Nietzsche’s Critique of Western Civilization: Morality, Metaphysics, and Science
Nietzsche’s Critique of Western Civilization
Criticisms of Western Civilization
Nietzsche’s philosophy aims to critique the values of Western civilization, which he believed leads to nihilism—the denial of reality. His critique targets dogmatic philosophy, particularly Platonism, which introduced the enduring error of ontological dualism, separating the ideal world from the apparent world. He also criticizes Christian moral philosophy, which adopts Platonism’s structure.
Nietzsche’s critique follows three main lines:
- Critique of Christian morality
- Critique of traditional metaphysics (ontological and epistemological)
- Critique of positive sciences
1. Critique of Morality and the Christian Religion
Nietzsche refers to Christian morality as “anti-nature,” opposing life and establishing laws against natural instincts. He argues that Christianity despises the corporeal and earthly life, calling it a “Christian conspiracy” that makes man guilty from birth.
He sees Platonism as the philosophical basis of Christian morality, with the world of ideas becoming the saving beyond. The concept of morality ends innocence through punishment and guilt. Nietzsche believes that man doesn’t need God for freedom and that the world isn’t governed by divine law.
He considers Christian morality a tool of domination imposed since childhood, representing the morality of the weak and resentful who hate life and seek solace in metaphysics.
Nietzsche’s critique of Christian morality is present throughout his works, but two are essential:
Genealogy of Morals
Nietzsche attempts to trace the origin of “good” and “evil.” Originally, these terms lacked moral connotations; “good” was associated with strength, beauty, and power, while “evil” was associated with weakness and poverty. He argues that a historical shift, initiated by the Jews and continued by Christians, reversed this order. The enslaved and subjugated redefined “good” as the poor, weak, and sick, while “evil” became associated with strength and beauty. This new classification, based on resentment and hatred, became imposed on Western history.
Beyond Good and Evil
Nietzsche distinguishes between master morality and slave morality:
- Master Morality: Characterized by freedom of spirit, individuality, and self-reliance. It rejects group conformity and creates its own values, going beyond conventional notions of good and evil. This is the morality of the superman who laughs at metaphysical consolations.
- Slave Morality: The morality of the “flock” who need the group for identity. It emphasizes equality, reducing everyone to mediocrity. It condemns those who are different and dare to leave the group.
2. Critique of Traditional Metaphysics
2.1. Ontological Critique
Nietzsche argues that traditional metaphysics is based on the erroneous belief in a transcendent world with characteristics opposite to the ephemeral, earthly world. Traditional ontology is static, considering being as fixed and immutable. Dogmatic philosophers, according to Nietzsche, speculate about a world beyond the changing reality, inventing an “other” world where truth resides.
He rejects this separation between the real and the apparent (“Eleatic divorce”), seeing it as a negative judgment on life that prioritizes the world of ideas over the world of senses. Nietzsche denies this separation, asserting that all that exists is a constant evolution of being, creating and destroying the only existing world—the earth. He rejects any ontology that devalues life.
Nietzsche believes Western decadence began with Socrates and Plato. Traditional ontology is based on philosophers’ prejudices against life’s manifestations (pain, death, etc.), leading them to invent static, perfect worlds. In The Twilight of the Idols, he presents four theses on this error:
- Traditional concepts applied to being (unity, permanence, cause, identity) are indemonstrable.
- These concepts offer false security in a constantly evolving world; “we need the error of categories” for stability.
- Inventing fables about an “other” world is a symptom of a suspicious instinct towards life.
- Dividing the world into “true” and “apparent” (whether through Christianity or Kantianism) is a symptom of declining life. The need to rationalize evolution forces us to invent logical fictions for stability against the chaotic nature of the world. Philosophers have “mummified” being through concepts that merely label.
2.2. Epistemological Critique
In On Truth and Lies in a Nonmoral Sense, Nietzsche explains the genesis of concepts. Traditional epistemology claims that concepts express a multiplicity of individual things, which Nietzsche argues are never truly identical. Since Plato, we’ve believed in original, unchanging truths.
Nietzsche argues that concepts are generalizations imposed by use and custom. The concept formation process moves from sensation to image through intuitive metaphors, and from image to concept through the establishment of metaphors by custom. He rejects any logical process in concept formation. We have forgotten the metaphorical origin of concepts and treat them as fixed models.
Nietzsche believes that concepts don’t express the true reality of becoming and change. The only possible relationship between subject and object is not conceptual but aesthetic (creative and ephemeral).
He also criticizes the relationship between philosophy and language. Grammar imposes order and control; “…we will not get rid of God because we still believe in grammar…”
3. Critique of Positive Sciences
Nietzsche criticizes positive sciences for their mathematization of reality. The determination of things through numbers obliterates the differences between them. He considers reducing attributes to numbers to be wrong and foolish. Science only knows quantity and number, ignoring passion, strength, love—in short, life.