Unit 4: Friedrich Nietzsche
Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900), an unapologetic critic of culture, society, religion, and philosophical dogma (views his predecessors and contemporaries accepted without question), is widely regarded as one of the most influential thinkers of the past two centuries. Nietzsche, like all existentialists, condemned the universalistic tendencies that have characterized Western philosophy throughout its history; that is, the tendency of philosophers to assert they could determine what is true for everyone and for all time.
According to Nietzsche, there is no universal truth – in his pursuit of truth, he values suspicion and skepticism over rationalism. He focuses on subjective individuality and the dangers of being absorbed into the herd, losing "freedom", and rejecting all of the usual crutches people lean on to escape responsibility. Personal experience and acting on one's convictions lead to truth. Individuals must be strong enough to create meaning for themselves, unlike the common herd whose sense of purpose and meaning lies entirely in conformity to rules; the great people are those who "re-evaluate all values".
Completing this unit should take you approximately 9 hours.
Upon successful completion of this unit, you will be able to:
- analyze the main existentialist themes in Nietzsche's philosophy.
- explain Nietzsche's critique of metaphysics;
- summarize Nietzsche's idea of power;
- describe Nietzsche's theory of morality; and
- explain Nietzsche's theory of eternal recurrence.
4.1: Nietzsche's Existential Themes
Like many other existential philosophers, Nietzsche, a German native, lived through terrible times. He often endured enormous sadness, misery, and strife. He volunteered during the Franco-Prussian war, witnessed the horrors of warfare, and contracted illnesses that caused him long-term health problems. His existential philosophy may have been his best attempt to help himself and others embody the powers of self-formation. The answers to some of humanity's most pressing existential questions may just help us survive social and personal crises.
Nietzsche wrote:
Why the 'world' exists, why 'humanity' exists need not concern us for the present moment […], but why you, individual, exist, this ask yourself and if no one can tell you, then try to justify the meaning of existence a posteriori by setting for yourself some purpose, some goal, some 'therefore,' a high and noble 'therefore.' Perish in pursuit of your goal – I know no higher life-purpose than to perish in the pursuit of something great and impossible.
– Untimely Meditations, 1876We will not find meaning independently of experience via rationalists' pure, logical, deductive reasoning. Rather, individuals create and find meaning when they generate and pursue their own goals. In this way, Nietzsche's view is solidly existential.
Nietzsche argued that our goals should be "high" and "noble", suggesting a pre-existing notion of what these words mean. There is value in the world, in human existence, but not in the ordinary or traditional sense. That is because his account was life-affirming (or Dionysian), unlike the traditional sense that Nietzsche associated with a denial of life and vitality.
We will not find the meaning of life in traditional religious or philosophical beliefs. Indeed, the metaphysical "real" world of Plato's Forms and the God of Abraham disappear with the rise of atheistic science in Nietzsche's "Parable of the Madman".
What is left to fill the void of meaninglessness? A belief, regardless of how illusory it may be. For Nietzsche, we generate meaning by setting the most difficult tasks for ourselves and pursuing them with the discipline and obedience needed to achieve them.
As you read this excerpt about Nietzsche's life, consider how Nietzsche's rejection of traditional values reflected existential concerns. How is Nietzsche similar to, yet different from, the figures you have studied so far in this course?
Read this article for an overview of Nietzsche's life and works. Is there anything in his history that makes you question why he chose to spend his life exploring existential themes? How may his narrative and life's work benefit those dealing with existential crises?
4.2: Nietzsche's Critique of Metaphysics
Nietzsche believed his philosophical predecessors were wrong to place so much faith in human reason. Their trust involved an implicit and explicit belief that knowledge is universal, or the same, at all times and places, for everyone.
Metaphysics, the branch of philosophy concerned with the nature of reality, grapples with abstract concepts, such as substance, God, and mind. Since the Ancient Greeks, philosophers have sought to identify and explain the ultimate nature of things, from the simplest substance to the existence of God, to the nature of a self that endures through change.
Nietzsche disagreed with philosophical disciplines that concentrated on a reality disengaged from our lived experience, which is of paramount importance. He argued that metaphysicians built complicated abstract theories that do not focus on our fundamental life struggles or the human drive to endure.
