by Mckayla Hollis

Created on: June 15, 2009

Kant and Nietzsche: Understanding Your Own Life

Foreword: In studying philosophy this past semester, I have found that there are infinite ways to look at one's life. You can live according to any great philosopher's theories, or completely disregard them and make up your own. Through the teachings of this course, I have learned that it is OK to be unhappy, and that life is something worth living if you enjoy it for it's mysteries and challenges as well as it's pleasures. Kant and Nietzsche both have interesting views on what we can and cannot understand about our own lives, and I have looked to both of them in recent weeks to help me get through tough times. This paper is written in honor of these two great philosophers who, though I do not religiously follow them, have made my transition from high school to college and all that it includes, more bearable. This paper is also in honor of Bernard Den Ouden, who taught me more about creating my own journey through life than every philosopher we discussed this semester combined. Thank you.

Understanding is something that is extremely hard to understand. Understanding one's self is doubly as hard, and understanding that which may not even exist is the toughest of all. But how do we go about understanding understanding?

Kant tells us that we cannot explain anything if we do not know it exists. The perfect example of this is God: For centuries, people have followed God. They worship, praise, and devote their entire lives to following this greatest being of all, the Lord God. But who is God? Does he even exist? There are so many questions, and not one of them has a definite answer. This is because God is too large of a concept or being to be explained in human terms. We cannot fathom his supposed greatness or power, and therein lies the problem: Trying to explain that which we cannot even begin to understand.

Another example would be that of our purpose in life. It is not known for sure how mankind started, why we were put on this earth, or even when or how we will end. How are we to know whether we were created by any one being or not? There are people in this world who spend their entire lives trying to take everything we know about everything else, and apply it to something we know nothing about. How can this work? How can what we know and what we don't know even compare to each other?

In this way, Kant tries to explain the theory of cause: ...the idea of cause constitutes a delusion which seems to be

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