sparknotes Thus Spoke Zarathustra Summary

classes ::: text, summary,
children :::
branches :::

bookmarks: Instances - Definitions - Quotes - Chapters - Wordnet - Webgen

object:sparknotes Thus Spoke Zarathustra Summary
class:text
class:summary
subject:Philosophy
Prologue:At the age of thirty, Zarathustra goes into the wilderness and so enjoys his spirit and his solitude there that he stays for ten years. Finally, he decides to return among people, and share with them his over-brimming wisdom. Like the setting sun, he must descend from the mountain and "go under."
On his way, he encounters a saint living alone in the forest. This saint once loved mankind, but grew sick of their imperfections and now loves only God. He tells Zarathustra that mankind doesn't need the gift he brings, but rather help: they need someone to lighten their load and give them alms. Taking his leave of the saint, Zarathustra registers with surprise that the old man has not heard that "God is dead!"
Upon arriving in the town, Zarathustra begins to preach, proclaiming the overman. Man is a rope between beast and overman and must be overcome. The way across is dangerous, but it must not be abandoned for otherworldly hopes. Zarathustra urges the people to remain faithful to this world and this life, and to feel contempt for their all-too-human happiness, reason, virtue, justice, and pity. All this will prepare the way for the overman, who will be the meaning of the earth.
On hearing this, the people laugh at Zarathustra. Zarathustra suggests that while it is still possible to breed the overman, humanity is becoming increasingly tame and domesticated, and will soon be able to breed only the last man. The last men will be all alike, like herd animals, enjoying simple pleasures and mediocrity, afraid of anything too dangerous or extreme. Zarathustra says, "'We have invented happiness,' say the last men, and they blink." The people cheer, and ask Zarathustra to turn them into these last men.
Just then, a tightrope walker begins walking between two towers in the town. A jester comes out behind him, following him, and mocking him for being so awkward and moving so slowly. Suddenly, the jester jumps right over the tightrope walker, upsetting him and making him fall to the ground. Zarathustra approaches the dying man, and allays his fear of damnation by explaining that there is no devil and no hell. But then, the tightrope walker suggests that his life has been meaningless and that he has been a mere beast. Not at all, Zarathustra suggests to the dying man: "You have made danger your vocation; there is nothing contemptible in that."
That night, Zarathustra leaves town with the dead tightrope walker to bury him in the countryside. A poor day of fishing, he muses metaphorically: he has caught no men, but only a corpse. On his way out, the jester approaches him and warns him to leave. The jester says that Zarathustra is disliked here by the good and the just, and by the believers in the true faith. Only because Zarathustra isn't taken seriously is he allowed to live.
Outside the city, Zarathustra encounters a hermit, who insists on feeding both him and the corpse. After that, Zarathustra goes to sleep. He reawakens with the conviction that he must give up preaching to the masses, and seek out like- minded companions to join him. Rather than be a shepherd, who leads the herd, he must lure people away from the herd. The good and the just, and the believers in the true faith will hate him even more for this, for he will appear to be a lawbreaker and a breaker of the table of values. However, Zarathustra believes this breaking of laws and values will be a glorious act of creation.
Analysis:This prologue contains the two moments in Nietzsche's writings that loom largest in popular consciousness: the declaration of the death of God and the declaration of the overman. Nietzsche first wrote "God is dead" in section 108 of The Gay Science, the book immediately preceding Zarathustra. People often mistake this phrase for the metaphysical assertion that God does not exist. In fact, Nietzsche is making the cultural observation that our idea of God is no longer strong enough to serve as the foundation for truth and morality. He is not saying that God does not exist, but that God is no longer universally accepted as giving meaning to our lives. If God was what previously gave meaning to our lives, a world without God is meaningless. Nietzsche believes his age is characterized by nihilism, lacking strong, positive goals.
The portrait of the "last man" is meant to give us the ultimate result of nihilism. Lacking any positive beliefs or needs, people will aim for comfort and to struggle as little as possible. Soon we will all become the same-all mediocre, and all perfectly content. We will "invent happiness" by eliminating every source of worry and strife from our lives.
The overman is meant to be the solution to nihilism, the meaning we should give to our lives. The German word Ubermensch is often translated as "superman," but Kaufmann's choice of "overman" is more accurate, as it brings out the way that this word evokes "overcoming" and "going under." The overman faces a world without God, and rather than finding it meaningless, gives it his own meaning. In so doing, he upsets the "good and just" and the "believers in the true faith" who have not yet come to recognize the bankruptcy of the idea of God. Essentially, the difference between regular humans and the overman is that we need to put our faith in something-be it God or science or truth-while the overman puts all his faith in himself and relies on nothing else.
