16 Jul Why such passion, such reverence, for the truth? (IRVIN YALOM)
“Such fervor for the truth! Forgive me, Professor Nietzsche, if I sound challenging, but we agreed to speak truthfully. You speak about the truth in a holy tone, as though to substitute one religion for another. Allow me to play devil’s advocate. Allow me to ask: Why such passion, such reverence, for the truth? How will it profit my patient of this morning?” “It is not the truth that is holy, but the search for one’s own truth! Can there be a more sacred act than self-inquiry? My philosophical work, some say, is built on sand: my views shift continually. But one of my granite sentences is: ‘Become who you are.’ And how can one discover who and what one is without the truth?” “But the truth is that my patient has only a short time to live. Shall I offer him that self-knowledge?” “True choice, full choice,” Nietzsche responded, “can blossom only in the sunshine of truth. How can it be otherwise?” Realizing that Nietzsche could discourse persuasively—and interminably—in this abstract realm of truth and choice, Breuer saw he had to force him to speak more concretely. “And my patient this morning? What is his range of choices? Perhaps trust in God is his choice!” “That is not a choice for man. It is not a human choice, but a grasp for an illusion outside oneself. Such a choice, a choice for the other, for the supernatural, is always enfeebling. It always makes man less than he is.
I love that which makes us more than we are!”
When Nietzsche Wept
IRVIN YALOM
