Cheerfulness or serenity (Heiterkeit) is one of the most important themes in Nietzsches philosophy. [89] Importantly, for Nietzsche, this cheerful health is not merely a fixed psycho-physical constitution; rather, it is a health that one doesnt only have, but also acquires continually and must acquire because one gives it up again and again, and must give it up in ones philosophical hazards (EH, Z 2). However, her attempt to reconcile Nietzsche with Pyrrhonian skepticism is deeply misleading. Before I visit Gods heaven, let me see the beauty of the earthly heaven to be able to compare the two and decide which one is better.. Always look at the bright side of things. The idea that cheerfulness involves both "mind" and "feeling" is important because it suggests that cheerfulness isn't just a feeling. He continues to value cheerfulness as a way of giving expression to and communicating serious thoughts in writings. Cheerfulness is a great emotion that lifts others up and brings more joy to your day-to-day. [82] We find this encapsulated in the motto fake it until you make it. This lesson is thus valuable in that it suggests how to go about cultivating cheerfulness in actual practice. He goes as far as to say that he would rank philosophers according to the level of their laughter (BGE 294). Wissenschaft, Askese und Nihilismus in GM III 27, Nietzsche, Plato and Aristotle on Priests and Moneymakers, On Freedom and Responsibility in an Extra-Moral Sense: Nietzsche and Non-Sovereign Responsibility, Die Geburt des Philologen aus dem Geiste der Schopenhauerschen Philosophie. In TI, Skirmishes 123, as we have seen, Nietzsche puts Carlyle and Emerson in dialogue with each other. As in SE 2, cheerfulness is not only construed as a state of the soul achieved by the genuine thinker, but also as a quality of books and in relation to the reader. But we shall do what we have always done: whatever one casts into us, we take down into our depth for we are deep, we do not forget and become bright again (GS 378). This third new characteristic of Nietzsches cheerfulness perhaps finds its clearest expression in GS 343 where he discusses the way in which the catastrophic and potentially gloomy event of the death of God can be positively received by fearless and strong free spirits, born guessers of riddles animated by the passion of knowledge, who are posted between today and tomorrow, stretched between today and tomorrow. Cheerfulness here is closely connected not only with gratitude but also with premonitions and expectation (GS 343). He explains how he practiced a form of cheerfulness by simulating and seeking to enact a cheerful mode of thinking and writing.[80]. But why does Nietzsche describe his disguised cheerfulness as attractive? Another way to create greater happiness . Doctors are of the view that our blood molecules contain receptors that get signals from the brain. For more ideas, read 20 Ways to Practice Patience Today. Patricia Spadaro, award-winning author of Honor Yourself: The Inner Art of Giving and Receiving. As Nietzsche himself declares, an unexpected sense of gratitude permeates Die frhliche Wissenschaft (GS, Preface 1). A comparison with Emerson will help us better understand and appreciate Nietzsches sense of cheerfulness as a quality of thinking and writing. God has other plans for me. In the frontispiece of the first edition of the book, he famously used a passage from Emersons essay on History (1841) as an epigraph, which not by chance expresses a profound sense of gratitude: To the poet and the sage all things are friendly and hallowed, all experiences profitable, all days holy, and all human beings divine.[60]. Aside from the emotional and health benefits of smiling, there are stress management benefits as well. Modern science has discovered that the more you laugh, the healthier you become. Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. See cheerful Fewer examples The boy faced hazards and hardships with disarming cheerfulness. cheerful: [adjective] full of good spirits : merry. Does he express wrath and gratitude in the same way in all his writings? They truly move and live (UO III, SE 2).[57]. He further complicates the picture: It was at that time that I learned the art of presenting myself as if cheerful, objective, inquisitive, above all, healthy and malicious []. While Nietzsche sees his newfound cheerfulness in Morgenrthe as inseparable from psychological weakness, the cheerfulness of Die frhliche Wissenschaft is linked with high spirits, with an exuberance of joy, with a greater sense of possibility, with a feeling of power, and with an overall increase in spiritual strength. A young girl, suffering from a dreaded disease, was brought to a hospital. While Nietzsches opinion of Montaigne as a cheerful thinker and writer remains fairly constant,[37] in the course of his intellectual development he drastically changes his mind about Schopenhauer. How true! Ansell-Pearson, Keith/ Bamford, Rebecca: Berry, Jessica: Nietzsche and Democritus: The Origins of Ethical Eudaimonism, in Paul Bishop (ed. Provide choice and control. Humor therapy in the depressed elderly results of an empirical study. Here, Nietzsche once again associates his cheerfulness with coldness and having an unclouded mind. Many of us have forgotten the ancient art of laughing. ), Heiterkeit und Humor im Alter [Cheerfulness and humor in old age] (p. 943). [38] It may well be that Nietzsche has Schopenhauer in mind when in Morgenrthe he challenges [t]he slanderers of cheerfulness: People who have been deeply wounded by life are suspicious of all cheerfulness, as if it were childlike and childish (D329). Berlin, Germany: Mouton de Gruyte. Ultimately, the question as to whether Nietzsche really succeeds in thinking and writing cheerfully in some of his most significant works cannot be resolved in any absolute terms since it is ultimately relative to the reader. By drawing attention to the different senses in which Nietzsche characterizes some of his writings as cheerful, we offer a fresh approach to the question as to whether Nietzsche can be truly regarded as a cheerful thinker and writer. [46] In particular, he sees coldness and sobriety as essential to the practice of free-spirited philosophy and so as to identify the human, all too human passions, errors, illusions, projections and needs inherent in religious and metaphysical explanations of the