On Faith in Science and Quick Reflection on Problems

I was struck by two sections in this part of Book V because they explicitly stated or explained things that we had talked about in previous discussions. First section 373, 'Science' as prejudice. Here Nietzsche lays out the dangers in putting to much faith in science. Last class, Dr. Goold pointed out that while Nietzsche had rejected the belief in God, he would not be comfortable in the presence of modern day atheists such as Richard Dawkins because they put all their faith in science. For Nietzsche this would seem as ridiculous as trying to gain an understanding of the world through Christianity and displays the same "sickening of the will" that he describes in early in this book. Again this is an example of grabbing hold of something and believing this to be a fixed truth. Nietzsche explains that science only gets at the most "superficial and external aspect of existence." He goes on, "Thus, a 'scientific' interpretation of the world, as you understand it, might still be one of the stupidist of all possible interpretations of the world, i.e. one of those most lacking in significance. " Nietzsche believes that a scientific view only reveals a "mechanistic" world which he deems a "meaningless world." The example he gives of music at the end of the section aptly makes his point. Just as it ridiculous to understand music through counting, calculating, or expressing it through formulas, Nietzsche believes a scientific view of the world offers no understanding of it.

The other section that caught my attention was 381, On the question of being understandable. Here Nietzsche expresses the idea that he does not want his writing to be understandable to all. He states, "Every nobler spirit and tatse selects his audience when he want to communicate; in selecting it, he simultaneously erects barriers against 'the other.' This made me wonder who does Nietzsche want for his audience. Is he addressing others who are excited about this new dawn and have similar apprehensions about any firmly held ideas? Or is instead, is he addressing those fearful of the new dawn who are trying to grasp new ideas as old institutions such as Christianity are coming apart? Also in this section Nietzsche explains the brevity with which he writes about each problem or topic. He explains, "For I approach deep problems such as I do cold baths: fast in, fast out." The idea that it is impossible to go deeply into anything and gain understanding is interesting. I thought it was interesting when he expresses that one must essentially pounce on an idea and then leave it to gain any understanding of it. He says, "At least there are truths that are especially shy and ticklish and can't be caught except suddenly - that one must surprise or leave alone."