Why History is Necessary for Existential Meaning | Nietzsche’s Philosophy of History II

Genetics teach us that we are related profoundly to the things that have made us. You belong to what created you. There is no such thing as a self-made person. We are indeed beings that are made, coming into existence in steps, growing and maturing, but we do not make ourselves. We are made by others. Yes, we are agents who can act and choose, but we can only act with what we are given, and we can only choose in the unique matrix of special possibilities that is different for each of us. For anyone who feels the givenness of things—who feels that their life is a thing given them—that you come from somewhere, somewhere outside yourself, that you are not necessary or inevitable, that you are dependent in your whole being on ’the other’—if you feel this, you feel at the very least a sense of gratitude. When you are given a gift, there is always a sense of reciprocity attached. You are thankful, and you feel that you should reciprocate. At the most, you have a sense of profound union with