Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900)

A. Preface: Supposing Truth to be a Woman ......: 1. Tensions in Mill; 2. Nietzsche's resolution: the will to power
B. Part 2: The Free Spirit: 1. Characteristics of the (very) free spirit; 2. "True" philosophy and the crisis of modernity
C. Part 3: The Religious Nature: 1. Nietzsche's critique of Christianity; 2. The superficiality of post-Christian modernism; 3. Religion and the free spirit
D. Part 5: The History of Morals: 1. The illusion of rational foundations; 2. Reprise: the primacy of faith (instinct) over reason; 3. Modernity: secularized slave morality; 4. The reevaluation of all values

A. Preface: Supposing Truth to be a Woman .....

1. Tensions in Mill

Millian individuality vs. Platonic/Aristotelian individuality: autonomy vs. paths to an ideal

Three tensions in On Liberty:

Reason vs. will (affection)

Democracy vs. elitism

Constraints vs. radical reevaluation of values

2. Nietzsche's resolution of these tensions: the will to power
- Will and affection predominate over reason:
- The free spirit must resist the democratic tendency to snuff out the will to power in order to protect the weak non-free-spirits:
- History has given us the possibility to reevaluate all values:

B. Part 2: The Free Spirit

1. Characteristics of the (very) free spirit:

#26: is set free from the crowd, but only after having had commerce with it and sensing its superficiality

#26: calmly sees the truth about the human condition, viz., that it is the affective rather than the rational that moves us

#29 & #44: emerges only after and from a long struggle that may destroy it. (Suffering is necessary for the growth of the spirit and self-indulgence is a danger.)

#30: cannot be readily comprehended by the crowd, and doesn't want to be

#31: undergoes continual "dis-integration" as it uncovers past self-deceptions

#41: has no attachments (i) to people, even loved ones, (ii) to country, (iii) to pity, (iv) to science or philosophy, (v) to its own detachment, (vi) to its own virtues

#43: is a friend of perspectival truth, which is not accessible to all

Note:

2. "True" philosophy and the crisis of modernity

#24 and #35: Pessimism with respect to reason----reaction to the enlightenment

#36: All causation is a manifestation of will, appetite, and affection: the will to power----reaction to dogmatic philosophy

#32: Moral theory has now developed to the point that one can glimpse the primacy of will over reason:

Premoral: The value of an action is a function of its consequences----Modernism

Moral: The value of an action is a function of its rational intention----Jesuitism

Extramoral: The value of an action is a function of the will underlying the intention----True Philosophy

C. Part 3: The Religious Nature

1. Nietzsche's critique of Christianity

#46: Christianity as enslavement: the true philosopher as an oppressed victim whose basic attitude should be suspicion

#46 & #62: Christianity as a bold inversion of the truth, "a protracted suicide of reason": Slave morality -- "The Christian faith is from the beginning a sacrifice: a sacrifice of all freedom, all pride, all self-confidence of the spirit, at the same time enslavement and self-mockery, self-mutilation." God on the cross: "Nowhere has there been a comparable boldness in inversion."

#47: Christianity as struggling against the will to power by urging

solitude----to contain vanity
abstinence----to contain sexual desire
fasting----to contain greed

Think of the evangelical vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience.

#51 & #60: The ideal of sainthood as something the free spirit both despises and admires

#50 & #52: Contrast between the Old and New Testaments, between Luther and Augustine

#55: The phases of religious cruelty: "to sacrifice God for nothingness."

2. The superficiality of post-Christian modernism

#58: Industriousness (sneer, sneer) as snuffing out the religious nature

#58: The enlightenment scholar's arrogant and stupid bafflement

3. Religion and the free spirit

Religion as a vehicle by which free spirits maintain control over "the slaves":
- The slaves recognize free spirits as their leaders [#61 at the beginning]
- Religion keeps the slaves content [#61, at the end]
Religious discipline as a stage in the development of free spirits [#61, in the middle; #188]
But in the end when Christianity was sovereign, as opposed to just a tool for the strong, it corrupted "the European race" by its insistence on "preserving too much of what ought to perish," i.e., the weak, the suffering, the failures.

D. Part 5: The History of Morals

1. The illusion of rational foundations but, at the same time, the necessity for "obedience in one direction"

Read (with many sneers) #186

But not moral anarchy or false freedom (#188), which is just a smokescreen for "herd-animal morality" (#202)

2. Reprise: the primacy of faith (instinct) over reason [#191]

Plato: Reason and will both lead to God (where God = truth and goodness)

Descartes: Reason--and not will--is the only authority

Nietzsche: Will is supreme; reason is merely instrumental

reason

3. Modernity: secularized slave morality

#195 & #198: The Jewish inversion of values
#194: Love and charity as the will to possess
The traits of modernity (or: modernity as timidity):

Even commanders must pretend to obey [#199]

Repose, rather than struggle, as the ideal [#200]

Fear of "lofty spiritual independence" and of severity, even severity in the realm of justice [#201]

Opposition to every special claim and privilege [#202]

4. The reevaluation of all values

Read (triumphantly) #203