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: Nietzsche describes 'dogmatic philosophy' [i.e., the philosophy of the Enlightenment'],Platonism and Christianity ['Platonism for the people'] and Astrology as monstrous falsehoods making 'promises across millennia'. : Adherents of all the above systems still abound in the world and are sure to describe their own system as exclusively true and the others all as false. : So,for example,the Xtian will heap abuse on the Astrologer and the rational philsopher will deride the 'superstitious',and so on. : But Nietzsche thinks that all these systems are false in their own way; : The dogmatic philosopher is no better at truth than the Astrologer,nor is the Xtian or the Platonist. : This is where Nietzsche puts truth into perspective; : Does it matter that a great piece of intellectual architecture is not 'true'? : Should we rather not look at the efficacy of those systems and ask; : 'Do they enhance life?',do they enrich the Spirit?'. : Not only that;we should look at the amount of creativity,wisdom and knowledge that has been poured into the mold of these systems. : To make the matter clearer we might look at the most superstitious of the systems mentioned,Astrology. : Taking on board Nietzsche's remark; : "Why do we want truth,why not rather untruth?", : we can understand the position of the psychologist C.G.Jung [himself a firm Nietzschean]; : "Astrology represents the summation of all the psychological knowledge of antiquity".[Jung,'Psychology and Alchemy'] : To Jung the "gods of the planets" were the "astrological components of Destiny",which preserved the "bridge" between consciousness and its "natural roots in the unconscious psyche". : "Astrology led consciousness back again and again to the knowledge of the dependence of character and destiny on certain moments in time". [Jung,ib.] : Nietzsche's doctrine of the Eternal Recurrence must be seen in this context.As he wrote in the second 'Unfashionable Observation'; : "That which was ONCE POSSIBLE could present itself as a possibility for a second time only if the Pythagoreans were right in believing that when the constellation of the Heavenly bodies is repeated,the same things,down to the smallest event,must also be repeated on earth...but that will no doubt happen only when the astronomers have again become astrologers". [Nietzsche,ib.] : : Both his emphasis on psychology and his sense of Destiny became more and more acute as Nietzsche philosophy evolved. : To return to Jung; : "Science began with the stars,and mankind discovered in them the dominants of the unconscious,the 'gods',as well as the curious psychological qualities of the Zodiac;a completely projected theory of human character,Astrology is a primordial experience similar to alchemy". [Jung,ib.] : That other Nietzschean August Strindberg's obsession with alchemy becomes more explicable in this light. : All in all we see that Astrology,alchemy,AND philosophy are monuments to RADICAL perspectivism.

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