THE PHILOSOPHY OF

FRIEDRICH NIETZSCHE
(1844-1900)
Dr. F.P.A. Demeterio III
Friedrich Nietzsche is an
important philosopher
because he was the first to
recognize what being
modern really means for
Western Europeans.
He saw that two thousand
years of belief in Christian
values was coming to an
end, and that this meant that
our individual lives no longer
had any purpose or
meaning.
Even worse, nearly all of the
key ideas and values of
Western thought were just
metaphysics, without
foundation, and he believed
that this devastating fact
would have to be confronted
honestly.
He finally suggested the
need for new people who
would understand and
celebrate this new state of
affairs.
1840 1850 1860 1870 1880 1890 1900
NIETZSCHE TIMELINE
1844: Born at
Rcken in the
outskirts of Ltzen,
Province of Saxony
1864: Student of
theology and
philology at the
University of Bonn
1868: Meets
Richard Wagner in
Leipzig
1869: Professor of
classical philology
at the University of
Basel
1870: Volunteer as
medical orderly at
the Franco-
Prussian War
1872: Publication of
The Birth of
Tragedy
1876: Leave of
absence from the
University of Basel,
Last meeting with
Wagner at Naples
1878: Publication of
Human, All Too
Human
1879: Resigns from
the University of
Basel
1883: Publication of
Thus Spoke
Zarathusra, Part I
1885: Publication of
Thus Spoke
Zarathusra, Part II
1886: Publication of
Beyond Good and
Evil
1887: Publication of
On the Genealogy
of Morals
1888: Writes Twilight of
the Idols, The
Antichrist, Ecce Homo,
and Nietzsche contra
Wagner
1889: Mental
breakdown in Turin
1865: Moves to the
University of
Leipzig, Discovers
the works of Arthur
Schopenhauer
1890: Death at
Weimar at age 56
1897: Under the
care of Elizabeth
Nietzsche-Forster
1882: Meets Lou
Salome,
Publication of The
Gay Science
1849: Fathers
death of brain
tumor at age 36
1849, Death of his Father: Nietzsches father was a
Lutheran pastor, and his death resulted to the Nietzsche
familys move from the comfortable rectory. Nietzsche,
then, grew up with female family members: his mother,
(Franziska), his paternal grandmother (Erdmuthe), his
father's two sisters, (Auguste and Rosalie), and his
younger sister (Therese Elisabeth Alexandra).
1864, Student of Theology and Philosophy at the
University of Bonn: Nietzsche attended lectures by Otto
Jahn (1813-1869) and Friedrich Wilhelm Ritschl (1806-
1876). Jahn was a student of Karl Lachmann (1793-
1851), a philologist known for having developed the
genealogical method in textual analysis.
SOME OF THE SIGNIFICANT EVENTS FROM THE
NIETZSCHE TIMELINE
1865, Discovery of Arthur Schopenhauers Work:
Schopenhauer believes that there is only one certain truth
that lies behind our phenomenal world and that is the
existence of a constant energetic struggle, or Will which
only a few determined individuals can ever choose to
avoid. This influenced Nietzsche so much in the sense
that he thought that this Will that determined everything
was the Will to Power. All beings exist in a state of
continuous strife, but the conflict is creative, healthy and
productive.
SOME OF THE SIGNIFICANT EVENTS FROM THE
NIETZSCHE TIMELINE
1868, Meeting with Richard Wagner: Wagner was a
German composer, musical theorist, and a radical
revolutionary who is one of the most influential figures of
19th century Europe. Nietzsches meeting with him
developed into a long term love/hate relationship.
1880 to 1889, Gypsy-Like Existence as a Stateless"
Person: Nietzsche cirlcled almost annually between his
mother's house in Naumburg and various French, Swiss,
German and Italian cities, never residing in any place
longer than several months at a time.
His Frail Physical and Mental Health: Even before his
final breakdown at Turin in 1889, Nietzsches physical and
mental health had been poor. He sometimes went through
periods of sanity and insanity.
SOME OF THE SIGNIFICANT EVENTS FROM THE
NIETZSCHE TIMELINE
1897, Elizabeth Nietzsche-Forster took Nietzsche
under her Care: His sister, who returned home from a
German, anti-Semitic colony in Paraguay, converted her
home into a Nietzsche shrine and publicly exhibit the ailing
Nietzsche. She went as far as editing his unpublished
works and distorting them in the process.
