Akseli Hänninen blog

1

Not that it would be easy to present a scientific counter-agument to so called representatives of New atheism but how well its representatives have understood art or wrote about aesthetics?

2

If Dostoyevski’s psychology is to be believed at least part of cannabis induced mental health probelms are the result of its legal implications. And why wouldn’t it be?

3

Christopher Hitchens mentions Dostoyevski to represent houses in an unique way. And what is Dostoyevski’s relationship to Baba Yaga the slavic pagan witch myth who turns into a cottage and tells her stories as the cottage?

4

Kalevala is a beautiful finnish pagan book. Its paganism isn’t refuted by its reference to Christianity in the end. This reference only ruins its pagan spirit.

5

Perfect honesty can induce a negative and doubtful reaction in the recipient. Something that you should maybe beware.

6

Pity is a natural drive that clouds the function of human mind.

7

Death revokes humans’ ability to live only for himself. Moreover, others lose the chance of company of the dead person. However, death doesn’t prevent the life of the dead person in other people.

8

Sam Harris’ philosophy is like a bad lsd-trip. It is also modern, sharp and scientific.

9

Nietzsche classifies Schopenhauer’s philosophy as European Buddhism. Sam Harris and Yuval Noah Harari are other later embodiments of Buddhism in literature, however only they are not European.

10

Nietzsche classifies Europe as geographical areas of Europe that are culturally heirs of ancient Greece, -Rome, Judaism and Christianity. Can Europe thus cease to exist? Can it be returned?

11

Finland has more of a future than Germany. Therefore, there would be better sources for influence.

12

Christanity can be complimented on aesthetics like churches, art and music. As a morality however, it is good to stay out of it.

13

In some places Christianity can be regarded as good manners. These places can also be far from lowly.

14

In modern world the carpet is so called swept under your feet easily. Or it might be almost swept. Until modernity starts to doubt itself even in this.

15

Schopenhauer seems like a dark author, not only because of himself but because of his most famous reader Adolf Hitler. Perhaps because of the latter reason his books have confronted also some sort of intellectual discrimination.

16

In coming contact with power in life, it is easy to start thanking God for it. This is only in other words what Nietzsche wrote. It is possible that religiosity makes the bearer of power more obnoxious for others and perhaps also in the eyes of himself.

17

The meaning of things somethings sometime turn to mean something instead of the original meaning. A Spinozism could be called the belief of the holiness and originality of every thought.

18

The renaissance philosopher Erasmus admired Socrates as Jesus-like philosopher. Nietzsche noticed the same later and demonstrated his criticism of it to Socrates.

19

He, to whom everything turns into one, is already so independent that scarcely no one can genuinely support him.

20

The gap between quality of education between public and private universities is so large that the student in a public school may not even know of studying in an inferior school.

21

The effemination of society went so badly overboard that they gave the right to women to blame men for only acting like men.

22

The beauty of a woman can also be erotic. That the New Testament made it shameful can also tell us how much Christian sexual morals still influence our society.

23

Christianity as a cause of incest and pedophilia is hard to deny. Maybe this would also be better not to tell everyone.

24

In dialectics there is something forgotten; truth should not be negotiable.

25

Nietzsche, in his book The will to power, classifies the history of philosophy thus: 17^th century was the philosophy of Descartes, 18^th century the philosophy of Rousseau and 19^th century as the philosophy of Schopenhauer. By continuing this we can then say that the 20^th century was the philosophy of Bertrand Russell.

26

What can we say about the philosophy of 21st century? Nietzsche has been thus far regarded as an influential philosopher, however only the 21st century is the century of his philosophy.

27

What has thus far been the most successful and delicate criticism of Islam? Nietzsche’s Thus spoke Zarathustra which is among other things an indirect criticism of Islam. After all the real Zarathustra was Persian.

28

The thoughts induced by walking don’t cease immediately after the cessation of walking.

29

In his main work Schopenhauer wrote that the Will in itself has an influence to thoughts of other people. The one who has understood Nietzsche notices that he also accepted an idea like this silently without writing it out loud.

30

Julius Ceaser, Napoleon and Alexander I all had epilepsy. What sort of names would modern psychiatry give for their illnesses?

31

Stendhal, the pearl of French literature writes about them who at first in their lives cite New Testament in high society from memory in Latin and later in life try to shoot their lover.

32

Tolstoy’s book War and Peace popularizes the Russian history of the era of Alexander I and Napoleon. And this era of Russian history stands in the position of monumental history in Russia which means the revolutions of history which are used as a guide for the present and the future.

33

Nietzsche is such a philosopher that hopes are being aroused that he would believe in God. Why? Because he was a philosopher. He also called himself a psychologist and a philologist.

34

How spectacular Goethe is, there is included some a certain kind of darkness in his book The Sorrows of Young Werther.

35

The people with most sense of morals? The Jews. From this there might have also followed antisemitism.

36

Goethe is a good author because you feel cold while reading him.

37

Schopenhauer became famous only in old age after assuring his arguments quite abundantly with Aristotle, a philosophy of an old man.

38

The reputation of a criminal is more negatively affected by the sentence of a court than the criminal deed itself.

