Charles Liu
Diagnostic Essay
6th September 2020
“We remain unknown to ourselves, we seekers after knowledge, even to ourselves: and with
good reason. We have never sought after ourselves – so how should we one day find
ourselves? It has rightly been said that: ‘Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also’;
our treasure is to be found in the beehives of knowledge. As spiritual bees from birth, this is
our eternal destination, our hearts are set on one thing only – ‘bringing something home’.”
Nietzsche, “On the Genealogy of Morality”
In this quote, Nietzsche contemplates the purpose of our existence. The passage is
structured into two parts. Firstly, Nietzsche displays a tone of logic and objectivity,
presenting the unfamiliar nature of the topic and the reasons for its situation. Then, the writer
utilises an abstract and figurative tone, employing symbols to propose an answer to the
problem, perhaps imitating the mysterious and unknown nature of the self.
Commented [cl1]: This is a very direct approach. The first
sentence introduces the thesis statement and the second
sentence (and third) explains how this essay will be
structured. While this may not be the most engaging or
captivating for the reader, this was difficult because no prior
reading of Nietzsche was done before the essay. Perhaps the
introduction could be more interesting if the structure was
not chronological, but framed using guiding questions. The
introduction can start with a larger question about the self,
then introduce Nietzsche’s quote as an attempt to answer this
question, structuring the later paragraphs using question such
as “do we know ourselves?” and “how can we better
