All Friedrich Nietzsche's Ideas (BY: DABO EUCLID AMMEL)
Friedrich Nietzsche was born on October 15, 1844, in Rocken bei Lutzen, Germany. In his brilliant but relatively brief career, he published numerous major works of philosophy, including Twilight of Idols and Thus Spoke Zarathustra. In the last decade of his life he suffered from insanity; he died on August 25, 1900. .His writings on individuality and majority in contemporary civilization influenced many major thinkers and writers of the 20th century. He is known with his concepts “God is death,” a rejection of Christianity as a meaningful force in contemporary life, “will to power” and his concept of “superman” or “overman.
FRIEDRICH NIETZSCHE’S PHILOSOPHY
GOD IS DEAD
Nietzsche wrote philosophy in a manner intended to provoke serious thoughts than to give formal answers to questions. His notion of God is dead has been literally misunderstood. Following the political and military unrest in his time, Nietzsche sought to address the situation but adopted a more critical method. Hence influenced by the incontrovertible fact that believe in the Christian God had drastically declined to the point where he could confidently say "God is dead". He thought about both the collapse of religious faith and the mountain of belief in the Darwinian notion of the relentless evaluation of the species. If this is what we are asked to believe he said, then we should not be surprised when the future brings us colossal wars such as we have never seen before on earth.
At the same time, the death of God meant for Nietzsche, the dawn of a new day-a day when the essential life-denying ethics of Christianity could be replaced by a life-affirming philosophy.
NIETZSCHE’S CONCEPT OF MASTER AND SLAVE MORALITY.
Master and Slave morality is a central theme of Friedrich Nietzsche’s work, in particular the first essay On the Genealogy of morality. Nietzsche argued that there were two fundamental types of morality: Master morality and slave morality, slave morality values things like, kindness, humility. Master morality weighs actions on a scale of good or bad consequence, unlike slave morality which weighs actions on a scale of good or evil intention. Master morality does not take into account human emotions.
Master morality as defined by Nietzsche is the morality of the strong-willed. Nietzsche criticizes the view which he identifies with contemporary British ideology that good is everything that is helpful and bad is everything that is harmful. He argues, proponent of this view have forgotten the origin of its values and based merely on a non-critical acceptance of habit: What is useful has always been defined as good, therefore usefulness is goodness as a value. He continuous explaining that in the prehistoric state “the values or non-values of an action was derived from its consequences” (Nietzsche, 62) but ultimately, “there are no moral phenomena at all, only moral interpretations of phenomena”. (Nietzsche, 96). For strong-willed men, ‘the good’ is the noble, strong, and powerful, while the ‘bad’ is the weak, cowardly, timid, and petty.
The essence of master morality is nobility, other qualities that are often valued in master morality are open-mindedness, courage, truthfulness, trust, and an accurate sense of one’s self-worth. Unlike master morality which is sentiment, slave morality is based on re-sentiment devaluing that which the master value and the slave does not have. As master morality originates in the strong, slave morality originates in the weak. Because slave morality is a reaction to oppression, it vilifies its oppressor. Slave morality is the inverse of master morality, as such it is characterized by pessimism and cynicism. Biblical principles of turning the other cheek, humility, charity, and pity are the result of universalizing the plight of the slave onto all humankind, and thus enslaving the masters as well. “The democratic movement is the heir of Christianity”. (Nietzsche, 125): the political manifestation of slave morality because of its obsession with freedom and equality. Nietzsche condemns the triumph of slave morality in the west saying that the democratic movement is the “collective degeneration of man” (Nietzsche, 127).