SOME OF THE SIGNIFICANT EVENTS FROM THE
NIETZSCHE TIMELINE
Nietzsche is famous for his philosophy of critique. But
hidden within his deconstructive projects are some
constructive thoughts concerning his ideals and images of
utopia.
Thus, our discussion of his philosophy will focus on two
basic themes: critique and utopia.
THE PHILOSOPHY OF FRIEDRICH NIETZSCHE
Nietzschean
Philosophy
Critique
Utopia
Language and Truth
The Idea of the Self
Perspectivism
Metaphysics and Science
Christianity and Morals
Apollo and Dionysius
The Pre-Socratic Greeks
The Overman (Superman)
The Eternal Recurrence
THE PHILOSOPHY OF FRIEDRICH NIETZSCHE
Critical Theme 1: On Language and Truth
Nietzsche
presupposes
that reality is
basically chaotic
and
unknowable.
Through
concepts and
language, man
created the
consensual
reality that is
necessary for
his survival as a
social being.
But since man
lives in a society
whose survival
depends on
consensus, a
consensual
reality needs to
be constructed
from the actual
chaos and
unknowable
world.
The problem
emerged when some
people (philosophers
and scientists)
thought that their
constructed
consensual reality is
in fact a faithful
representation of the
actual world.
Nietzsche regards language as the key player in a continual
process of human self-deception.
Words are what we think with, and we often automatically
assume that there are entities out there to which they refer.
Words are useful to us because we can use them to simplify
and freeze the chaos and complexities of our surroundings,
but that is all they can do.
Not only will our grammar control the ways in which our
thoughts are organized but more drastically, it will determine
what sorts of thoughts it is possible for us to have.
This leads to the futile hunt for spurious and illusory
metaphysical truths that just dont exist.
Concepts like truth and knowledge are relative to
language, or metaphorical, and can only exist within
languagethey can tell us nothing about the world.
Critical Theme 2: On the Idea of the Self
Cartesian philosophical certainties are to a
large extent what gave the Enlightenment its
confidence.
European philosophy relied on the
guaranteed authenticity of the existence of
the self: the Cartesian Ego.
Just as Nietzsche critiqued language, he asserts that idea
of a stable inner self that is separate from our physical
existence is something that man clings on to as a central
core of his identity because man needs it.
The self helps us to have a consistent grip on our
experiences.
It is a convenient fiction that is necessary for the
preservation of our form of life.
The fact that man believes in the idea of the self and
needs it at the same time, is not a guarantee that there is
indeed such a thing as self.
Nietzsche traced the specific emergence of the idea of the
self from the way Western languages depict the world in
subject-predicate terms, making us see everything always
as performers and performances.
Nietzsches dissolution of the self implied that political and
moral philosophies are misguided in the sense that they
rely on a nave belief in an existing and stable self.
Critical Theme 3: On Perspectivism
The idea of perspectivism is a
corollary of Nietzsches philosophy
of language and truth.
When a society constructs its
consensual reality, it does so
relative to its dispositions and
culture.
This means that each society has
its own idiosyncratic construction of
its consensual reality.
Thus, the consensual realities are
mere interpretations. There is no
supreme interpretation among
interpretations.
Critical Theme 4: On Metaphysics and Science
Nietzsches critique of Metaphysics and Science are
connected with his philosophy of language and truth, as
well as his idea of perspectivism.
Metaphysics is precisely the moment when man started to
hunt for truths that he thought to exist outside language.
Nietzsche regarded science is the final malign offspring of
the Enlightenment, and emphasized that is just one
temporary interpretation of the world.
He pointed out that the modern Europeans faith in science
and scientific progress is a dangerous illusion, for these
things will not always produce human happiness.
Nietzsches alternative was to recommend a new
pragmatic joyful science that is aware of its own bias and
limitations.
It is quite possible for us to observe the world and use
these observations to enable civilization to progress. But
what should never believe is that science can somehow
discover absolute truths.
Modern scientism the blind worship of scienceis only a
shallow substitute of religion.
Religion and science both made grandiose claims that
Nietzsche thought could never be justified.
The collapse of both belief systems would soon lead to
universal nihilism, despair, and the collapse of the civilized
world.
Critical Theme 5: On Christianity and Morals
PERSECUTION
DOMINATION
RIDICULE
RESENTMENT
REPRESSION
HOSTILITY
S
U
B
L
I
M
A
T
I
O
N
Code of Behaviour
Emphasis on Humility,
Conscience, Asceticism,
Free-Will and Blame
Slaves,
Weak People
Powerful
People
Nietzsche argued
that Christian
morality originated
among subject
people and slaves.
