Philosophy and Ordinary Life
The actual world had asked something of him. But he lived in the true world and had failed to answer the call.
It was early afternoon. We were young and we were in love.
We walked through the park, long avenues lined with chestnut trees, a clearing with a fountain, heroin junkies and their dogs strewn on benches like wild flowers, magnolias bursting into magnificent, abundant bloom. We kissed, we smiled, we looked at each other, we looked away.
“I want to tell you something,” I said.
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In Twilight of the Idols, Nietzsche has a short essay - a few numbered sentences, really - called “How the ‘True World’ Finally Became a Fable”.
And what is the true world?
“A true world is a destination; a destination such that to reach it is to enter (or perhaps re-enter) a state of ‘eternal bliss’, a heaven, paradise or utopia.”
The most obvious example of a true-world philosophy is religion: the point of earthly existence is that it leads to the Christian heaven, or to nirvana (the cessation of all suffering), or to moksha (release from the cycle of death and rebirth).
