This popular quote is making its way around social media, and it’s being attributed to the German existentialist philosopher, Friedrich Nietzsche: The idea here is that our harsh judgment of others who step out of conventionality is prompted by ignorance. We don’t understand what we are experiencing—we lack context to make sense of it. Instead of activating intellectual humility and accepting that we simply “do not understand,” we fearfully turn to the presumption that there cannot be any sensible rationale for the behavior or belief in question. This “other” and their strange way of being are absurdities without purpose—they are ”insane.”
Great article! This has also made me reflect on and be more aware of 2 main issues.
Translation: for example Nietzsche's original quote was written in German and even different authors may disagree on how exactly his words should be translated into english. ( https://forum.wordreference.com/threads/to-set-in-sentence-by-friedrich-nietzsche.1905318/ ). When you consider the vast amount of idioms, modes of speaking, formalities, etc that vary across languages, it isn't always straightforward or even sensical to translate the meaning of words literally.
Context (which you definitely hinted at): be it historical, personal, emotional ... so much can only be understood about the meaning of someone's words only in relation to their other thoughts and beliefs. The tools of reasoning must come to life if we are to have any hope of correctly interpreting the meaning of another's words. For example, one Quora user interprets Nietzche's quote to be "... a comment from an inflated ego. Who knows who soars higher and who cannot fly." ( https://qr.ae/pvYnS2 ). Another often-made mistake that I see all the time is viewing the words of yesterday through the lens of today. ( https://www.nodumbquestions.fm/listen/2022/1/13/125-what-do-you-hope-happens ) This is something I am learning more and more to keep in mind whenever I write or post anything on the internet.
Good way to think about things. I'm always concerned about people attributing quotes to people who may not have said them. While I've been known to quote all sorts of people, I try to avoid improperly attributing them as much as possible. But if the insight is important, it doesn't matter who said it. Only in more recent years have we tried hard to offer specificity to quotes of deep influence.
Great article! This has also made me reflect on and be more aware of 2 main issues.
Translation: for example Nietzsche's original quote was written in German and even different authors may disagree on how exactly his words should be translated into english. ( https://forum.wordreference.com/threads/to-set-in-sentence-by-friedrich-nietzsche.1905318/ ). When you consider the vast amount of idioms, modes of speaking, formalities, etc that vary across languages, it isn't always straightforward or even sensical to translate the meaning of words literally.
Context (which you definitely hinted at): be it historical, personal, emotional ... so much can only be understood about the meaning of someone's words only in relation to their other thoughts and beliefs. The tools of reasoning must come to life if we are to have any hope of correctly interpreting the meaning of another's words. For example, one Quora user interprets Nietzche's quote to be "... a comment from an inflated ego. Who knows who soars higher and who cannot fly." ( https://qr.ae/pvYnS2 ). Another often-made mistake that I see all the time is viewing the words of yesterday through the lens of today. ( https://www.nodumbquestions.fm/listen/2022/1/13/125-what-do-you-hope-happens ) This is something I am learning more and more to keep in mind whenever I write or post anything on the internet.
Good way to think about things. I'm always concerned about people attributing quotes to people who may not have said them. While I've been known to quote all sorts of people, I try to avoid improperly attributing them as much as possible. But if the insight is important, it doesn't matter who said it. Only in more recent years have we tried hard to offer specificity to quotes of deep influence.