Frederick Nietzsche-the enigmatic philosopher

This short essay attempts to explore some insights into the thoughts of this enigmatic  philosopher.  

Introduction and some broad observations

Frederick Nietzsche was possibly one of the most influential and enigmatic of philosophers, but whose authenticity in my view can hardly be challenged.
A good reference to anyone wanting to more thoroughly understand him is "What Nietzsche Really Said" by scholars  Robert C. Solomon, Kathleen Marie Higgins , whose review is :
Friedrich Nietzsche's aggressive independence, flamboyance, sarcasm, and celebration of strength have struck responsive chords in contemporary culture. More people than ever are reading and discussing his writings. But Nietzsche's ideas are often overshadowed by the myths and rumors that surround his sex life, his politics, and his sanity. In this lively and comprehensive analysis, Nietzsche scholars Robert C. Solomon and Kathleen M. Higgins get to the heart of Nietzsche's philosophy, from his ideas on "the will to power" to his attack on religion and morality and his infamous Übermensch (superman).
What Nietzsche Really Said offers both guidelines and insights for reading and understanding this controversial thinker. Written with sophistication and wit, this book provides an excellent summary of the life and work of one of history's most provocative philosophers.

Much of his work is polemic - to firmly  establish his perspective with gusto after opposing mercilessly contemporary viewpoints.

But I do not think Nietzsche was an intellectual bully, but rather he was fond of making highly emotive statements, to ignite our interest and  shock the senses to be persuaded to think differently.

Nietzsche’s view, at that time, was that state power and money underlined a state of stupidity, so that he saw himself as a man in the mould of Goethe, having the courage to suffer for the sake of the truth as he perceived it. Nietzsche did not suggest a political point of view but rather believed his philosophy underpinned noble leadership, so that became sufficient in itself to  ensure a happier and superior moral system of governance.

He also suffered both from severe bad health which was to be an infliction for all of his life, coupled with experience firsthand of the terrible brutality of war. In my view both of which could not fail to have some considerable influence over his philosophy.

Upbringing and early influences  

To understand Nietzsche’s perspective I think it is useful to delve into his upbringing and early development as is usually the case for all of us.

Nietzsche's family ties were to Lutheran ministers, as his paternal grandfather was a distinguished Protestant scholar. His father was the town’s Lutheran minister, but died of a brain disorder when Nietzsche was only 5, so that his childhood nurturing was undertaken by his mother and 2 maiden aunts.

Nietzsche as a teenager began composing piano, choral and orchestral music and was instrumental in leading a music and literature group when attending a boarding school in preparation for a university education. He was later to form a strong bond with Richard Wagner, whose talent he greatly admired, and who gave support to Nietzsche’s early literary works. After graduating from school he undertook theological studies at the university, intent on becoming a minster before gravitating in favour of philology, which is concerned with the interpretation of classical and biblical texts. Nietzsche was a brilliant student and published essays on poets and philosophers such as Aristotle.

The rather obvious conclusions are that his comprehension of the Bible was fulsome, but no doubt lacking in positivism as his subsequent works incorporated the ideals of the mythical ancient heroic GODS. But Nietzsche was not against organized Religion, maintaining it could be of comfort for the masses. His concern was for its application as bad faith, predicated on false notions that bad health arose from sin.  He also thought religion tied its followers to a slave mentality, to enslave the followers to mediocrity and meekness, which ultimately could lead to nihilism. In other words the abstract values of a perceived GOD, born of jealously or envy, confirmed in meekness and in mediocrity were in essence simply the shadows of a poet’s imagery which could lead (if taken literally) to unintended bad consequences.  

A pivotal moment for Nietzsche was his discovery of Arthur Schopenhauer's work which was to capture his imagination but whose influence remains subject to some debate. However in Nietzsche’s publication entitled Untimely Meditations he seems to indicate a definite affinity to Schopenhauer as his educator: For your true nature lies, not concealed deep within you, but immeasurably high above you, or at least above that which you usually take yourself to be. Your true educators and formative teachers reveal to you what the true basic material of your being is, something in itself ineducable (incapable of being educated) and in any case difficult of access, bound and paralyzed: your educators can be only your liberators. (UM3:129 Nietzsche, F. (1983) Schopenhauer as Educator, in Untimely Meditations, Transl. R.J Collingdale, Cambridge University Press, [1874].)

 
Nietzsche entered compulsory military service, where he suffered a serious injury, and was discharged to return to the university where he became interested in Sanskrit and the Zoroastrian religion, whose prophet was Zarathustra. No doubt the seed here was sown for his later work entitled “Thus Spake Zarathustra”.