The powerful
people, like the
Romans,
persecuted,
dominated, and
ridiculed the early
Christians.
These resulted to
resentment,
repression and
hostility in the
early Christians
hearts.
Being powerless, the
early Christians could not
directly express their
negative feelings. They,
on the contrary,
sublimated these and
formulated the Christian
code of behaviour.
Christianity is a herd morality that attracts and produces people
who are pessimistic and timid.
It is also a pernicious value system because it stands in the way
of evolution and the eventual production of new and superior kind
of human being.
For Nietzsche, there is nothing natural or mystical about Christian
(or any) morality.
It is an ideology like any other, and based on denial. It
encourages a belief in the repression of instincts, and thwarts
creative energies.
As a moral code it produces dull, static and conformist societies
that dampen down human potential and achievement.
Utopian Theme 1: On the Apollonian and Dionysian
Spirits
The distinction between the Apollonian and
Dionysian Spirits is based:
On one hand on Johann Winckelmann's
History of Ancient Art (1764), which
hailed ancient Greece as the epitome of
noble simplicity, calm grandeur, clear
blue skies, and rational serenity;
And on the other hand on the German
romanticist, Schopenhauerian views that
that non-rational forces reside at the
foundation of all creativity and of reality
itself.
Utopian Theme 1: On the Apollonian and Dionysian
Spirits
Nietzsche identifies Winckelmanns Greek
Spirit as the Apollonian Way, while the
German romanticist and Schopenhauerian
Spirit as the Dionysian Way.
The Apollonian Spirit, then, pertains to the
ethos of noble simplicity, calm grandeur,
and rational serenity;
While the Dionysian Spirit, pertains to the
strongly instinctual, wild, amoral and
energetic impulses, that are essentially
creative and healthy forces.
Utopian Theme 1: On the Apollonian and Dionysian
Spirits
Nietzsche traced the Dionysian Spirit back
to the pre-Socratic Greek culture.
But surveying the history of Western culture
since the time of the Greeks, Nietzsche
lamented over how this Dionysian creative
energy had been submerged and
weakened as it became overshadowed by
the "Apollonian" forces of logical order and
stiff sobriety.
He concluded that European culture since
the time of Socrates had remained one-
sidedly Apollonian and relatively unhealthy.
Utopian Theme 1: On the Apollonian and Dionysian
Spirits
As a means towards cultural rebirth,
Nietzsche advocated the resurrection and
fuller release of Dionysian artistic energies -
- those which he associated with primordial
creativity, joy in existence and ultimate
truth.
The seeds of this rebirth Nietzsche
perceived in the contemporary German
music of his time, and the concluding part
of The Birth of Tragedy, in effect, adulates
the German artistic spirit as the potential
savior of European culture.
Utopian Theme 2: On the Pre-Socratic Greeks
Nietzsche believed that there was one Golden
Age against which all other historical periods,
including his own, could be measured:
Ancient Greece.
But the ancient Greece he referred to here is
the Greece of the early 6th century BC: the
Greece of the thinkers like Thales, Heraclitus,
and Empedocles, and not the Greece of the
later Athenian philosophers such as Socrates,
Plato and Aristotle.
He admired these pre-Socratics because he
thought they were noble, free, creative and
passionate.
Utopian Theme 2: On the Pre-Socratic Greeks
The later Athenians were inferior because they
believed in different things: an absolute
morality, the immortality of the soul,
transcendent realities, and the power of
human reason.
Athenian philosophy also helped soften up
Western civilization for the eventual arrival of
Christianityan even bigger disaster.
Utopian Theme 3: On the Overman/Superman
Nietzsche considered Thus Spoke
Zarathustra, A Book for All and None as one
of his most significant works.
Here, he presents the figure of Zoroaster, or
Zarathustra, as a solitary, reflective,
exceedingly strong-willed, sage-like,
laughing and dancing voice of self-mastery
who, accompanied by a proud, sharp-eyed
eagle and a wise snake, envisioned a mode
of psychologically healthier being beyond
the common human condition.
Utopian Theme 3: On the Overman/Superman
Nietzsche refers to this higher mode of
being as the Ubermensch (Overman or
Superman).
the Ubermensch is a new kind of being, a
superior character who will be able to leave
behind the pull of human gravity.
Overmen/Supermen will be powerful, strong
and healthy invidivuals, who live an earthly
and sensuous life, free from the error of
belief in some transcendent reality and the
restrictions of herd morality.