A perspectivist believes that our views (or perspectives) are fundamentally subjective and informed by various factors. Individuals can know things about the world, but given the peculiarity and perspective of every individual, our knowledge is always simply an interpretation. Our philosophical claims depend on the factors influencing our opinion and our being. An empirical approach, the scientific method of inquiry and observation through experiments, offers a middle ground.
Moreover, Nietzsche argued that the history of metaphysics describes a history of rationalizing theological, particularly Christian, dogma. The early modern tradition of rationalists, such as René Descartes (1596–1650), Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz (1646–1716), and Baruch Spinoza (1632–1677), often used philosophical principles to justify and support a religious belief, which Nietzsche rejected.
As you listen to this podcast on Nietzsche by Walter Kaufmann, list the attributes of Nietzsche's Superman (or Overman). What "crisis" is the speaker referring to? How is Nietzsche's critique of traditional philosophy also a critique of religion? Pay close attention to Kaufmann's description of Nietzsche's critique of traditional theories of knowledge. According to Nietzsche, is it possible to know rationalist philosophy's "thing-in-itself"?
Watch this video to learn about Nietzsche's life. How did he apply philosophy to fill various voids in his life? Were you surprised to learn about how frequently tragedy struck his short life? What inspired him?
4.3: Nietzsche's Idea of Power
Nietzsche was influenced by the Ancient Greeks, especially the dialectical interplay between Apollo and Dionysus, and the German philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer's (1788–1860) concept of the will to live. Nature is a relentless striving for life, a motion that creates and destroys. Because the human will is a natural force, it also strives to live.
Nietzsche found a middle ground between the repressive, authoritarian doctrine of Judeo-Christianity morality and nihilism, which described a world that lacks meaning, value, and purpose.
The death of God results in nihilism, but Nietzsche introduced the three metamorphoses in his book Thus Spoke Zarathustra (published in four parts from 1883 to 1891). Human beings can transform themselves from a camel (an obedient soul that carries and comes to resent its burdens) to a lion (a free spirit that is free from the past, tradition, and authority) to a child (who wills its own will, knows the joy of life, and enjoys the innocence of perpetual creation). This spiritual transformation characterizes Nietzsche's vision of a flourishing life.
Nietzsche's "will to power" refers to the human desire to assert domination or mastery over others, oneself, and the environment. The will to power Nietzsche describes can be beneficial or hurtful. It describes a certain ambition, a drive to achieve, and a striving for excellence. For example, a philosopher or scientist directs their will to power to find truth, an artist channels their will to create, and a businessman strives to become rich.
In The Gay Science (1882), Nietzsche wrote that a noble soul has reverence for itself. He writes:
But that the passion which seizes the noble man is a peculiarity, without his knowing that it is so; the use of a rare and singular measuring-rod, almost a frenzy; the feeling of heat in things which feel cold to all other persons; a divining of values for which scales have not yet been invented; a sacrificing on altars which are consecrated to an unknown God; a bravery without the desire for honour; a self-sufficiency which has superabundance, and impares to men anc things. Hitherto, therefore, it has been the rare in man, and the unconsciousness of this rareness, that has made men noble.
– The Gay Science, p. 55Read this excerpt from Nietzsche’s Thus Spake Zarathustra, XXXIV. Self-Surpassing, which explores his concept of the "Will to Power". In what ways is a person's "Will to Power" simply a way they practice self-overcoming? What role does self-sacrifice play in Nietzsche’s thoughts about self-formation?
Watch the video to learn more about Nietzsche's thoughts in "The Will to Power". What in us, as humans, really wants truth? Would you be comfortable with untruth, uncertainty, or even ignorance?
4.4: The Social Construction of Morality
According to Nietzsche, Apollo and Dionysus represent conflicting creative powers and principles of creation: the continuous dialectic, or logical discussion of creation versus destruction. Apollonian creation is rational, while Dionysian (Bacchanalian) creation revels in a sensuous feeling that destroys rationality. They represent two oppositional powers, two kinds of contrasting art that conflict in human life. Insofar as Greek tragedy envisions this conflict, affirming life in the face of individual destruction, Nietzsche sees a way for us to live: life becomes art. Hence, we "have our greatest dignity in our meaning as works of art".