world (HH I 9); and to avoid and combat forms of conviction or fanaticism (HH I 62937). So they stitched her up. The image Nietzsche creates of himself as a cheerful thinker and writer provides us with a helpful interpretive strategy for constructively responding to the question raised in the Pippin and Anderson and Cristy debate: does Nietzsche write cheerfully? Philosophy as a Way of Life in Nietzsche and Montaigne,. Berlin, Germany: Mouton de Gruyter. Switzerland is known as the heaven on earth. Finally, the results of the dominance analysis (see Table 4) revealed that bad mood and cheerfulness were the most important predictors of well-being, followed by emotional stability. Laughter, says Dr Bradley Wilde [USA], provides a rhythmic movement of the abdominal muscles, gently massages the intestinal organs, improves digestion and blood circulation.. Cheerfulness is the greatest lubricant of the wheels of life. It seems to us that this reading fails to capture an essential aspect of the relationship between skepsis and cheerfulness in Nietzsche. ), Psychological well-being (pp. With regard to the second possible objection that presents Emersons cheerfulness as a form of gratitude and satisfaction: does this not involve a cheerleader-like contentment with present opinions and ways of life? This dialogue took place historically. As we have seen, Nietzsche tells us that some of his works, such as Die Geburt der Tragdie and Menschliches, AllzumenschlichesI, are not particularly cheerful; and that they are informed by a more melancholic, though courageous, mode of thinking and writing. Effects of a mood-enhancing intervention on subjective well-being and cardiovascular parameters. The first two sections of this essay explore and seek to clarify what Nietzsche says about cheerfulness. Nietzsche's Cheerfulness Abstract: Cheerfulness or serenity (Heiterkeit) is one of the most important themes in Nietzsche's philosophy. In contrast to these conceptions of philosophy as way of life especially those aimed at forms negative definitions of happiness such as ataraxia (GS, Preface 2) for Nietzsche the true philosopher [] lives unphilosophically and unwisely and above all imprudently and feels the burdensome duty of a handed of tests and temptations in life he is continually risking himself, he plays that wicked game (BGE 205). 51 (Issue 1), pp. Willibald Ruch . Use cheerfulness to heal yourself and others. This precariousness seems to be an important aspect of Nietzsches relentless search for cheerfulness, indeed for ever new modes of cheerful thinking and writing. Can we say, for example, that Nietzsche fails to write cheerfully in Die frhliche Wissenschaft? Trait cheerfulness contributes to quality of life or overall well-being by enabling individuals to positive emotions and maintaining them in face of adversity, and longer lasting states of cheerfulness may be seen as element of well-being. This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution. Nietzsche states clearly that in his philosophy he will not try to set up new idols; his style is more about [k]nocking over idols, including himself as an idol (EH, Preface 2). Perhaps, both sides of the debate have offered all too general and unilateral answers. The as if dimension is key here. This is perhaps a further refinement of the cheerful form of seriousness that is of such importance to Nietzsches conception of philosophical style. To begin answering these questions, let us introduce a distinction between two senses of cheerfulness that can be found in Nietzsches texts as well as in the debate: cheerfulness as a psychological ideal, a desirable state or attitude of the spirit, and cheerfulness as an aesthetic ideal, a desirable quality or style of thinking and writing. In addition, in SE 2 Nietzsche stresses that true, hard-earned cheerfulness needs to have a genuinely cheering effect upon the reader. Wake up in the morning with a smile on your face and the words, Good morning, Lord! on your lips. Despite the gloomy content of his pessimistic message, Schopenhauer regularly manages to puncture the pieties of optimistic claptrap with rhetoric sufficiently high-spirited to be a reliable source of mirth.[36] We think that precisely this sense of cheerfulness as a tone of thinking and writing merits a fuller appreciation with respect to Nietzsche too. It is true that Nietzsche often uses the term Heiterkeit to denote forms of serenity, such as Buddhist serenity (A 21), and including Hellenistic conceptions of tranquility,[73] such as the serenity of the Stoic (D 251). In other words, does Nietzsche practice what he preaches with respect to cheerfulness? In contrast to the early works, in this period Nietzsche conceives of cheerfulness in close connection with what we may call the coldness of scientific knowing. The sense in which this might be regarded as virtuous or praiseworthy directly relates to Nietzsches and Emersons conception of cheerfulness as a triumph over black events. [58] Nietzsche goes on to say that Emerson has the sort of kind and witty cheerfulness that discourages any seriousness []. But, let me tell you, I am not going to die so soon. Happy people tend to eat healthier diets, with higher intakes of fruits . As for humor behaviors, the three STCI-youth traits again explained almost twice the amount of variance (31.0%) of the five personality traits (16.0%). While in Schopenhauer als Erzieher the influence of Emerson on Nietzsches discussion of cheerfulness remains implicit, we now wish to show that in the late writings Emerson is explicitly regarded as an exemplar of a cheerful thinker and writer. Although in some of these works, such as in GM, Preface 7, he still highly values cheerfulness, Nietzsche seems to imply that his style of thinking and writing is not that of cheerfulness. The kind of cheerfulness that for Nietzsche pervades his Die frhliche Wissenschaft nevertheless remains different from previous conceptions and practices of cheerfulness, at least in some respects. The search for cheerfulness is construed by Nietzsche as an essential part of his struggle against Romantic pessimism, that is, [against] the pessimism of those who renounce [], have been overcome (HH II, Preface 7) the kind pessimism that destroys the spirits severity and mirth [Lustigkeit] and makes every sort of vague desire and fungal covetousness proliferate (HH II, Preface 3). While