THE WILL TO POWER
While most of his contemporaries looked on the late nineteenth century with unbridled optimism, confident in the progress of science and the rise of the German state, Nietzsche saw his age facing a fundamental crisis in values. With the rise of science, the Christian worldview no longer held a prominent explanatory role in people’s lives, a view Nietzsche captures in the phrase “God is dead.” However, science does not introduce a new set of values to replace the Christian values it displaces. Nietzsche rightly foresaw that people need to identify some source of meaning and value in their lives, and if they could not find it in science, they would turn to aggressive nationalism and other such salves. The last thing Nietzsche would have wanted was a return to traditional Christianity, however. Instead, he sought to find a way out of nihilism through the creative and willful affirmation of life.
In his work On the Genealogy of Morals, Michael lacewing noted that, the will to power is perhaps the key concept in Nietzsche’s philosophy. It is strongly connected to his concept of “life”. So in Beyond Good and Evil 13, Nietzsche says “A living being wants above all else to release its strength; life itself is the will to power”. And he claims that “all animals… strive instinctively for an optimum combination of favourable conditions which allow them to expend all their energy and achieve their maximum feeling of power” (2).
Exploitation, according to Nietzsche, is not some inherently degenerate human action. Instead, it belongs "to the nature of the living beings as a primary function, exploitation is" a consequence of intrinsic Will to Power, which is precisely the Will to Life; a fundamental fact of all history" (Stumpf and Fieser, 364). In this view, the Will to Power can be understood as a central drive within human nature to dominate one's environment. This is more than just the will to survive. It is rather, an inner impulse to vigorously affirm all of our individual powers. As Nietzsche says, "the strongest and highest Will to Life does not find expression in a miserable struggle for existence, but in a Wll to War. A Will to Power" (364)!
He writes "I regard Christianity as the most fatal and seductive drive that has ever yet existed-as the greatest and impious lie"! Nietzsche was appalled that Europe should be subject to the morality of that small group of wretched outcasts who cluster themselves around Jesus. Imagine, he said, "the morality paltry people as the measure of all things"(365). This he considered the most repugnant kind of degeneracy civilisation has ever brought into existence. Nietzsche detest Christianity's moral injunctions so much that he stated categorically, Christianity contradicts nature when it requires us to love our enemies, since nature's injunctions is to hate our enemies.
Each form of life has a particular constitution, with its instincts having different strengths, such that certain conditions will favour its form of life. This brings different types of life into conflict with each other, as each wants different conditions to prevail: “life itself in its essence means appropriating, injuring, overpowering those who are foreign and weaker” (Lacewing, 3), though this language suggests that such activity is immoral, when it is simply a function of being alive. And “life” does not refer just to biological life; the same is true of societies, of classes within society, wherever we find different “types” of people. The “original fact of all history” is that society originates in and is based upon “exploitation”. History is, then, a history of the forms of life through which the will to power has been expressed, the various moralities, values, social institutions and structures and cultures. The will to power, claims Nietzsche, even underpins philosophical theories.
So what exactly is the will to power? There are three possible interpretations:
1. Metaphysical: that everything that exists is the will to power;
2. Organic: that the will to power is specifically related to all life;
3. Psychological: that it is related to living creatures with a will.
THE METAPHYSICAL INTERPRETATION
Two passages in Beyond Good and Evil seem to support the metaphysical interpretation, 22 and 36. In 22, Nietzsche argues that the scientific idea of “laws of nature” is an interpretation driven by the value of equality. In 36, he raises this question. Assuming that nothing real is “given” to us apart from our world of desires and passions… may we not…ask whether this “given” also provides a sufficient explanation for the so-called mechanistic (or “material”) world… as a world with the same level of reality that our emotion has - that is, as a more rudimentary form of the world of emotions…as a preliminary form of life? (lacewing, 3).
Second, Nietzsche repeatedly rejects the projection of philosophical theories onto nature (9, 16, 21, 22). In an earlier work, he explicitly claims that will is only to be found in creatures with an intellect and that the idea of will “has been turned into a metaphor when it is asserted that all things in nature possess will” (4). It would be very curious for him, therefore, to take his idea of will to power and project it onto nature. Third, as discussed below, he claims that some forms of life can “lack” the will to power.
