Nietzsche

Question 1

Who was Friedrich Nietzsche and what was his impact?

Answer 1

• ) One of the most important philosophers of the 19th century,
• ) Casts a long shadow into the 20th century on the topics of existentialism and “post-modernism”.

Question 2

When was “The Gay Science” written?

Answer 2

1882

Question 3

How does Nietzsche intend to teach people about his philosophy?

Answer 3

Through parables.

Question 4

Describe the parable of The Madman.

Answer 4

• ) Lights a lantern (for sight.)
• ) Goes out in the morning. (Representative of the beginning, innocence and possibility are present.)
• ) Runes to the marketplace. (Which is traditionally a place where people gather and where ideas are shared. At the agora)
• ) The people around the marketplace do not believe in God. (This has already happened. The idea of a personal and incarnate God is passing away at the end of the 19th. century. Even the notion of sin is subject to skepticism. It’s not the soul but circumstances. Perfect Circumstances —> Perfect Men. Christ’s sacrifice is no longer necessary, he’s just a moral teacher @ the Jefferson Bible
• ) The Madman says God is dead and we are his murders. (We wiped away the horizons that frame our freedom and now we have absolute independence.)
• ) The Madman says he arrived to early. (Nietzsche didn’t think that he would be understood in his own time. If God is truly dead, then for Nietzsche everything must change. He won’t be understood for over 100 yrs. Kant and others try to maintain Christian morality in the face of the death of God because the thought of there being no morality other than will causes them to blink.)

Question 5

What does Nietzsche think about Christianity and Democracy?

Answer 5

-) He dislikes both. He sees the same weaknesses in democracy that T sees and believe that it makes men sheep. Since, Christianity leads to democracy, Nietzsche also hates it.

Question 6

What is the fundamental part of life for Nietzsche?

Answer 6

The will to POWER.

Question 7

When was the Genealogy of Morals written?

Answer 7

1887.

Question 8

What is the purpose of the genealogy of Morals?

Answer 8

• ) Attempts to ascertain using purely naturalistic terms the development of moral categories.
• ) The goal is to get “Beyond Good and Evil” and Get a Better Account of Things.

Question 9

What’s bad about Christian morals according to Nietzsche?

Answer 9

-) We are unknown to ourselves and ignore power. Thus we degenerate. The sick become healthy and the healthy become sick.

Question 10

What does Nietzsche believe about Nihilism?

Answer 10

• ) He rejects it.
• ) The ideal character for Nietzsche is an artist who creates via self-assertion.
• ) But for the artist to truly create he must have a blank canvas.
• ) Nihilism is a step to clear the canvas for a new creation. But destruction for the sake of destruction is anathema.
• ) Active and Passive Nihilism. Active = Nietzschean creative destruction. Passive = Lacks the Exercise of Will for a New Creation.
• ) Destroy the Old Idols of Christianity and Create a New Dawn Where Men can Assert Themselves.

Question 11

Describe the History of Morals according to Nietzsche.

Answer 11

• ) Before Christian culture, the good was the aristocratic, noble, and strong. The bad was the vulgar, common, and weak. Nietzsche does this analysis via language.
• ) There was a rebellion among the weak to this definition/categorization of morals. In a landed society, the warriors are at the top because they can use force to get whatever they want.
• ) Slavery is the first industrial revolution. But the slaves eventually feel resentment and start a revolution and there is a “grand reversal”. Instead of winning physically, which they can’t, they win via trickery.
• ) They invert the notions of sin, guilt, and good and claim to know the way to restitution. Thus the priestly class is born along with the notion of divine grace.
• ) The Jews are the paragon example of the slave revolution and reversal to assert dominance. Jesus is extension of Judaism, claiming exclusivity.

Question 12

What is the full inversion of morality as the result of the slave revolt?

Answer 12

• ) Good becomes equated with weakness (Blessed are the meek and poor in spirit.)
• ) Evil becomes equated with power and strength.
• ) This is an entire inversion to the will to power and creates its own form of slavery under Christ.

Question 13

What is the grand conspiracy Nietzsche believe about the Jews and Christ?

Answer 13

• ) The Jews purposefully rejected Jesus so the world would accept him. Since the Jews are “weak”, clearly they can’t recognize good when they see it. Therefore, they would kill “God” to get power over all men.
• ) Nietzsche doesn’t believe that God would empty himself as Philippians 2 describes and let himself die.

Question 14

What is the difference Nietzsche describes between the OT and NT God?

Answer 14

• ) OT: Similar to a tribal deity that wins victory though war between peoples on earth.
• ) NT: Goes wandering and somehow becomes Neapolitan and universalized.

Question 15

How does Nietzsche relate to Hitler?

Answer 15

• ) He hates the Jews, but respects the fact that they were able to pull off one of the most amazing moral reversals via their conspiracy.
• ) The “blonde beast” he speaks of is a metaphorical image, not a depiction of the kind of Aryanism that Hitler endorsed.

Question 16

How does Nietzsche define morality?

Answer 16

-) In terms of sickness and health. Healthiness is a desire to create and assert one’s will on others. Those who choose to shame others for their health are sick and weak due to the material and comfortable society in which they live (sounds like T).

Question 17

How does the priestly class use shame to intimidate?

Answer 17

-) The Fall. From goodness into shame. Feel shame that one seeks to dominate others. However, atheism can be the second return to innocence before shame.

Question 18

What does Nietzsche look forward to?

Answer 18

• ) A redeeming man of great love and contempt that will redeem mankind for the curse.
• ) He will break us free from the will to nothingness and back to the will to the power.
• ) He’s called the Antichrist or Antinihilist.
• ) Nietzsche he’s himself as the John the Baptist of this antichrist. The prophet that is not understood in his time but heralds the coming to the antichrist.

Question 19

When was Thus Spoke Zarathustra written?

Answer 19

1883-1885.

Question 20

Describe what happens in Thus Spoke Zarathustra.

Answer 20

• ) Zarathustra descends and then enters the cave. (Reverse of Plato.)
• ) Zarathustra has fire (the idea that God is dead) and becomes a child (innocence). Has all this because he “loves man”.
• ) Zarathustra has a new gospel where he seeks to teach people about the ubermench/overman. The overman transcends all other men. He will remain faithful to the earth with no eternal hopes. Sin against the earth becomes the new worst sin.
• ) Man becomes a bridge between the ape and the overman. An act of will can help the man transcend and become the overman.
• ) “The Last Man” blinks in the face of the star. Wants a long life of comfort without greatness. Just happiness. (@Achilles)
• ) As Zarathustra gives this speech about the last man, a tightrope walker is leapt over by another man and falls to his death. All that exists is the body. This is an analogy.
• ) The three metamorphoses. Camel –> Lion –> Child. Camel: a beast of burden with past and expectations. The Camel becomes a lion and seeks the last master and god and the “Great Dragon of Morality”. The Lion says I will and the Dragon says thou shalt. The Dragon represents values and the will to submit. The lion wins an utters a no. Then the child says yes to the aspirations of his own will and creations.

Question 21

What is Nietzsche’s view of history?

Answer 21

• ) Rejects the teleological version of history that points to an end. The Death of God destroys any such view and cannot be maintained at the same time as all else of Nietzsche’s belief system.
• ) Instead, Nietzsche speaks of a constant recurrence or return to life pre-Christianity. Not an upward trend but a downward return to basic innocence.
• ) Power becomes the method of adjudication all claims of passion and will.