The University of Basel offered him the chair of classical philology at the tender age of 24, but during the onset of the Franco-Prussian war, he again enlisted as a medical orderly, only to once again be forced into discharge after suffering from diphtheria and dysentery. He witnessed firsthand the horror of war and the trauma of battle, caring for wounded soldiers.

He returned to the university but was forced to cease work as consequence of deteriorating health and henceforth was reliant on his writing to sustain himself.

Schopenhauer revitalized by Nietzsche 

In in his early formative years, as outlined previously, Schopenhauer was his educator, who in turn was influenced by the Upanishads, Kant and Plato. Schopenhauer saw worldly existence in terms of continuum of the tension of the rational conscious mind versus an underlying unconscious will, as exists universally in nature.  Schopenhauer was of the opinion the primordial will to live domiciled in all forms of life, then created the instinctive desire of all living creatures' to avoid death and to procreate.

Nietzsche valued Schopenhauer’s ideas but concluded ones existence and acceptance of one will, realised to ones higher self through self enlightenment was a more practical morality, capable of achieving supreme fulfilment and hence happiness.

Culture to Nietzsche was the means of aspiring to the higher self, which is a spiritual dimension quite separate to the instinctive forces, but arises from self-enlightenment in the service of the will, to give rise to the new metaphors of life. This is not, however, as most people view "spirituality”, as Nietzsche relates spirituality more as a self-realization, as in a ‘’love of fait ‘’ to live for the moment, to grasping life with gusto as in life affirmation, regardless of one’s physical condition.

Will to power  

Nietzsche’s “will to power’’ Is not clearly defined by most philosophers  who opt instead to numerous references, which to my mind only serve or ask further questions. What I would posit is that his “will to power” is an awareness of this central truth underlying all that we do, to brings with it the responsibility of its use, rather than attempting to suppress that which governs all of humanity and will only serve to make oneself  miserable. The Ubermensch then does not subscribe to any particular norm but rejects mediocrity to realize one’s own unique individuality.

Eternal recurrence

This is one of his key concepts and has its heritage primarily from eastern religions / philosophy (although there are some references in Jewish traditions) which posits time is not lineal but involves infinite circles of recurrence which Nietzsche linked to his idea of love of fate. 

Conclusion

Despite suffering terribly throughout his life, his prodigious work provides a testament to his own will, to leave to us a legacy of immense material to ponder, about which continues to be subject to countless interpretations. I have attempted to shed some light on such thoughts, not least being Nietzsche’s hope that as free spirits one can be unbounded by the shackles of dogmatism and  be willing and able to embrace hardships in a constant state of becoming, joined as he thought we were as part of that circle of eternal recurrence.
For further  reading
http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/nietzsche/
http://www.catholiceducation.org/articles/civilization/cc0009.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eternal_return
http://www.gutenberg.org/files/4363/4363-h/4363-h.htm
http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/83282.What_Nietzsche_Really_Said


 

Productivity: the forgotten answer

My letter as per below appeared in the AFR today:

 

In (“A golden age of living standards is now passing”, AFR September 4) Chris Richardson concludes that the biggest boom for Australia in a century and a half is continuing to ease back, to exert pressure on national income. Richardson suggests it’s time to “do the deal time” for crossbench senators to support some stalled budget measures.

 

But it is also true the past mining boom for Australia, although positive overall, was a catalyst for asset and wage inflation in non-mining industries, combined with a high dollar, rendered large segments of manufacturing uncompetitive.
During this period our productivity declined as we relied too heavily on a continuance of extremely favourable terms of trade, and households leveraged from housing appreciation to borrow more to sustain standards of living.
But in the aftermath we have lost sight of the potential of improved productivity to generate higher real incomes to lead to long-term improvements in the nation’s living standards, by giving prominence to investments in education, training, research, development and innovation.
What is lacking is a concerted industry programme to enhance investment in projects to improve productivity by industry segment, to enhance the nation’s ability to compete. We should not be at all perturbed in borrowing to do that, so long as we are not borrowing to fund current consumption.

