Transcript Adventures in Madness

Adventures in Madness
"The pen is the language of the soul;
as the concepts that in it are generated,
such will be its writings."
– Miguel de Cervantes-
Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra
29 September 1547 – 23 April 1616
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was a Spanish novelist,
poet, and playwright.
His magnum opus Don
Quixote, often considered
the first modern novel, is a
classic of Western
literature
Regarded among the best
novels ever written.
His work is considered
among the most important
in all of literature.
Influence
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His influence on the
Spanish language has
been so great that Spanish
is often called
 la lengua de Cervantes
 “the language of Cervantes.”
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He has been named:
 El Príncipe de los Ingenios
 The Prince of Wits.
Don Quixote Man de la Mancha
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Alonso Quixano, a
retired country
gentleman in his fifties,
lives in an unnamed
section of La Mancha
with his niece and a
housekeeper.
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He has become obsessed
with books of chivalry
(bravery)
Believes their every word to
be true, despite the fact that
many of the events in them
are clearly impossible.
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Quixano eventually
appears to other
people to have lost his
mind from little sleep
and food and because
of so much reading.
The Windmills are Giants
Many Depictions
The Man of Glass
And the Return of Sanity
Page 303
“The
greatest mystery is not that
we have been flung at random
between this profusion of matter
and the stars, but that within this
prison we can draw from ourselves
images powerful enough to deny
our nothingness.” Les Noyers de
l’Altenburg
Death
Cervantes died in Madrid on
April 23, 1616.
 In honor of the date on
which both Cervantes and
William Shakespeare died,
UNESCO established April
23 as the “International
Day of the Book”.

Calendars
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(Shakespeare and Cervantes, however,
did not actually die on the same day, as
the April 23 date for Shakespeare is
Julian calendar (Old Style) and the April
23 date for Cervantes is Gregorian
calendar (New Style)

calendars in effect in England and in
Spain, respectively, at that time.
The Gregorian calendar was then ten
days ahead of the Julian.
The Encyclopedia Hispanica claims that
the date widely quoted as Cervantes'
date of death.
April 23, is actually the date on his
tombstone, which, in accordance with
the traditions of the time,
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 would be the date of his burial, rather
than the date of his death.
Homework
 Read
298-308 (Adventures in Madness)
 Create 10 Questions to be used for in-class
discussion
 Your group will present one basic
behavior/characteristic of Don Quixote
Perspective and Genius
What is the difference?
Insanity vs Genius
Friedrich Nietzsche
was a 19th-century
German philosopher
 classical philologist
 (study of the origin of
words)
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Wrote critical texts on:
 Religion
 Morality
 Contemporary Culture
 Philosophy and Science,
German?
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Nietzsche is commonly
classified as a German
philosopher.
The modern Germany did not
exist yet.
Nietzsche was a citizen of
Prussia.
 When
he accepted
his post at Basel,
Nietzsche applied
for the annulment of
his Prussian
citizenship.
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1864
Youngest Professor at
Basel
 He
lost his
citizenship came in a
document dated
April 17, 1869
1871
1875
 For
the rest of his
life he remained
officially stateless.
1882
On January 3, 1889, Nietzsche
suffered a mental collapse.
1899
Died August 25th, 1900
Style and Metaphor
Irony and Aphorism
 Notable
Ideas
Death of God
Perspectivism
the Übermensch
the Eternal Recurrence
and the Will to Power.
Characterizing Nietzsche
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Morality
 “immoralist"
Harshly criticizes the
prominent moral logic of his
day:
 Christianity
Kantianism (Intentionism)
and Utilitarianism (Moral
usage)
Morality continued>>>>
Morality (continued)
 re-evaluation of the
values of the JudeoChristian world.
 Exceptional people, on
the other hand, should
follow their own "inner
law."
 "Become what you are"
 Death of God>>>>
Death of God
death of God would
eventually lead to the
loss of any universal
perspective on things
 Loss of any coherent
sense of objective truth
 Instead we would
retain only our own
multiple, diverse, and
fluid perspectives.
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Nihilism
“the death of God may lead
beyond bare perspectivism to
outright nihilism.”
Die Ubermensch
Superman
or “Overman”
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"I teach you the overman. Man is something that shall be
overcome. What have you done to overcome him? ... All
beings so far have created something beyond themselves;
and do you want to be the ebb of this great flood, and even
go back to the beasts rather than overcome man? What is
ape to man? A laughing stock or painful embarrassment.
And man shall be that to overman: a laughingstock or
painful embarrassment. You have made your way from
worm to man, and much in you is still worm. Once you
were apes, and even now, too, man is more ape than any
ape.... The overman is the meaning of the earth. Let your
will say: the overman shall be the meaning of the earth....
Man is a rope, tied between beast and overman—a rope
over an abyss ... what is great in man is that he is a bridge
and not an end."
-Thus Spoke Zarathustra-
“What an incredible man… a soul
that will live for an eternity.”
A work that speaks so true to the reality
of our condition by expressing every
facet of human knowledge.
Homework
What is the “Will to Power”?
Research and write
in your journals.