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Essay / Nieztsche Three Types of History - 998
Nietzsche has an interesting view of history; he saw it as a necessity for men, but that it should also be forgotten. He considered history as a service rendered to life and the necessity of history for man to be a historical being. However, Nietzsche also believed that too much history was detrimental and created a generation of cynical people. He used the term "interiority" defined as the "chaotic inner world" of man filled with "knowledge, taken in excess without hunger, even contrary to needs" which "no longer acts as a transformative motive pushing towards action and remains hidden” (Nietzsche 24). ). Nietzsche believed that history should be a balanced contemplation between historical and non-historical to preserve life. He writes in his work On the Advantages and Disadvantages of History for Life that "the non-historical and the historical are equally necessary for the health of an individual, a people and a culture" ( 10). In the context of history, Nietzsche named the three types: monumental, antiquarian and critical. Nietzsche approaches history as monumental, examining the past to inspire greatness in present and future actions. Monumental history examines the past to use it as a teacher or model of future greatness. Monumental history looks at the greatest moments in human history and uses them as leverage to imitate or surpass these historical moments. This type of history attempts to imitate the greatness of the past, but Nietzsche is skeptical of this idea, asking whether the past can be reproduced by monumentalizing? Can the greatness that once was become the same again? Nietzsche responded by saying no, unless he distorted the past to achieve the same effect. This type of history belongs to the powerful and middle of paper...... The monarchy and traditions of the past he deeply appreciated. Karl Marx is the historian who relates most closely to the model of critical history. His work, the Communist Manifesto, was a call to the proletarian class to take up arms in the class struggle. This struggle opposed the working class (proletariat) and the bourgeoisie (owners of production). Marx criticized the capitalist system because he believed that once wealth was concentrated in the hands of a handful of capitalists, chaos would ensue and the disaffected proletarian class would erupt in violence. Marx criticized the capitalist system because he judged it to contain the seeds of destruction. Marx appealed to the working class who were suffering at this stage from the class uprising against the rich class and the struggle for economic freedom..