Preview

Friedrich Nietzsche

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
829 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Friedrich Nietzsche
Friedrich Nietzsche
Nietzsche spoke of the “the death of God” and foresaw the dissolution of traditional religion and metaphysics. Some interpreters of Nietzsche believe he embraced a literary exploration of the human condition, while not being concerned with gaining truth and knowledge in the traditional sense of those terms. However, other interpreters of Nietzsche say that in attempting to counteract the predicted rise of nihilism, he was engaged in a positive program to reaffirm life, and so he called for a radical, naturalistic rethinking of the nature of human existence, knowledge and morality. On either interpretation, it is agreed that he suggested a plan for “becoming what one is” through the cultivation of instincts and various cognitive faculties, a plan that requires constant struggle with one’s psychological and intellectual inheritances.
Nietzsche claimed the exemplary human being must craft his/her own identity through self-realization and dos so without relying on anything transcending that life such as Go or a soul. This way of living should be affirmed ever were on to adopt, most problematically, a radical vision of eternity, one suggesting the eternal recurrence of all events. According to some commentators, Nietzsche advanced a cosmological theory of “will to power.” But others interpret him as not being overly concerned with working out a general cosmetology. Questions regarding the coherence of Nietzsche views questions such as whether particular views could all be taken together without contradiction, whether readers should discredit any particular view if proven incoherent or incompatible with others, and the like continue to draw the attention of contemporary intellectual historians and philosophers. Nietzsche was influences by Schopenhauer and ever calls him a true moral human being, but in terms of “Will” Nietzsche start a new field. Nietzsche talks about “will to power” while Schopenhauer talks about the “will of life” or “will

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    Nietzsche

    • 997 Words
    • 4 Pages

    There are many different types of moral theory. One, the divine command theory, states that the moral code by which we should abide comes down to us from the ten commandments of God. There is also Kant's view that reason dictates the commandments of morality. The moral law, according to Kant, is derivable from our own rational faculties and, not surprisingly, God's ten commandments can be found along with other maxims in our rationality. However, Nietzsche ascribed to neither of these views. Born in 1844, Nietzsche was influenced by Darwin and philosophers such as Schopenhauer. His moral theory mirrored more that of Hume's in sticking to the tenants of naturalism than it resembled deontological theories such as Kant's. The 18th century philosopher David Hume argued that morality is built on natural sympathy for others. John claims that, like Hume, Nietzsche was a naturalist. However, Ken remains uncertain about the validity of this claim. As far as he was taught, especially in graduate school, Nietzsche was a moral skeptic denying there were moral facts at all.…

    • 997 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In “On Truth and Lie in an Extra-Moral Sense,” Nietzsche questions the purpose and existence of the human race. He points out that humans strive to be educated and are taught that knowledge is power. They believe that they are the superior life form on earth due the plethora of information they discover and believe is true. When stepping back and viewing these thoughts, as Nietzsche does, readers are forced to realize that these ways of thinking about humans versus other life forms, is nonsense and pointless.…

    • 1194 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Ubermensch

    • 3297 Words
    • 14 Pages

    Nietzsche, Friedrich. The Will to Power. Edited by Walter Kaufmann. Translated by Walter Kaufmann and R.J. Hollingdale. New York: Random House, Inc., 1966…

    • 3297 Words
    • 14 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    All Thing Shining Essay

    • 596 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Honestly, have you read Kant? Are you familiar with Rawls? Similarly, can you understand Heidegger? How about Nietzsche viz., are you sure you know what the latter group are presenting and how is it different from the former? The point is that an approach to the metaphysical questions of life is handled in vastly different ways with just as many varied interpretations. What ultimately seems to be important is if there is a way to reach past the nihilistic interpretation that seems beholden to the modern secular age. Hubert Dreyfus and Sean Dorrance Kelly seem to think so, and I tend to agree; at least in spirit.…

    • 596 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Nietzsche and the Overman

    • 1013 Words
    • 5 Pages

    To Nietzsche there are three stages to bridge from man’s current state of the “last man” to the overman. The last man has lost all possibility for change; there is no individuality just herds and shared “values.” The transitional stages are outlined in the passage “On the Three Metamorphoses.” The first stage is the camel stage, one who tests personal limits and takes on a burden or challenge. Nietzsche considers someone who challenges their values to be very noble. In the lion stage, one critically examines and really works through the burdens and values. To Nietzsche, this stage means moving towards rebirth, an important component to change. Lastly, the child stage suggests that these new values have been established, like a rebirth. However, eventually these new values can be a burden. Thus there is a continuous cycle, a self-propelled wheel, to the overman.…

    • 1013 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Bibliography: Friedrich Nietzsche, translated by Helen Zimmern, Beyond Good and Evil (New York: Dover Publications,Inc. 1997), 93-94…

    • 2829 Words
    • 12 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    According to Nietzsche, this responsibility actually brings the realization that one has the power to take charge of one's own life. Even if the individual adopts certain social codes or beliefs, how one acts these values will prove one's unique way to be in the world. In his book `The Will To Power`, he introduces the idea of the `individual`:…

