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January 10, 2006
Karmic Konnections
Odd how you can be reading something (The Anti-Christ, in this case) that seems to have nothing to do with where you are (India) and then suddenly (inevitably?) things seem to come together. (Nietzsche starts going on about Buddhism.)
Two possible explanations:
1. fate, karma, a caring (unabolished) god.
2. In human culture -- even in seemingly diverse human cultures -- things sometimes turn out to be connected, and human minds are primed to pick up such connections.
Posted by Mitchell Stephens at January 10, 2006 1:03 AM
Comments
#2 is the most likely explanation. The human brain seems to be hardwired for egocentric thinking, no doubt because it evolved as a survival mechanism in early humans. I recommend "Uncommon Sense : The Heretical Nature of Science" by Alan Cromer for a discussion of this.
Posted by: No More Mr. Nice Guy! at January 10, 2006 2:58 PM
I think you're missing a third explanation: the reason that you are in India has very much to do with the reason that you are reading Nietzche. In fact, you knew (even if you weren't consciously aware of it) that Nietzche was interested in and had written about Buddhism; you couldn't have read very much about Buddhism without picking that up in some book or another. What interests you about Nietzche is the same thing that interests both you and Nietzche about Buddhism.
Posted by: Richard Blumberg at January 10, 2006 5:42 PM
