Nicole Rosenthal Nietzsche 11/17/15
When reading Nietzsche, we can pick up from him that he was very educated often better than most philosophers. Or so he thought. Although he had a very poor outlook on his culture and everyday society, he had very strong opinions when it came to humans and their actions. He made strong assumptions whether people agreed with him or not. An assumption such as, he believed most philosophers and researchers were not as educated as he was, which we pick up in his writings. Nietzsche’s main goal in his essays are to educate those on morality. First, Nietzsche believed that specific words and human actions have evolved over time to things they were never intended to become. Nietzsche
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We begin to read about the Ascetic ideal. Nietzsche asks the question, “What is the meaning of the power of this ideal, the monstrous nature of its power?...Ascetic ideal has a goal.” (582) As I continue to read this essay, it is believed that this life has only one purpose and there are no others. Humans are attracted to this ideal because it provides them with answers others may not have. It gives them a sense of purpose to their life and it helps them understand it better. It provides them with a sense of freedom. As we continue to read farther into the essay, we see that Nietzsche has a strong opinion about science. It is hard to determine if he follows any sort of religion because he expressed his views with Christian and Jewish religion, but also talks down upon science when the thought that science could have a part in Ascetic ideal. From my understanding, Nietzsche says that science is unable to have a part in Ascetic ideal, while it is presumed that it is because it does not have to have any “assistance” from anyone or anything. Nietzsche comments about science with, “Science is not nearly self reliant enough to be that;” (589) Nietzsche is stating that science does not have any sort of “motive” or does not have any sort of feeling so how could that contribute to the ascetic ideal. It is always supporting something else and is in a
We have grown weary of man. Nietzsche wants something better, to believe in human ability once again. Nietzsche’s weariness is based almost entirely in the culmination of ressentiment, the dissolution of Nietzsche’s concept of morality and the prevailing priestly morality. Nietzsche wants to move beyond simple concepts of good and evil, abandon the assessment of individuals through ressentiment, and restore men to their former wonderful ability.
However, Nietzsche’s idea of the powerful forcing their will on common people resonates with me. It is something we see in our modern society, wealthy people seem to have a higher influence over the average American. Examples of powerful people controlling others are found in politics, economy, media, and religion. Common people are lead to think in certain ways that the powerful need them to. Nietzsche said that people will only be equal as long as they are equal in force and talent, people who have a higher social group are more influential in decisions because average people look to them for information. The thing I do not agree with Nietzsche on his view as Christianity as a weakness because religion is a main cause of people’s decision
Friedrich Nietzsche was a brilliant and outspoken man who uses ideas of what he believe in what life is about. He did not believe in what is right and wrong because if who opposed the power. Nietzsche was against Democracy because how they depend on other people to make some different or change, while Nietzsche believe they should of just pick the ones that were gifted and talent to choose what to change. Nietzsche also does not believe in Aristocracy because how they depend on an individual person to create the rules or change those benefits for him. As you see Nietzsche did not like how they depend on one person to decide instead of each person to decide for himself for their own benefits.
People from different backgrounds and circumstances in history bend morality's meaning, making it cater to the norms of their society. For example, the concept of what is "good" in the ancient Greek culture meant aristocratic, noble, powerful, wealthy, pure, but not in modern era. Meaning, in the past the term “good” was not applied to a kind of act that someone did but rather applied to the kind of person and background they had. Nietzsche’s project was to help expand one’s understanding by re-examining morality through genealogy of morality; helping one to be more aware of a potential confusion in moral thinking. He feels that the current values and concepts that have been instilled into a society are a reversal of the truth, forcing him to believe that one’s moral systems had to have been created within society.
In philosophy “Nihilism” is a position of radical skepticism. It is the belief that all values are baseless and nothing is known. The word “Nihilism” itself conveys a sense of abolishing or destroying (IEP). Nietzsche’s work and writings are mostly associated with nihilism in general, and moral nihilism especially. Moral nihilism questions the reality and the foundation of moral values. Nietzsche supported his view on morality by many arguments and discussions on the true nature of our inner self. Through my paper on Moral Nihilism, I will explain 5 major arguments and then try to construct a deductive argument for each, relying on Nietzsche’s book II “Daybreak”.
Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche, a German philosopher, believed there are two different moralities; master and slave morality. For Nietzsche, a morality is a set of value judgements. These moralities define a person not only by their actions, but how they handle these certain situations throughout their daily life. I believe Nietzsche chose these two moralities as they are strong opposites that are rational. The distinction between "master morality" and "slave morality" are easy to be misunderstand.
Nietzsche’s society depended more on the human’s strength, human nature was seen weak if someone lacks to specific strength. And so because of the society’s stresses and pressures, humans were seen as machines. There was the sense of frustration to be original and creative and that’s why Nietzsche thought that human should be led by a hero.
