Long needed update.

As the months progressed onwards, I find myself within the last month and a half of my thesis year. It was meant to be due in this Friday, but a number of circumstances have come up: my supervisor is still overseas, fell ill with chest infection in remote Ireland, have had very little feedback, but... still we struggle onwards.

On May 11th I finally presented my thesis to the philosophy lecturers and guests. It went surprisingly well, and I was very proud of myself. And let me tell you - walking out of that Seminar was incredible. The week before I was to present, my doubts hit severe critical level, but after an emotion email to Paul and fellow philosophy friends, I pulled up out of my self-doubts and continued to work hard on my presentation summary.



I spoke for 40 minutes, outlining my thesis argument, providing support for my quest to define Nietzsche's individual over the course of his early, middle and late works. The Q+A went well also, I obtained some valuable questions that need to be attended to and got the much needed confidence boost.

July 1st is the due date - and I think I will reach it. Despite the personal and communication difficulties, I finally see hope for handing this thesis in at a level I feel is worthy of an Honours degree. Well, I am hoping, at least. :)

The final title and abstract:

Individuality - its conception, development and meaning within Friedrich Nietzsche's work.

Abstract -

Nietzsche's rejection of ideas such as religious affirmation, the transcendental ego and Hinterwelter (world-behind) led him to develop a concept of the individual that is based on an internal source of joy, life-history, meaningfulness and interconnectivity with other beings in the phenomenal world. Nietzsche understood a personal perspective of individuality as a result of the processes of perspectivism, creativity and self-affirmation that provides the foundation for one's own uniqueness amongst all other individuals. I will be exploring each of these concepts as they appear throughout Nietzsche's collected works and how they help to transform the initial concept defined within The Birth of Tragedy. By exploring this early beginning and continuing with his middle and late works I wish to provide a detailed understanding of his concept of individuality as it develops away from his early Schopenhauerian influences and into a unique philosophy of the individual. I wish to show that this philosophy supports a foundation for his major well-known doctrines of the Eternal Recurrence and Will to Power and how those concepts in turn define the individual that gives them meaning.

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To share my favourite quote so far that I found the most beautiful and elegant description of his concept;

“In our heart we all know quite well that, being unique, we will be in the world only once and that no imaginable chance will for a second time gather together into a unity so strangely variegated an assortment as we are.” – Nietzsche, Schopenhauer as Educator, [UM, III ,1]

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Let us see how these last 6 weeks go...