Nietzschean Values

Nietzsche was a revolutionary author and philosopher who has had a tremendous impact on German culture up through the twentieth century and even today. Nietzsche's views were very unlike the popular and conventional beliefs and practices of his time and nearly all of his published works were, and still are, rather controversial, especially in On the Genealogy of Morals. His philosophies are more than just controversial and unconventional viewpoints, however; they are absolutely extreme and dangerous if taken out of context or misinterpreted. After Nietzsche's death it took very little for his sister to make some slight alterations to his works to go along with Nazi ideology.

He would disagree with what Socrates chose to do in accepting death and would look at the demanor of good and evil and raise the idea that this is all dogmatic, which then should be eradicated. If Socrates’s was to leave and struggle by failing to adhere to his principals he would suffer to a degree, but in his sufferage he would become a man of greatness. Nietzsche’s ideas of good and evil being formed through religion requires for it to be gone because God is “dead” therfore meaning is found at the end of ones

Friedrich Nietzsche’s own skepticism symbolized the secular changes in contemporary Western civilization, in which he details mankind’s break away from faith into a new rule of chaos. In Book 5 of The Gay Science, Nietzsche establishes that “God is dead”, meaning that modern Europe has abandoned religion in favor of rationality and science (Nietzsche 279). From this death, the birth of a ‘new’ infinite blossoms in which the world is open to an unlimited amount of interpretations that do not rely on the solid foundations of faith in religion or science. However, in contrast to the other philosophers of his age such as Immanuel Kant and Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, Nietzsche deviates from the omniscient determinism of history towards a

Nietzsche does not dispute the influence that Socrates has imposed on the world. Rather, Nietzsche disputes the philosophy that he has imposed on the world, believing it to be detrimental to humankind. In this paper, I argue that Nietzsche finds Socrates and his philosophy to be life-negating and causal of decline, while any form of existence should be life-affirming and empowering, though such a form has yet to exist in the modern era. In order to prove this, I will first examine his critique of Socrates, demonstrating that Socrates, as an individual, belonged to the lowest level of society in Athens as a consequence of his repulsive figure, and therefore, created his philosophy not with the intent of enlightenment, but as a ressentiment (i.e. resentment) towards the Athenian aristocracy. Second, I will examine

Nietzsche strongest argument was that, “Human nature is always driven by “the will to power””, but religion will tell one otherwise, saying that one should forbid their bad desires. Nietzsche is quite critical in particular towards Christianity since it was stated as the religion of slaves and pity by Nietzsche, caused by limiting one’s personal development since they were too obsessed with the treasures of the afterlife. Having said that, Nietzsche also referred to Buddhism as the nihilistic and the “desire for nothingness” religion, however he does praise certain aspects of the Buddhist teaching in comparison to Jesus’. Last but foremost, Nietzsche proves Socrates death to be at the hands of the acceptance of slave morality. For those who practice religion are guaranteed to fall as a slave rather than to become their own master due to all the restriction and standards set up by God. I simply do agree with Nietzsche due to all the evidence connecting back to each and every religion and philosophers. One must strive to reach and achieve their desire in order to be satisfied with one’s life. As people say, “no pain, no gain”, therefore one must live through all the suffering to accomplish greatness in their lives and make the most out of the given life. One can conclude, the practice of religion led many to the acceptance of slave

In this Commentary of sections 1-7 of essay two in Friedrich Nietzsche’s The Genealogy of Morals, I will give a brief overview of the text, to help with showing the content that the comment covers, the go deeper into the individual sections and relate them to Nietzsche’s way of thinking and also look into any problems or solutions offered by those arguments.

While Nietzsche’s standpoint of the master morality can be viewed in the lifestyle of people today, it is not a morality that need be accepted or strived for as a sense of power or accomplishment in life. The Bible teaches that as we lose our live for Jesus we will find it (Matthew 10:39). Submitting to God is not an act of weakness, rather an honor and gain as we lose ourselves in Him and find our true selves. The Bible says that we were made in God’s image and likeness, and we were given dominion over the earth (Genesis 1:26). Nietzsche’s master morality appears to be just that, an attempt to gain dominion. Since Nietzsche did not believe in God, which is the way to salvation and eternal life (Romans 10:9), it is safe to assume that he was serving the god of this world and his ways, which have always been to try to copy or be like God (Isaiah 14:13-14). Nietzsche had knowledge about God but decided to turn away from him. Because of this, Romans 1:28 -29 shows that he, among other things would be arrogant, boastful heartless, and invent ways of doing evil, which to me is exactly what his whole master-slave morality portrays. Had Nietzsche just turned from his wicked ways and submitted to the One and only true God, he would have found the peace, love, and true authority with out death.

