Philosophical Titans: Friedrich Nietzsche

“Whatever causes it to rule and conquer and glitter, to the dread and envy of its neighbour, that it accounts the sublimest…and the meaning of all things.”

To conquer - the sublimest of all…? I presume most would recoil at this idea.

Yet, the above is an excerpt from Nietzsche’s work, Thus Spoke Zarathustra, and is one of his many statements predisposed to draw controversy. That said, this doesn't make the philosophy of Fredrich Nietzsche any less emphatic. In this article, we'll look at his critique of Christian morality and religion, and the insights he draws about the psychology that it represents. Before going any further though, a word of caution from the man himself:

“I am frightened, by the thought of what unqualified and unsuitable people may invoke my authority one day. Yet that is the torment of every teacher…he knows that, given the circumstances and accidents, he can become a disaster as well as a blessing to mankind.”

With that in mind, let’s move to his polemic, On the Genealogy of Morality.

In it, Nietzsche traces the origin of our moral frameworks. To do this, he draws on the juxtaposition of weakness and strength, and of slave and master, to illustrate how morality has developed over time. He argues that a slave mentality has subverted the good in man by valuing those “who do not oppress, who hurts no one, who does not attack, who does not pay back, who hands over revenge to God.” In essence, suggesting that moral standards have been altered in order to validate and appease the reality of the weak, as a set of individuals who are incapable of rule, and subsequently, have changed the very nature of what we value so that weakness itself is good.

To make matters even more contentious, Nietzsche presents, nobleness, as a counter-value to the framework put forward by the “weak and the resentful”. In Beyond Good and Evil we see that the aristocracy is said to be of noble character. That they exhibit a Will to Power that is characterized by the natural structure of life; that reduces men to “barbarians in every sense of the word, men of prey, still in possession of unbroken strength of will and desire for power.”

It almost feels as though your eyes deceive you as you read through Nietzsche’s writings.

Our associations with the language used naturally draws his claims towards a political context, and it is no surprise, that in the 20th century, his ideas were utilised by Bolshevik functionaries, and weaponised by supporters of fascism in order to incite and glorify their ideals. That said, in his works, Nietzsche doesn’t attach his ideas to a clear political ideology, and certainly did, and would have continued to, condemn the use of his work to further fascism. During his life, and despite the appearances of his arguments, Nietzsche’s political identity was progressive for the time, and his work’s association with fascism actually occurred as a result of his anti-Semitic sister’s doctoring of texts after his death.

The more you read Nietzsche’s work and the reality of his life, the more questions you will have about the relations between his work and his lived experience. In considering, for example, that Nietzsche experienced a variety of debilitating health conditions throughout his life, some might conclude that there was a powerlessness over his own circumstance. Yet, on the other hand, these health issues, including migraines, stomach issues and blindness, all occurred at the same time as did some of his greatest and most famous pieces of writing. In this way, the opposite conclusion appears and his power and ability for self-determination becomes clear. That perhaps, is part of what is fascinating about his analysis of human behaviours and systems. They are elusive - applicable in a variety of ways, to a variety of contexts, at a variety of times.

To end, one of the “fundamental conditions” of Nietzsche’s arguments was the centrality of perspective to truth. That in every claim there is a context that needs to be accounted for.

As you read further, whether it be his work or another's, consider this quality as you do so, and if you’re interested in exploring Philosophy further, then get in touch.