Zarathustra suggests that humans are great only as a bridge between animal and overman. Humans are not the be all and end all of existence, as the "last men" would see themselves. We are still largely governed by our animal instincts, which lead us to prejudice, superficiality, and to easy reliance upon faith. In order to refine our being, we must turn our instinct for cruelty upon ourselves, and carve away at our prejudices, superficiality, and faith, creating something deeper. Zarathustra speaks of the triumphant moment where we look with contempt upon all the human qualities that we once valued. This would signify our triumph over our shallow, human nature, and our progress toward the overman.
This image of humanity as a bridge is illustrated in the story of the tightrope walker. The tightrope walker is making the slow and dangerous progress between animal and overman. The jester bears some resemblance to Zarathustra: he can move lightly (lightness and dancing are praised a great deal later in the book) and he can easily leap over those who are slower-in other words, he can cross the rope toward the overman. In urging the tightrope walker to hurry up, the jester upsets him and ruins him; similarly, Zarathustra's preaching of the overman may upset and ruin the many people who are unable to deal with this news.
Nietzsche makes many allusions in this book to the New Testament and to the ministry of Jesus. For instance, we are told that Jesus also went into the wilderness at the age of thirty, though rather than enjoying his stay there, Jesus spent forty days and forty nights in the forest being tempted and tormented by the devil. Nietzsche implicitly suggests that Jesus lacked the strength of will to enjoy his solitude, and could endure his loneliness for only just over a month. We also find echoes of the New Testament in Zarathustra's musings that he has been unsuccessful in "fishing" for followers. Jesus told his apostles that they would be fishers for men. Moreover, unlike Jesus, Zarathustra explicitly says that he does not want to be a shepherd and lead a flock of sheep: rather, he wants to teach the individual to break free from the flock.
On the Three Metamorphoses:There are three stages of progress toward the overman: the camel, the lion, and the child. In the first, one must renounce one's comforts, exercise self- discipline, and accept all sorts of difficulties for the sake of knowledge and strength. Second, one must assert one's independence, saying "no" to all outside influences and commands. Lastly comes the act of new creation.
On the Teachers of Virtue:Zarathustra criticizes the ideal of practicing virtue and restraint in order to find inner peace. This inner peace, which he calls "sleep," is antithetical to the "waking" struggle against oneself for improvement and independence.
On the Afterworldly:We are made of flesh, and not spirit, and our physical needs dictate our values and desires. A sick or dissatisfied person will claim to be essentially spirit, and will create a God and an afterlife as distractions from the pains of this life.
On the Despisers of the Body:What we call "self" is nothing more than the body, and it underlies all reason, spirit, and sense, directing our passions and our thoughts. Those who assert that the self is really spirit are "despisers of the body" who have a sick body that hates life and wants to die.
On Enjoying and Suffering the Passions:We learn and grow most from our moments of suffering and intense feeling. They make us unique, and they should not be shared for fear of losing this uniqueness. Someone who is driven by more than one intense passion will suffer great inner conflict.
On the New Idol:The state has become the new idol that the masses worship. It encourages uniformity and mediocrity, pandering to the masses. Freedom can only be found outside the confines of the state.
On the Flies of the Marketplace:Those who pander to the masses earn fame and popularity, but true change and influence is silently dictated by the overman and the creator. Such creativity demands isolation from the meddlesome crowds.
On Chastity:Chastity is good for some and bad for others. While it is counter-productive to pursue sex all day long, the efforts of over-lusty spirits to repress this sex drive might only corrupt their spirit further.
On the Friend:True friends drive each other ever forward toward the goal of the overman. Because there is a great deal of struggle involved, a friend might often behave as an enemy. Zarathustra suggests that women are not capable of friendship, only love.
On the Thousand and One Goals:Different groups of people value different things, and have different conceptions of good and evil. What a people consider good signifies what they consider difficult and what they have striven to overcome. Previously, groups determined what was good and evil; now individuals should renounce this good and evil and strive instead to become overmen.
On Love of the Neighbor:If you don't love yourself, you show love to your neighbor and persuade him to love you in order to manufacture for yourself a good opinion of yourself. Zarathustra disdains such "love of the neighbor," and commends instead love for the distant goal of the overman. Any other love is just a distraction.
Part II-The Child with the Mirror:Back on his mountain, Zarathustra dreams of a child showing him a mirror in which he sees the face of a devil. Realizing that his enemies are perverting his teaching, and full of a new need to share his wisdom, Zarathustra descends from the mountain and returns to the people.
Upon the Blessed Isles:Zarathustra equates the creative will with freedom. A belief in God inhibits creativity because a creative God would leave nothing left for us to create.