Nietzsche points out that morals were not given to humans by God, nor was knowledge or instinct instilled in us by God: we have created morality just as we have decided standards for "truth" and explanations for our "human nature," and so there is no transcendent external standard. If God is dead, there are no objective values and we are free to create our own values. Nietzsche says that although the death of God liberates us, leaving us free to rule ourselves, this results in a cage-like freedom: while no value is objectively "right" or "true", if we can not choose then we are not free. Nietzsche supports the individual who, despite a lack of objective correctness or "truth", makes a decision anyway, accepting responsibility for her self-created values and actions, knowing she is these actions.

This revolutionary regeneration connects to Rosenberg’s racial construction theories. The Nazi’s sought to regenerate Germany with their euthanasia program to remove those who were not of the Aryan race as they were seen as tainting the people of German society. Nietzsche’s concept of the overman and his idea on eternal recurrence was misinterpreted by the Nazi leaders and theorists. The overman for Nietzsche takes a long time to become and achieve. As God is dead, God was the source of all values and there needs to be a new being that prescribes values on to the people. The overman is the creator of new values without having the values of the old tablets as found in Christian doctrine. In order to become the overman, one must accept there are no absolute truths, there is suffering in life, and one must control their impulses and behavior. In addition, one must accept that the world is in a state of flux as life is constantly changing and adapting and we must adapt as life does. Furthermore, Nietzsche’s overman is courageous, self-expressive, powerful, and has strong influence over others (Kaufmann

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.

The main focus of Nietzsche writing has been the discovery of self. This discovery of self allows one to become the overman, a being that can be looked at as something higher then humans, yet still not a God. The main opposition to reaching the overman in the Christian Moral Ideal, a set of values that has been instilled in us based on the views of the Christian church. In the text Thus Spoke Zarathustra, Zarathustra begins his path towards self-overcoming. The text, in many respects, represents one man’s journey to self-overcoming. The type of freedom that Zarathustra is endorsing is complete freedom of self. This includes amor fati, which is the love of ones fate. This is meant to mean that pure self-overcoming means accepting all that has

Friedrich Nietzsche was a 19th-century German philosopher and held in regard amongst the greatest philosophers of the early part century. He sharpened his philosophical skills through reading the works of the earlier philosophers of the 18th century such as Immanuel Kant, John Stuart Mill, Arthur Schopenhauer and African Spir; however, their works and beliefs were opposite to his own. His primary mentor was Author Schopenhauer, whose belief was that reality was built on the foundation of experience. Such as it is, one of his essays, Schopenhauer als Erzieher, published in 1874, was dedicated to Schopenhauer (Mencken, 2008). In the past two centuries, his work has had authority and influence in both

With this said, Nietzsche would not agree with Craig. His idea on perspectivism also shows that he would not agree. One idea is the real verse the apparent world, which he states that language and grammar tricks us to imagine there is an "essence" for what makes up the things we see. For example the idea that "lightening flashes" is false because in reality the lightening is the flash. He would use this in his argument towards the existence of moral values and God because not everyone sees things the same way. Nietzsche's examples show that he does not believe in moral values and does not believe in God. Craig argues back with Nietzsche's idea that proclaimed that the death of God meant the destruction of all meaning and value in life. In William's excerpt he says that Nietzsche is right but we've got to be careful because the question is not "must we believe in God in order to live a moral life?" Craig doesn't believe that we do. Nor is the question: Can we recognize objective moral values without believing in God? Because he does believe that you can recognize them. Rather, the question is: If God does not exist, do objective morals exist? Craig proves that they do by explaining that actions such as rape, torture, and child abuse aren't just socially acceptable behavior. And that they are moral abominations and that there are some things that are really wrong and everyone knows it. Craig also says in his excerpt that even

The prophet Zarathustra descended from the mountains after ten years of isolation. He has descended to teach the masses about the overman, and the belief system that accompanies him. Nietzsche, through Zarathustra, is offering a new value system to replace Christianity. This value system can be referred to as ‘Zarathustraism’. A vital part to embracing this value system is the deconstruction of Christianity. Man has redefined Christianity to better suit personal desire, and it has begun to fail as a result. Zarathustraism will teach Man to live in the light of the Overman, free of the negativity Christianity caused.

“God is dead. God remains dead. And we have killed him.” (Gay Science, 126) This harsh statement remains among Friedrich Nietzsche’s most powerful and disturbing quotes, spoken by a proclaimed Madman to a crowd of disbelievers. After making this claim, the Madman becomes horrified by his audience’s ignorance, noting that “This tremendous event is still on its way.” This has an effect of suspending the Madman’s message in time, expanding its audience infinitely, for the event of God’s death could still be on its way. Therefore, nearly 150 years after these words were written, we must ask ourselves, does God remain dead, and has our modern society killed him? This is a haunting and disturbing question, but in many ways our society does resemble Nietzsche’s masses. However, it also resembles the Madman himself, due to its inherent individualism.