An idea that is central to the text is that man should revery back to the knightly value system. In short, man should be more like an Ubermensch. This is because the knightly-aristocratic value judgments presuppose a powerful physicality, a flourishing health and those that preserve it through vigorous, free, joyful activity. On the other hand, the priestly value judgments are based on impotence and have a spiritual and poisonous kind of hatred. An example of choosing a more knightly behavior is demonstrated in my figure skating. There is a certain joy in working hard and sweating from putting myself out there in terms of jumping. Any sort of vigorous activity seems to appeal to me. In the moment there is often times a
Firstly, Nietzsche stated that life is death in the making and all humans should not be determined by an external force rather, he believed that humans should have the incentive to think for themselves. Nietzsche claimed the future of a man is in his own hands. Simultaneously, humans are phased with struggles in the attempt to self-create themselves. Nietzsche proceeded with his argument affirming
Friedrich Nietzsche’s On Truth and Lies in a Nonmoral Sense represents a deconstruction of the modern epistemological project. Instead of seeking for truth, he suggests that the ultimate truth is that we have to live without such truth, and without a sense of longing for that truth. This revolutionary work of his is divided into two main sections. The first part deals with the question on what is truth? Here he discusses the implication of language to our acquisition of knowledge. The second part deals with the dual nature of man, i.e. the rational and the intuitive. He establishes that neither rational nor intuitive man is ever successful in their pursuit of knowledge due to our illusion of truth. Therefore, Nietzsche concludes that all we can claim to know are interpretations of truth and not truth itself.
Nietzsche believed we create the self through our experiences and our actions, and in order to be a complete self, we must accept everything we have done. I agree with him in this sense. Although it is easy to learn from the mistakes of others, there is no greater lesson than learning from our own mistakes. He also believed there is much more to the self than we know about. This is another example about how we learn about ourselves through our experiences and actions.
Do I agree with Nietzsche in his real world application in today’s standard? His esoteric way of thinking is a bit shocking to say the least, but in certain regards, that we are more divided now in politics than we ever have been. Some of it does have to do with religion and how it is viewed. This is a bit foolish in nature since we should all want the same things in our country. But Nietzsche would argue (along with some others in today’s culture) that the political esoteric and the metaphysical esoteric have been divided. Nietzsche answers a problem when talking about the religious conflicts that ruled the land and perhaps even endangered societies. The issue was not the idea of religion in itself, but rather it was a problem that there
What is morality? There are many different views on what morality really is, but the one I find to be closest to the truth is Nietzsche’s view. Nietzsche completely reevaluated all of the values tied to morality and concluded that there is little true value in this world. Morality has always seemed to be complex and always been kept in a very limited “box”. Nietzsche goes beyond the normal limits and out of the “box” morality has been kept in. Nietzsche believed that there is no truth, just beliefs. Morality is just another belief. All beliefs are just interpretations or ways of looking at the world. Everything is a perspective. How I might view morality or what I might consider to be moral may be and probably will be very different from how someone else’s views. Nietzsche does not think we truly understand morality or the history of it. This is primarily where he believes other philosophers have gone wrong when trying to understand and describe what morality is. Nietzsche says, “As is the hallowed custom with philosophers, the thinking of all them is by nature unhistorical…” (Nietzsche, 25). Nietzsche believed that historically there were two types of morality: slave morality and master morality. Nietzsche says that, “It was out of this pathos of distance that they first seized the right to create values and to coin names for values…” (Nietzsche, 26). How we view morality now along with many other things has changed over the course of time. Nietzsche calls this conceptual transformation. Nietzsche says, “Thus one also imagined that punishment was devised for punishment. But purposes and utilities are only signs that a will to power has become master of something less powerful and imposed upon it the character of a function…” (Nie...
He believed that the human body wasn’t done with evolving and we aren’t fully developed into what we are fully capable of. He says, “The death of God must be followed by a long twilight of piety and nihilism. Zarathustra 's gift of the overman is given to a mankind not aware of the problem to which the overman is the solution” (Nietzsche). People aren’t aware of the superman because they are too caught up in religion and democracy. This prevents people from thinking above the “herd” that Nietzsche talked about when describing the Christian faith. The superman is one who has complete free will and thinking, he does not look for what other find enjoyable instead seeks for what he or she wants. Nietzsche compares apes to men and asked the question of whether we are a laughingstock or a painful embarrassment. “What is ape to man? A laughing stock or painful embarrassment. And man shall be that to overman: a laughingstock or painful embarrassment” (Nietzsche). He is saying that we might be just as underdeveloped as an ape to what we are today as compared to us as the superman. This way of thinking shows that he felt that the human body could achieve so much more that what people think it is capable of, that art and culture are needed to continue development of the
...ot resent during Nietzsche's lifetime. However his ideas of how individual perspectives and will are shaped or influenced within a given culture are very much observable in these media forms. Mass culture as propagated by the media has imposed certain moral considerations and values on individuals that they may not necessarily have subscribed to. In effect this has led to individuals how function like zombies, following blindly concepts carried by the media as the only real issues. The mass culture advanced by the media has advanced some form of complacency that has restricted issues under consideration and that need attention by human beings. The scope of human thinking, as well as their autonomy in making decisions, has been taken away as individuals continue to operate like robots being directed by other entities, perhaps for easy political and social management.