Atomism#
Summary#
Atomism is referenced as an analogy for the logician’s error of positing a necessary subject behind every action. Just as older atomism sought a material particle (the atom) as the underlying substrate behind every operating power, logicians similarly assume that the “I” or “ego” must exist as the agent behind the act of thinking. Nietzsche suggests that more rigorous minds have learned to dispense with such “earth-residuum,” and that we might similarly learn to do without the assumption of the “I.”