On the Pitying:Pity does nobody good. If we show pity and mercy to the unfortunate, they will come to resent us for exposing their powerlessness. This resentment eats away unnoticed at the insides like a fungus. Feeling joy is better than feeling pity: in learning joy we learn not to hurt others.
On Priests:Priests see life as suffering, and so want to make others suffer as well. The uncertainty and hardships of life are too much for them, and so they have given up on life. They are little more than corpses, believing that their God and their pity are an escape.
On the Virtuous:Popular morality promises rewards for being virtuous, or at least preaches that virtue is its own reward. Popular misconceptions of virtue include being vengefully just, or being too weak to cause any harm. Zarathustra suggests instead that virtue is simply a matter of putting oneself wholeheartedly into one's deeds. This is not done out of hope for reward or punishment, but simply out of an exuberance of being.
On the Rabble:The multitudes of common people spoil everything that they touch. Suffering from nausea, Zarathustra wonders whether this rabble might actually be necessary for life. By rising above the rabble, he finds purity, peace, and valuable friendship.
On the Famous Wise Men:It is impossible to serve both truth and the people. Philosophers who want to please the people will inevitably end up justifying and rationalizing popular prejudice. Granted, their relationship with the people is mutually beneficial, but the people have given up the higher pursuit of the truth. That pursuit, followed by true philosophers, carries no fame and no rewards, but only suffering and sacrifice that streng then the spirit.
The Night Song:Zarathustra laments that he is so full of wisdom, spirit, and life that he must always give and never receive. He feels loneliness in never having to need anyone or anything.
The Dancing Song:Zarathustra sings a song to dancing girls about life and wisdom. Both are women, always changing, always seductive, and so similar to one another that one loves one because of the other, and makes them both jealous as a result. After his song, evening falls, and Zarathustra becomes sad, feeling unable to justify his being alive.
The Tomb Song:Zarathustra thinks back on his youth and the ideas and ideals he held then. All that remains unchanged from this time is his will, which has helped him to overcome his losses and to strive ever forward.
On Self-Overcoming:Zarathustra claims that everything that lives obeys, and if you can't obey yourself, someone else will comm and you. Commanding is more difficult and dangerous than obeying, but we are all driven to it by our fundamental will to power. The powerful obey themselves and comm and others. Those who are commanded submit so that they may comm and those who are even weaker. Because power can only be gained through obedience, life always seeks to submit, change, and overcome itself. As a result, life is characterized by change: nothing-not truth, not morality, not God-is permanent or absolute.
On Those Who Are Sublime:The solemn, sublime seeker of truth is noble in his pursuit, but he still needs to learn about beauty and laughter, and to practice graciousness and kindness. Zarathustra values lightness and kindness in a powerful person because such a person is also capable of great solemnity and cruelty. There is no virtue in being kind simply because one hasn't the power to be cruel.
The Soothsayer:Zarathustra hears a soothsayer predicting a great future emptiness, where we will feel incapable of creating anything new, nor even capable of dying out. This prediction puts Zarathustra into a deep depression, during which he dreams that he is a watchman in a castle full of coffins. Suddenly, a wind comes and bursts the gates open and a coffin bursts open full of laughter. One of Zarathustra's disciples interprets this dream as meaning that Zarathustra will awaken us from our gloom and emptiness with his life and laughter.
On Redemption:Zarathustra complains that he has never yet found a complete human being, only "inverse cripples" who excel in one attribute, but who are weak in everything else. He could not bear the present and the past if he could not look forward to a future of whole human beings that redeem this past. The trouble with the past is that we cannot change it. The will suffers, because, no matter how much change and creation it may effect in the future, it cannot change the past. We come to see this suffering of the will as a kind of punishment, and so see all life as suffering and punishment, and seek to cease trying to will anything in order to escape from this punishment. Zarathustra suggests that this pessimism results from seeing the past as an immovable thing that simply occurred without human influence. If we can come to see the past as something that we willed, we can find redemption from our suffering and punishment.
On Human Prudence:Zarathustra claims to have three kinds of human prudence. First, he suggests that it is better to be deceived from time to time than always to be on guard for deceivers. Second, he admires vain people, because their efforts to please are entertaining and because they are unaware of their own modesty. Third, he scoffs at the small things that people call "evil," suggesting that greatness is only possible through great evil.
The Stillest Hour:Zarathustra leaves the people once more to streng then himself in solitude. He knows, but is still unable to speak about, the culmination of his philosophy (which we shall see in Part three is the eternal recurrence).
