Analiza i Egzystencja (Mar 2013)
"Nerwy pańskie tu niewinne" - o problematyce choroby u Fryderyka Nietzschego ["Your nerves are here not at fault" - on the concept of illness in Nietzsche's philosophy]
Abstract
The article propounds an interpretation of Nietzsche’s philosophy, in which the issueof illness would be instrumental. However, in contrast to any kind of reductionarybiographism, the illness should be conceived as inextricably intertwined with thethinking itself. Nietzsche’s own illness was initially nothing more than a personal problem, yet it soon influenced his whole life, forcing to forgo the academic career. Thus afflicted, the philosopher used his experience to develop a new view oncorporeality, diametrically opposed to Cartesianism. In the post-Cartesian model,objective thinking and illness have nothing in common; either corporal sufferingexerts no influence upon thoughts, or the mind sinks into pure insanity. Whoever losttheir faculties is still capable to stick to rationality, if only they accept the diagnosis,however subjectively unconvincing it would seem. Suspicious of the notion of truth,Nietzsche reverses the post-Cartesian model. Objective thinking, neatly separatedfrom illness, as well as rational diagnoses appear to him as a fetish supporting thosewho cannot deal with their own corporeality. They repress their weaknesses, assuming the unfounded belief in objective thinking, which can be practised irrespective ofpersonal malaise. However, Nietzsche’s suffering, which recurred irregularly and hadno detectable grounds, couldn’t be separated not only from thinking, but from lifeas such. The philosopher was thus lead to advance a concept of “diet”, construed asbroadly as possible, including the selection of food, lectures and embraced thoughts.The diet is the uttermost refutation of diagnosis, as it treats the mind and the bodyas a unity changing in time. The illness, which accompanies life inevitably, servesas a permanent yardstick of quality of our thoughts. Moreover, it gives us the opportunity to experience pure becoming.
