Nietzsche’s Critique of Socrates and Plato: A Value Inversion
Nietzsche’s Critique of Socrates
Nietzsche’s work has two objectives: to set aside his previous critical thinking and to offer another explanation of the world as it should be. For the first dedication, our author, a philologist, centers on the world of Greek thought, specifically from Socrates onwards. Platonic reflection is presented as the transition from a culture based on aesthetic values to a culture based on rational values. This transition replaces myths with logos. Nietzsche questions whether this step has been positive.
To understand this thesis, we must understand Schopenhauer’s irrationalism: reason is like a veil that prevents knowledge of realities. Before Socrates, art addressed science. The artist’s character is not intended to judge reality, but to reflect the culture. Nietzsche calls this the Dionysian.
The Treason of Socrates
Nietzsche attributes to Socrates the unification of reason and truth under the formula of Parmenides. With this drastic change, unconditional acceptance shifts to criticism. This doubt is one of the basic trends of Greek culture, which he calls Apollonian. The Greeks combined two opposing tendencies: the desire for life and pleasure, and pessimism. The more original tendency was Dionysian. Socrates appears as the great traitor who carried out the inversion of values because he could not accept life as it was.
Critique of Plato and the Ideal
In Twilight of the Idols, Nietzsche notes the second part of the treason: Plato’s distinction between the world of ideas and the world of senses. Plato attributes the characteristics of immutability to moral concepts and makes them the only reality. Platonic metaphysics is the negation of life in favor of the ideas of reason. Reason ends up becoming apparent and full. Socrates’ ideas, turned into realities by Plato, break the equilibrium between the Apollonian and the Dionysian. Plato’s Socratic moral rationalism divides realities into two levels: good and bad. This attitude is confirmed and reaffirmed by Christianity. This adds morality, which places the human individual at the center of truth. Kant’s saying is that only knowledge of appearances is possible, and Hegel is lost in an obtuse and confusing language.
Critique of the Socratic and Hegelian Dialectic
Another basic principle of Nietzsche is the affirmation of becoming as the reference system of the world. Nietzsche does not usually directly address the thought of Hegel, but his critique of the great idealist is present in all his work. Nietzsche regarded reason as Egyptian. The evolution of life is as eventful as the paintings of ancient Egypt. Metaphysics is the philosophy of being, but the affirmation of becoming implies the renunciation of the concept of being. Nietzsche believed that Wagner’s operas hid the message of the ancient tragedies.