"What am I trying to escape by making this dangerous trek?"
Um, if you were properly equipped this wouldn't have been a dangerous trek.
Also, don't ever, ever throw a rock over the edge of a cliff. It really wouldn't be fun if after the 4 seconds you heard it clunk on the head of some off-trail climber.
35
"[A]n animal that can be reduced to crawling on all fours, that is in the rapid process of dying" is very likely what Nietzsche, and clearly, the author believe to be the essence of being human.
Once-upon-a-time before Nietzsche, it was believed by many that we were slices of the divine. Sadly. though, that position was most prominently argued by cartoonish, anthropomorphic religions.
But for anyone who's explored beyond those religions and beyond the equally dogmatic religion of scientism (which, also sadly, is the diseased stepchild of Nietzsche's philosophy run amok) may become a whole lot less certain as to the "truth" of either position. And it is in that uncertainty -- that mystery -- where my soul is filled with wonder. And wonder is a pretty good state to be in.
38
...but I wanted to get home. I guess that was it. Maybe that was the whole point of this idiotic trip...
That, and to have the dues paying experience required to produce this essay.
11
Wow! I'll give you credit man.. you went in a hike and you've read Niesztche. Amazing! I opened my phone and accidentally read this article. Isn't that cool? There must be a lesson here. Maybe the New York Times will let me write an op-ed about my experience.
47
You climbed that mountain because it was there. 99% of the time that's there real reason: arrogance, human superiority syndrome. Read read the NY Times obituary for Sir Edmund Hillary, Everest climber. https://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/11/world/asia/11hillary.html
9
“This conviction was surely what led me off the trail four hours earlier, when I went scrambling up the monochromatic green slab that the Swiss call a foothill. ”
The word for such reckless behavior is: Fool.
And you have a daughter yet do this? That is an inexcusable sin. Other lives are at stake and you proudly vainly smugly play reckless fool.
31
I hope your wife reads this and increases your life insurance.
40
Nietzsche created a new human image to replace the ancient Christian one (God is dead!) This new image was that of the overman, the man who has gone beyond and creates his own values in the very act of evaluating. Okay. Kaag is the overman. He does something really stupid. He goes out on a hike, almost gets killed but survives, and the experience is so thrilling he can “will it eternally”. Wow. Authentic existence. Reminds me of some of the scenes from Pulp Fiction. I remember the “Shock and Awe” phase of the Iraq war. It was exhilarating. It was even something that one could “will eternally”. But we all know the dreary aftermath. Would any of us “will that eternally”? And it is not at all surprising that Kaag would have ignored the prudent advice of his wife. We all know the low opinion that Nietzsche had about women and marriage. What I get out of this piece is that philosophy professors shouldn’t engage in inherently dangerous activities like mountaineering. It’s better to do that with engineers and others who have practical experience in risk assessment.
15
I'm afraid that I was unable to engage much with this account of an unpleasant mountain hike after recently hearing an interview with Simon McCartney, a former Alpine climber who retired from the sport after near-disastrous attempts to scale Mount Huntington and Denali in Alaska. The interview can be heard here:
http://www.abc.net.au/radio/programs/conversations/conversations-simon-m...
If you care about N, read the Walter Kaufmann translations.
6
He has a new book to keep in the spirit: Hiking with Peter Pan.
16
Nietzsche made us face our lives squarely; that's the theme of the eternal recurrent, that you would wish to relive your life eternally just as you actually lived it.
By the way, Kilimanjaro is not a difficult mountain; it's a long hike with altitude problems, but not technical.
9
@Ambrose
Not even Dante's last ring would be worse then having to live the same life over and over again.
Nietzsche had many cute aphoristic insights, many of them sideways with each other, but the eternal return wasn't one of them.
Kierkegaard: life is a tightrope.
Nietzsche: life is a jump rope.
Kafka: life is a trip rope.
Schopenhauer: life is a noose.
Cioran: life is a noose, improperly tied.