39

In metropolises the density of people takes the spirituality of a human into a trap. By living in metropolises can a typical way of thinking for them transfer into a human when it feels normal.

40

We quite often die in the company of doctors. Perhaps it would therefore be good to familiar with their work.

41

The pagan tales collected by Lönnrot are the most powerful literature in Finnish literature. Although Lönnrot himself preferred Christianity instead of them…

42

To be or not to be of nowadays: Am I my social media profile or my own body?

43

The philosophy of Nietzsche is suited for people in their 40’s and older. For people under this age, it stays in the stage of imagination. This might be of most importance from what I have learned from him. But let us not underestimate imagination.

44

Here’s some things which I disagree with Schopenhauer: antisemitism, islamophobia, racism, misogyny and, perhaps surprisingly, the lack of willing. More important than this are probably the many things which I agree with him.

45

The negative consequences of antisemitism often follow with a due. This can even be seen in popular history.

46

Reading classics of Antics such as the national epic of ancient Rome, The Aeneid, can take even days to digest their greatness.

47

Maybe more important is not when or is the World War 3 coming but who won the World Wars in last century.

48

If some truth is the result of something, you cannot necessarily say that it is also the cause of another truth. As Nietzsche writes that thinkers tend to make simplifications.

49

I write this part of this book in the spring of 2026. In this autumn becomes 10 years since I read my first Nietzsche book: The joyful science. In its preface he writes: “He, with whom my book agrees with must also agree with me.” How true this too turned out to be…

50

Hitler apparently read Nietzsche and Indian brahmins, misunderstanding both. Brahmins start with liberality whereas Nietzsche kept semites in their value.

51

It shouldn’t be misunderstood that Hitler would be the root cause of antisemitism. The more inherent problems in this issue are Luther of the Reformation and Paul of the Bible.

52

Indian philosophy is close to earth and honest and it shouldn’t be underestimated. It is also older than the philosophy of ancient Greece which it also influenced.

53

The difference between ancient Greece and Hinduism is that the Greeks believed in pagan gods which the Hindu gods were not. Nor is Hinduism a missionary religion so the Hindus weren’t converting the Greeks.

54

In making laws philosophers should be consulted. Laws are philosophy in practice.

55

The 2010’s of American popular culture which could even be called the decade of Twitter-renaissance included also e.g. rap culture and its musicians out of musically which a good artist is for example Mick Jenkins.

56

A great mistake in making laws: “We have all been born sinful so here’s a law the breaking of which doesn’t do else than reinforce this sense of quilt.”

57

The modern information society has the characteristic that it is hard to be in a leading position in it without, minimum, being in the grey area of law. This is represented even as a kind of pessimism, where laws aren’t even viewed as possible to answer the progress of science. This however can be recognized as a nihilistic way of thinking which is the result of losing of meaning in culture in general.

58

The most important task of a thinker is perhaps to be a walker. “Home-keeping youth have ever homely wits.” says Shakespear’s Valentin too in the play The Two Gentlemen of Verona.

59

Maybe the most common misunderstanding about Nietzsche is that he would be garrulous. He is too majestic for garrulousness.

60

According to Nietzsche every philosophy has three representatives, out of which the last one is always the so called spider who gets the whole world in his web. Nietzsche’s Übermensch reminds of a phenomenon in Indian philosophy where everything turns into one for someone. Because according to Nietzsche Übermensch hasn’t existed before him writing about it maybe Übermensch is just his and Schopenhauer’s philosophical follower…

61

Übermensch should, according to Nietzsche, have his own dragon. To reach his declared “The thousand-year kingdom of Zarathustra” this dragon and Übermensch should be better and more endurable pair than even Julius Ceasar and Brutus. But this Nietzsche knew all too well…

62

Nietzsche and Dostoevsky agreed with the reciprocal connection between crimes and illnesses. Of the late works of Nietzsche, it could be said that reading Dostoevsky reinforced the meaning of law in him.

63

Dostoevsky’s last book The brothers Karamazov appears in its full glory only after the reader believes that Dmitri was the murderer of his father Fedor. This book follows the Russian fatalism in its plot, in which Dmitri is the embodiment of Russian soul.

64

Nietzsche is understood without Schopenhauer only in imaginary worlds. Understanding him rather requires Schopenhauer.

65

Modern science could be said of leaning on the philosophy of Kant which follower Hegel was. Finnish national philosopher Snellman’s main inspiration was Hegel, out of which probably has followed the mood and successes of Finnish science and technology.

66

Spinoza as well as other Jews are needed e.g. for respecting other people and thinkers.

67

Voltaire: A clean author who also owns great and healthy forces. From him it can however be noticed that he isn’t totally holeless.

68

Unemployment and other social problems are only a result of the spread of decadence, as Nietzsche wrote. In Finnish epic poems too, an unemployed is regarded as a wonder.

69

Technology must be such as art: subjective and experience and representations in the first place. When technology has been found working the next step in its development is the perfection of the experience of its use.

70

Maybe in order to understand me, you should most of all understand Nietzsche. But through me you can also learn to understand him.