I have, based on your recommendation, read John Richardson's Nietzsche's Values and I truly enjoyed it. It is pretty accessible but still enormously rich in detail, and -I agree with you- Nietzsche got a lot of things right. I was wondering whether you can recommend any other book on Nietzsche or Jung that are similar to the one I just mentioned?
Secondly, I am truly fascinated by the opponent processing that is already present in Nietzsche's thinking between, on the one hand, the agential values imposed on us by society, and -on the other- our own intrinsic values, which sometimes leads to conflicts but Nietzsche wants to align.
It reminded me of a talk that David Sloan Wilson once gave at my school here in Norway, in which he mentioned the opponent processing going on in populations of water striders. At the level of the organism, aggressive males are more successful because they get access to more mates. At the population level, however, there is selection for harmony because these groups will be more successful than others (please check the paper here: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2962763/). In one of your previous posts, you mention exactly this mechanism as a driver towards more complexity. Nietzsche furthermore also holds the position that within us the drives may have conflicting goals, hence opponent processing again.
Thanks! Nietzsche's recognition of the eternal conflict between individual and group is fascinating and is something I'll have a whole article about in this series. Jordan Peterson, too, spent a lot of time on that conflict in Maps of Meaning. I'll check out the Wilson paper, thanks for sharing.
I would like to add one more thing, Brett. Michele Gelfand has done work on tight and loose societies. Her argument is exactly in line with cultural ratcheting. Tight societies are societies in which the behavior of its members is very predictable for other members, which is useful when society is under threat (the imitation part). In loose societies, however, people are more free to pursue their individuals needs and wants, which therefore exploits diversity and is thus instrumental to innovation.
Thank you for the well-written, informative, and thought-provoking post, Brett.
Great piece Brett!
I have, based on your recommendation, read John Richardson's Nietzsche's Values and I truly enjoyed it. It is pretty accessible but still enormously rich in detail, and -I agree with you- Nietzsche got a lot of things right. I was wondering whether you can recommend any other book on Nietzsche or Jung that are similar to the one I just mentioned?
Secondly, I am truly fascinated by the opponent processing that is already present in Nietzsche's thinking between, on the one hand, the agential values imposed on us by society, and -on the other- our own intrinsic values, which sometimes leads to conflicts but Nietzsche wants to align.
It reminded me of a talk that David Sloan Wilson once gave at my school here in Norway, in which he mentioned the opponent processing going on in populations of water striders. At the level of the organism, aggressive males are more successful because they get access to more mates. At the population level, however, there is selection for harmony because these groups will be more successful than others (please check the paper here: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2962763/). In one of your previous posts, you mention exactly this mechanism as a driver towards more complexity. Nietzsche furthermore also holds the position that within us the drives may have conflicting goals, hence opponent processing again.
Thanks! Nietzsche's recognition of the eternal conflict between individual and group is fascinating and is something I'll have a whole article about in this series. Jordan Peterson, too, spent a lot of time on that conflict in Maps of Meaning. I'll check out the Wilson paper, thanks for sharing.
I would like to add one more thing, Brett. Michele Gelfand has done work on tight and loose societies. Her argument is exactly in line with cultural ratcheting. Tight societies are societies in which the behavior of its members is very predictable for other members, which is useful when society is under threat (the imitation part). In loose societies, however, people are more free to pursue their individuals needs and wants, which therefore exploits diversity and is thus instrumental to innovation.