Nietzsche’s Critique of Western Metaphysics

Posted on Mar 24, 2025 in Philosophy and ethics

Nietzsche’s Critique of Socrates and Plato

For Nietzsche, the 5th century BC marks the decline of Greek culture, specifically the decline of tragedy as a genre. The Greeks drew their idea of the world from tragedy. This worldview was reflected in the juxtaposition of two existential principles, embodied in the figures of Apollo and Dionysus. Apollo is the god of light, reason, order, and harmony. At a racial and existential level, the Apollonian is the principle that refers to the man who is guided by reason.

But the character that complements Apollo, speaking through the chorus, is Dionysus. Dionysus is the god of the night, frenzy, intoxication, confusion, and passion. The Dionysian represents the instinctive, passionate, dark, and confusing aspects of nature and ourselves. Through tragedy, the Greeks saw the need to accept the Dionysian fund, which complements and contrasts with the Apollonian, without ever reaching unity.

The Rise of the “Theoretical Man”

“Reason” becomes a gamble on the Apollonian; the destruction of the Dionysian will emerge, and with it, the “theoretical man.” According to Nietzsche, Socrates invented the theory. Socrates wanted to devour Dionysus with Apollo. The dialectic, the method developed by Socrates, tried to capture reality through universal concepts, seeking fixity, permanence, and universality of the known.

Heraclitus and the Reality of Becoming

Nietzsche offers a positive vision of Heraclitus’s philosophy, for whom reality is *becoming*. To think conceptually is to forget the individual and concrete that comes through our senses, to generalize and reach the abstract. The concept is a metaphor that has forgotten its origin, having nothing to do with the experience from which it emerged.

Plato’s Metaphysical Idealism

The essence of Plato’s metaphysical idealism lies in the contrast between *true being* (the idea) and *apparent being* (that of feeling). With this, Plato made negative judgments about this world, the material world – the only world, according to Nietzsche. Why did Plato deprive the material world of any value? Nietzsche’s answer is the fear of becoming. Plato could not and would not accept change; he chose to deny it, inventing another world. The idealism that begins in the Socratic-Platonic tradition, which continues to this day in various forms, is a “spider’s web” that denies evolution and time. The greatest heir to this idealism is Christianity and its idea of a “very real” being: God.

Nietzsche’s Key Concepts

Conceptual Mummies: With these words, Nietzsche undertakes the task of discovering and undermining the prejudices of philosophers throughout 2500 years of Western metaphysics. He calls “mummies” the ideas that philosophers have addressed for centuries, a philosophy they consider dead yet idolize as if alive.

Egyptianism: Nietzsche tries to restore the true values of life, which supposes:

  • Affirmation of life.
  • Rejection of any theory that does not consider the value and sensitivity of feelings.
  • Rejection of all being, rule, and reason.

What Becomes: From the positivist point of view, reality does not change, and what changes is not real; authentic being is immutable. *Mono*: Ironic expression with which Nietzsche refers to monotheism from a pro-religious point of view.

Apparent/True: This pair of concepts summarizes the duality in philosophy. This thought—initiated by Parmenides—has affirmed the existence of a “real world” characterized by being rational, aesthetic, immutable, and good.