“To live alone one must be an animal or a god — says Aristotle. There is yet a third case: one must be both — a philosopher.”Friedrich Nietzsche · Amurgul idolilor · 1888 · Maxime și săgeți, 3
Who lives by instinct like an animal and thinks like a god no longer needs others as a mirror.
Nietzsche completes Aristotle's observation that solitude is reserved for beings either subhuman or superhuman. The ordinary person's problem is needing others as a mirror: without them, one dissolves into unanswered questions. The philosopher, Nietzsche says, unites both extremes: living from instinct like an animal and from thought like a god, thus lacking the social validation that keeps everyone else bound. A concrete example: a solitary thinker whose days are sustained by simple bodily routines and intense intellectual work, without feeling the social void.
Nietzsche does not merely borrow Aristotle's remark; he turns it into a diagnosis. Most people do not fear solitude itself, but the loss of the mirror: without others' gaze, they no longer know who they are. That is why we fill silence with noise, messages, background TV. The philosopher Nietzsche describes is not socially stronger, but less dependent: the body gives him the day's rhythm, thinking gives him meaning. Someone choosing solitude can run the same test: if a whole Sunday of silence becomes unbearable, you still rely on the mirror. The next question is how to train these two inner resources.
Why it matters Relevant for anyone choosing extended solitude: it shows which inner resources, instinct and thought, you must develop so isolation does not break you.