Nietzsche regards Schopenhauers and Montaignes cheerful mode of thinking and writing as exemplary, he seems keen to keep some distance from the Montaigne-inspired task of comforting and tranquillizing oneself. We should recall that spiritual strength is one of the fundamental characteristics, in addition to courage, that for Nietzsche distinguishes the true cheerfulness. They truly speak []. We will show that starting from Menschliches, Allzumenschliches Nietzsche explicitly sets out to think and write in a cheerful style even at times when he does not find himself in a particularly cheerful state of the mind. Emotionally intelligent teams have a competitive advantage, and I have found that empathy is one of the most important . If we are not convinced of the reliability of Nietzsches self-presentation as a cheerful thinker and writer, can we still regard some of his works as cheerful on the basis of the conception of cheerfulness that we have highlighted in this essay? The benefits of cheerfulness, as a mood state and personality trait, are widespread in the literature concerning subjective well-being and physical health. 2022 bei den Autoren, publiziert von De Gruyter. Or an incorrect source? Despite this, it is clear that Emerson remains for Nietzsche, like Montaigne, one of those genuinely cheering cheerful thinker and writers. Although the kind of Wissenschaft that Nietzsche seeks to promote in Die frhliche Wissenschaft is technically frhliche (gay or joyful), rather than heitere (cheerful), gaiety and joy are deeply and intimately connected to cheerfulness. [41] Although Nietzsche becomes increasingly more suspicious about Socrates starting from Die frhliche Wissenschaft,[42] in his middle and late writings he himself continues to promote a cheerful form of seriousness as the proper attitude and tone of philosophy, and, as we shall see, he also tries to implement it in some of his works, such as Die frhliche Wissenschaft, Gtzen-Dmmerung (1888), and Ecce homo. The key insight in these aphorisms is that cheerfulness, in the forms of gaiety, laughter, and playfulness is not incompatible with serious matters and rigorous thinking; rather, a cheerful style of thinking and writing, for Nietzsche, is even required for adequately dealing with serious philosophical tasks. A Contribution to the Debate on Nietzsches Cheerfulness. [59] Anderson and Cristy, however, do not attend to the inspiration Nietzsche draws from Emersons appreciation of cheerfulness. Why I chose it: It was (and is) free on Kindle and sounded intriguing. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-0753-5_311, DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-0753-5_311, eBook Packages: Humanities, Social Sciences and LawReference Module Humanities and Social Sciences. When properly comprehended Greek cheerfulness turns out to be the product of a culture growing from the depths of a gloomy abyss, as a victory which the Hellenic will gains over suffering and the wisdom of suffering (BT 17). Ansell-Pearson K, Serini L. Friedrich Nietzsche: Cheerful Thinker and Writer. As Robert Miner has noted, Nietzsche, finds in Montaigne a similar combination of seriousness and cheerfulness.[35] It is in this aesthetic sense, we hold, that Nietzsche primarily regards Montaigne as an exemplar of cheerfulness. This is an excellent example of Nietzsches deep conception of cheerfulness. [14] While Pippin is convinced that Nietzsche fails to write with the cheerfulness attained by Montaigne, Anderson and Cristy argue that, despite the irascible and even despairing tone that does sometimes characterizes Nietzsches writings, [] it was (partly) through his writing that Nietzsche cultivated a cheerful attitude toward the world as a whole.[15] According to their hypothesis, Nietzsche practices this attitude and perhaps attains it, like Montaigne, by writing; and this can be seen in the cheerful pleasure Nietzsche clearly took from expressions of Schopenhauerian wrath, and more importantly in his expressions of gratitude even toward crises and disasters.[16]. Similarly, and in the same period, Menschliches, Allzumenschliches is characterized as a melancholic-courageous [schwermthig-muthige] book (HH, Preface 2, translation modified). The experimental skepsis Nietzsche values, in general and in Emerson in particular, is cheerful precisely because it does not merely suspend judgment but is willing to take the risk of tests and temptations, opening up and suggesting new possibilities in philosophical investigation and in life itself. 451, KSB 6.428). Indeed, in Ecce homo, Nietzsche famously says about himself that he has an extraordinary number of inner states and, accordingly, a lot of stylistic possibilities too, indeed the most multifarious art of style that anyone has ever had at his disposal (EH, Books 4). We are also in agreement with their interpretation of cheerfulness as a non-nave attitude that can be practiced or cultivated. Cheerfulness or serenity (Heiterkeit) is one of the most important themes in Nietzsches philosophy. Cheerfulness Makes the Job Easier. This explains why, in Jenseits von Gut und Bse, Nietzsche is keen to take to task forms of weak skepticism and advocate in their place a form of strong skepticism (BGE 2089). After all, as Stanley Cavell has pointed out, some critics might object that Emersonian cheerfulness and hopefulness would simply express a childish ignorance of our real situation.[61] In riposte to this objection, Cavell has noted that [Emerson] is forever taken by his detractors, and not by them alone, to ignore the tragic facts of life. [45] A sober style of writing, along with cold knowledge, is conducive to Nietzsches overriding aim in the texts of the middle period. In response, we have no way of preventing people from darkening us []. In particular, the cheerful fatefulness of Gtzen-Dmmerung has to do with the capacity to overthrow, in thinking and writing, old idols or truths. While Anderson and Cristy have lucidly explained the former as a deep affirmation and love of life stemming from the recognition of its problematic character,[17] we will pay special attention to Nietzsches conception of cheerfulness as a way a thinker and writer gives expression to their thoughts in their works, as a tone or color of their thinking and writing that can be appreciated by the reader and that might have an enduring effect upon them. 2023 Springer