Friday, November 12, 2021

Lessing’s Son

Christian Brady at Targuman.

"In preparing for our Foundation Course this fall I am reading (for the first time, I confess) Nietsche’s On Truth and Lie in the Extra-Moral Sense. In it he makes the comment that intellect was given so to the “most delicate, most evanescent beings in order to hold them for a minute in existence, from which otherwise, without this gift, they would have every reason to flee as quickly as Lessing’s son.” I had not heard of 'Lessing’s son' and so set out on a quick search. My oh my."
I suggest reading Brady's post, and the linked post, "Too much understanding", by Richard at Figures of Speech.

See Nietzsche, Beyond Good and Evil, in Great Books of the Western World (second edition, 60 Vol., 1990) volume 43

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