Analysis:The chapter "On Redemption" revisits the theme of the will to power. Seeking power over-and freedom from-everything external to it, our will finds itself stumped when it confronts the past. I can act in the present to direct my future, but there is nothing that I can do to change my past. All life thrives on change, and the past is a permanent, immobile reminder of our seeming powerlessness.
Zarathustra gives us two analyses of the will when it is confronted with this impediment. In the first analysis, the will suffers because it is unable to overcome this obstacle. Because the past is an immovable feature of life, we come to see all life as unchangeable suffering. The will cannot touch the past, and it suffers so long as this is the case. The only way to overcome this suffering, according to this first analysis, is to stop the act of willing entirely. Thus, the will is turned against itself in a spiritual equivalent to suicide. In this analysis, Nietzsche is almost certainly thinking primarily of Buddhism. Buddhist meditation is essentially an attempt to extinguish the self, and all the desires and passions fueled by selfishness. The ideal of nirvana is a total extinction of the self that Nietzsche would see as the undesirable self- destruction of the will.
Part 3-The Wanderer:Zarathustra reflects that in all one's journeys, one ultimately experiences only oneself; all discovery is self-discovery. Now he prepares for his most difficult journey yet.
On the Vision and the Riddle:Courage helps us overcome everything, even death, by helping us look lightly at what would otherwise seem serious. Zarathustra suggests that courage can teach us to say to death, "Was that life? Well then! Once more!" Thus, courage can also lead us to confront the eternal recurrence of the same events. If the past stretches back infinitely, then anything that could have happened must have happened already at some time in the past. By that logic, this very instant must have occurred at some time in the past. And similarly, if the future is infinite, everything-including this moment-must recur again sometime in the future. Zarathustra ends by recounting a vision where he saw a shepherd gagging on a snake in nausea, who then bit off the head of the snake, and spat it out, erupting with laughter.
On Involuntary Bliss:Zarathustra still feels unable to confront the thought of the eternal recurrence. He waits for the pain of this thought to come upon him, but he remains happy.
Before Sunrise:Zarathustra praises the heavens, as being above all reason and above all purpose. Ultimately, the universe is not directed by reason and purpose, but by chance and accident.
On Virtue That Makes Small:Zarathustra returns among people and finds that they have grown smaller while he was away, so that he must now stoop to be among them. Their desire for contentment and above all their desire not to be hurt by anyone have made them small. They call this cowardice "virtue," which they express through a constant aim to please and to gratify. Zarathustra has no respect for people who are unable to assert their own will.
Upon the Mount of Olives:Zarathustra takes malicious pleasure in the winter and in the difficulties it imposes. If people could only see his boundless depth and happiness, they would resent him, but if they see him suffer, they will no longer feel jealous.
Part 4-The Honey Sacrifice:Rather than descend once more among men, Zarathustra ascends to the highest mountain and waits there for people to come to him.
The Cry of Distress:Sitting outside his cave, Zarathustra is joined by the soothsayer from Part II. He tells Zarathustra that he must confront his final sin: pity. Zarathustra hears a cry of distress that he assumes comes from "the higher man," and so goes in search of him.
Conversation with the Kings:On his search, Zarathustra encounters two kings on the road who are driving an ass. They have abandoned their kingdoms, as they have been made nauseous by the "good society" of mediocre people who are eager only to please and to enjoy small pleasures. The kings are delighted when Zarathustra tells them he is searching for the higher man. Zarathustra directs them to his cave and invites them to wait for him there.
The Leech:Next, Zarathustra literally stumbles upon a man lying down in a swamp, trying to attract leeches to his arm. He represents "the conscientious in spirit," one who wishes to free himself from (or "suck away") all the prejudices and assumptions that underlie his thinking. As with the kings, Zarathustra invites him to wait in his cave, and then continues his journey.
The Magician:Zarathustra encounters a magician writhing on the ground, tortured by a thought. After a while, Zarathustra becomes angry and accuses him of counterfeiting. The magician confesses, saying he was pretending to be an "ascetic of the spirit" in an effort to test Zarathustra. Zarathustra points out that he wasn't totally pretending-that he is, in some senses, an ascetic. The magician wants to convince others that he is a great man, but he knows himself that he is not great. Zarathustra admires the magician for wanting to be great and for admitting that he is not. As with the others, he directs the magician to his cave and then continues on his way.
Retired:Zarathustra encounters the last pope, who is mourning the fact that God is dead, and who seeks out Zarathustra as the most pious of all those who do not believe in God. He tells how God died from pitying humankind too much. Zarathustra criticizes God for having made us so poorly and then punishing us for being unable to do his bidding. The pope is impressed with Zarathustra, and Zarathustra directs him to his cave.

