Abstract

This chapter chronicles the author’s intellectual development, marked by Catholicism, mathematics, Heraclitus, and the profound influence of Nietzsche. It details the acceptance of nihilism as the ‘desert’ that has become our home, where ‘All creations made of sand are contingent’. In this nihilistic landscape, individuals must autonomously construct their contingent life models (‘castles made of sand’). This process requires the core virtues of mindfulness, truthfulness, and self-control to distinguish firmly composed core drives from those imposed by external societal influences. A fulfilled existence is achieved through a refined hedonism that culminates in peak moments of ‘exquisite pleasure–pains’, supported by the aristocratic virtues of grandezza, raffinatezza, and fiducia (greatness, refinement, and trust).