GOD IS DEAD
Nietzsche wrote philosophy in a manner intended to provoke serious thoughts than to give formal answers to questions. His notion of God is dead has been literally misunderstood. Following the political and military unrest in his time, Nietzsche sought to address the situation but adopted a more critical method. Hence influenced by the incontrovertible fact that believe in the Christian God had drastically declined to the point where he could confidently say "God is dead". He thought about both the collapse of religious faith and the mountain of belief in the Darwinian notion of the relentless evaluation of the species. If this is what we are asked to believe he said, then we should not be surprised when the future brings us colossal wars such as we have never seen before on earth.
At the same time, the death of God meant for Nietzsche, the dawn of a new day-a day when the essential life-denying ethics of Christianity could be replaced by a life-affirming philosophy.
NIETZSCHE’S CONCEPT OF MASTER AND SLAVE MORALITY.
Master and Slave morality is a central theme of Friedrich Nietzsche’s work, in particular the first essay On the Genealogy of morality. Nietzsche argued that there were two fundamental types of morality: Master morality and slave morality, slave morality values things like, kindness, humility. Master morality weighs actions on a scale of good or bad consequence, unlike slave morality which weighs actions on a scale of good or evil intention. Master morality does not take into account human emotions.
Master morality as defined by Nietzsche is the morality of the strong-willed. Nietzsche criticizes the view which he identifies with contemporary British ideology that good is everything that is helpful and bad is everything that is harmful. He argues, proponent of this view have forgotten the origin of its values and based merely on a non-critical acceptance of habit: What is useful has always been defined as good, therefore usefulness is goodness as a value. He continuous explaining that in the prehistoric state “the values or non-values of an action was derived from its consequences” (Nietzsche, 62) but ultimately, “there are no moral phenomena at all, only moral interpretations of phenomena”. (Nietzsche, 96). For strong-willed men, ‘the good’ is the noble, strong, and powerful, while the ‘bad’ is the weak, cowardly, timid, and petty.
The essence of master morality is nobility, other qualities that are often valued in master morality are open-mindedness, courage, truthfulness, trust, and an accurate sense of one’s self-worth. Unlike master morality which is sentiment, slave morality is based on re-sentiment devaluing that which the master value and the slave does not have. As master morality originates in the strong, slave morality originates in the weak. Because slave morality is a reaction to oppression, it vilifies its oppressor. Slave morality is the inverse of master morality, as such it is characterized by pessimism and cynicism. Biblical principles of turning the other cheek, humility, charity, and pity are the result of universalizing the plight of the slave onto all humankind, and thus enslaving the masters as well. “The democratic movement is the heir of Christianity”. (Nietzsche, 125): the political manifestation of slave morality because of its obsession with freedom and equality. Nietzsche condemns the triumph of slave morality in the west saying that the democratic movement is the “collective degeneration of man” (Nietzsche, 127).
THE WILL TO POWER
While most of his contemporaries looked on the late nineteenth century with unbridled optimism, confident in the progress of science and the rise of the German state, Nietzsche saw his age facing a fundamental crisis in values. With the rise of science, the Christian worldview no longer held a prominent explanatory role in people’s lives, a view Nietzsche captures in the phrase “God is dead.” However, science does not introduce a new set of values to replace the Christian values it displaces. Nietzsche rightly foresaw that people need to identify some source of meaning and value in their lives, and if they could not find it in science, they would turn to aggressive nationalism and other such salves. The last thing Nietzsche would have wanted was a return to traditional Christianity, however. Instead, he sought to find a way out of nihilism through the creative and willful affirmation of life.
In his work On the Genealogy of Morals, Michael lacewing noted that, the will to power is perhaps the key concept in Nietzsche’s philosophy. It is strongly connected to his concept of “life”. So in Beyond Good and Evil 13, Nietzsche says “A living being wants above all else to release its strength; life itself is the will to power”. And he claims that “all animals… strive instinctively for an optimum combination of favourable conditions which allow them to expend all their energy and achieve their maximum feeling of power” (2).