    • 255 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    If we apply this scheme to Nietzsche's text, we can easily let the ironic question underlying it emerge. Simply, we have to substitute "Christian" with "man of culture", and the equation will remain the same. While Nietzsche is not criticizing the aim of becoming a man of culture, he is very hostile with the way German society expects people to pursue this ideal. Once again, he is critical of the way the social practices of his time make shape this ideal. Hence, it is not a lack of commitment what he is pointing at with his attack on Strauss' work, but rather to a misdirection in the German understanding of what culture is. Accordingly, by criticizing the exemplar of this misdirected way of becoming a man of culture, Nietzsche is attempting…

    • 199 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Nietzsche's Philosophy

    • 635 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Nietzsche begins by tearing apart the philosopher and his views. They idolize concepts and threaten the life of anything they worship. In Nietzsche’s opinion, once the philosophers got to these concepts nothing managed to escape alive. In response Nietzsche says, “that which is, does not become; that which becomes, is not.” Nietzsche explains that the philosophers all believe in the which is, however they fail to understand so instead they search for a reason why it withholds itself from them. Finally this “trickster” is revealed and is the senses. The senses are believed to have tricked them about the true world. Nietzsche reveals a moral as to not trust history because it is nothing but belief in the senses, which has discovered to be a lie.…

    • 635 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Nietzsche and Platonism

    • 935 Words
    • 4 Pages

    The Christian, Nietzsche claims, is similar to the nihilist. He denies the natural rank order of the world in favor of an unrealistic vision of the equality of all souls. This rejection of super- and subordination is a symptom of resentment against reality. It is the dissatisfied cry of the weak who, instead of acting in accord with their own…

    • 935 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Basically, any conclusive evidence that mentality or pace of life is responsible for the lifespan was never produced to me thus leaving me on the position that there is no any direct coherence. However my belief is that modern man has no control whatsoever over his pace of life in general. If the living model of other species is controlled by instinct and nature, then the one of human being is under the influence of social prescriptions rather than natural inclination, so the imposed ideals rule the pace, aim and course of life. While the Nietzsche’s dead God is in the past, modern life is patterned after “chasing dead gods” model, for most of it passes in doing what you don’t need, to get what you don’t like. The social standards become a vicious circle at the stage, which makes me ”think of the sledge-dogs in London's books, who slave until the last breath and die on the track”. So the society is somehow developing into implicit Auschwitz, where you have to adjust (or rather annihilate) yourself to fit in i.e. become Kapo, corrupt or lucky. Strength is on the side of machine-like “things-to-do-list” performers, whose body and mind are strictly disciplined and devoted to the goal achievement. Others are left out, condemned to extinction. And that is not bad, just…the truth of life. “It’s not the world is vicious, it is something congenitally defective in me.” So the truth is somewhere between Rousseau and Hobbes, “natural goodness” and “bellum omnium contra omnes”.…

    • 331 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900) is a prominent German philosopher and scholar, whose provocative notions have led him into being one of the most influential modern thinkers. His concepts and ideas on philosophy, theology and human behavior were concentrated in his literature works, such as The Gay Science and Thus Spoke Zarathustra.…

    • 614 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Anticrist Summery

    • 2411 Words
    • 10 Pages

    Nietzsche claimed in the Foreword to have written the book for a very limited readership. In order to understand the book, he asserted that the reader "... must be honest in intellectual matters to the point of hardness to so much as endure my seriousness, my passion." The reader should be above politics and nationalism. Also, the usefulness or harmfulness of truth should not be a concern. Characteristics such as "Strength which prefers questions for which no one today is sufficiently daring; courage for the forbidden" are also needed.…

    • 2411 Words
    • 10 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Nz Essays

    • 288 Words
    • 1 Page

    24. When Nietzsche says our thoughts, actions, morality and consciousness are epi-phenomenal, he means that our consciousness, Will, and Reason do not cause anything. Instead, unconscious things cause them. For example, H2O is Hydrogen combined with oxygen. Hydrogen and oxygen are both flammable when alone, but when combined create something that puts out fire. It creates a new property when put together. The effect is wetness. Water is conscious and the hydrogen and oxygen are unconscious. We pay attention to the result, not what makes it up. For Nietzsche, our actions and moralities derive from our unconscious type-facts in the same way wetness derives from hydrogen and oxygen.…

    • 288 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Nietzsche explains nature as an overall relative to humans; he proposes a potent and significant explanation of the development of language and the realization of concepts. He achieves this by exploiting the successive effects on human awareness. He suggests that originally humans were "an artistically creating subject" as he puts it. Whose essential human determination is the construction of metaphors? Due to evolution, humankind developed a capacity to reason, distrust, remember, and control. Humans were driven by instincts which established themselves directly into inventive sounds, gestures and metaphors. Humans thereof signify the motivation, which ultimately develops into the base of language. As a result, humans manipulate this metaphor of understanding a stimulus, which may well vary from one to another; as it is totally subjective.…

    • 1408 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays