Is Fate Lovable? The Paradoxes of Amor Fati and the Vicissitudes of ExistenceHeewon Seo (UCL Institute of Education)

Nietzsche’s notion of amor fati is commonly taken to mean ‘love of one’s fate.’ This seemingly simple formulation conceals two paradoxes. First, fate includes suffering, loss, negativity, events we would rather not remember. Can such a fate genuinely be loved? Second, if loving fate requires seeing it as beautiful or making it beautiful, does this not risk loving a beautification rather than fate itself—a kind of ‘distorted fantasy’? This paper reinterprets amor fati not as self-deceptive beautification but as an ontological stance that renders life affirmable despite the vicissitudes of existence.

Heewon Seo is a PhD researcher in philosophy and education at the University College London Institute of Education. Her research examines the question, “What makes humans human in the digital age?” and seeks to answer it through explorations of paradoxes, focusing primarily on the works of Levinas, Derrida and Nietzsche. Her recent work engages women philosophers and writers such as Donna Haraway, Anne Carson, and Simone Weil, bringing their ideas into dialogue through her ongoing work on paradox.