Study Questions for Nietzsche, Twilight of the Idols,
A note about reading Nietzsche: Nietzsche can be
infuriating.
He says insulting things about
Christians, Jews, women, philosophers, the Germans,
the English, and other groups.
Sometimes his
insults seem to have a point; other times they seem
gratuitous. At the same time his writing style can
also be maddening. He writes mainly in short
sections, not always clearly or obviously related
to one another (or even consistent with one
another). Pretty clearly he is sometimes joking
and sometimes exaggerating and sometimes putting
forward ideas he will elsewhere criticize and
reject. It is not easy to figure out what he is
really trying to convey to us. Try to read him
with an open mind, not to be too put off by his
insults, and to see if you can’t find some sense
in what he says.
Note the explanation of the book’s title
given on p.3-4: the hammer is not a sledgehammer
smashing idols; it is more like a piano-tuner’s
hammer, tapping the idols to see whether or not
they are hollow.
1. Nietzsche criticizes philosophers who distrust the senses and talk about a 'true world'
behind or beyond illusory appearances. Do you think this applies to any of the
philosophers we have read? What do you think of Nietzsche's critique?
2. What does Nietzsche mean by calling morality "anti-nature"? What kind of morality is
he talking about? According to Nietzsche values are the products of (and thus can be
interpreted as symptoms of) various kinds of life. What sort of life produces Christian
(“anti-natural”) morality?
3. Nietzsche distinguishes ‘healthy morality’ from ‘anti-natural morality’, saying that the
former serves life’s instincts and the latter condemns them. What would you put on a
list of ‘instincts of life’? Is it fair to say that traditional or conventional morality
condemns those instincts?
4.
According to Nietzsche, why have "errors" been "useful" to human beings? What
functions do "errors" serve"?
5. What is Nietzsche seeking to convey when his character of the madman says that "God
is dead" and "we have killed him"? when he says that "there never was a greater event
- and on that account of it, all who are born after us belong to a higher history than any
in history hitherto"?
6. Why does Nietzche condemn Christian morality as "hostile to life"?
7. What does Nietzsche mean when he recommends that the philosopher "take his stand
beyond good and evil and leave the illusion of moral judgment beneath himself"?
8. Explain the will to power. How does it operate in slave morality? In master morality?
9. Explain perspectivism. How is it important to Nietzsche's philosophy?