The Goal of Science

>The Goal of Science.
What? The ultimate goal of science is to create the most pleasure possible to man, and the least possible pain? But what if pleasure and pain should be so closely connected that he who wants the greatest possible amount of the one must also have the greatest possible amount of the other, that he who wants to experience the "heavenly high jubilation," must also be ready to be "sorrowful unto death"? And it is so, perhaps! The Stoics at least believed it was so, and they were consistent when they wished to have the least possible pleasure, in order to have the least possible pain from life. (When one uses the expression: The virtuous man is the happiest," it is as much the sign-board of the school for the masses, as a casuistic subtlety for the subtle.) At present also you have still the choice: either the least possible pain, in short painlessness and after all, socialists and politicians of all pareies could not honourably promise more to their people, or the greatest possible amount of pain, as the price of the growth of a fullness of refined delights and enjoyments rarely tasted hitherto! If you decide for the former, if you therefore want to depress and minimise man’s capacity for pain, well, you must also depress and minimise his capacity for enjoyment. In fact, one can further the one as well as the other goal by science! Perhaps science is as yet best known by its capacity for depriving man of enjoyment, and making him colder, more statuesque, and more Stoical. But it might also turn out to be the great dispenser of pain! And then, perhaps, its counteracting force might at the same time be discovered : its immense capacity for making new galaxies of Joy!

I'm new to Nietzche and this is a bit difficult for me to comprehend.

Does it basically mean that ignorance is a bliss or something like that?

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Yes that's exactly what he meant, and nothing more. Brilliant deduction, keep up the great work

No, he means: 'i am a massive pseud, hear me roar'

He was talking about drugs mostly, he was a notorious drug fiend and according to his sister he went crazy after drinking some out of this world oriental hash tea.

>Does it basically mean that ignorance is a bliss or something like that?
No.
Nietzsche believed that happiness and unhappiness, utility and disadvantage, and conclusiveness to the preservation of life, are all irrelevant to the truth of a proposition.

"A belief may be necessary condition of life and yet be false."
"...what presumption to decree that all that is necessary for my preservation must also really be there! As if my preservation were anything necessary!"

From Kaufmann: Nietzsche doubts that there is any "pre-established harmony" between truth and pleasure. Nietzsche concludes that the "will to truth," not being founded on considerations of utility, means—"there remains no choice—'I will not deceive, not even myself': and with this we are on the ground of morality."

Nietzsche goes further: "appearance, error, deception, dissimulation, delusion, self-delusion" all aid life; life "has always shown itself to be on the side of the most unscrupulous polytropoi (the wily and versatile)": is not then the "will to truth" a mere "quixotism"? No, says Nietzsche—it is something rather more terrifying, "namely a principle that is hostile to life and destructive," perhaps even "a hidden will to death."

Thus Nietzsche scorns any utilitarian or pragmatic approach to truth and insists that those who search for it must never ask whether the truth will profit or harm them—and yet he considers the will to truth a form of the will to power.

Nietzsche values power not as a means but as the state of being that man desires for its own sake as his own ultimate end. And truth he considers an essential aspect of this state of being.

When Nietzsche describes the will to truth as "a principle that is hostile to life and destructive," he is entirely consistent with his emphatic and fundamental assertion that man wants power more than life. Nietzsche does not condemn the passion for truth but declares truth to be "divine." Power is a state of being for which man willingly risks death and from which he excludes himself if he "tolerates slack feelings in his faith and judgments." Untruth, in short, is weakness, and truth is power—even if it spells death.

thanks, Twigs

Just read the Birth of Tragedy

I'll say what I understood, passive agressive user you'll be the judge.
Nietzsche says that (I think this part is obvious) for having great joy you must go through great sacrifices (sorrow), then he says that science gives men comfort, here I don't understand if he mean only by knowledge or by what you can create with science, lets say you have a comfy life thanks to science (air conditioning, tv, videogames, etc) but you'll also have a meh existence, in the other hand you can use the knowledge of science to help you go through the road of sacrifices and archieve your dreams.
Kinda self helpish I guess

not him but not quite

here is something here that's hidden and nietzsche alludes to it in the negative

who follows the "god" of science, people, mostly politicians and commanders seeking to oppress the masses through slave morality
the pluralistic giver of pleasure and pain, the communal practice of logical utility

who is missing? man the individual, the "out" of this trap is the make "him", man, the dealer of his own fate. the seeking of truth through science is a personal goal, not which that is dictated by modernity or socialists or politicians etc

what he meant was technology (man's use of technology) robs man by sheltering him from the pleasurable toil (fulfillment) inherent to being a conscious willing being living in the world.

this is even more pertinent today than it was in his time

>in the other hand you can use the knowledge of science to help you go through the road of sacrifices
No, Nietzsche is here alluding to science's then already-powerful ability to ruin the lives of the masses when it is used to exploit them. His reference to socialist promises to use technology for utilitarian purposes confirms this reading.

Are there other books about philosophy which are more simpler?

I want something that can be read easily like science books such as Pale Blue Dot, A Brief History of Time, Blind Watchmaker and Origin of Species

Try some Derrida bruh

try sophie's world

Which book should be the best one to start with?

I'll check it out, thanks.

This is fair advise. Get Of Grammatology and have a go at it. You will need to re-read sentences, look up words and write things down. After derrida's mess everything feels light and simple.

Derrida's harder than Nietzsche, dude's memeing you.
Easy philosophers? Plato, Wittgenstein's Philosophical Investigations.

I was joking about Derrida, I don't know if the history of western philosophy by Bertrand Russel could be a good idea, I haven't read it but its probably not too complicated to understand

I'll go try and read Russel (which book would you recommend?) and Plato's Republic then.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_History_of_Western_Philosophy

Thank you.

I'll get it from here.

What, like, from the top? Plato dude. Get the Hackett collection on libgen. Also read this:

docs.google.com/document/d/1y8_RRaZW5X3xwztjZ4p0XeRplqebYwpmuNNpaN_TkgM/pub
Don't. It's really fucking shit as an actual history of philosophy.

Anything without that much flair on it I guess.

I have read a few of the beginning chapters of Sun Tzu if that helps.

I assumed that Russel would be the walk through of philosophers but is his book like one of those top 10 mojo youtube videos or something?

Dear fucking god don't read Russell are you crazy

It's a horrible book that will teach you nothing

What's difficult to comprehend there? You don't need to be well read of Nietzsche to grasp it.

He's saying that great pleasure needs great pain, and that the lofty dream of achieving "pure happiness and lack of pain" is just a dream. Science may lead us to great pleasure, but at the same time it will lead us to great pain (or, great pleasure for some, and great pain for others).

I'll stick with Plato then, that's a good idea right?
I don't want to overwhelm myself to be honest.
But I think I'll still push through Nietzche's Joyful Wisdom and just google some of the stuff I don't understand.

I guess I'm just not used to his writing that much yet or maybe it's just the translation of this one.

I'm more used to basic stuff that is like a field manual so I'm expanding my horizons by trying Nietzsche.

read the Kaufmann translation instead

Alright, I'll look for it.

>I'll stick with Plato then, that's a good idea right?
Yes.
>I don't want to overwhelm myself to be honest.
You won't. Plato is not difficult.