19
Hiking that path with inadequate footwear is bad enough. Doing so alone makes it worse. It's like one of the wisest men ever, Thales, tumbling into a well because of his Weltfremdheit, his lack of worldly savvy. Thales stumbled into the well because he was preoccupied gazing at the heavenly stars. You can, in fact, climb mountains or travel the world without ever doing so. One anecdote about Kant has him describe the Bridge of London in one of his lectures with such architectural and historical precision that after the lecture a Londoner came to the podium and asked: Professor, when were you in London? It is of course well-known that Kant hardly ever ventured even beyond the city limits of Königsberg, the present Russian Kaliningrad.
16
My mind alights to Nietzsche like a mitted hand to a foul ball: Dying to catch, but never close enough. But two Nietzsche quotes come to mind from this essay....First, "If you stare at the abyss long enough, it will stare back at you." And second, " That which doesn't kill you will make you stronger"......Enjoy your walks.
16
Don’t eat your lunch as your last supper. Just eat your lunch. Enlightenment is no enlightenment.
10
Dude you are a mess. I have studied philosophy, from ancient through modern, since I was a Seminary student. I am now a hospital chaplain.
Two comments. First, if you tell your 6 year old daughter only that "courage is being afraid but doing it anyway" you are not a good parent. Fear exists in humans good reason : self-preservation. Ignoring fear can be dangerous or lethal.
Second, I am around dying persons every day. I realize you do not want your 6 year old to worry about death, and rightly so. But your flippant attitude does her a disservice. Death is an integral part of life. Plants die. Pets die. People like grandparents or even schoolmates die. This takes preparation. To live is to know death - we experience it in others, we live through it (the death of others), and eventually we die it. Ignoring it in childhood or in parenting styles leads to all sorts of dysfunction and denial later in life - when death really happens to our loved ones. Don't raise your kid in a bubble.
Now a question: Have you gotten over yourself? You said that "to be who we are we must get over who we think we are." A fair statement by any measure. You admit you were glad to get home and survive after this mountain fiasco. (Not your first.) But you never tell us - did you get over yourself? Will you now have original thoughts and experience your own feelings without framing everything in terms of philosophical godliness? Philosophy is your crutch. So who are you?
84
The author did it the first time when he was 19, got lost, got into a life-threatening situation, and still hasn't got it: Alpine hikes in running shoes are a bad, a really bad idea! Trying to hike over a 3,392 meter (a good 11,000 - not 13,000 feet; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piz_Platta) high mountain in them is somewhere between hazardous, and suicidal, definitely extremely stupid, and definitely not courageous. At least for humans - and the Hyperboreans are a Greek myth! Nietzsche doesn't help, against dehydration, hypothermia, or slipping and falling to death due to inadequate footwear.
50
A line of Robert Frost comes to mind: "And now if you're lost enough to find yourself...."
9
A beautiful,personal, spiritual allegory........of how one becomes what his thought constructs....... while also uncovering,possibly, enlightening cracks in the limits of thinking.......ONCE the realm of the endless present moment of life.........BECOMES APPARENT............search for absolute meaning becomes absurd.......as all the infinite possibilities are equally real !
5
No photographs with the article I guess means that he wanted the moment to moment experience without the distraction of - where should I take my next selfie.
2
MEM has it right. Are rescuers required to risk their own lives to get this wooly-headed prof off a mountain?
20
Ya gotta have a gimmick. Might as well use a famous philosopher's name to justify dumbness.
"No, of course not. Running shoes would be fine."
Even beginning hikers at Mt. Washington in NH know this is breathless nonsense.
24
Every responsible hiker knows that you don't pitch rocks over the edge-- even a pebble can act like a bullet.
81
As is so often the case, the man should have listened to his wife and gotten “more technical” shoes.
76
September 22, 2018
Nietzsche new having a last supper would negate his profound glory that God is dead! So forget the mountain top or bottom and enjoy the sneakers and take the trip / journey with a ultimate victory self philosophical navigation and a few the great philosophers from diverse range of cultural inheritance. So let's just say ME2 made me do it - that all you can obtain in the best or the worst of philosophical enlightenment from high to low we are always moving in circles with or without our comrades in the gig.....
jja
1
I came away from this thinking, for the love of God professor, wear proper hiking shoes! ;)
22
@If I wasn't Diogenes, I'd like to be Diogenes too.