see also :::

questions, comments, suggestions/feedback, take-down requests, contribute, etc
contact me @ integralyogin@gmail.com or
join the integral discord server (chatrooms)
if the page you visited was empty, it may be noted and I will try to fill it out. cheers

now begins generated list of local instances, definitions, quotes, instances in chapters, wordnet info if available and instances among weblinks

OBJECT INSTANCES [0] - TOPICS - AUTHORS - BOOKS - CHAPTERS - CLASSES - SEE ALSO - SIMILAR TITLES

TOPICS

SEE ALSO

AUTH

BOOKS

IN CHAPTERS TITLE

IN CHAPTERS CLASSNAME

IN CHAPTERS TEXT

PRIMARY CLASS

summary

text

SIMILAR TITLES

sparknotes Thus Spoke Zarathustra Summary

DEFINITIONS

TERMS STARTING WITH

TERMS ANYWHERE

QUOTES [0 / 0 - 0 / 0]

KEYS (10k)

NEW FULL DB (2.4M)

*** WISDOM TROVE ***

*** NEWFULLDB 2.4M ***

IN CHAPTERS [0/0]

WORDNET

IN WEBGEN [10000/0]

convenience portal:

recent: Section Maps - index table - favorites
Savitri -- Savitri extended toc
Savitri Section Map -- 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
authors -- Crowley - Peterson - Borges - Wilber - Teresa - Aurobindo - Ramakrishna - Maharshi - Mother
places -- Garden - Inf. Art Gallery - Inf. Building - Inf. Library - Labyrinth - Library - School - Temple - Tower - Tower of MEM
powers -- Aspiration - Beauty - Concentration - Effort - Faith - Force - Grace - inspiration - Presence - Purity - Sincerity - surrender
difficulties -- cowardice - depres. - distract. - distress - dryness - evil - fear - forget - habits - impulse - incapacity - irritation - lost - mistakes - obscur. - problem - resist - sadness - self-deception - shame - sin - suffering
practices -- Lucid Dreaming - meditation - project - programming - Prayer - read Savitri - study
subjects -- CS - Cybernetics - Game Dev - Integral Theory - Integral Yoga - Kabbalah - Language - Philosophy - Poetry - Zen
6.01 books -- KC - ABA - Null - Savitri - SA O TAOC - SICP - The Gospel of SRK - TIC - The Library of Babel - TLD - TSOY - TTYODAS - TSZ - WOTM II
8 unsorted / add here -- Always - Everyday - Verbs

change css options:
change font "color":
change "background-color":
change "font-family":
change "padding":
change "table font size":
last updated: 2022-05-05 10:21:49
298847 site hits