Friedrich Nietzsche

1
Friedrich Nietzsche

• The Limit of Modernity

2
Aphorism

• Nietzsche writes his works not systematically. He
  fights against System. So, he writes his thought
  in aphorism. This literary form consists of short
  paragraph that formulates certain idea. The
  collection of aphorisms has an internal
  coherence, but they are fragments that represent
  separate ideas.

3
Die Geburt der Tragoedie aus dem Geist der Musik
(The Birth of Tragedy from the Spirit of Music)

• In this early work Nietzsche analyses two kinds
  of mentality that dominated Greek Culture
• 1. Dionysian Mentality the inclination of Greek
  culture to break any border and norm, and to lose
  self control. This mentality follows the basic
  forces of life
• 2. Apollonian Mentality reflects the principle
  of individuation, self control, order,
  equilibrium. This mentality in the Greek culture
  kept the balance and control over the Dionysian
  mentality.

4
Decadence in the Western Civilization

• According to Nietzsche the decadence began when
  the dialecticians like Socrates, Plato and
  Aristotle appeared in the history of western
  civilization. The spirit of dialectics destroyed
  the primordial instincts and life forces of man
  and culture. Nietzsche glorifies the pre-Socratic
  thinker as the republic of genius because the
  people like Heraclitus, Thales, Empedocles etc.
  were authentic and creative seekers that didnt
  sell their thought to the universal principles.

5
Beyond History

• Nietzsche differentiates three attitudes toward
  history
• 1. Geschichtlich (historical) memory is needed
  to our survival. We need history to remember the
  past and stabilize our identity.
• 2. Ungeschichtlich (unhistorical) But if it is
  necessary, we must be able to forget the past for
  our happiness.
• 3. Uebergeschichtlich (super-historical) the
  past can teach us the meaning of the future and
  anticipate the future.
• This view is then adopted by the hermeneutic

6
Critique on Democracy

• Democracy, socialism and nationalism are the
  spirit of mediocrity. They are the enemies of the
  vital forces and authenticity of the individual.
  The rationalization in the western civilization
  is the permanent destruction. So, democracy is a
  manifestation of decadence in the western
  culture.
• After Plato Nietzsche is the sharp critic of
  democracy.

7
Genealogy of Morality

• For Nietzsche morality reflects the emotions that
  is hidden behind the rationality. The claim of
  justice, for example, is nothing but a cry of
  ressentiment. Morality and objectivity is the
  mask of affection. So, we can trace the moral
  claims like a genealogy and find the interests
  behind them. The philosophical systems are
  nothing but the confessions of the philosophers
  on their own life.

8
Herren- and Herdenmoral

• In his work Jenseits vom Guten und Boesen
  Nietzsche tells us about two kinds of people and
  two kinds of morality, i.e. the class of masters
  and slaves.
• Master morality dont show what ought to be
  done, but what is really done. It is the
  expression of self esteem, and not the universal
  principles. The main categories are not bad and
  good, but high and low.
• Crowd morality Good doesnt mean strong, but
  tenderness, mercy, sympathy , humility.
  This morality is reactive and has its resource in
  the fear of the master.

9
Umwertung aller Werte (Transvaluation of all
values)

• In Genealogie der Moral Nietzsche describes how
  the transvaluation of values happens in the
  Christianity. The slave class cannot revenge
  actually the power of the master. Also, they
  revenge it in the form of imagination. There is
  moral revolution against the class of masters.
  What was formerly strong and high now becomes
  bad and evil. What is now good is humility,
  love and sympathy. But this transvaluation is
  nothing but ressentiment. Nietzsche says that
  with this transvaluation the conscience
  (Gewissen) is invented.

10
Der Wille zur Macht

• The world and we are according to Nietzsche the
  will to power (der Wille zur Macht). Contrary to
  Schopenhauer Nietzsche doesnt accept the Kantian
  distinction between phenomenal and noumenal
  world. The will to power is all pervasive and
  heterogeneous life-forces that express in our
  psychical moods, physiological metabolism,
  chemical reaction, physical movement, our
  thought, It is the process of becoming of all
  thing (Werden).
• Knowledge transforms Becoming into Being.
  Therefore knowledge is power.

11
Perspectivism

• According to Nietzsche there is no absolute
  truth. The truth depends on our interpretations.
  And our interpretation depends on our standpoint.
  The idea of absolute truth is a fiction that
  relates to the will to power. Also, there is no
  single truth, but many truths that depend on our
  perspective to see them.

12
Uebermensch Overman

• In his book Also sprach Zarathustra, Nietzsche
  says that the overman is the future species of
  human being. The difference between man and
  overman is like the difference between man and
  ape.
• Overman is an authentic self that says yes to
  this world with its tragic or happy sides, dark
  and light moments.
• The purpose of civilization is not humanity, but
  overman or authentic individual that creates his
  own values. He is a combination of Caesar and
  Christ in one person.

13
The Eternal Recurrence of All thing

• Following the first Greek philosophers Nietzsche
  believes that our life is an eternal recurrence.
  Well experience this life with all its tragic or
  happy side precisely again and again.
• This doctrine refuses the idea of transcendence
  in all form. If our life is an eternal
  recurrence, there is no other life outside this
  worldly life.

14
God is Dead - Nihilism

• If God is dead, then the wide horizon of life is
  open to us. We can create our own values. But the
  death of God results nihilism, i.e. the values
  emptiness. The human being experience lost of
  orientation.
• There are two kinds of nihilism active and
  passive. The active nihilism longs for the return
  of the morality and values. But the active
  nihilism accepts the value vacuum as a form of
  emancipation.