Nature Switzerland AG. Carretero-Dios. His principal aim in these works, it seems, is not to cheer the reader, but rather to communicate to them a sense of alarm motivated by the need to confront and combat what he sees as an impending era of nihilism and decadence. Trait cheerfulness received theoretical and empirical attention by personality psychologists at the beginning of the last century. Emerson and Carlyle had a life-long debate and correspondence between 1834 and 1872. Both sides of the debate have posed these questions in direct relation to Nietzsches praise of Montaignes cheerfulness and as we encounter it in SE2. In the second part of this section, we will follow the developments of Nietzsches conception of cheerfulness in his subsequent works, showing that, in different periods of his philosophy, he remains committed to a similar aesthetic ideal of cheerfulness as a way of expressing and communicating serious thoughts. In Jenseits von Gut und Bse, for example, Nietzsche sardonically criticizes typical conceptions of living wisely or like a philosopher, especially when they are taken to mean no more than living prudently and apart and are a form of escape, a tricky way to make a good exit from a wicked game (BGE 205). Nietzsche declares that perhaps the whole purpose of his Ecce homo is to articulate in a cheerful [heitren] and affable way the opposition between being a satyr and a saint (EH, Preface 2). The good thinker counts upon readers who are receptive to the happiness that lies in good thinking: so that a book appearing to be cold and sober can, when seen with the right eyes, seem to be played upon by the sunshine of spiritual cheerfulness [geistigen Heiterkeit] and a true source of comfort for the soul [Seelentrost] (HH II, VM 142).[47]. Recovering such a serious concept of serenity is deemed significant for us moderns, both with respect to the task of creating a new form of art and to that of reviving a tragic culture in a rising generation with [a] fearless gaze with heroic attraction to what is monstrous [ungeheuer] (BT 18). Why, one might ask, should we take at face value Nietzsches testimony about his own cheerfulness? People say sometimes, See what I have overcome see how cheerful I am; see how completely I have triumphed over these black events. Not if they still remind me of the black event. In R. D. Hirsch, J. Bruder, H. Radebold, (Eds. An important debate on cheerfulness has recently taken place in the literature on Nietzsche between Robert Pippin and Lanier Anderson and Rachel Cristy. In the preface to the second edition of Die frhliche Wissenschaft, Nietzsche writes that the last book of his middle writings. Ruch, W., Khler, G., & van Thriel, C. (1997). Walking around with everyone responding more positively to you can lead to more genuine . [65] Emersons cheerful mode of thinking and writing, Nietzsche implies, offers the reader digested problems that have been already confronted and overcome;[66] and, in doing so, it is able to genuinely cheer the reader. Here Emerson seems to be associated with the experimental skepticism Nietzsche favors starting from his middle writings (e.g. GS 51): one that does not lapse into the inertia of despair,[68] but permits, and even enables, daring experiments with new modes of thinking and living (Nachlass 1880, 6[356], KSA 9.287).[69]. Friedrich Nietzsche: Cheerful Thinker and Writer. Pippin and Anderson and Cristy have focused on Montaigne as an exemplar of cheerfulness in Nietzsches philosophy. Truly serious authors must be truly cheerful ones for Nietzsche; they have conquered their suffering, and, from a position of a hard-won joy, they seek to speak about serious matters with a genuinely cheering cheerfulness that is also able to invigorate the reader. For Pippin, Nietzsche admires Montaignes capacity to be cheerful in spite of his thoroughgoing skepticism;[70] for Anderson and Cristy, instead, a form of doubt and suspicion, prove integral to gay science and cheerfulness itself.[71] Leaving aside Montaignes light-hearted skepticism (Nachlass 1885, 36[7], KSA 11.552), we wish to suggest that Emersons cheering skepsis can help us better understand in what specific sense for Nietzsche an experimental mode of skeptical investigation is interwoven with cheerfulness (KSA 14.4767). ungrudging. We will show that, in the middle texts, cheerfulness is closely bound up with a cold and sober mode of philosophizing. Moreover, as he tells us in the 1886 prefaces and in Ecce homo, part of this development has to do with the search for such a cheerful mode of philosophizing. In fact, Nietzsche challenges in a quite fundamental way some of the key assumptions informing the ancient traditions of philosophy as a way of life. If you find it difficult to laugh for no reason, look into the mirror and make funny faces at yourself. Nietzsche-Studien, Vol. A Contribution to the Debate on Nietzsches Cheerfulness". [54] The literal translation of the Latin proverb quoted by Emerson and Nietzsche clearly highlights the other-directedness of the genuinely cheering cheerfulness extolled in Schopenhauer als Erzieher. [33], In light of this it is not obvious that in SE 2 cheerfulness is equivalent to the feeling of being at home in the world. Get a hearty laugh at least three times a dayonce before breakfast, once before lunch and once before dinner. The result is a philosophical practice that involves intellectual strength and courage, risk-taking, calmness, steadfastness, sobriety and coldness, exuberance, liveliness, high-spirits, playfulness, laughter, gratitude, hope, and adopting a tender and slow tempo in opposition to fanatical harshness and rashness. As we have stressed, for Nietzsche, true cheerfulness is genuinely cheering in that it is able to also profoundly cheer the reader. The mission has centres around the world and continues to do humanitarian work. [85] Nietzsche believes that in Die frhliche Wissenschaft not only did he show the courage or fearlessness to face dangerous subjects; he had also built up the strength and power to overcome them. In I. E. Wells (Ed. In Ecce homo, Nietzsche also describes the tone of Gtzen-Dmmerung as both cheerful and fateful (EH, TI 1). You'll be amazed at the response you get from the other personand at how much easier what you have to do becomes. Bornheim-Sechtem: Chudeck-Druck. I know what you are thinking, she said to the nurses. [51] This