Archetypes of Wisdom
Douglas J. Soccio
Chapter 16
The Anti-Philosopher: Friedrich Nietzsche
Learning Objectives
On completion of this chapter, you should be able to
answer the following questions:
What is “modernity”?
What is “pessimism”?
What is “tragic optimism”?
What is “Nietzschean perspectivism”?
What is “nihilism”?
What is the “overman”?
What is the “underman”?
What is slave morality?
What is master morality?
What is Ressentiment?
Modernity
Nietzsche saw himself as the first to recognize the
symptoms of a profound sickness at the core of modernity.
Modernity refers to the historical period of the nineteenth
and twentieth century nation-states and to a corresponding
set of cultural conditions and beliefs dominated by
Enlightenment ideals.
Modernity includes faith in science, objective truth and
rationality; expectations of inevitable progress; capitalism,
urbanization, and large-scale industrial enterprise; mass
literacy, media, and culture; political democracy; and
secularization.
Modernity and God
Nietzsche saw himself as the first to recognize the
symptoms of a profound sickness at the core of modernity.
His most famous (or infamous) pronouncement that “God
is dead” is part of his assessment of the decadent condition
of the modern age.
The Outsider
Perhaps no philosopher of modern times has provoked as
much controversy as Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900).
One of a handful of philosophers who can be called “bestselling” authors, Nietzsche’s work has a confrontational
style that is both exhilarating and disturbing.
Nietzsche was born in the Prussian village of Röcken. His
father, a Lutheran minister, died when he was four years
old. Though he planned to follow in his father’s footsteps,
in his late teens he began to lose his faith.
At twenty, he entered the University of Bonn, and though
he tried his best to fit in, he always had the feeling of being
an outsider.
Introduction to Philology
Nietzsche left Bonn and enrolled at the University of
Leipzig. There he had the good fortune to meet Prof.
Friedrich Ritschl, who recognized Nietzsche as a brilliant
scholar
Ritschl kindled in him a passion for philology – the study
of classical philosophy and literature.
However, despite his academic success, he had become a
lonely man.
Schopenhauer’s Pessimism
While in this state, he came across the work of Arthur
Schopenhauer (1788-1860), who argued that life was
nothing more than a constant will to survive.
Known as pessimism, the belief that life is disappointing
and that our only hope is through detachment and
withdrawal, Schopenhauer’s philosophy found an
enthusiastic audience in Nietzsche, who said,
“Here I was a mirror in which the world, life, my own
mind were reflected in fearful grandeur.”
Beyond the Academy
Paradoxically, Schopenhauer’s pessimism invigorated
Nietzsche. In 1868, Ritschl recommended him for a chair
in classical philology. Nietzsche was only twenty four, but
the university hurriedly conferred the doctorate on him,
and he was appointed professor.
Despite noble intentions, he was not a particularly effective
lecturer, and fewer and fewer students attended. He did
not socialize well, and the academic routine drained him.
Just ten years later, he resigned, citing ill health, and was
granted a pension. This enabled Nietzsche to break free
from the confines of academic scholarship. His greatest
work was accomplished in the ten-year period following
his retirement from teaching (at age thirty-four).
Tragic Optimism
Around 1870, Nietzsche became intrigued with Darwinism
and, using the idea of evolution, transformed
Schopenhauer’s pessimism into his own unique doctrine of
overcoming.
Now thinking of retreat and renunciation as weak-willed
and decadent, he came to believe that the solution was
tragic optimism, the sense of joy and vitality of someone
who neither shrinks from struggle nor struggles blindly.
Such a person overcomes pessimism without retreating
into lies about ultimate meaning or purpose. The tragic
optimist imposes meaning on a meaningless universe and
overcomes his or her own innate fears and weaknesses.
Zarathustra Speaks
Nietzsche came to see himself as the prophet of a healthier
morality so far beyond conventional values that it required
a “revaluation of all values.” He spoke of “doing
philosophy with a hammer,” tapping on the great idols to
see which are hollow and then smashing them to bits.
After a relationship with a young intellectual named Lou
Salome (who later abandoned him), Nietzsche retreated to
the Swiss Alps, where he produced his most famous work,
Thus Spake Zarathustra (in 1885).
Using the name of the ancient Persian prophet Zoroaster,
Zarathustra is at once a great destroyer of false values and
a creator of new and healthy values, announcing the next
evolutionary type, the Übermensch, or the overman.
Truth and Perspective
Nietzsche followed Zarathustra with what many consider
the two most coherent statements of his philosophy:
Beyond Good and Evil (1886).
Toward a Genealogy of Morals (1887).
In them, Nietzsche’s purpose is clear: to destroy
conventional morality and replace it with a higher
“immoral” ideal.
Nietzschean Perspectivism
Nietzsche’s controversial status as a philosopher is due, in
part, to the aphoristic style of these works, and in part to a
form of relativism known as perspectivism.
Nietzschean perspectivism is the contention that every
view is only one among many possible interpretations
(including that of Nietzschean perspectivism).
Nietzsche adopts points of view, which he refers to as
experiments, to prevent the reader from forgetting that
they, too, have points of view.
