathematics as all mathematics is a synthetic judgment utilizing numbers and variables tied together by an equal sign.

Thus if "greatness" is your goal all you trying to achieve is a synthetic relationship against another in which you are attempting to quantitatively be larger than another. This is not a life of meaning but a life of spreadsheets and psychosis in which you reduce everything to that which we measure all of reality by, money.

The goal therefore (as you will not ever be actually great but can only delude yourself into valuing your bank account over your humanity which is analytic and not synthetic) is to find a life of meaning.

This is not to say you should not work hard and struggle to improve, but greatness as a goal is preposterous and those who claim to have embodied greatness into themselves are not only wrong but have done self harm by deluding themselves into believing they are something they are not.


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What we most desire as a human being is revealed only after commitment toward this path. I’m using “greatness” to point to a revealed, intuitive feeling. I can assure you I don’t measure it using a bank account.

Further, even the desire for meaning is associated with some level of identification with the great man. Meaning is not an aspect of this world independent of the great man. Do many people have a desire for meaning even though they are not interested in greatness? Of course, but only because they had previously related to (even if mostly subconsciously) to what I am speaking to and then bailed out.

The great man does not exist, it is an ideal image in your head that was created by somebody else. To enslave yourself to this ideal is to literally become a slave.

One should try to actualize their potential, but that is not the same nor equal to becoming deluded by an image in your mind that is manufactured by others.


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I’m intimately familiar with this rationalization since it persists until the very end. The great man is associated with individuation in opposition to the social self — it’s anti social — so to believe it’s only socially constructed is false.

I’ve enslaved myself to the great man because I’ve enslaved myself to the truth, but I haven’t gotten to this point carelessly.

Some love their chains.


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Only the person who first values and struggles for freedom can truly make the necessary sacrifice into servitude, so go ahead and value freedom. I support this. Just don’t allow yourself to be deceived into believing you’ve reached the end.

And don’t cope with half truths or compromises. It’s a violation of your soul.

You are, by trying to be great, eslaving yourself to other peoples opinions and your relationship with them. It's a delusion. Give it up.


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You actually believe the social conformists are the ones who pursue greatness? And I’m deluded?

Pursuing greatness is both absurd and unbelievably harmful.


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We agree here. Still, the highest truth has a price. If you limit yourself to convenience in the pursuit of truth, then my posts are not for you.

Not to be rude but like you aren't actually doing any critical thinking or philosophy. I, via Kant, demonstrated that you cannot be great. That is true.

All that can be claimed is a synthetic superiority in a quantitative category but that isn't actual greatness it is just a delusion. That is true.

Everything you've said in this thread is false. It is, at best, an incredibly poor reading of Nietszche.


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You demonstrated that how? What are you using to determine what is true and false? The act of you thinking about it and deciding it’s true? If so, that is not the highest pursuit of truth. It’s the default.

The past doesn’t exist except as a thought happening now. Likewise the future (greatness) can only possibly be happening now. Or never.

Narrative is not real? Then, why does it persist?

You can realize greatness at once. ThereÂ’s only ever now and thoughts in the mind, however persistent. But you realise and never achieve which is a way of putting it off to a future point which immediately puts up that barrier. Nothing ever happened in the future.

Identification does not necessarily equate to full actualization - this is important to hold. Actualization is associated with becoming which is associated with narrative.

We derive our sense of identity from our thoughts. Must we have to think all the time.

When we think we have nothing to think about except thoughts.

Such as. Do we have any problems now in this moment?

I’m not talking about our sense of identity; I’m talking about identity.

Identity is more fundamental than thought. Identification and de-identification happen below thought. In the body.

Your sense of self. I say, For most, itÂ’s their narrative. Which is made up of their past, and their projections into future. Not real.

Shouldn't you say that it is made up of their thoughts about the past, and their projections into future. If so, then in what sense do you mean it is not real? Are you saying that thoughts are not real?

The first truth is recognizable to every human being, but if it isn’t tended to and doesn’t take root, then it will be become dead or lost when the second truth makes itself known. The wise person remembers the first truth, recognizes a seed of greatness for what it is, and will disrupt his entire life to nurture the seed when he receives one.

Life to me is trying to figure out tactics for dealing with this damn human dopaminergic system in that what was great yesterday, is expected today and not enough tomorrow in regards to basically everything.
I do think there is some wisdom in incremental striving for greatness in something as a tactic, especially if the end goal is rather impossible to reach.