Friedrich Nietzsche

A. Preface: Supposing Truth to be a Woman ......

1. Tensions in Mill

2. Nietzsche's resolution: the will to power

B. Part 2: The Free Spirit

1. Characteristics of the (very) free spirit

2. "True" philosophy and the crisis of modernity

C. Part 3: The Religious Nature

1. Nietzsche's critique of Christianity

2. The superficiality of post-Christian modernism

3. Religion and the free spirit

D. Part 5: The History of Morals

1. The illusion of rational foundations

2. Reprise: the primacy of faith (instinct) over reason

3. Modernity: secularized slave morality

4. The reevaluation of all values

• 1. Tensions in Mill



• Millian individuality vs. Platonic/Aristotelian individuality: autonomy vs. paths to an ideal



• Three tensions in On Liberty:



1. Reason vs. will (affection)



2. Democracy vs. elitism



3. Constraints vs. radical reevaluation of values

• 2. Nietzsche's resolution of these tensions: the will to power
  
  
  • Will and affection predominate over reason:
  
  
  Truth is a woman to be wooed, and dogmatic metaphysics of both the classical and Cartesian sort obscures this fact.
  
  
  • The free spirit must resist the democratic tendency to snuff out the will to power in order to protect the weak non-free-spirits:
  
  
  Jesuitism and democratic enlightenment as two historical attempts to thwart the free spirit by making "salvation" available to all..
  
  
  • History has given us the possibility to reevaluate all values:
  
  
  No constraints on action can be rationally grounded--and the "watchful" among us realize this.

• 1. Characteristics of the (very) free spirit:



• #26: is set free from the crowd, but only after having had commerce with it and sensing its superficiality



• #26: calmly sees the truth about the human condition, viz., that it is the affective rather than the rational that moves us



• #29 & #44: emerges only after and from a long struggle that may destroy it. (Suffering is necessary for the growth of the spirit and self-indulgence is a danger.)



• #30: cannot be readily comprehended by the crowd, and doesn't want to be



• #31: undergoes continual "dis-integration" as it uncovers past self-deceptions



• #41: has no attachments (i) to people, even loved ones, (ii) to country, (iii) to pity, (iv) to science or philosophy, (v) to its own detachment, (vi) to its own virtues



• #43: is a friend of perspectival truth, which is not accessible to all


Note: Compare this with Socrates's account of the true philosopher, with the Christian ideal of the saint, and with Mill's ideal of individuality.



• 2. "True" philosophy and the crisis of modernity



• #24 and #35: Pessimism with respect to reason----reaction to the enlightenment



• #36: All causation is a manifestation of will, appetite, and affection: the will to power----reaction to dogmatic philosophy



• #32: Moral theory has now developed to the point that one can glimpse the primacy of will over reason:



• Premoral: The value of an action is a function of its consequences----Modernism



• Moral: The value of an action is a function of its rational intention----Jesuitism



• Extramoral: The value of an action is a function of the will underlying the intention----True Philosophy

• 1. Nietzsche's critique of Christianity



• #46: Christianity as enslavement: the true philosopher as an oppressed victim whose basic attitude should be suspicion



• #46 & #62: Christianity as a bold inversion of the truth: Slave morality



• #47: Christianity as struggling against the will to power by urging



• solitude----to contain vanity
• abstinence----to contain sexual desire
• fasting----to contain greed


• #51 & #60: The ideal of sainthood as something the free spirit both despises and admires



• #50 & #52: Contrast between the Old and New Testaments, between Luther and Augustine



• #55: The phases of religious cruelty

• 2. The superficiality of post-Christian modernism



• #58: Industriousness (sneer, sneer) as snuffing out the religious nature



• #58: The enlightenment scholar's arrogant and stupid bafflement

• 3. Religion and the free spirit



• Religion as a vehicle by which free spirits maintain control over "the slaves":
  
  
  • The slaves recognize free spirits as their leaders [#61 at the beginning]
  
  
  
  • Religion keeps the slaves content [#61, at the end]
  
  
• Religious discipline as a stage in the development of free spirits [#61, in the middle; #188]

• 1. The illusion of rational foundations



• Read (with many sneers) #186

• 2. Reprise: the primacy of faith (instinct) over reason [#191]



• Plato: Reason and will both lead to God (where God = truth and goodness)



• Descartes: Reason--and not will--is the only authority



• Nietzsche: Will is supreme; reason is merely instrumental


Question: What does Nietzsche mean by reason?

• 3. Modernity: secularized slave morality



• #195 & #198: The Jewish inversion of values



• The traits of modernity (or: modernity as timidity):



• Even commanders must pretend to obey [#199]



• Repose, rather than struggle, as the ideal [#200]



• Fear of "lofty spiritual independence" and of severity, even severity in the realm of justice [#201]



• Opposition to every special claim and privilege [#202]

• 4. The reevaluation of all values



• Read (triumphantly) #203