Amor fati

Amor fati is a Latin phrase that may be translated as "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 or, at the very least, necessary.[1]

For other uses, see Amor fati (disambiguation).

Amor fati is often associated with what Friedrich Nietzsche called "eternal recurrence", the idea that, over an infinite period of time, everything recurs infinitely. From this he developed a desire to be willing to live exactly the same life over and over for all eternity ("...long for nothing more fervently than this ultimate eternal confirmation and seal”).[2]

Nietzsche

The concept of amor fati has been linked to Epictetus.[3] It has also been linked to the writings of Marcus Aurelius,[4] who did not use the words (he wrote in Greek, not Latin).[5] However, it found its most explicit expression in Nietzsche, who made love of fate central to his philosophy. In "Why I Am So Clever" Ecce Homo, section 10, he writes:[6]

"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 mendacity in the face of what is necessary—but love it."

The phrase is used elsewhere in Nietzsche's writings and is representative of the general outlook on life that he articulates in section 276 of The Gay Science:

"I want to learn more and more to see as beautiful what is necessary in things; then I shall be one of those who makes 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."

Nietzsche in this context refers to the "Yes-sayer", not in a political or social sense, but as a person who is capable of uncompromising acceptance of reality per se.

R. J. Hollingdale, who translated Thus Spake Zarathustra into English, argued that Nietzsche's idea of amor fati originated in the Lutheran Pietism of his childhood.[7]

Suffering

Nietzsche's love of fate naturally leads him to confront the reality of suffering in a radical way. For to love that which is necessary demands not only that we love the bad along with the good, but that we view the two as inextricably linked. In section 3 of the preface of The Gay Science, he writes:[8]

"Only great pain is the ultimate liberator of the spirit….I doubt that such pain makes us ‘better’; but I know that it makes us more profound."

Nietzsche does not promote suffering as a good in itself, but rather as a precondition for good. A 'single moment' of good justifies an eternity of bad, but one extreme cannot have meaning without the other. In Will to Power, he writes:[9]

"For nothing is self-sufficient, neither in us ourselves nor in things; and if our soul has trembled with happiness and sounded like a harp string just once, all eternity was needed to produce this one event—and in this single moment of affirmation all eternity was called good, redeemed, justified, and affirmed.”

Modern development

Camus

The French philosopher Albert Camus spoke of a desire to accept and even come to love difficulty along with ease, or at least to not ignore it. In The Myth of Sisyphus ("Return to Tipasa"), he writes:[10]

"What else can I desire than to exclude nothing and to learn how to braid with white thread and black thread a single cord stretched to the breaking-point?".

Camus, like Nietzsche, held his embrace of fate to be central to his philosophy and to life itself. Summarizing his general view of life in the above work, Camus further spoke of:

"a will to live without rejecting anything of life, which is the virtue I honor most in this world."

Cultural references
  • Lewis British TV show, episode "Beyond Good and Evil (Part 1)" - The term is shown on a T-shirt worn conspicuously by a young acolyte of the convicted perpetrator who killed three policemen, and who spent 13 years in a mental hospital but was then cleared. The acolyte is told by the perpetrator that he is now the accused, having killed one policeman and attacked another, as police come for him. The story resolves in Part 2.
  • Canadian DJ deadmau5 displayed this term in a concert while playing the song "Bleed", which was dedicated to a fan of his who tragically died in a car crash on his way to deadmau5's concert.[11]
  • Dark (TV series) reference it throughout the series, along with Nietzsches's eternal recurrence.
  • Norwegian metal band Peccatum titled their 2000 album Amor Fati.
  • Artist Washed Out composed a song Amor Fati in which the lyrics encourage the listener to embrace a loving, stoic view of their life.
  • Amazon prime show, Paatal Lok, is story which illustrates this concept. In this show, the hero while navigating abundant ugliness and suffering of the world is gets enlightened and empowered by realizing Amor Fati. He is set free by the realization that most important part of his life is his daily duties, however mired in misery, is also a source of life's beauty.
  • The X-Files has an episode called The Sixth Extinction II: Amor Fati in which Mulder has dreams of an alternate life when kept in a coma by the Cigarette Smoking Man.

See also

References
  1. "Amor Fati: The Formula for Human Greatness". Daily Stoic.
  2. The Gay Science IV, §341
  3. Enchiridion of Epictetus Ch. VIII: "Do not seek for things to happen the way you want them to; rather, wish that what happens happen the way it happens: then you will be happy."—as quoted in Pierre Hadot (1998), The Inner Citadel: The Meditations of Marcus Aurelius, p. 143.
  4. Meditations IV.23:
    "All that is in accord with you is in accord with me, O World! Nothing which occurs at the right time for you comes too soon or too late for me. All that your seasons produce, O Nature, is fruit for me. It is from you that all things come: all things are within you, and all things move toward you." — as quoted in Hadot (1998), p. 143.
  5. "An Interview with the Master: Robert Greene on Stoicism". Daily Stoic.
  6. Basic Writings of Nietzsche. trans. and ed. by Walter Kaufmann (1967), p. 714.
  7. Nietzsche, Friedrich (28 February 1974). Thus Spoke Zarathustra. Translated by Hollingdale, R. J. Penguin Books Limited. p. 30. ISBN 978-0-14-190432-0.
  8. Leiter, Brian (2015-01-01). Zalta, Edward N. (ed.). The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Winter 2015 ed.).
  9. Will to Power §1032, Trans. by Walter Kaufman and R. J. Holdingdale. Vintage Books, 1968.
  10. Aronson, Ronald (2017), Zalta, Edward N. (ed.), "Albert Camus", The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Summer 2017 ed.), Metaphysics Research Lab, Stanford University, retrieved 2019-03-24
  11. Deadmau5 Mullins Center Closing, RIP robert bobby clifford., retrieved 2020-01-28
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