Attack on Objectivity
Based on most modern philosophy, Nietzsche can be
considered an anti-philosopher, a radical critic of
foundational doctrines who rejects the absolute authority of
reason. So the anti-philosopher rejects the possibility of a
neutral stance or “perspectiveless” perspective.
Instead of philosophical argument, then, Nietzsche offers
an appeal to aesthetic sensibilities – to “justify life as an
aesthetic phenomenon,” what he calls a “will to power.”
If we have no chance of discovering objective truth, we
will have to invent truths according to our individual
needs. Truth then is seen as a function of physiology of
the individual, rather than an objective fact derived from
reason.
The Will to Power
Call it what you wish – objectivity, truth, or wisdom –
Nietzsche says the single goal of science, religion, and
philosophy is the exertion of power. It is “mendacious” for
anyone to think of themselves as disinterested spectators
capable of objective judgment. And Nietzsche equates
such will to truth to the will to power.
As Nietzsche says, “This world is the will to power – and
nothing besides! And you yourselves are also this will to
power – and nothing besides!”
Those moralities which pretend to be objective, to be
something other than a manifestation of the will to power,
are sick, degenerate, and decadent.
The Problem of Morality
Nietzsche accuses modern culture of being moralistic:
expressing moral sentiments that conflict with one’s
behavior and equating those expressions with virtuous
living.
Being moralistic is a form of hypocrisy that Freudian
psychologists refer to as reaction formation, an ego
defense mechanism that attempts to prevent dangerous
desires from being exposed by endorsing opposite types of
behavior as “barriers” against them.
In Nietzsche’s view, modernity is anti-life and anti-nature
in this moralistic sense. Modern Christian moralities – and
all are Christian – show symptoms of this “décadence,”
this decay.
“God is Dead”
Nietzsche thought that such moralistic symptoms signaled
the next level of evolution, the end of human history and
the beginning of the overman.
Since science and philosophy do not provide us with
meaning, we create it. And, like it or not, religion does not
provide salvation:
As Nietzsche famously said, “God is dead.”
Nietzsche and God
Nietzsche meant that the idea of God has lost its creative
force, its full power. The full extent has not yet been felt
by the masses, who still believe that they believe in God.
Yet if we dig deep into our own psyches, we will discover
that our one true faith is in scientific and technological
progress.
Moreover, Nietzsche thought there is no turning back –
God is dead, and we have killed him. We still use “the
language of God” and worship, but falsely. And even
though some of us may sense that the old religions are
dying, we are unable to face the consequences of life
without God.
Nihilism
According to Nietzsche, the death of God leads to nihilism.
From the Latin word for “nothing,” nihilism refers to the
belief that the universe lacks objective meaning and
purpose.
Without God, there can be no objective base for values.
In a nihilistic universe, what determines what counts?
According to Nietzsche, the answers are found in the
subjective interests of individuals and groups.
We choose systems and philosophies based on our sense of
power, on which interpretation gives you and yours
advantage over others.
Slave Morality
To control their superiors, members of the herd create
slave morality, a value system based on guilt, fear, and a
distortion of the will to power in which the characteristics
of the inferior type are praised as virtues, while those of
the superior type are condemned as arrogance.
This morality is common among “merely human” types
who cannot face being alone in a godless world, whom
Nietzsche calls the underman (in German, untermensch).
The underman turns to the group for power and, aware of
its inferiority, resents all “higher types” and “elitist” value
systems.
This ressentiment is a sure sign of slave morality: trying
to convince the powerful that they should protect the weak.
Master Morality
The overman and underman possess the will to power, but
differ in approach. The overman expresses power openly
and honestly, in a process of life-affirming self-creation.
The overman creates a new code of values, a master
morality, which looks only to that person for value.
Unlike slave morality, it is an aesthetic code of honor,
where value is defined in aesthetic terms. Terms such as
noble, honorable, refined, and so on, express what is
“good” and their opposites – shameful, vulgar,
dishonorable, etc., express what is “evil.”
Having overcome merely human resentment and selfloathing, the overman – living this master morality - enjoys
being what and who he or she is.
Amor Fati
In the absence of God, Nietzsche says, we must redeem
ourselves with the sacred Yes to life expressed through
amor fati, the love of our specific fate. That is, we should
delight that everything is exactly as and what it is.
Through amor fati, we realize that we exist as parts of a
complex whole that can only be precisely what it is and not
otherwise.
Wrote Friedrich Nietzsche:
“My formula for greatness in a human being is amor
fati: that one wants nothing to be other than it is, not in
the future, not in the past, not in all eternity. Not
merely to endure that which happens of necessity…but
to love it. ”
Discussion Questions
What did Zarathustra mean when he said that God is dead
and we have killed him?
If as Nietzsche/Zarathustra insists, God is dead, why does
belief in God thrive in today’s world?
Chapter Review
Key Concepts & Figures
Modernity
Pessimism
Will to Power
Tragic optimism
Zarathustra
Nietzschean perspectivism
Anti-philosopher
Moralistic
Reaction formation
Nihilism
Overman
Underman
lave morality
Ressentiment
Master morality
Amor fati
Friedrich Nietzsche (18441900)
Lou Salome (1861-1937 )
Arthur Schopenhauer (17881860)