As someone who has hiked a lot in Switzerland, the author is foolish not to wear proper hiking shoes, Even lightweight ones would be sturdier than running shoes. If you were on a hike with a guide and didn't have appropriate footwear, he would not let you hike because you would be putting the rest of the group in danger. Running sneakers just cannot withstand the wear and tear on and against the rocks.
14
Who you are seems to be foolheartedly venturing off track ill-equipped and ill-prepared. Track shoes on an alpine trail? You're just asking for trouble. You don't need Nietsche to know there's a serious neurosis buried here somewhere.
20
@gs amen
2
4 Existential limits: Freedom, Responsibility, Meaninglessness, Death. We don't get around them. Family, Utilitarian pursuits.Choosing actions. finding hard limits. I heard yesterday 67% of US does not have any money to take a flight across the country to attend a funeral- its all tied up in just getting by. 2 out of 3 of us. Your concerns are a rich person's concerns, and may be fatuous. Care for others. Care for yourself.
21
Just a quick note. How come there are still nutty tourists wandering around on the high trecks of the alps in runnng sneakers in spite of the clear warnings of the locals. It costs the Swiss mountain rescue services hunderd thousands of $$ to rescue these clueless "andventurers" in their sartorial splendor of lowland running sneakers, baggy sweatpants or even worse skimpy shorts. Nietsche would strongly disapprove of them.
47
Thanks, Mr. Kang. I enjoyed that. But I have a question about Frederic Nietzsche.
What was the man trying to do?
Was he laying down general rules for life? Epictetus was. All the Stoics were. Starting with Zeno--and moving on to Cleanthes--and moving on to the celebrated Chrysippus--
--they were telling us, "Live life according to Nature." Or (as Chrysippus put it): "Live life according to the experience of things that accord with nature."
And these guys WORKED on it. They expanded. They refined. Stoicism was always--a work in progress.
But it was supposed to WORK. Help people.
Like that man in Horace--an antiques dealer who went bankrupt. Went out to throw himself off a bridge. Was converted by a Stoic philosopher. Went on living.
Do you find this in Nietzsche? You would know better than me. But I have read of him--
--that he was, basically, a frustrated artist "You are a failed composer," Wagner told him once. To his annoyance.
"Also Sprach Zarathustra"--"Anti-Christ"--all the smart sayings--aphorisms--epigrams--
--are these really meant to make sense of human life? Rules to live by. Precepts to make us happier. Wiser. Better.
Or is all this just the frustrated artist? Stuff he did instead of writing poetry. Or composing operas.
If so, Mr. Kang--
--then I may READ Mr. Nietzsche--
--but I'm not going HIKING with him. I would prefer--
--"A Beginner's Guide To Mountaineering"
Or something.
30
@Susan Fitzwater Nietzsche was an existentialist. He pondered the nature of meaning and his answers like those of Sartre and Kiekegaard give us some ideas on how to find meaning ourselves but it's more like a rough guide rather than a rulebook.
9
Last Fall, I was in San Bernardo on the Swiss-Italian border at the top of the Aosta Valley to begin a portion of Via Francigena, a Camino of its own. It was the steepest segment and worst choice for a first day. I’ll be going back soon, better prepared.
After completing the Portuguese and El Norte Caminos and part of the French Camino, I’ve noticed that like my fellow pilgrims, folks tend to get philosophical, especially after shedding pounds, toenails, and the distractions at home. You find the essential “you” absent your familial and professional identities.
Quotes that explain in better:
As often as not, we are homesick most for the places we have never known. (Ironically) Author Unknown
All travel is circular... It's just the inspired man's way of heading home.
You go away for a long time and return a different person - you never come all the way back. Paul Theroux
18
Interesting the wisdom of so many of the comments. Perhaps this was the author's subtle intent?
8
We have had too many articles on suicide and death recently. It would be nice to visit Spinoza's landscape:
"Homo liber de nulla re minus, quam de morte cogitat, et ejus sapientia non mortis, sed vitae meditatio est."
"A free man thinks of death least of all things; and his wisdom is a meditation not of death but of life. "
What a contrast between Nietzsche and Spinoza! Nietzsche represents a glorification of irrational tendencies while Spinoza
symbolizes the eternal quest for reason in our everyday decisions. In these trying times, where reason is under attack from many fronts, we need Spinoza not Nietzsche.