is evident, for instance, in the long quotation of a passage from Emersons essay Circles (1841) that Nietzsche deploys to bring Schopenhauer als Erzieher to a close (section 8). In this section we address the question as to whether Nietzsche actually succeeds in practicing a cheerful mode of philosophizing. Cheerfulness, according to these slanderers, is entirely misplaced, being either the result of a childlike and childish lack of awareness of the suffering inherent in life or the self-deception of a sufferer who wants to gulp down one last minute of lifes intoxication. For Nietzsche, these slanders on cheerfulness in fact reveal something about the slanderers themselves: But this judgment on the cheerfulness of life is nothing other than its refraction through the sombre terrain of fatigue and disease. In other words, denying the possibility of all kinds of cheerfulness is not a substantiated judgment about the cheerful life, but rather the expression of weakness and sickness of the spirit (D, Notes, 337). In this sense, cheerfulness is not to be understood as the immediate reflection of an authors state of mind in their writings, but, as Timothy Hampton has helpfully suggested, can be a technique, a way of managing oneself and influencing others.[18] As a technique, cheerfulness has an aesthetic dimension to go along with its moral and psychological aspects.[19] Not only is cheerfulness a factor in writing, then, but it is also a stylistic tone and effect that can be composed;[20] indeed, reading and writing themselves may be construed as cheerful practices.[21]. When she regained consciousness, she was told that she has only 3 6 months to live. This would be cold comfort to readers of Nietzsche and offer a fairly uninteresting example of a philosophical life. Why laughter is not the best medicine, but being more cheerful has many benefits. Here we wish to reformulate Pippins question in the light of Anderson and Cristys response: is showing, as Anderson and Cristy have done, the non-nave character of Nietzsches conception of cheerfulness as well as the cheerful spirit we encounter in Montaigne sufficient to fully respond to the challenge posed by Pippins critical remark about Nietzsches prose? Aufbau der Person [Personality structure]. - 88.218.93.63. Anderson and Cristys account of the non-nave, complex meaning of Nietzsches cheerfulness provides a powerful interpretive tool for reading this passage. In Gtzen-Dmmerung, Nietzsche writes in praise of Emerson over Thomas Carlyle. It diminishes pain, fights disease, mitigates misfortunes, lightens burdens and eases ones life. The way Nietzsche speaks of his cheerfulness, we suggest, can help us develop an interpretation of him as a cheerful thinker and writing that is more moderate, yet more precise, than the contrasting answers we find in the Pippin and Anderson and Cristy debate. Anderson, R.Lanier/ Cristy, Rachel: What Is The Meaning of Our Cheerfulness? This connection, as we shall see, is important to a proper appreciation of Nietzsches identity as a cheerful philosopher. Of the two thinkers, he maintains, Emerson is the more enlightened, more wide-ranging, more multifarious and above all happier; he is a man of taste who lives instinctively on pure ambrosia and leaves behind the indigestible in things (TI, Skirmishes 13). Although Nietzsche considers false hope or wishful thinking the worst of evils because it lengthens agony (HH I 72), it is undeniable that a strong faith in the future informs the last part of his middle period, at least starting from Morgenrthe. One of the most significant is that, when you wear a positive expression, it can be contagious. [11] Starting from an interpretation of GS 343, entitled The meaning of our cheerfulness, they have contended that cheerfulness is an affective and intellectual response to the recognition of losses and catastrophes, such as the death of God. Although Nietzsche acknowledges that in these works he is not at rest amid joy, he does not see himself as a merely melancholy author (HH II, WS 128). In this essay, we aim to contribute to this debate by offering a threefold argument. He has been waking up this way for many years and says that doing merely this much has added a new dimension to his life. Second, we argue that, in addition to Montaigne, Ralph Waldo Emerson is an equally important but neglected influence on Nietzsches conception and practice of cheerfulness (section 2). Die Briefe an Richard Oehler, The Nietzsche Pilgrimage of Nikos Kazantzakis and Elli Lambridi, mitgeteilt von Martin Walter und Jrg Httner. Nothing gets done without a dose of high spirits (TI, Preface). Nonetheless, we maintain, they should be distinguished. He said to me: Your people, I am aware, do a lot of service. Hauppauge, NY: Nova Science Publishers. [1] In his view, scholars of his age have completely misunderstood the nature of cheerfulness in ancient Greek culture, mistaking it for an unendangered ease and comfort (BT 9). In a preparatory note for GM, Preface, Nietzsche laments a misunderstanding of his cheerfulness in Zur Genealogie der Moral, especially by all-too-serious scholars: the gaiety of his scientific investigation and his cheerful mode of thinking and writing are mistaken for a lack of rigor and profundity, whereas this book emerged from a triumphant condition, a victory over and gratitude toward the serious problems he had been grappling with in his previous writings (Nachlass 1885/86, 2[166], KSA 12.150). Meumann (1913) regarded cheerfulness as one of twelve basic temperaments equal to the well-known sanguine, choleric, or melancholic temperaments. How is wrath compatible with gratitude? [84] The practice of a made-up cheerfulness helps Nietzsche increase his intellectual courage and strength, and reclaim the right to pessimism indeed, a cheerful pessimism, one distinguished not only by fearlessness but also by risk-taking in investigating frightening and questionable problems. In a letter to Franz Overbeck of 1883, in relation to the publication of the first three parts of Zarathustra, Nietzsche writes: the fact that in this year I have thought up and written my brightest and most cheerful things, many miles above me and my misery: this is in fact one of the most astonishing and most difficult things to explain that I know (August 14, 1883, no. However, it is clear that at different stages of his intellectual development