Exploitation, according to Nietzsche, is not some inherently degenerate human action. Instead, it belongs "to the nature of the living beings as a primary function, exploitation is" a consequence of intrinsic Will to Power, which is precisely the Will to Life; a fundamental fact of all history" (Stumpf and Fieser, 364). In this view, the Will to Power can be understood as a central drive within human nature to dominate one's environment. This is more than just the will to survive. It is rather, an inner impulse to vigorously affirm all of our individual powers. As Nietzsche says, "the strongest and highest Will to Life does not find expression in a miserable struggle for existence, but in a Wll to War. A Will to Power" (364)!
He writes "I regard Christianity as the most fatal and seductive drive that has ever yet existed-as the greatest and impious lie"! Nietzsche was appalled that Europe should be subject to the morality of that small group of wretched outcasts who cluster themselves around Jesus. Imagine, he said, "the morality paltry people as the measure of all things"(365). This he considered the most repugnant kind of degeneracy civilisation has ever brought into existence. Nietzsche detest Christianity's moral injunctions so much that he stated categorically, Christianity contradicts nature when it requires us to love our enemies, since nature's injunctions is to hate our enemies.
Each form of life has a particular constitution, with its instincts having different strengths, such that certain conditions will favour its form of life. This brings different types of life into conflict with each other, as each wants different conditions to prevail: “life itself in its essence means appropriating, injuring, overpowering those who are foreign and weaker” (Lacewing, 3), though this language suggests that such activity is immoral, when it is simply a function of being alive. And “life” does not refer just to biological life; the same is true of societies, of classes within society, wherever we find different “types” of people. The “original fact of all history” is that society originates in and is based upon “exploitation”. History is, then, a history of the forms of life through which the will to power has been expressed, the various moralities, values, social institutions and structures and cultures. The will to power, claims Nietzsche, even underpins philosophical theories.
So what exactly is the will to power? There are three possible interpretations:
1. Metaphysical: that everything that exists is the will to power;
2. Organic: that the will to power is specifically related to all life;
3. Psychological: that it is related to living creatures with a will.
THE METAPHYSICAL INTERPRETATION
Two passages in Beyond Good and Evil seem to support the metaphysical interpretation, 22 and 36. In 22, Nietzsche argues that the scientific idea of “laws of nature” is an interpretation driven by the value of equality. In 36, he raises this question. Assuming that nothing real is “given” to us apart from our world of desires and passions… may we not…ask whether this “given” also provides a sufficient explanation for the so-called mechanistic (or “material”) world… as a world with the same level of reality that our emotion has - that is, as a more rudimentary form of the world of emotions…as a preliminary form of life? (lacewing, 3).
Second, Nietzsche repeatedly rejects the projection of philosophical theories onto nature (9, 16, 21, 22). In an earlier work, he explicitly claims that will is only to be found in creatures with an intellect and that the idea of will “has been turned into a metaphor when it is asserted that all things in nature possess will” (4). It would be very curious for him, therefore, to take his idea of will to power and project it onto nature. Third, as discussed below, he claims that some forms of life can “lack” the will to power.
THE ORGANIC AND PSYCHOLOGICAL INTERPRETATIONS
The organic interpretation has a stronger basis in the text–Nietzsche explicitly asserts that life is the will to power (5). Will to power would then be the force that distinguishes what is living from what is inanimate. But if by “life” Nietzsche means life in the biological sense, he is still projecting a psychological theory onto nature. And we have just seen that he asserts that only creatures with an intellect possess will–which excludes all forms of life that are not animals. Furthermore, Nietzsche talks of societies being “alive” and exhibiting the will to power, which again indicates that ‘life’ is not meant biologically. So what does he mean “life” in this context? One passage in particular from the Antichrist helps: “Life itself is the instinct for growth, for power: where the will to power is lacking there is decline. It is my contention that all the supreme values of mankind lack this will” (Lacewing, 5). The will to power cannot be life in the biological sense if something alive, such as the human race, can lack the will to power.
