Philosophy
Applicants: Undergraduates
What is Philosophy?
Friedrich
Nietzsche
'Consider the cattle, grazing as they pass you by: they do not know what is meant by yesterday and today, they leap about, eat, rest, digest, leap about again, and so from morn till night and from day to day fettered to the moment and its pleasure or displeasure, and thus neither melancholy or bored. A human being may well ask an animal: 'Why do you not speak to me of your happiness but only stand and gaze at me?' The animal would like to answer, and say: 'The reason is I always forget what I was going to say'- but then he forgot this answer too, and stayed silent: so that the human being was left wondering...'
- Is Nietzsche right to say that the cattle don't know what is meant by yesterday and today?
- How could you tell?
- Could the cattle think about next Tuesday?
- Is there, as Nietzsche suggests, a link between certain emotions and grasp of the concept of time?
- Is always 'forgetting' what one would like to say, the same as not being able to say anything at all?