Nietzsche engages with Hellenistic philosophies strategically, selecting and utilizing aspects of Epicureanism (GS 375), Stoicism position (BGE 227), Cynicism (EH, Books 3) and Pyrrhonism (HH II, WS 213). Neither Die Geburt der Tragdie nor Menschliches, Allzumenschliches, though, are taken to be expressions of a genuinely cheering cheerfulness, in that a complete intellectual and affective mastery is not achieved in either text. But, I too, in my own humble way, render service to people., I appear on the TV, and make people laugh!. In Jenseits von Gut und Bse (1886), Nietzsche tells us that his gay science serves as an antidote to the overly nationalistic, scholastic, obscure, and grave way of expression characteristic of the latest German style (BGE 293). In the third of the Unzeitgemsse Betrachtungen (1874), Nietzsche famously praises Montaigne and Schopenhauer for their honesty and for their genuinely cheering cheerfulness (UO III, SE 2). In P. Gremigni (Ed. ), Nietzsche and Antiquity, Rochester, NY 2004, 98113Search in Google Scholar, Berry, Jessica: Nietzsche and the Ancient Skeptical Tradition, Oxford 201110.1093/acprof:oso/9780195368420.001.0001Search in Google Scholar, Berry, Jessica: The Pyrrhonian Revival in Montaigne and Nietzsche, Journal of the History of Ideas 65/3 (2004), 49751410.1353/jhi.2005.0001Search in Google Scholar, Borges, Jorge Luis: Selected Non-Fictions, ed. The cheerfulness of true thinkers, for Nietzsche, is constituted by the intellectual virtues of courage and strength,[23] and is enabled by the victory over monsters [Ungethmen] or troublesome subjects as horrifying and serious as the problem of existence[24]: For basically there is cheerfulness only where there is victory (UO III, SE 2). Nietzsches conception of cheerfulness in SE 2, as a victory in thinking and writing over horrifying and serious problems, clearly echoes a passage from Circles wherein Emerson discusses cheerfulness precisely in terms of overcoming, triumph, and conquest: The great man is not convulsible or tormentable []. Moreover, Nietzsche specifies that his words in Zarathustra are not the words of some fanatic, nothing is being preached [t]here, nobody is demanding that you believe: drop after drop, word after word falls from an infinitefullness of light anddepth of happiness, the tempo of this speech is tender and slow (EH, Preface 4). [83] In searching for a cheerful mode of thinking and writing, Nietzsche triumphs over his youthful tendency toward romantic pessimism (HH II, Preface 2). According to the account Nietzsche gives of his own development, while in Menschliches, AllzumenschlichesI and especially in Menschliches, AllzumenschlichesII he presents himself as if cheerful even if he is not, in Morgenrthe he believes he succeeds in achieving a perfect cheerfulness, which he then further cultivates in Die frhliche Wissenschaft, Also sprach Zarathustra, Gtzen-Dmmerung, and Ecce homo. Cheerfulness, we suggest, is to be understood as one of the inner states and stylistic possibilities displayed by Nietzsche in some of his works. Does he achieve a form of cheerfulness in or through his works? Nietzsche on Beauty, The Pure Sky and the Eternal Return: Zarathustras Affirmative Atheism, Nietzsches Don Quixote between Zarathustra and Christ: Laughter, Ressentiment, and Transcendental Pain, The Body and the Completion of Metaphysics: A Critical Analysis of Heideggers Nietzsche, Putting the Embodied Turn in Philosophy to Practice: Luce Irigarays Response to Nietzsches Philosophy of Embodied Thinking, Hans Vaihinger und die Stiftung Nietzsche-Archiv. You have entered an incorrect email address! [7] Moreover, according to Pippin, [f]or all his aspiration and admiration Nietzsche never succeeded in writing with the kind of cheerfulness, Heiterkeit, and balance of Montaigne[8]: The fact that his prose sometimes lapsed into a shrieking intensity, the occasional hysteria, the drift into the maudlin and the sentimental, the hatred venting through some passages, do not at all evince a Montaigne-like peace of mind.[9], Anderson and Cristy have taken issue with Pippin, expressing the concern that his formulation of the Montaigne problem might encourage the idea that the cheerfulness Montaigne had and Nietzsche lacked was simple and entirely natural a fortunate side-effect of Montaignes happy psychological constitution.[10] Anderson and Cristy argue that the cheerfulness valued by Nietzsche is a radically non-nave, complex attitude, one involving truthfulness, the ability to see the problematic character of life, and it is, therefore, bound up with suffering, and even with sickness. In 1886, Nietzsche links his disguised cheerfulness to a wish to return to health: Just as a doctor puts his sick patient into totally alien surroundings, [] I forced myself, as doctor and patient in a single person, into a reversed, untested climate of the soul, and especially into a diverting wandering abroad, into the unknown, toward a curiosity about every sort of strangeness (HH II, Preface 5). In her Pyrrhonian reading of Nietzsche, cheerfulness is to be construed as the end-point of his skeptical inquiry. The indirect benefits of seriousness on well-being were examined through a moderated mediation model with seriousness as a moderator and resiliency as the mediator between cheerfulness and SWB. In a posthumous fragment, Nietzsche expresses his hope that the pursuit of science will provide him with, clarity, purity, serenity [Heiterkeit], neatness, sobriety (Nachlass 1880, 7[182], KSA 9.354). (2012). In the 1886 preface to the second volume of Menschliches, Allzumenschliches, Nietzsche tells an interesting story about his search for a practice of cheerfulness between 1878 and 1880. When she set out, she had to be taken in a wheelchair; when she returned, she walked with a straight gait, and a rose-tint on her cheeks. Although, as we have seen, cheerfulness is one of the central themes in Die Geburt der Tragdie, he does not consider his first book as a cheerful one. Importantly, the cheerfulness of Menschliches, Allzumenschliches is associated with cold philosophical and psychological investigation, as well as with a mode of handling suffering. [31] Importantly, the target of Nietzsches criticism here is not directly Montaigne, but rather modern scholars. W. (2011). Being happy promotes a range of lifestyle habits that are important for overall health. It