The history of this process is the Overman (Übermensch), who creates values and lives life as a work of art: creation in the face of destruction. When he creates values, the Overman expresses himself. This individual contrasts with those who accept traditional ideas about reality and the good life, such as the Christian. This individual has goodness and values all wrong.
What is good and valuable is not self-sacrifice for the greater good or doing one's duty for the sake of a moral principle. Rather, "good" is "the noble, the powerful, the superior, and the high-minded". In short, what is good, what is rightfully valued, is the morality of the "master". This individual affirms life; the "slave" who exhibits traditional values denies it.
Read this essay that Friedrich Nietzsche published in 1873. How are values socially constructed, according to Nietzsche? More importantly, why are they constructed in this way?
Read this article on Nietzsche's übermensch. Do you think the übermensch was meant to be Nietsche's attempt to build a shrine on which he could kneel? Can an übermensch or "ideal of strength" be a protective mask for someone like Nietzsche, who had a sensitive, passionate interior?
Read this excerpt from On the Genealogy of Morals which Friedrich Nietzsche published in 1887. Consider Nietzsche's account of how values and morals are created. According to Nietzsche, what is the origin of the concept "good"? What is the origin of the concept of "evil"? How have these concepts changed through history? What precipitated that change? Finally, how does resentment become creative? According to Nietzsche, how have the terms bad, evil, and good evolved? And how does Nietzsche predict restoring these terms to their original meaning? In other words, what must happen for this restoration to take place?
4.5: The Death of God
In aphorism #108 of The Gay Science, Nietzche declares that "God is dead", but what does this mean? He suggests that God is dead, we have slain him, and we should accept personal responsibility for producing "the tragedy of tragedies". What he means is that the Christian God has become unbelievable.
Watch this video which discusses a passage from Nietzsche's book The Gay Science. How does Nietzsche use the phrase "God is dead", and what does this statement refer to specifically? Can you explain why Nietzsche's remark about the death of God is not a theological statement – or not about religion? In what way is Nietzsche's proclamation that "we have killed [God]" a condemnation of religion, particularly a critique of those Western values passed down from Christianity? In other words, is God really dead, or are the values and commitments we derived from God's existence dead?
Watch this video, which discusses Nietzsche's famous passage, "God is dead". How does this statement relate to the Greek philosopher Plato's ideas? Do you think the statement "God is dead" leads us down a slippery path toward nihilism?
Watch this video. Consider the similarities and differences between Nietzsche and Søren Kierkegaard based on Kierkegaard's notions of the three stages of life (the aesthetic, ethical, and religious sphere), the "leap of faith", and "truth as subjectivity", as well as Nietzsche's ideas about Christianity as slave morality, the death of God, and the übermensch. According to Kierkegaard, what is the problem with how contemporary society practices Christianity? Is it even possible to be a Christian in the radical sense Kierkegaard suggests? What does Kierkegaard mean when he says Christianity is founded on a paradox? How does Kierkegaard formulate his view that individual existence is a category?
4.6: Nietzsche's Idea of Eternal Recurrence
Imagine reliving every moment of your life for eternity. Nietzsche explained that this thought experiment or contemplation encourages us to consider "the greatest weight" because it forces us to confront how we live our lives in every moment.
What sort of life would we live again and again for eternity? What would it look like in terms of our attitudes, dispositions, goals, and values? As the German philosopher Volker Gerhardt puts it:
...even the most insignificant of our actions takes on the weight of all eternity. Accordingly, we must act with the awareness that everything we do can be willed by us in infinite recurrence.
Nietzsche encouraged his readers to find inspiration to affirm life rather than wallow in timidity and regret. This concept of eternal return is of considerable existential import.
Read these excerpts from The Gay Science, which Friedrich Nietzsche published in 1882. Pay special attention to "Aph. 341: The Greatest Weight". As you read, consider the following questions: If you were confronted with the question of eternal recurrence, what would you do? How is the aphorism in this reading intended to place the reader in a position to say "yes" to life?
Unit 4 Assessment
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