Utopian Theme 3: On the Overman/Superman
They will readily accept the absurdity of the
human condition and will become artistic
creators of themselves and a new pan-
European society.
Their robust culture will concentrate on
artistic rather metaphysical works, with the
rather more routine and mundane work
performed by a slave caste.
But Overmen/Supermen will not be cruel
fascist bullies. Once they have conquered
and recreated themselves, gone, beyond
human nature, then they will be tolerant and
decent to the lower orders they rule over.
Utopian Theme 4: On the Eternal Recurrence
In Nietzsches aphoristic work, The Gay Science (Die
frhliche Wissenschaft), he presented his famous
proclamation that God is dead, and its moral corollary: the
doctrine of eternal recurrence.
Eternal Recurrence speculated that one is, or might be,
fated to relive forever every moment of one's life, with no
omission whatsoever of any pleasurable or painful detail.
The doctrine of Eternal Recurrence conceptualized a
history that works in vast repetitive cycles, so that the
meaning of life is found within life itself.
Nietzsche presented this doctrine sometimes as a kind of
moral and psychological metaphor. Once we know that
our choices and actions are endlessly repeated, then
presumably we will be very careful as to what they are.
Utopian Theme 4: On the Eternal Recurrence
The doctrine of Eternal Recurrence will make us more
concerned with the future, instead of being dominated by
the past.
Hence, only we can ever have the responsibility for who
we eventually become.
The French philosopher Gilles Deleuze famously
suggested that the doctrine of Eternal Recurrence is a
Nietzschean version of Kants Categorical Imperative
(Never perform an action you would not be willing to see
endlessly repeated).
Nietzschean
Philosophy
Critique
Utopia
Language and Truth
The Idea of the Self
Perspectivism
Metaphysics and Science
Christianity and Morals
Apollo and Dionysius
The Pre-Socratic Greeks
The Overman (Superman)
The Eternal Recurrence
THE PHILOSOPHY OF FRIEDRICH NIETZSCHE
IN SUMMARY
There is nothing outside the
consensually and linguistically
constructed reality.
There is no inner self that is
distinct from mans physical
existence.
All knowledges and discourses
are mere interpretations. There
is no supreme interpretation
among various interpretations.
Metaphysics is the futile hunt for
truths outside the bounds of
language. Science is one of the
interpretations of the worls.
Christian Morality is a morality of
the slaves and the weak and
needs to be surpassed.
There is a need to recover the
lost Dionysian Spirit of wild and
frenetic creativity.
The Pre-Socratic Greeks
possessed a more powerful and
ideal culture by following the
Dionysian Way.
Man needs to surpass his
present self to become a master
of his own self and destiny.
Man should be careful with what
he does, he might be doomed to
endlessly repeat everything.
FRIEDRICH NIETZSCHE AND POSTMODERNISM
Nietzsche had been press-ganged as the antecedent for
early every other philosophical movement this century.
The reasons for his continual popularity reside in both the
seductive and the eminently adaptable qualities of his
work. His philosophy covers a huge number of issues and
his views are various and change considerably.
Nietzschean oracular wisdom is also expressed
figuratively and so lends itself to all manner of creative
readings and interpretations. Its all a matter of emphasis
and selection. Nietzsche is a mirror in which philosophers
can always find their own ideas.
Nietzsche has been adopted by many postmodernist as
the first anti-philosopher because of his views on language
and meaning, his genealogical studies of power, and his
famous perspectivism.
FRIEDRICH NIETZSCHE AND POSTMODERNISM
This means that postmodernist philosophers prefer the
critical themes of Nietzsche and conveniently ignore his
utopian and metaphysical themes.
In Nietzsches latter philosophy, he became quite clear in
his own mind that some moral and political views are
superior to others. When he confidently predicts that a
future society of Overmen/Supermen will supplant the
slave-morality of Christendom, he doesnt seem to be
much of a perspectivist.
He would probably have viewed the cultural phenomenon
of postmodernism as merely the last decadent stage of
Western liberalism, and would have despised its tepid
relativism.
FRIEDRICH NIETZSCHE AND POSTMODERNISM
Nietzsche did envisage a postmodern culture, but its not
the one were living in at the moment.
But in any case, Nietzsche remains a foundational and
seminal theorist for many postmodern philosophers.
THE PHILOSOPHY OF
FRIEDRICH NIETZSCHE
(1844-1900)
Prof. Dr. F.P.A. Demeterio III
END OF PRESENTATION