Friedrich Nietzsche

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Revision as of 18:08, 18 September 2011

Nietzsche was born in Leipzig on October 15th 1844. He was named after king Friedrich William IV. Nietzsche is classified as a German philosopher. Nietzsche's thoughts had a great influence in Europe during the 20th century. His work remains controversial. There is and has been a lot of disagreement about his interpretations. He often gave critiques on Christians. God is dead is one of is most famous pronouncements. Also his notions about über and Untermensch has been used by politicians many times after his dead (Nietzsche, 2002).

Nietzsche calls himself an immoralist and had critiques on Christianity, Kantianism and utilitarianism. His desire was to bring a natural source of value in the impulses of life itself. "We own great style of architecture in Asia and Egypt to astrology and its supernatural claims" (Nietzsche, 2002). In all of his works Nietzsche puts the master-slave morality in a central place. In Beyond good and evil he subscribes the contrast between good and bad, life affirming and life denying: strength, health, power which can be associated with masters and characteristics which attend to bad aspects: weak, sick and pathetic. Those can be associated with slaves (Hayman, 1980).

Slave-morality, in contrast, comes about as a reaction to master-morality. Nietzsche associates slave-morality with the Jewish and Christian traditions. Here, value emerges from the contrast between good and evil: good being associated with other-worldliness, charity, piety, restraint, meekness, and submission; evil seen as worldly, cruel, selfish, wealthy, and aggressive. Nietzsche alternatively philosophizes from the perspective of life located beyond good and evil, and challenges the entrenched moral idea that exploitation, domination, injury to the weak, destruction and appropriation are universally objectionable behaviors. "Above all, he believes that living things aim to discharge their strength and express their “will to power” — a pouring-out of expansive energy as if one were like a perpetually-shining sun that, quite naturally, can entail danger, pain, lies, deception and masks. Here, “will” is not an inner emptiness, lack, feeling of deficiency, or constant drive for satisfaction, but is a fountain of constantly-swelling energy, or power" (Green, 2002).

As he views things from the perspective of life, Nietzsche further denies that there is a universal morality which is applicable to all human beings, some moralities are more suitable for subordinate roles; some are more appropriate for dominating and leading social roles (Nietzsche, 2002). What counts as a preferable and legitimate action depends upon the kind of person one is. The deciding factor is whether one is weaker, sicker and on the decline, or whether one is healthier, more powerful and overflowing with life (Hayman, 1980).

References:

Green, M. (2002) Nietzsche and the Transcendental Tradition. Champaign IL: University of Illinois Press.

Hayman,R. (1980) Nietzsche a Critical Life. New York: Oxford University Press.

Nietzsche, F. (2002) Beyond good and evil. Cambridge: University press.

Published by Bas Boselie (s0813141) and Chriss van Pul (s0801364)