I just finished rereading “Twilight of the Idols” by Nietzsche. If you’ve never read Nietzsche before and want to, this is a good place to start. It is relatively easy to understand compared to his other works, and it provides a good summary of his mature philosophy. As I was reading it, I came across four aphorisms that he calls the “four questions of conscience.” I think these questions are essential to uncovering who we really are and who we want to be. They are deceptively simple, but once you answer them carefully and honestly, you end up going deep inside yourself, discovering hidden aspects of your character. In a way, these questions are like markers on a treasure hunt, providing clues for finding the gold at the center of your life. At a practical level, they can help you manage difficult situations in your professional and private life. They can stop you from merely reacting to a situation and help you respond in a way that reflects who you are.
Given Nietzsche’s aphoristic style, these questions can be understood in many ways depending on the perspective of the reader and the context in which they are read. So what I say here is not definitive but provisional. Consider this a starting point for your own self-discovery. Here’s the first question:
You run ahead? Are you doing it as a shepherd? Or as an exception? A third case would be the fugitive. First question of conscience.
This question, I believe, focuses on the motivations behind your attempt to break away from the crowd and establish your own individuality and independence. Are you doing it to create a role model for other people to emulate? Or to distinguish yourself from others? Or are you really running away from yourself and trying to be something you are not? Your motivations can shape your character for better or worse. So it’s important to know what they are.
From a practical perspective, you can ask yourself why you took on that difficult project at work, or that leadership role at your child’s school. By discovering the motivations behind your actions, you can be clear about where you stand and explain your actions to others. These questions can also help you discern what is needed in a particular situation. Sometimes you might need to be a shepherd in order to create an effective team to complete a project, or you might need to do it yourself. What you don’t want to do is do something that doesn’t reflect who you are, or run away from something that is challenging yet rewarding. As Nietzsche says earlier in Twilight, “even the most courageous among us only rarely has the courage for that which he really knows”.
Are you genuine? Or merely an actor? A representative? Or that which is represented? In the end, perhaps you are merely a copy of an actor. Second question of conscience.
This question strikes at the heart of who you are and who you want to be. Are you pretending to be something that you are not? Are you merely representing a socially or economically constructed personality type? Or are you so far removed from yourself that you don’t even know who you are? These questions are straightforward but difficult to ask yourself. But they do give you the opportunity to strip away the surface features of your life and find the life that only you were meant to live. There isn’t, and never will be, someone else like you. It’s time to live out of your own self and not live as others want you to live. “Nothing is at last sacred but the integrity of your own mind” (Emerson, Self-Reliance).
Are you one who looks on? Or one who lends a hand? Or one who looks away and walks off? Third question of conscience.
This question has to do with your relationship with other people. Are you using them as a means to an end? Or are you treating people as unique human beings that are imperfect, fallible and in need of compassion? Do you acknowledge and help those people who have been crushed by circumstances beyond their control? It’s easy to say you would lend a hand to someone theoretically, but much more difficult when you actually face a person in dire straights.
This also relates to small things you do or don’t do for others. Did you give that deserved pat on the back for a job well done? Or give that peck on the cheek to show your love and affection? We sometimes forget to do these things (I know I have), but having these questions in the front of our minds will help us express in our actions what we value and love.
Do you want to walk along? Or walk ahead? Or walk by yourself? One must know what one wants and that one wants. Fourth question of conscience.
This question is the foundation on which the other questions rest. It’s about finding that fire in your heart and directing it towards those things that will give you a full, meaningful life. Don’t expend that fire in a job you don’t like or in a relationship that is clearly not working out. It’s good to be passionate, but even better to direct that passion towards things that will fulfill you.
So ask yourself: Do you want to walk? If you say “yes”, then you need to figure out where you want to go and whether you want to walk with others or not.
Right after Nietzsche asks these questions he claims that “those were steps for me, and I have climbed up over them: to that end I had to pass over them. Yet they thought that I wanted to retire on them”. These questions led Nietzsche to new existential vistas that he thought only a few could traverse. He had the courage to climb the steps. Do you?
Four Questions of Conscience by Philosophical Living is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.