diminishes pain, fights disease, mitigates misfortunes, lightens burdens and eases one's life. In brief, it is a judgment typically reached by melancholics. Journal of Research in Personality 45, 15364. Thus far, we have explored what Nietzsche says about cheerfulness, especially as a quality of thinking and writing. (4) Nietzsche observes that from the abysses of pessimism, from severe sickness and from the loss of trust in life, one returns newborn, with a more delicate taste for joy, with a tenderer tongue for all good things, with merrier sense, with a second dangerous innocence in joy, more child-like and yet a hundred times subtler that one has ever been before (GS, Preface 4). Your documents are now available to view. (1) Nietzsche holds that in certain phases of his personal and intellectual development, and starting from his middle writings, he practices cheerful modes of thinking and writing. This is clearly spelled out, for example, in Der Wanderer und sein Schatten (1880): Writing better, however, also means to think better (HH II, WS 87). I like the cheerfulness of these yellow cushions. But she remained adamant, and guess what? Pippin has identified an actual Montaigne problem in Nietzsches philosophy[4]: [h]ow, [Nietzsche] wants to know above all, did Montaigne manage to exhibit such a thoroughgoing skepticism and clarity about human frailty and failings without Pascals despair and eventual surrender []?[5] As Pippin sees it, Nietzsche is not looking for an argument in Montaigne that could demonstrate or justify his overall stance toward the human world;[6] rather, the cheerfulness at stake in the Montaigne problem is a pre-philosophical affective attunement or Stimmung. Trait cheerfulness modulates BOLD-response in lateral cortical but not limbic brain areas - A pilot fMRI study. 15, 293302. Indeed, in many of his late works, such as Zur Genealogie der Moral, Nietzsches style is that of the strident polemic. Smile and the world smiles back at you, as the saying goes. Why cheerfulness is important in leadership? True conquest is the causing the calamity to fade and disappear[52]. In practicing and learning the art of presenting oneself as cheerful, in wanting even just a made-up cheerfulness, one exercises and strengthens ones spirit and will to life; and true cheerfulness might come as a reward. 43, 4252. Bloomington: Author House. Finally, Nietzsche declares that nobody who saw me [during the composition of Ecce homo] would have noticed a single trace of tension, but rather an overflowing freshness and cheerfulness (EH, Clever 10). In this section we argue that Emerson is an equally important, yet largely overlooked, source and model of Nietzsches conception of a cheerful mode of thinking and writing. What has been overlooked in the secondary literature is that in SE2 Nietzsche openly states that he will not take his example from Montaigne: I would take my example from him if I were set the task of making myself feel at home on this earth (UO III, SE 2, our emphasis). In the humour of our race there is a great quality - a subtle essence which has its special value at any time, and a superb value in war. [25] The shallow cheerfulness of cheerleaders is nothing more than mere satisfaction and contentment with fashionable opinions, and in contrast with the cheerfulness of true thinkers who crave to know more (UOI, DS 4) and who have the courage to fully commit themselves to the honesty and truthfulness demanded by the philosophical life (UOIII, SE 1).[26]. Dada has received the prestigious U-Thant Peace Award for his dedicated service to the world peace. From his self-presentation as a cheerful thinker and writer we suggest we can learn three important things. Journal of Social Psychology, 8, 31134. Both sides of the debate have explored Nietzsches practice of cheerfulness in direct relation to Montaigne. Here, cheerfulness is construed as a quality of the psychological condition of great health presupposed by the philosopher, not only as the aftereffect of philosophy. Part of Springer Nature. [3] This debate has centered on two key questions: first, the nature and meaning of Nietzsches conception of cheerfulness; second, whether, or not, he is successful in philosophizing cheerfully that is, in achieving a form of cheerfulness in his writings. Rapp, A. M., Wild, B., Erb, M., Rodden, F. A., Ruch, W., & Grodd, W. (2008). Your purchase has been completed. In addition to courage and seriousness, it has four distinctive characteristics: (1) as we have just noted, a newly discovered spiritual strength; (2) an overflowing gratitude (GS, Preface 1), for which, as we saw in the previous section, Emerson might be an exemplar; (3) a reawakened faith in a tomorrow and the day after tomorrow, of a sudden sense and anticipation of a future (GS, Preface 1). In the Harvard and Yale Universities of America and at the University of California Los Angeless Neuro-psychiatric Institute at West Los Angeles, neuro-biologists and medical researchers have confirmed that smiling, laughing and cheerful expressions set in motion happy waves in the mind and generate neuropeptides that revitalize the immune system. We have seen that, in Der Wanderer und sein Schatten, Nietzsche distinguishes between melancholy authors and serious ones (HH II, WS 128). Cheerfulness. (2) Although he is confident that at times he does philosophize cheerfully, Nietzsche does not have the general presumption that he always does so, or that he does so in the same way in all his works. This aspect of Nietzsches conception of cheerfulness can be best understood and appreciated in comparison with Emerson. As Pippin has noted, sometimes Nietzsches prose seems to relapse into a compulsive, gloomy, and harsh tone.