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In Twilight of the Idols Nietzsche writes, "My objection against the whole of sociology in England and France remains that it knows from experience only the forms of decay, and with perfect innocence accepts its instincts of decay as the norm of sociological value-judgments. The decline of life, the decrease in the power to organize, that is to tear open clefts, subordinate and super-ordinate -- all this has been formulated as the ideal in contemporary sociology." (p 541). The culture of Europe at the time of Nietzsche’s writing was experiencing a general decline in vitality which was exemplified in Christianity (Platonism) and anarchy or nihilism. Nietzsche saw himself as a kind of philosophical doctor, capable of diagnosing the sickness of man. These two types of decline made it especially apparent what was wrong with mankind, and in this decadence Nietzsche detected symptoms of nihilism, one of his biggest worries for the culture as a whole.
To Nietzsche, Christianity is objectionable because it is a symptom of mankind’s world weariness. In rejecting the realm of the here and now in favor of a transcendent, heavenly afterlife, the Christian reveals his weakness. This weakness was first observed in Plato, whose logic is eventually carried out into the development of Christianity. Plato created the idea that this world is meaningless, and that people do not get rewarded for their actions until after death, and that worldly reality is not worth anything. Nietzsc...
We have grown weary of man. Nietzsche wants something better, to believe in human ability once again. Nietzsche’s weariness is based almost entirely in the culmination of ressentiment, the dissolution of Nietzsche’s concept of morality and the prevailing priestly morality. Nietzsche wants to move beyond simple concepts of good and evil, abandon the assessment of individuals through ressentiment, and restore men to their former wonderful ability.
In philosophy “Nihilism” is a position of radical skepticism. It is the belief that all values are baseless and nothing is known. The word “Nihilism” itself conveys a sense of abolishing or destroying (IEP). Nietzsche’s work and writings are mostly associated with nihilism in general, and moral nihilism especially. Moral nihilism questions the reality and the foundation of moral values. Nietzsche supported his view on morality by many arguments and discussions on the true nature of our inner self. Through my paper on Moral Nihilism, I will explain 5 major arguments and then try to construct a deductive argument for each, relying on Nietzsche’s book II “Daybreak”.
Friedrich Nietzsche is an influential German Philosopher who is known for his writings, on Good and Evil, the end of religion in society, and the concept of “super man.” Nietzsche was born in 1844, in Röcken bei Lützen Germany. He published numerous works of philosophy, which includes Twilights of the Idols, and Thus Spoke Zarathustra. In 1880’s Nietzsche developed points of his philosophy. One of his famous statements is that “God is dead” which is a rejection to the Christian faith. Others were his endorsement of self-perfection throughout creative drive and a will to power, which brought his concept “super-man) which is an individual who strives to exist beyond conventional categories of good and evil. Nietzsche made a major influence on
Nietzsche: Philosophizing Without Categorizing. How are we to philosophize without "Ism?" For, although defining a person in terms of an Ism is dangerous--both because it encourages identification of the individual with the doctrine and because it denies her the possibility of becoming that, as a human, she is heir to--grouping people according to a doctrine to which they subscribe is a convenient mental shortcut. Although grouping people into verbal boxes entails the danger of eventually seeing all of the boxes as equal, or similar enough to make no difference, the necessity of seeing the totality of a single human being is impossible. And although the qualities of my existence, or anyone else's existence (an individual's isness), are constantly undergoing a process, both conscious and unconscious, of revaluation and change, the change is usually not great enough over short lengths of time to qualify as noticeable.
For him, “life itself is essentially appropriation, injury, overpowering of what is alien and weaker, suppression, hardness, imposition of one’s own forms, incorporation and at least, at its mildest, exploitation.” That is to say, our desire for power is unavoidable and an inherent part of our nature. On the other hand, the abnegation from “injury, violence, and exploitation and placing one’s will on a par with that of someone else” (instead of propagating one’s own will over others’) is “a will to the denial of life [and] a principle of disintegration and decay.” If one considers life and the act of living itself as the will to power, then master morality’s affinity to honour strength and self-promotion would be the more compelling morality for Nietzsche. This is not precisely the case however, as master morality lacks a certain subtlety as opposed to the act of enslaving oneself, which can be an “indispensable means of spiritual discipline and cultivation.” In any case, Nietzsche’s appreciation of the advantages of master morality is not as intuitive of a sentiment as it is to other modern
Friedrich Nietzsche’s The Gay Science offered us only a glimpse of what Nietzsche has to offer. By bringing his teachings into high school classrooms and becoming a standard high school curriculum can truly benefit and further enrich a young student’s education.
...sophy. "Will to power" is a central philosophical principle for Nietzsche. For this reason I tried to interpret the answers of the questions on this basis. As I mentioned in the essay I related the invention of God with the will to power. Also the expressed value was also very related with this will to power. Also at that point value of revenge came into the picture. But there is no doubt that slave morality constructs a basis for the connection of revenge and the will to power. Finally, while trying to find answer for the rejection of all moral values, I'm puzzled with different alternatives that I interpreted according to my studies.