Time and time again

The concept has recently been advanced (see references )that our very first responses to things are prior to any realisation of conscious thoughts, giving a lie to the idea of a complete free will. Hence the argument is that it may be just a perception that gives us a feeling we have orderly control over our thoughts, which instead may have been triggered from our subconscious before , even if such a prior period represents just a fraction of a second before.  Furthermore,  our understanding  of the passage of time and its events in terms of a linguistic tense, e.g. the sense of past, present, and future, may be somewhat of a contentious issue. Our conventional view is of course, given the overwhelming evidence of decay and entropy that appears before us is that time can only be linear in nature.  But there is no such thing as time in terms of tense in the universe.
These things puzzled that great philosopher Augustine who concluded : 

'Who shall lay hold upon the mind of man, that it may stand and see that time with its past and future must be determined by eternity, which stands and does not pass, which has in itself no past or future."

Maybe our human perception of time is just another intuitive function of the mind , necessary to make sense of our world from within our earthly confinement. This is indeed a mystery that will remain an unresolved theme for philosophers the world over, time and time again. 
For further reading     
http://www.nature.com/news/2011/110831/full/477023a.html
http://phys.org/news/2011-04-scientists-spacetime-dimension.html
http://www.evolutionnews.org/2014/01/do_benjamin_lib081171.html

Why ethics are fundamental to good accounting

Post-GFC, the spotlight has swung firmly onto ethics in business and the development of “soft” skills

Ethics 13 Aug 2014

By KATE NASH

Professional integrity is now more important than ever

Although most accountants have always adhered to a Code of Ethics, the importance of professional integrity has arguably never been more acute.

To read the full article published by CPA Australia's "In the Black "  click here

A sustainable population for Australia

In “Dick Smith and Graham Turner call for small population” (AFR 14^th August 2014) Entrepreneurs Dick Smith and Flight Centre founder Graham Turner say Australia must abandon unending economic growth because a ‘Big Australia’ is unsustainable.

But one could also argue good economics has never endorsed a theory of endless growth, but rather aims to find the best most economical outcomes. Although orthodox economics, supportive of market freedom, but subject to prudential controls is suggested by most economists to be an important factor in improved standards of living, the real driver has been the advancement of scientific and technological knowledge. In this regard the determinant for the level of population that Australia can support, without a diminution in living standards will depend on how effective the nation is in reducing waste and improving productivity. Smarter outcomes in line with finite resources to determine optimum future population limits and migration policy should be the subject of a national debate, as was suggested by Smith and Turner.

National building blocks for Australian enterprise

There is a veritable multitude of opportunities in the current low interest rate environment for industry policy to advance the nation’s capability by way of government borrowings to fund a variety of industry partnerships with later opportunities for export spin offs, particularly into our Asia region.  
What is needed I think is a long term plan for the nation in determining what industries have the greatest  potential for assistance and to make available publically the underlying assumptions that justify such projects so that it forms a national narrative  subject to public scrutiny.   

What can be expected from the government, is an industry paper detailing assumptions about future anticipated gains in productivity and improved workplace participation and income that would exceed the cost of borrowing. Those assumptions should also be subject to audit scrutiny to afford continuing good governance. My thoughts are such large scale investment, much more that could be properly justified by our small market would be necessary, possibly also involving some further concessions, in order to be competitive, but whose recoupment would be ensured with further joint ventures. Hence I think we can overcome our limited market size in Australia with investment in facilities supportive of the wider market incorporating our neighbouring region, particularly China. This, of course, involves some risk and inevitable revision, but the risk of dong nothing is much greater.

What I envisage is a five pronged policy framework which might conceivably involve, (A) Feasibilities into industries to attract initial concessions with long term productivity gains assessed in excess of the cost of borrowing (B) building or manufacture of facilities funded from government debt, (C) operate and then develop into a private public system, (D) recoupment of seed funding and transfer of some ownership to joint ventures, (E) subsequent spin offs and export of systems or further joint ventures. Bear in mind the Chinese government are already using joint ventures with foreigners for many of their investments and manufacturing facilities.

Probably the industries where we have the largest opportunities are in agricultural processing and in- bound tourism.  By way of example our facilities in relation to inbound tourism are underdeveloped and could be funded thorough large scale improved infrastructure. But other Industries should not be overlooked such as utility networks, telecommunications, transportation systems -tollways, expressways, airports, rail, shipping, waste management facilities, health, education, finance, environmental pollution control, building low-cost housing and eco-tourism.

coflicting policies make australian budget unsaleable

In “Put up or shut up, Mr Hockey” (Letters AFR 29^th July 2014) Des Moore concludes the time has arrived when Mr Abbott should take over the selling of the budget and, in the first instance, present a revised budget when Parliament resumes at the end of August. That should include changes in existing spending proposals as well as the missing explanations.