23
Perhaps a better philosophical mentor than Nietzsche? Existentialism makes happiness unobtainable.
3
@familydoc I disagree - I think existentialism is necessary - but perhaps Nietzschean existentialism may not be conducive to happiness.
5
"Philosophically, Nietzsche is a mystic and an irrationalist. His metaphysics consists of a somewhat “Byronic” and mystically “malevolent” universe; his epistemology subordinates reason to “will,” or feeling or instinct or blood or innate virtues of character. But, as a poet, he projects at times (not consistently) a magnificent feeling for man’s greatness, expressed in emotional, not intellectual, terms.
-Ayn Rand
3
I still love the mountains, but no longer have the need to place myself in situations from I am pushed to the limit to escape. I suspect there may have been something besides philosophy behind that need. I assume you have read Krakauer's "Into the Wild."
Consider staying at home and watching "My Dinner with Andre" for vicarious, silly life threatening thrills, then read your daughter a nice bedtime story with a happy ending.
You sound a little like Pirsig. Consider that philosophy may not be the correct discipline to deal with mental imbalance.
Your daughter needs you to care for yourself.
26
What an utterly shallow treatment of Nietzschean conscience, one framed and infused with an ontology of Becoming. Not one mention of mountains as the domain of ubermen. As one writer puts it: “You won't find reasonable men on the tops of tall mountains." And unless you're a Platonist you wont find too much concern about the all too human ideals and conscience.
1
Risk is managed or unmanaged. Say nothing of the endless feedback and potential of climbing mountains, and the rich panoply of age old metaphors there.
I grew up in the mountains and am an avid hiker. Never throw rocks. Ever.
70
Signing up for a 1/2-day mountaineering course, although forcing you to admit to yourself that you're possibly not as self-sufficient as you would like to be, would really help a lot if you want to enjoy the Alps! Also hiking boots and some rented poles :-)
An additional note: carrying books up high mountains costs energy. Your Nietzsche tome was probably not only draining you psychologically but also in the banal physical sense. Next time try leaving him in the valley where he belongs?
15
James Gerald “Lou” Gorman was the General Manager of the Boston Red Sox 1983-1993 and a follower of the Stoic Epictetus. In response to a frothing band of sports writers pestering him about a persistent contract dispute with Roger Clemens, Lou remarked, “The sun will rise, the sun will set, and I’ll have lunch.”
8
I'm another voice here in favor of Nietzsche, but let's make it plainer: He is among the most brilliant, insightful, life-affirming writers of any age. Yes, he has major faults, his misogyny being the most prominent. But he is very much worth the time of anyone who cares about - forgive the phrase, but it is apt here - the meaning of life.
5
"Epic Tedious" is either a terrific malapropism or an example of Kaag's daughter wit. Laugh out loud.
6
I think that it helps to remember that Nietzsche was, in fact, insane. I'm not too sure about Professor Kaag -- particularly in his choice of footwear. If I may stretch a point in a paraphrase of Nietzsche's most well known quote, "What kills us -- kills us."
Now, who wants to answer the question: Who was more insane, Nietzsche or Kierkegaard?
11
People find themselves in a myriad of different ways. But I think that one necessary ingredient is getting on with one's life. One night, lost on a mountain, may help, but I very much doubt that anybody ever did it by living in a cave up that mountain for months or years.
Think, yes. Read, yes. Question, yes. But above all, get on with it. Pizza and beer won't impede your satori.
4
This is the illusion of philosophy since Plato - that one can somehow find an absolute standpoint above everything else, in order to see reality "as it is". I prefer kayaking. In kayaking, one is completely at the mercy of the sea, and yet the surface is the perfect medium for travelling. You set your course and go, adjusting for wind, waves and various sea conditions. If you paddle to the "outside" you will experience both fear and respect for the elements. But you also quickly realize how insignificant the human figure is in the scheme of things. The swells are never-ending and ceaseless; they will eventually grind everything to the same consistency. We are left with a sense of awe and wonder and a deep connection to all other human beings.
10
As a philosophy student years ago at UNC Chapel Hill and someone who later spent 4 months trekking in the Andes, the Amazon and the Galapagos mostly alone, I thoroughly enjoyed John Kaag's piece here.
