Analysis Of Nietzsche And Immanuel Kant

Between philosophers Nietzsche and Immanuel Kant, we can conclude that Nietzsche has different views in which a man lives his life. According to Kant, we as human beings must act and live according the moral law. However, in regards to Nietzsche, he rejects the notion that there is a moral code for everyone and insists that each individual is able to see that there is no objective morality. Nietzsche’s greatest criticism of Kant’s philosophy of moral law, stems from his emphasis and use of the idea of the “overman”, which forms his opinion on liberal democracy (Hamilton-Bleakley). In order to understand Nietzsche’s critique of Kant’s philosophy, we must first understand what it is that Kant emphasizes in his theory of morality. For, “it is

According to Kant, by acting out of moral duty we as humans fulfill the moral law to which we act out of respect for it. The moral law, which is also known as the categorical imperative, is Kant’s notion that man acts based on a, “universal maxim” without conditions (Groundwork pg.392). Kant’s notion of a categorical imperative is associated with objective ends. In other words, it declares what is right, not for individuals, but for mankind as a whole. Humanity, which comes from Kant’s notion of the categorical imperative, is understood, “as an end, never as a means” (Holtman pg.105). That is vital in comprehending Kant’s proposal that we as humans are the only beings capable of acting on the basis of policies or plans (Johnson pg.21), or in accordance with moral law. Unlike animals, humanity to humans is not something that serves to satisfy one’s instinctual pleasures, it is instead something which guards our existence through which man attains life. It is from this

He believes it is our instincts that governs our human behavior (Hamilton-Bleakley), and that, “any concession to the instincts, to the unconscious, leads downward” (Twilight of Idols). In other words, Nietzsche’s belief in our instincts governing the decisions we make in life opens up to his idea behind, “his central concept of will to power” (Hatab pg.236). Nietzsche’s will to power is rooted in the statement that, “Man is something that shall be overcome.” Therefore, in Nietzsche’s eyes, man is but a phase, and the overman is the true “meaning of the earth” (Thus Spoke Zarathustra pg.125). Within his notion of the overman, Nietzsche embodies the importance of the individual. In his work Thus Spoke Zarathustra, Nietzsche describes the idea of the overman as that which is a creator (Thus Spoke Zarathustra pg.135). The overman does not live by what the masses deem correct or hold the values to which the law is created, but rather he himself is the creator of what he holds to be true and by which he establishes his law. By this understanding, the overman does not seek out the knowledge or companionship of the herd, or those who abide by moral law as defined by Kant, but rather they seek fellow companions who are also