The will to power is the basic character of our drives or instincts. The essence of a drive is to assert itself. To do so successfully, to achieve expression, is for it to have power. Power is not a separate aim of the drives. In asserting itself, each drive comes into competition with others, and with the drives of other individuals. And so drives are always in relations of power to each other. The will to power is not, therefore, a will to political power, although this may be one form it can take. Instead, Nietzsche understands its greatest expression to be a genuine creativity–of art, of insight, and of course, of new values.
The organic interpretation has a stronger basis in the text–Nietzsche explicitly asserts that life is the will to power (5). Will to power would then be the force that distinguishes what is living from what is inanimate. But if by “life” Nietzsche means life in the biological sense, he is still projecting a psychological theory onto nature. And we have just seen that he asserts that only creatures with an intellect possess will–which excludes all forms of life that are not animals. Furthermore, Nietzsche talks of societies being “alive” and exhibiting the will to power, which again indicates that ‘life’ is not meant biologically. So what does he mean “life” in this context? One passage in particular from the Antichrist helps: “Life itself is the instinct for growth, for power: where the will to power is lacking there is decline. It is my contention that all the supreme values of mankind lack this will” (Lacewing, 5). The will to power cannot be life in the biological sense if something alive, such as the human race, can lack the will to power.
The will to power is the basic character of our drives or instincts. The essence of a drive is to assert itself. To do so successfully, to achieve expression, is for it to have power. Power is not a separate aim of the drives. In asserting itself, each drive comes into competition with others, and with the drives of other individuals. And so drives are always in relations of power to each other. The will to power is not, therefore, a will to political power, although this may be one form it can take. Instead, Nietzsche understands its greatest expression to be a genuine creativity–of art, of insight, and of course, of new values.
THE SUPERMAN (UBERMENSCH)
The thrust therefore of Nietzsche’s Will to Power burdens on, “why should people of great abilities be reduced to the mediocrity characteristics of the herd”? Hence, he spoke of rising beyond good and evil, by which he meant rising above the dominant herd morality of his day. He envisioned a new day when once again, the truly complete person would achieve new levels of creative activity and thereby become a higher type of person: the Superman (Übermensch), his rejection of the concept of equality implies his concept of the Superman. Hence his position; "Great things, Nietzsche says, remain for the great, everything rare for the rare" The Superman will be rare but is the next stage in human evolution. History is moving not toward some abstract developed "humanity" but towards the emergence of some exceptional people; the Superman is the goal (Stumpf and Fieser 367). Nietzsche did not think that his Superman would be a tyrant. To be sure, there will be much of the Dionysian element within the Superman. But these passions would be controlled, thereby harmonizing the animal nature with the intellect, and giving style to his or her behaviour.
The thrust therefore of Nietzsche’s Will to Power burdens on, “why should people of great abilities be reduced to the mediocrity characteristics of the herd”? Hence, he spoke of rising beyond good and evil, by which he meant rising above the dominant herd morality of his day. He envisioned a new day when once again, the truly complete person would achieve new levels of creative activity and thereby become a higher type of person: the Superman (Übermensch), his rejection of the concept of equality implies his concept of the Superman. Hence his position; "Great things, Nietzsche says, remain for the great, everything rare for the rare" The Superman will be rare but is the next stage in human evolution. History is moving not toward some abstract developed "humanity" but towards the emergence of some exceptional people; the Superman is the goal (Stumpf and Fieser 367). Nietzsche did not think that his Superman would be a tyrant. To be sure, there will be much of the Dionysian element within the Superman. But these passions would be controlled, thereby harmonizing the animal nature with the intellect, and giving style to his or her behaviour.
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