It reminded me not only of my travels. It also reminded me of one of Nietzsche's famous quotes, "Having the courage of one's convictions is a modest virtue. Being willing to attack those convictions is another matter altogether". As Kaag discovered, the man who returned from the mountain wasn't the same as the one who ascended it. He no doubt learned another truism: it's not the destination, it's the journey that counts.
29
Norwegian opera singer Kirsten Flagstad was asked what it took to make a great Isolde and she said "A comfortable pair of shoes".
Hiking and climbing are not the only uses for sensible shoes.
Perhaps John Kaag could learn a thing or two from a Wagnerian soprano familiar with marathon journeys of the vocal variety.
19
Even Nietzsche spent the majority of his time in an inn or a pension, eating his dinner or composing the day’s allotment of prose. Alpine solitude, with its rarefied air and closeness to death, is like a terrace with a view, but you can only enjoy it after the fact, from the safety of workplace and family, in reflective meditation. Life is a shrunken New York City apartment crammed with so many possessions you can’t walk or breathe. Too many cast-off versions of ourselves already take up much needed closet space. Meditating on “one’s” own death (from the safety of a cozy lair) is like giving a few of them up to the Salvation Army.
6
I've started on Nietzsche a few times. Never got very far, even the aphorisms. I just don't know how to "breathe in the air" of his writings. I've read summaries of his work, which are much more bearable. IMO, with Hegel and Wittgenstein, he is the most overrated of famous philosophers.
1
@DHEisenberg
I respectfully but profoundly disagree with your assessment of Nietzsche. I was introduced to him by auditing a college course with an excellent professor, and I suggest you try this. He is truly worth getting to know.
8
@DHEisenberg
If anything, his philosophical and literary merits are underrated. It seems to me that his prose belongs among the most beatiful ever written. For all his ramblings and bluster, he is appreciated and loved by many competent philosphers.
3
Pretty stupid for a smart guy!
Analyze your feelings and the meaning of the experience all you want afterwards, but it is obvious that you failed to plan properly, that you should have known better (you made the same mistake before), and that by risking your life heedlessly you also put your family's well-being at risk.
37
@MEM: I agree. I think Nietzsche would be happy to recommend a good pair of hiking boots to head out on a perilous journey instead of trying it in sneakers.
6
Thank you for a column about Nietzsche that is not an apology. He has such a bad rep from those who have not read him.
Nietzsche and I met when I was in my 30s. That was wise: he's wrecked the lives of many a younger man, leading them to the tom-fooleries of Ayn Rand and other lightweights.
I am also a hiker, but of the gentler slopes and lower heights. Given the chance to race up Ben Nevis with hundreds of others one day, I chose to explore the Glen around it, to see the mountain from many different perspectives.
Maybe that's why I still read Nietzsche, along with Annie Dillard, Ed Abbey, and Robert MacFarlane. Now I can add John Kaag's book to my list.
20
I enjoyed reading this piece. I agree with an earlier commentator as I too was reminded of Zen and the Art. I thought of another voice, Black Elk and a statement attributed to him: the secret mountain is everywhere. As poets know and demonstrate, astounding insights can be found everywhere, even in the mundane. I think your students are fortunate!
19
Speaking from experience, it is far too easy to imagine that if we have the Will, we can bend the world around us to our desire. That isn't even true of people around us, but far less so with the implacably meaningless forces of nature, which will kill us as randomly as they will help us.
I hope only that the author's lesson to himself truly sinks in. And that we all learn enough from it. Nature always bats last, as someone wrote after the terrible 2011 disaster in Japan. So we should know when to forfeit the field.
20
In Zen we learn that all of this kind of rumination is simply pointless chatter. It goes nowhere. It leads to no great understanding. Indeed, it is in and of itself suffering. It arises out of confusion about the nature of reality. This confusion arises because we see ourselves as a particular thing that is traveling through space and time. It comes out of a presumption that there is something we can call a self––something relatively static and physically distinct from the world "out there". This is ignorance. I pity Western philosophers. And I especially pity their students.
