Existentialism

1
Existentialism

• Slide Show 3

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Nietzsche and idols

• On p. 71, Nietzsche describes his project as
  knocking down false idols.
• False Idols (false gods) Ideals (false values)
• There are two paradigm cases of false idols
• Morality, in particular Christian morality
• Philosophy, in particular Greek philosophy
• Each has assigned value to what lacks value each
  has failed to assign value to what has value.
  Morality and philosophy have got things
  backwards.

3
Greek philosophy

• Greek philosophy is characterized by 2 dogmas
  (1) Soul/Body dualism (2) Form/Object dualism.
• Soul/Body dualism The human person is a soul
  imprisoned temporarily in a body.
• The soul is noble to it we owe our faculties of
  reason and thought.
• The body is base it is the source of desires
  that interfere with our attempts to understand
  the world and ourselves.
• Some of the bodys desires food, rest, sex,
  warmth, and stimulation.

4

• In Phaedo 66b, Socrates describes the situation
  as follows
• For the body is the source of endless trouble to
  us by reason of the mere requirement of food and
  is liable also to diseases which overtake and
  impede us in the search after true being it
  fills us full of loves, and lusts, and fears, and
  fancies of all kinds, and endless foolery, and in
  fact, as men say, takes away from us the power of
  thinking at all. Whence come war, and fightings,
  and factions? Whence but from the body and the
  lusts of the body? Wars are occasioned by the
  love of money, and money has to be acquired for
  the sake and in the service of the body, and by
  reason of all of these impediments we have no
  time to give to philosophy and, last and worst
  of all, even if we are at leisure and betake
  ourselves to some speculation, the body is always
  breaking in upon us, a causing turmoil and
  confusion in our enquiries, and so amazing us
  that we are prevented from seeing the truth.

5
Justice

• The three parts of the soul
• Rulers Reason (thought, argument, consciousness)
• Soldiers Passion (anger, shame, courage)
• Workers Appetite (hunger, pleasure, pain)
• Justice consists in ordering these in such a way
  that no one of them tyrannizes the others.

6
Form/Object dualism

• Corresponding to every object that we apprehend
  by sensation there is the form whence comes its
  being that we apprehend by intellect.
• Everyone agrees that there are physical objects.
  It is not so obvious that there are forms. Here
  are two reasons to think that forms must exist
• Reason 1. Consider the theorem of geometry that a
  triangles angular sum 180 degrees. I can draw
  a triangle ABC on the board.
• Q. Is the angular sum of ABC 180 degrees?
• A. No, my drawing is imperfect the sum might be
  179 degrees, or perhaps 181 degrees.
• So the theorem doesnt apply to the triangle I
  drew. To what then does it apply? Answer The
  immaterial form Triangle.

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• Reason 2. Suppose that I erase the diagram of
  ABC.
• Q. Does that undermine any of the geometric
  truths about triangles? What if every drawing or
  instance of a triangle in the whole world were
  erased?
• A. It seems that the geometric truths would
  remain as they were before. This shows that these
  truths are not about particular triangles.
• So what are they about? Answer The immaterial
  form Triangle.
• Moral to be drawn from Greek philosophy
• The soul is to the body as the Form is to the
  physical object. Souls and ideas fall on the side
  of Reality bodies and physical objects fall on
  the side of Appearance.

8
The problem with Christianity

• There are several ways in which Nietzsche sees
  Christian morality as wrongly assigning values
• Emphasizes the internal life of contemplation and
  prayer deemphasizes action and accomplishment.
• Emphasizes the life hereafter at the expense of
  the present life. When the emphasis is put on
  the beyond rather than on life itself when
  it is put on nothingness , then the emphasis
  has been completely removed from life. (p. 39)
• Emphasizes virtues of the weak such as pity and
  humility over virtues of the strong such as pride
  and prowess. By multiplying misery just as much
  as by conserving everything miserable, pity
  wins people over to nothingness! (p. 7)

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• Promotes false causes (God, guilt, free will)
  while denigrating the real causes (culture,
  physics, psychology). In fact, you cannot be a
  philologist or doctor without being
  anti-Christian. (p. 46)

10
An Argument against Christianity

• In class, some of you asked roughly the
  following
• Q. Supposing all this is true, whats wrong with
  being Christian if it makes you happy?
• The following argument (suggested on page 4) is
  one way Nietzsche might respond
• (1) There are objective values.
• (2) Christianity assigns value to things that
  lack objective value (like the interior life of
  prayer, heaven, pity, and God).
• (3) If (1) and (2), then Christianity is
  harmful.
• (4) Therefore, Christianity is harmful. (1, 2,
  3, MP)
• x has objective value df. x is intrinsically
  right or wrong regardless of what anyone thinks.

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• Notice that a parallel argument could be given
  against Greek philosophy
• (1) There are objective values.
• (2) Greek philosophy assigns values to things
  that lack objective value (like the soul, real
  being, justice (in Platos sense), and immaterial
  Forms)
• (3) If (1) and (2), then Greek philosophy is
  harmful.
• (4) Therefore, Greek philosophy is harmful. (1,
  2, 3, MP)
•  
• What premise would the defender of Christian
  morality/Greek philosophy reject?