What is so significant about the concept of a “value for life?” Are our concepts and commitments only valid in regards to their usefulness?
In “The Uses and Disadvantages of History for Life” Nietzsche makes the comment that persons should “ serve history only to the extent that history serves life”, or perhaps in others words humanity should perceive, comprehend and interpret history only to the point of its utility. Further, he advocates what he calls the “active forgetting” of events, the letting go of them, for he argues that “when it [history] attains a certain degree of excess, life crumbles and degenerates, and through this degeneration history itself finally degenerates also.” On face value such a concept may not seem very insightful, but a closer analysis raises some important questions and these will be the focus of this paper.
One of the most important issues that arises when introducing the reader with the concept of a “value for life” is precisely what is meant......
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