The Western world is doomed to endless suffering until we learn to discern between the world of our thoughts and the world as it actually is. The world of our thoughts is a world divided into separate things, places and times. Reality itself is not like this. This is not how we actually experience reality. This is known in Buddhism as the distinction between relative reality and Absolute Reality. And unless one understands this distinction, it's impossible to understand the Buddha's teachings. It is impossible to find the way out of suffering and confusion.
May I recommend Steve Hagen's book Why the World Doesn't Seem to Make Sense: https://www.amazon.com/World-Doesnt-Seem-Make-Sense/dp/1591811805
It is the best philosophy book ever written by an American, and sadly under appreciated.
May I also recommend my little book The Ultimate Distinction.
8
@Matt Mullen
It's interesting to read a different philosophical point of view of how to interpret reality. Fundamentally we each construct a representation of the world in our minds that's informed by our memories, our impulses, and even our senses. People who have various forms of color blindness literally don't see the world the same way as others. Our truths are largely relative and often arbitrary, but hopefully they're useful in living and letting others live as they wish.
To the extent we seek a philosophical or religious explanation for our place in the world, it's one we impose or allow to be imposed on ourselves. Humans naturally want some understanding of reality and our place in it. Sometimes it's extremely shallow and self centered. Sometimes it animates our prejudices or justifies our hatreds. Sometimes it won't let us ignore the problems we perceive in every direction. And sometimes it reassures us everything is ultimately ok.
I think the ability to think deeply about meaning is potentially one of the great gifts of the human mind. It provides endless opportunities for intellectual exploration of various philosophies, for finding solace in a troubled world, or for the impetus to make personal or societal changes.
But the choices are individual. To each [his/her/gender non-conforming] own as we find our ways.
3
@Matt Mullen I've studied Zen for many years, but I still prefer to struggle with the infinite. Yes, I may fall prey to 10,000 things chattering in my head, but the Western drive for "beyond" led us to the Moon and, if we endure, that drive will colonize the Solar System.
Bodhidharma, on the other hand, stared at a wall for 9 years until his arms and legs withered. One might say that he discovered himself by emptying himself, fair enough. But the Western impulse to wrestle with essentialist questions led us to the age of Reason, to the Enlightenment, and, yes, to Auschwitz and Climate Change. I want it to stop future genocides, fix our battered ecosystems, and lead our species to the stars.
I'd prefer to take my chances with change and wrestling with chaos.
7
@Matt Mullen
Matt, forgive me for not being as polite in my reply as Mr. Tyndall. - - - So, you say "I pity Western philosophers. And I especially pity their students." - - - Wow. It must be nice to have access to the absolute truth that the rest of the world is having such difficulty finding. - - - The Buddha is reported to have said "Doubt everything. Find your own light." Perhaps you can enlighten him with your wisdom.
11
I find it strangely difficult to get engaged in the meaning of life when our country's future seems balanced on a knife's edge. Perhaps it's the immediacy of standing on a sharp ledge with a tremendous fall to one side. We could do with a philosopher king right about now. Or just a halfway intelligent and moral president.
34
@Michael Tyndall
I find the opposite. Assessing the meaning of life (or the lack thereof) is almost a form of meditation for me. On the scale of infinity, how important is a supreme court justice?
It's tempting to check out, enjoy the privileges that I have, and live as happily as I can for as long as I can. Perhaps selfish. But on the scale of infinity...
3
So when someone tells you to 'take a hike' you take them literally and off you go with Nietzsche into the unknown. I hope you write down your elevating thoughts, pardon the pun, when you return home which is the final destination for all your hikes.
I have been lax about reading the latest philosophers out there as well as the most well known and profound ones. Your column just inspired me to find the Steven Pinker tomes I put aside for fluffy summer reading.
It is amazing that 'man' gets anything done as we are really mental processors always observing, thinking, learning, and analyzing.
Thank you for a good Sunday column read.
13
Wherever you've been, wherever you're going anywhere in this world, just remember this: Eternity only exists in the present moment. While not my own words, I believe they're words to live by.
I walk 17 miles each day and into the evening, through rain, snow, sleet, hail, ice, and sometimes even perfectly clear conditions, so I totally get the author's drift and thank him for sharing them.
Keep climbing!