But it is now reported Hockey is urging his Liberal and Nationals Party member’s to rally together and use the winter parliamentary break to shore up support and sell the budget. He has cited Standard and Poor's confirmation of Australia's 'AAA' credit rating to convince the Senate to pass his first budget. The agency has stated the budget deficits are expected to reduce in line with eventual agreed compromises on the proposed budget measures.

The reason the budget is so difficult to sell is due to conflicting measures ; a $7 medical co-payment only partially repairs the budget shortfall as part of the proceeds are earmarked for the grandiose medical research fund.  Similarly, applying a six monthly waiting period for those under 30 for unemployment benefits in the absence of labour structural reform to allow lower wage categories for the unskilled is equally poor policy. Such measures, and those announced recently mandating 40 job applications per month for the unemployed to continue to be eligible for benefits and the provisions of “work for the dole” only serve to add more "red tape" with highly dubious benefits.

A new future generation fund investment in philanthrophy

click on the video episode 953 -interview with Geoff Wilson

https://www.evansandpartners.com.au/videoupdates/

Saving a nation from debt

In the western world, fuelled by asset price appreciation and particularly in relation to real estate, an unhealthy appetite gained momentum over many decades for credit as householders leveraged that increased equity in their homes by borrowing for both current consumption and investment. Lending institutions became less concerned about the ability of borrowers to repay their loan, whether it is housing, consumer or commercially related. The idea you should have sufficient deposit to support any loan application and had demonstrated a prior saving ability sufficient to reasonably repay the loan almost disappeared.
Hence, in the period leading up to the global financial crisis, western countries collectively reduced their savings to zero and in some cases it become negative. Given the aftermath of the GFC there has been a mild reversal to saving, but this has been thwarted by the prolonged use of quantitative easing, which acts as disincentive to savers with negative distortions to asset price inflation.

 

But private debt in Australia remains at very high levels which should demand a national narrative to explain the future risks, such as the adverse impact on overburdened indebted households, and lending institutions once interest rates revert to higher long term median rates. What is missing is an understanding of how voluntary real private savings are such a critical funding source of sustainable capital to achieve advancements in productivity and higher income.

In Australia, we have now come to the “end” as far as any further options are available for households and businesses’ to borrow more to sustain their living standards. This was previously made possible due to increased leverages in the provisions of debt. What sustained the system and “bought” time was increases in debt, often inappropriately funding consumption, with typically the source of this increase in debt levels from a lowering of deposits in housing, counting the double income for couples to increase borrowing capacity and borrowing from asset price inflation. This debt culture was further fuelled by poor policy which is “anti-saving”.   

Hence what is needed is incentives for savers and to end the present anti-saving policies. One of the distortions of the Australian economy is “negative gearing “where an investor borrowings interest cost exceeds gross income of the asset acquired. The favourable tax allowance afforded negative gearing not only reduces tax income but distorts the allocation of capital and results in inflated asset prices, particularly in property, to be kept artificiality high.

Putting more emphasis on savings requires a fundamental change in policy mix, to ensure there are tax incentives for savers and to phase out negative gearing over time. There is no reason why, over several decades ahead, we could not reduce private debts by 50%, and encourage more investment in long term infrastructure bonds and with less spending on consumption. In this regard government debt should increase, with the issuance of new securities but offset by the savings of the private savers who invest in national assets that deliver future productivity gains in excess of the interest rates paid to savers.

McKibbin’s carbon solution a politically realistic one

My letter as per below appeared in AFR today :

In “Palmer move shows that creditable climate policy is possible” (AFR, July 7) Warwick McKibbin concludes the climate policy debate in Australia has hit the Palmer pivot; he argues in favour of a viable emissions trading scheme commencing with an initial zero carbon cost, achievable by ensuring an excess of permits over allocations.

His proposal makes provision for a long-term aspirational target for remission abatement but retains the flexibility in the midterm by exercising control over the issue of a pool of yearly permits for trading within Australia, with a carbon price set over a fixed period by a central agency, similar to how the RBA sets interest rates.

Most economists are against Tony Abbott’s Direct Action climate change policy, with a Fairfax Media survey citing 32 of 35 prominent economists in support of carbon pricing, concluding international evidence overwhelmingly showed carbon dioxide emissions could be reduced much more efficiently by the operation of a broad-based market mechanism such as a trading scheme.  Of course the experience overseas of emission trading schemes has been beset with problems, including fraud, but McKibbin’s flexible model restricted to Australia avoids these pitfalls.

McKibbin’s proposal warrants serious consideration by senators as it meets mostly the objectives of all the parties and is in the nation’s best interest, but also satisfies the Coalition objective not to put a price on carbon in the short term.