Nietzsche's Four Great Erros

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

In his book, Twilight of the Idols, Friedrich Nietzsche aggressively challenges conventional schools of thought dating back to the ancients. Philosophy, as we know it, began over two-thousand years ago in Athens with the birth of Socrates. Socrates introduced the practice of reasoning and dialectics—the art of discourse hoping to bring individuals closer to some universal truth—to an Athenian society that previously held aesthetics, not logic, as indicative of goodness. Socrates revolutionized life in Athens, and by extension, the Western tradition. His beliefs are found in works written centuries after his death. He is heralded as the “father of philosophy.”

Religion has been subject to various examinations throughout time; this historically dominant concept has offered much to the world, while sometimes being disadvantageous. Philosophers have looked to offer insight and understanding to the idea of a higher power, aiming to try and grasp its complex nature. Friedrich Nietzsche a 19th century philosopher takes a different approach to the idea of religion in his literary narrative “The Gay Science”. In this narrative Nietzsche makes the bold statement that “God is Dead” (Nietzsche 95), claiming that we have all killed him. This is rather extreme statement in any context, however considering the time period in which he was writing, a time

Progress is complacency. Mankind lazes around in the incandescent knowledge of ostensible progress, illiterate in the true nature of man. Progress is movement towards a destination, not a destination in and of itself. Presently, our world has progressed only marginally since the 19th century, when the world of enlightened thinkers shifted away from Nihilism towards Modernism. Friedrich Nietzsche, one of the seminal thinkers of the era, rejected nihilism and the essence of life. For Nietzsche, “we are simply random gatherings of molecules that cohere and experience consciousness for a short time before dissolving again into nothingness” (Backman, 860). An assorted collection of Nietzsche’s texts, including The Gay Science and ‘Good and Evil,’ ‘Good and Bad,’ suggest that Nietzsche would be inordinately condemnatory of the present state of the West, incredulous to the false notion– myth¬– of progress. Undergirded by democracy, “a political system that gives fools an equal share of influence” (Backman, 861) Nietzsche would argue that Western society has eschewed

In “The Portable Nietzsche,” Nietzsche investigates the meaning of truth in the apparent world and its relationship to the proposed existence of God. More specifically, the philosopher attempts to explain how our world is misguided by the moral framework propagated by Christianity. This religion promises a God created “true world,” but only for those who are the most pious and repentant. However, even as this promise becomes more distant and obscure, the quest for everlasting life still creates a pervasive set of morals that taint one’s views of truth in the apparent world. Hence, the only way to overcome this obstacle and attain truth in this (apparent) world, is by divesting from the beliefs and moral framework created by Christianity.

As of 2013, fifty-four percent of Americans still had a belief in God, although in some other minorities, that number was larger (Gallup). Despite this, there was a time when some of the greatest minds of the time felt as if God had no modern purpose in human’s lives. One such example of this was that of Friedrich Nietzsche, who went down in history as the man who declared God “dead”. Though this might seem like a hypothetical call to atheism, he was instead showing how the people of the world had come to outgrow a need for God with the coming of the renaissance (Lawhead 454). However, the contradictions found within Nietzsche’s argument

In Twilight of the Idols Nietzsche writes, "My objection against the whole of sociology in England and France remains that it knows from experience only the forms of decay, and with perfect innocence accepts its instincts of decay as the norm of sociological value-judgments. The decline of life, the decrease in the power to organize, that is to tear open clefts, subordinate and super-ordinate -- all this has been formulated as the ideal in contemporary sociology." (p 541). The culture of Europe at the time of Nietzsche's writing was experiencing a general decline in vitality which was exemplified in Christianity (Platonism) and anarchy or nihilism. Nietzsche saw himself as a kind of philosophical doctor, capable of diagnosing the

This paper will discuss a major theme within Nietzsche’s writing, apply Nietzsche’s ideas to a contemporary issue, and I will give my own position on Nietzsche’s writing. Nietzsche believed in two types of morality, slave and master. Nietzsche believed that those who have a slave morality are motivated by their bitter indignation of having been treated unfairly. The core motivator for those with slave morality is resentment.