7
@Guido Malsh: Why do you walk 17 miles each day? Is it the same walk each day, as in to and from work? I'm a natural 'sitter'. I'm always saying, "Go for a walk". But I rarely do. I so admire you!
6
Thank you for a thought-stimulating article. It would be interesting to hear your feelings about other contemporaries of Nietzsche.
2
Thanks for the memories. Many hours spent in the Fextal as a child back in the 1950s. Sils Maria, Pontresina and Sils Baselgia. I introduced my children to the area in the 1980s. Just plain gorgeous and then when the day is finished a wonderful meal.
8
It's an enjoyable article but I can't get past the author's pride in ignoring his wife's plea to wear safer shoes. It may be philosophical to risk your own future, but it's something else to risk the future of your family.
75
@M. Casey
I feel the same. Let me be clear, I don't object to the author's search for lofty insights.
But his reckless penchant for inadequate footwear or for choosing unsafe routes made me wonder. He even mentions his wife's concern and daughter's fear of death. He knows. So... why?
We are helpless in the face of a loved one's insistence on taking deadly risks. It's one thing to climb. It's another to deepen the danger with improper preparation or defiance of safe routes.
I have read very little of Nietszche; Kant is more my guide, (though I'm weak in understanding him too, I realize). But many who idolize Nietzsche seem to be besotted with some idea of "ubermenschian" (forgive lack of umlaut) self-will and testing.
I don't blame Nietzche for the author's brushing off his wife's concern. But dead is dead, whether a loved one is on a lofty Alpine ledge pursuing meaning or shooting drugs under a freeway. The loss to the family is bottomless.
Kant would, I believe, have something to say about this puzzling need to beckon fate.
8
@M. Casey
Yeah, good point. I could see myself doing this at age 38, but I was single then.
3
To Mr. Kaag -
Dude, your eagerness to experience life and find the answers and write and talk about your view is palpable! Your article also reads as though you've hardly changed since you started hiking 19 years ago.
As you learn to relax, to be more aware and receptive to feedback, and less eager to pontificate, you may find the growth & wisdom that you crave will come your way.
What would happen if you resisted the urge to provide a quick answer to your daughter? Be more receptive to what she is expressing? Just listen.
You may have explored other philosophers, other wisdom, in addition to Nietzsche. It sounds like you are convinced the answers are just around the corner and you'll soon be able to write about them. You'll have it figured out!
Paradoxically, as long as you hold that belief and your brain is set to "output", it won't process as much input, and you will continue your struggle.
Many use meditation and self-awareness to help with these questions and to be more receptive.
Sincere best wishes on your journeys. I enjoy reading articles like yours by people who care to try to answer the big questions.
51
@Bill, reread the article, for your comments are tone-deaf to Kaag’s humility thoroughout the essay.
8
Thanks to the writer and editor for this fine essay. For all who read it, regardless of their response, it will be “worth it”. Seeking one’s place in the universe whether from a backyard tree or a distant mountain can bring important understanding of life (and death) and the wonder of it all. Life and death are always connected despite our desire. Good to recognize and embrace.
17
This piece reminds me of Zen in the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. To me it demonstrates the whole point of philosophy when it's so nicely interwoven with real world experience. I'd suggest that we're all Hyperboreans whose inner mountains and valleys can be explored through a variety of practices that don't involve the possibility of injury. Remaining in our little huts with the windows shuttered is just one option.
12
I really enjoyed this article. Thanks for sharing it.
Years ago I really liked going off on my own, and I’d appreciate how I got a different vantage point. I didn’t need to be far from people, but it helped to be far from people I knew.
In college I studied Taoism a little, and found I could get a similar kind of distance by focusing intently on work in front of me. Unlike the author’s hike, I think this kind of distance helps you lose yourself, instead of facing yourself.
My teacher suggested this focus helps us become flexible, like saplings. I offered that trees on the edge of a forest really need flexibility, but those further in benefit from being tall and solid. I thought we should be flexible but our society should let us hold onto principles, especially with age.
Maybe a challenging hike like his does both, forcing you to focus and offering space to reflect. Coming back from both spaces can feel refreshing.
