Transcript Nietzsche Lecture

“Carefree, mocking, violent -- thus
wisdom wants us: she is a woman,
she always loves only a warrior.”
Thus Spoke Zarathustra
Nietzsche
• Genealogy--> Perspectivism--> No
Inherent Meaning --> Different
Conceptions of Good/Bad --> The
Possibility: Virtue can be a Vice (and
vice versa)
Genealogy
• Genealogy: we’re looking for the
ancestry of morality; how did it come
into being; what are its origins
Genealogy --> Perspectivism
Method of genealogy shows how the
term good has evolved
Continuity to the meaning of moral
concepts is an illusion
Inherent Meaning?
Example: Punishment
a celebration of one’s power, an act of
cruelty, an act of revenge, righting a
wrong (justice), a sexual act, a learning
tool
Contradictory Meaning
• Can virtue then be a vice? And vice a
virtue?
Two Types of Morality
Master Morality
Slave Morality
Archetype: healthy, strong warrior
Archetype: weak, sick ascetic
Moral values at first applied to men, and only
derivatively and later applied to actions
Master Morality
Bonus=good=“the warrior”
We Truthful Ones
He determines his own values and doesn’t
need the approval of others
Slave Morality
Christian
Traditional ideals of good stem from revenge,
resentment, hatred, impotence, and cowardice
Unhealthy morality that makes natural inclinations
evil
Ressentiment
• Morality created from a sense of
inferiority, frustration, resentment
“God is Dead”
Death of God-->
• Value does not pre-exist (or pre-date
man)
• Man is a creator of values
Meaning as Will
• Meaning: a will giving an interpretation
• Meaning Change: different wills
dominating at different times
Absolutes & The Loss of
Freedom
To believe in Absolutes is to accept only one interpretation and to
be dominated by one will
Freedom lies in exploring different interpretations and coming to
one’s own interpretation
What does no Absolutes mean?
• Truth?
• Virtue?
One Truth: One Constant:
The Will
• One Virtue: a will free of domination &
ressentiment, a will free to choose
Value of Morality
• Present morality born out of
ressentiment and hatred of that which is
strong/healthy
• Is morality then healthy?
Will to Power=Will to Life
[Anything which] is a living and not a dying body... will have to be an
incarnate will to power, it will strive to grow, spread, seize, become
predominant -- not from any morality or immorality but because it is
living and because life simply is will to power...'Exploitation'... belongs
to the essence of what lives, as a basic organic function; it is a
consequence of the will to power, which is after all the will to life.
Beyond Good and Evil
Chaos Gives Birth to a Dancing Star
Christianity & Democracy: moralities for the “weak herd”
“Natural Aristocracy”: celebrates life on earth. A heroic man of
merit has the courage to “live dangerously” and thus rise above
the masses, developing his natural capacity for the creative use
of passion.