Amor fati
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Amor fati is a Latin phrase that loosely translates to "love of fate" or "love of one's fate". It is used to describe an attitude in which one sees everything that happens in one's life, including suffering and loss, as good. That is, one feels that everything that happens is destiny's way of reaching its ultimate purpose, and so should be considered good. Moreover, it is characterized by an acceptance of the events that occur in one's life. It is almost identical to the Jewish concept of Gam Zu Letovah (this too is for the best).
The phrase is used repeatedly in Nietzsche's writings and is representative of the general outlook on life he articulates in section 276 of The Gay Science, which reads,
I want to learn more and more to see as beautiful what is necessary in things; then I shall be one of those who make things beautiful. Amor fati: let that be my love henceforth! I do not want to wage war against what is ugly. I do not want to accuse; I do not even want to accuse those who accuse. Looking away shall be my only negation. And all in all and on the whole: some day I wish to be only a Yes-sayer.
Quote from "Why I Am So Clever" in Ecce Homo, section 10[1]:
My formula for greatness in a human being is amor fati: that one wants nothing to be different, not forward, not backward, not in all eternity. Not merely bear what is necessary, still less conceal it—all idealism is mendaciousness in the face of what is necessary—but love it.
Outside of Nietzsche's works, the phrase can be found in works as far removed from German philosophy as Frank Herbert's God Emperor of Dune.
It is mentioned in Hermann Hesse's novel The Glass Bead Game. There, it is used to describe part of Joseph Knecht's attitude towards life.
This phrase was also seen on the opening credits of the The X-Files Season 7 Episode 2 entitled "The Sixth Extinction II: Amor Fati" instead of the usual phrase "The Truth Is Out There".
Additionally, the phrase was used by the Protagonist, Ghost in the Matrix video game.
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ Basic Writings of Nietzsche. trans. and ed. by Walter Kaufmann. 1967. p. 714.
