How One Becomes What One Is Alexander Neehamas Summary

In his essay, How One Becomes What One Is Alexander Nehamas tries to make sense of the title of his essay which is also the subtitle of Nietzsche’s Ecce Homo. Nehamas identifies a number of apparent contradictions between Nietzsche’s philosophy and the aphoristic subtitle. His goal in writing his essay is to show the contradictions to be misinformed as well as convey a more precise portrayal of the aphorism in the context of Nietzschean philosophy. Rather than evaluate the contradictions he dispels, this essay will summarize his interpretation of “how one becomes what one is”. Nehamas argues that a distinction between being and becoming is central to Nietzsche’s meaning. Often humans speak of the world as if it were static and episodic; but this is false. The world is constantly changing and states of being can only exist through abstract reflection. Likewise, the self is constantly changing and is never in a state of being, rather, it is always becoming. Given this the self will never be
To an extent we are, though this doesn’t capture the full connotation Nehamas denotes. He describes Nietzsche’s conception of the self in a similar way to the philosophy of mind proposed by bundle theorists: The self is a sum of our thoughts, desires, and actions. From a perspective of self over time we get character. Character and the way in which we develop it is central to how we become what we are. Citing the Nietzsche Nehamas refers to a passage where Nietzsche talks of giving one’s character style. By this he means that we ought to shape our character by our own standards and in accordance with our natural tendencies, this does not mean we should try to rid ourselves of all our faults, in fact we should venerate them as essential determinates of our life’s progress. Through the imposition of higher order thoughts action and desire over those we deem lower, one becomes what one