In Twilight of the Idols Nietzsche emphasizes that the Christian Church is a false idol. He dares to say, “..God to be an enemy of life..” and, “Life ends where the ‘kingdom of God’ begins..” because he believes that Christian morality is against life itself (Idols, 23). The reason for this is because Nietzsche believes that, “to have to fight against the instincts- this is the formula for decadence: so long as the life is ascendant, happiness equals instinct” which simply means that if one goes against instincts, or an intuitive way of carrying ones life, then as a consequence it will lead to the degeneration of society and intellect while if life is on the rise, happiness must be equivalent to following ones’ instinct (Idols, 15). Because of his belief it is understood that Nietzsche wants one to embrace their instincts. Nietzsche states that a life in which

In 1882, German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche declared, “God is dead! God remains dead! And we have killed him” (120). Modern thought and its scientific basis rejected the existence or need of any God, religion, or their accompanying belief in absolute, objective morality. This rejection of the divine preoccupies a greater segment of the population after Nietzsche’s death as humanity seeks redemption from the atrocities of two world wars. However, rejection of God and religion removes the healing potential of faith, resulting in a modern society yearning for meaning among the ashes of Europe’s dead. No answer presents itself easily, but one of modernism’s philosophical responses reveals itself in the devastation. As Wylie Sypher surmised, “we have lived amid the ‘dust and crashes’ of the twentieth century and have learned how the direst calamities that befall man seem to prove that human life at

In this essay I will debate and discuss the various aims which Nietzsche may have had when writing ‘The Genealogy of Morals’. Since its publication philosophers have put forward a wide range of viewpoints debating the question of his overall aim. With interpretations of his aims ranging from such lofted goals as curing the human condition, to bringing about a new objective and universal morality, to other more measured goals such as a re-evaluation of moral values. These viewpoints are necessarily highly influenced by broader beliefs about what type of philosopher Nietzsche was. Was he naturalist or a postmodernist? A moral realist or anti-realist? Thus, I will be taking a divergent route to answering the title question but one that is justified

Friedrich Nietzsche devoted his life to the study of philosophy and ethics. In particular to topics regarding Christianity and Atheism. A majority of his writings are against Christianity and The Antichrist is no different. The following paper will look into what Nietzsche wrote in The Antichrist and explore the ethical principles that he proposes and dismisses in this writing.

3). In his most basic claims, Nietzsche implicitly negates the possibility of a “disinterested” or “objective” truth. He would not urge so definitively for an affirmation of reality, if he held out for the possibility of fantasy or god. The ‘innocence of becoming’ is a clear example of how Nietzsche, for all intents and purposes, “debunk[‘s]” the relevance of claims made by traditional authorities. In essence, Nietzsche basically nullifies the relevance of societal hierarchy. Not only this, but the further claims made by such a society regarding morality and philosophical thinking, are seen to be – at best – gullible and naïve. The ‘innocence of becoming’ refers to even the lowest classes of society finding power in their status. In lieu of accepting that we are completely alone in the world, Nietzsche asserts that we have a constant need to blame others for our state. It is simply much easier to do than to accept that everything we do has no genuine or reaching consequences. While the ‘innocence of becoming’ is not necessarily an innocent process as those we choose to blame are usually blameless, it is fair to say that we are innocent of it; much like the ‘will to power’ it also works through self-deception. Evidently we are able to commit to life affirmation by essentially taking no responsibility for our weakness. Christianity itself is closely connected with the ‘becoming’ process as in its

Friedrich Nietzsche challenges conventional wisdom with his arguments against religious and moral reason in the section “The Four Great Errors” within Twilight of the Idols. The arguments are delivered clearly through each assigned section. While some of the arguments make sense and can be believed to be true, most of these arguments are a stretch simply because they call into question the rationality of human beings. Although his arguments may not be completely convincing, he does a nice job of explaining the errors. Through stories of past times and descriptions of human behavior, Nietzsche effectively presents his four errors in human reason, regardless of how convincing they are. The disagreements presented come from fairly similar issues

“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.