Nietzsche starts by laying out the famous example of the madman screaming, “God is dead.” The madman exclaims that humanity doesn’t understand what it has done. They have killed god and they don’t seem to mind, they can’t see the consequences yet. He states that he thinks he has come too early and that this is just the beginning of the problem. This passage introduces the idea of a loss of religious fate in humanity. The madman has a negative outlook on this event, questioning what is next to come. Historically religion se...
Where Kant’s system is based on a set of principles or duties, Nietzsche’s system is based on virtue. Nietzsche is critical of Christianity in general and its evaluation of morality. In the reevaluation of values, he shows how the characteristics of morality in Christianity are more prohibitive of living virtuously than those of Ancient Greece, which include strength, confidence, sexuality, and creativity. In Christianity, those values are pity, shame, asexuality, and humility. The set of values of Ancient Greece is considered Master Morality and the values of deontology is considered to be Slave Morality. Master morality is a step in the right direction for morality but still not the
When reading Nietzsche, we can pick up from him that he was very educated often better than most philosophers. Or so he thought. Although he had a very poor outlook on his culture and everyday society, he had very strong opinions when it came to humans and their actions. He made strong assumptions whether people agreed with him or not. An assumption such as, he believed most philosophers and researchers were not as educated as he was, which we pick up in his writings. Nietzsche’s main goal in his essays are to educate those on morality. First, Nietzsche believed that specific words and human actions have evolved over time to things they were never intended to become. Nietzsche
Throughout the course Nietzsche’s lifespan his attitude towards truth and religion has shifted various times. He first left his Christian beliefs and changed his major from theology to Philology in order to search for truth. He did not want to have faith without knowing what he was having faith in beforehand. By his thirties Nietzsche started to interpret that people were making up myths and stories in order to keep themselves in denial from the truth of life, thus giving a different meaning. When Nietzsche starts writing “Beyond Good and Evil” Nietzsche again changes his views and describes truth as a woman and philosophers are truth’s unwanted men in her life who are going about her in all the wrong ways, asserting and
Nietzsche’s critique of religion has a lot of merit. To use an example from Nietzsche’s works, if you do not appreciate the dentist who rips out a sore tooth, why then would you follow a value system that kills all passion to prevent one from their stupidity(Nietzsche 51). While many of the values that Christianity condemns have the potential to be harmful,t many positive things may come from them. Ask the question, who does more good; the humble Mother Teressa serving soup to the poor or the greedy Bill Gates providing jobs for millions of people? The humanist values urged by Nietzsche offer a healthier lifestyle than those urged by Christianity. Take enmity for example. Whether it is witches in Salem or heretics in medieval times, in every age the church has tried to destroy its enemies. Immoralist, those who follow anti-Christian morals, recognize the advantage in keeping our adversaries around, and thus are more to...
The church told them that they had original sin and that by focusing on God, Heaven, and one’s soul, the church can fix the sin inside one. This is Nietzsche’s theory called Metaphysical. The Metaphysical theory says that the church has one pay attention to their internal instead of having the followers focus on the life they live now. By focusing just on God, Heaven, and Soul, one is deemphasizing the importance of the religion itself. With the revaluation of values, Nietzsche focused on morality, more specifically, Master Morality and Slave Morality. Master Morality is when one is concerned with strength and competition, and achieving goals is an accomplishment. Slave Morality deals with concepts of good and evil with the Evil representing the Master morality. The slave morality lives within the master’s shadows and will reject what the master stands for, this morality will suffer from resentment also, both moralities can be found in the same person. In a person, the Master morality vision has gone beyond the concepts of good and evil and has looked into a deeper meaning in themselves, but the master morality is not an end
Friedrich Nietzsche was without a doubt one of the most influential thinkers of the 19th century. He was a man who ventured to question all of man's beliefs. He was out to seek the important questions in life, not always their answers. Some consider Nietzsche to be one of the first existentialist philosophers along with Søren Kierkegaard. He was the inspiration for many philosophers, poets, sociologists, and psychologists including Sigmund Freud. His goal to seek explanations for society's commonly accepted values was an inspiration for Freud's psychoanalysis theory1. Nietzsche's life as well as his theories such as the will to power, the Übermensch, eternal recurrence, and his thoughts on religion all had a momentous affect on 19th and 20th century philosophy.
Nietzsche evaluates the world in terms of how it really is. He recognizes that people are inherently different and frames his philosophy accordingly. This, his philosophical paradigm is superior in terms of its realism. Furthering that argument, Nietzsche also shows that he wants to preserve societal advancement. Nietzsche was primarily concerned what society would stagnate if we settled for mediocrity. While his philosophy may be somewhat elitist, it mandates societal advancement because it allows the elites to rise to the top and push society forward. There is link to Christianity. Societies cannot push forward with this notion of God. Christianity, with its conception of transcendent, omnipotent, omniscient and a just God, denies and negates too much that is valuable in this world. There was a direct link to Christianity and how there was a real manifestation of the will to power and that certain individuals have revealed themselves. He accounts for his own ethics. Nietzsche accounts for all people in society and provides all people the equal opportunity to maximize their own power. While power differences are inevitable based upon individual differences, all people have the same opportunity to Will to Power. This creates the basis of his ethics as