[77]. Of course, these two senses of cheerfulness are closely connected: the cheerful spiritual state or attitude of the thinker may be reflected in and communicated through their writings: To communicate [an inner] state, an inner tension of pathos, with signs, including the tempo of these signs that is the meaning of every style (EH, Books 4). Anyone you share the following link with will be able to read this content: Sorry, a shareable link is not currently available for this article. He spells out the works in which he believes he had philosophized cheerfully, specifying in each case the sense of his practice of cheerfulness. In particular, as is well known, he finds this profound form of cheerfulness or serenity in Greek tragedy; that is, both in the tragic outlook on life he attributes to the Greeks and in tragedy as an artistic form. In another letter from 1883, dated September 3, Nietzsche informs Heinrich Kselitz that the third part of Zarathustra requires a gloomy pessimism deeper than that of Schopenhauer and Giacomo Leopardi: In order, however, to be able to write this part, what I shall need, in the first place, is profoundly Heavenly cheerfulness for I shall succeed with the pathos of the highest kind, only if I treat it as play. In V. Raskin (Ed. Keith Ansell-Pearson has noted that [i]n fact, Nietzsche attacks the idea, which he associates with the interest in Montaigne, that the task of philosophy is to achieve personal serenity.[32] In contrast to the indolence and quietism of the search for tranquility, it seems to Nietzsche, the most important question in all of philosophy is the transformation and improvement of our way of life, both as individuals and in terms of our collective modes of living (UOIV, WB 3). Campioni, Giuliano: Gaya scienza und gai saber in Nietzsches Philosophie, in Chiara Piazzesi/ Giuliano Campioni/ Patrick Wotling (eds. Cricket-cheerfulness or made-up cheerfulness, though disguised, is significant in that it signals a wish to return to health and might ultimately result, in a great spiritual strengthening, an increasing pleasure and abundance of health.[79] Or at least, this is what happened to Nietzsche in the course of his intellectual development. Ruch, W., & Hofmann, J. When she was being prepared to be taken to the operation theatre, she found the nurses sad and glum. Already in Die Geburt der Tragdie (1872), for which he entertained the title Griechische Heiterkeit (Nachlass 1870/71, 7[109], KSA 7.163), Nietzsche sets for himself the task of properly comprehending the serious and significant concept of Greek serenity (BT 9). But there is more. His spirit always finds reasons to be satisfied and even grateful. Emersons sense of gratitude is so profound that he now and then verges on cheerful [heitere] transcendence. A comparison with Emerson seems to provide promising evidence to support Anderson and Cristys hypothesis that in part Nietzsches cheerfulness might be found in expressions of gratitude. Science has even established that cheerful physicians are more effective than grumpy, serious doctors as patients respond better to them. ), Melancholy Experience in Literature of the Long Eighteenth Century, Basingstoke 2011, 548210.1057/9780230306592_3Search in Google Scholar, Zavatta, Benedetta: Individuality and Beyond: Nietzsche Reads Emerson, Oxford 201910.1093/oso/9780190929213.001.0001Search in Google Scholar. His conception of cheerfulness in these writings is, in our view, of special importance given that, as we shall see in more depth in section 3, Nietzsche retrospectively discloses that he sought to practice and achieve a cheerful mode of philosophizing in these writings (HH II, Preface 5; EH, Wise 1). Moreover, as we have seen, he openly declares that in the two volumes of Menschliches, Allzumenschliches he presented himself as if cheerful when in fact he was not (HH II, Preface 5). ), Humor and Health Promotion (pp. A history of the emotional life of European and American cultures, a breathtaking exploration of the intersections of culture, literature, and psychology, Cheerfulness challenges the dominant narrative of Western aesthetics as a story of melancholy, mourning, tragedy, and trauma. This is certainly a helpful interpretation, one which we wish to maintain and to further elaborate. Alfano, Mark: Nietzsches Moral Psychology, Cambridge 201910.1017/9781139696555Search in Google Scholar, Anderson, R.Lanier/ Cristy, Rachel: What Is The Meaning of Our Cheerfulness? Cheerfulness in turn encourages speed of thought, an outward-looking mind-set, and a willingness to talk. While robust findings in the literature have shown positive affect and more positive, lighthearted uses of humor are associated with self-esteem, no study has investigated the role of self . Should we regard him as more similar to a melancholy author in that he puts on paper what he is suffering, or as a serious and cheerful one who tells us what he has suffered and why he is now at rest amid joy (HH II, WS 128)? By striving to be cheerful, you are not only adding joy and love to your own life but also making this world a more joyful place, one cheer at a time. Morgenrthe is presented as emerging from, and reflecting, a cheerful sprit, and that speaks of a cheerfulness that goes hand in hand with suffering and the acknowledgement of psychological weakness. Hirsch, R. D., Junglas, K., Konradt, B., Jonitz, M. F.(2010). Leipzig, Germany: von Quelle & Meyer. This became the Satsang topic, as he spoke at length about why we aren't cheerful in general and what to do about it. In the middle writings, and more precisely in Der Wanderer und sein Schatten, Nietzsche no longer regards Schopenhauer as an exemplar of cheerfulness; rather, he now holds that Schopenhauers philosophy remains the mirror image of an ardent and melancholy youth (HH II, VM 271). [22] We will endeavor to develop answers to these questions by reconstructing Nietzsches largely overlooked self-presentation as a cheerful thinker and writer in the prefaces of 1886 and in Ecce homo. Starting from his middle works Nietzsche sees cheerfulness as inextricably linked with scientific knowledge and with a cold and sober mode of thinking and writing. According to Pippin, Nietzsche never succeeds in writing with the kind of cheerfulness of Montaigne. It is important to note, however, that both Die Geburt der Tragdie and Menschliches, Allzumenschliches are not described only as melancholic books, but also qualified as courageous. | Does Nietzsches thinking and writing celebrate a complete victory over the monsters he is courageously fighting against? These acts of leadership pave the way toward employee happiness. Although, and as we have seen, in SE 2 Schopenhauer and Montaigne are expressly regarded as exemplars of a genuinely cheering cheerfulness, we believe there are good reasons to think that in this passage Nietzsche is directly engaging with Emerson too, albeit implicitly. Is in this browser for the next time I comment the cheerful form of seriousness is. 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