I especially like how he found a fresh love for his home. Maybe, for some of us, home is a space between that Taoist focus and Nietzsche’s solitude, where we are constantly pushed and pulled by currents of our own and others’ making.
Maybe these hikes help the author remember how to swim: make home feel like his place as much as others’ so that the tumult brings more joy than frustration, at least for a time. That kind of wisdom seems worth the humbling crawl home, he might do again.
Thanks again. There’s a lot more to draw from this piece, but it was fun.
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I come from humble circumstance, working class parents from working class and farming class parents. The idea that one has to attain extraordinary planetary visions to become spiritually or intellectually enlightened I find objectionable. As one who spent many hours in my youth lying in the branches of trees listening to the wind and gazing at the sky, I found enlightenment without the grand vistas required by travel to distant places. There are two distinct realities in being human, the reality of the physical universe and the reality of the mind. The mind can take us anywhere we wish to go with out moving, and the best voyages occur when we are in a state of isolation to the realities of the physical universe, our senses of sight, sound, touch, smell, are turned off, and we are completely absorbed in the reality of the mind, a state similar to sleep but with the conscious mind still active.
As to the questions of life and death and what it all means, I find over analyzing the value of worth a waste of valuable time. If, as science assumes it is, that our universe is roughly 14 billion years old, and is large as science portrays it to be, and there seems to be no limit as to how small the things that it is made of are, and it is as complex as we understand it to be, and we admit to ourselves just how short our existence really is, then we are left with the truth that we are insignificant to the reality of the universe, so why not make the best of what time we have in it.
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@Ed Clark >the best voyages occur when we are in a state of isolation to the realities of the physical universe,.............
.............
This explains Leftist politics. And Trump.
"My daughter often worries about death."
And one can understand that with a father who seems to take pleasure in taking (unnecessary) risks and then writing about them.
Some people have to take risks for a living or the risks come with the job. While philosophy professors might have to risk bored students and occasionally hostile administrations and perhaps an indifferent general population, Prof. Kaag takes risks for his own pleasure.
Does he think that telling his daughter about Epiceteus will solve his daughter's fears?
Being a parent has responsibilities. Risking one's life for pleasure and op-eds is not one of them.
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@Joshua Schwartz
Thank you, Joshua. I read the comments to get a different perspective and you have given one here. I appreciate this side of the story.
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@Joshua Schwartz
The authors daughters´ worry about death may have nothing to do with the authors adventures. Perhaps, the two are completely unrelated.
Unless you take a deeper dive into her concern, I suggest that you withhold all assumptions.
I, for one, recommend each person, regardless of parenting status, live life to the fullest. Wha's the point of this gift we call ¨life¨, if not to experience it?
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Kids, there are things you have to do to get a book written and publicized. For his book, it is necessary to hike in a particular place, or is it the other way around, that he likes the very indefensible thrill of unplanned hiking, was teaching philosophy and saw the chance for a book? One of those questions not likely to keep me up at night.
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As it has been said, there are many ways to the top of the mountain, but the view at the top is the same. Eventually the author will find the top.
Climbing rocky trails in running shoes rarely works out well, as the author discovered. Courage is not fearlessness but management of one’s fear. Nietzche was a controversial thinker. The quotes cited seem to indicate feelings that represent a longing to escape confinements. Was the philosopher seeking higher consciousness and greater enlightenment or was he fleeing from something that was dreadful for him?
The author seeks greater understanding represented by achieving a higher elevation from which to view everything. He does not seem to have worked out a plan, yet. When he has, he will set out with hiking boots, and back up plans in case he runs into trouble.
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I am always pleased to find a fellow traveller along life's path who enjoys Nietzsche.
But - like Fight Club - there are certain Nietzschean rules to follow: Rule 1 - Despite what it may look like - Nietzsche never tells anyone how to do anything.
This is an easy test to suss out true Nietzsche aficionados - Nietzsche has no systems - Nietzsche wants us to become who we are and not what he [or anyone else for that matter] wants us to be.
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Having read that little essay, I certainly feel confused and uneasy. I dislike thinking about self-induced physical danger. What I am not sure about is whether the experience of reading it was enlightening. Deep understanding is not an instant commodity. When I figure that out, I will return to this page, and if the comment section is still open, will write more.
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