Nietzsche’s Critique of Western Philosophy and Culture
Nietzsche’s Critique of Plato
Central to Nietzsche’s critique are the concepts of Socrates and Plato. In short, both Plato and Socrates steered our culture in the wrong direction, the result of a fear of life. The Apollonian element was imposed by these two authors, rejecting the Dionysian, the truly vital. This denial was made, in Plato, through the following aspects.
Nietzsche criticizes the Platonic ontology, which proposes two worlds: the sensible and the ideal. It is in this ideal world where, according to Plato, true reality resides, where Being is present in a more intense form. Meanwhile, in the sensible world, reality is constantly changing; one can hardly speak of knowledge. Nietzsche only supports the existence of the sensible world, the only one, according to him, that we know, and totally rejects the existence of a supersensible world. In addition, he returns to the immutable Platonic world of sensation and becoming. To use the ideas of Heraclitus, to be is to change, and what does not change is not to be.
Naturally, with all the criticism of metaphysics, the idea of knowledge found in Plato, derived therefrom, should also be rejected by Nietzsche. Platonic knowledge is based on the universal, the ontological expression of which is in the ideas. Knowing fully is in the contemplation of ideas. For Nietzsche, however, it is quite the opposite. The concept limits the meaning of reality, and with it, life. He claims metaphor as the most appropriate means for understanding reality, as the metaphor opens up the meaning of things, to interpret reality in various ways and, therefore, not distance us from life, as the concept does.
But we must not forget that Nietzsche’s critique of the alienation of life perpetuates a “slave morality” as a result of the fear of life itself. A slave morality produces a metaphysics of slaves and, in turn, a certain way of understanding reality. Plato’s proposal is ethical intellectualism, the close balance between an understanding of the ideas and moral goodness or virtue (arete). That is, in terms of Nietzsche, it is to use the knowledge of a nonexistent world to guide us in the only real world, the world of sensitivity.
The Superman Nietzsche proposed as an ethical model is, however, one who, full of will to power and assuming that any moment can be eternal, plunges into life without guilt resulting from dissected concepts (that’s what Platonic Ideas and their development in that Platonism for the people that Christianity is for him look like). Therefore, Platonic ethics is a morality that eventually becomes a morality of slaves, further heightening sad feelings that will later become common throughout Christianity.
Nietzsche’s Critique of Western Culture
Nietzsche criticizes Western culture on three fronts: metaphysics, morality, and science. He criticizes the metaphysics that began with Socrates and Plato, as they initiated the strongest and most durable “dogmatic error”: the belief that there are “things in themselves,” that is, a world beyond this one which is also more real. This idea was picked up and given a religious content. Socrates and Plato perverted the original Greek spirit by believing only in reason and moderation (represented by the god Apollo) and reneging on our emotional side (represented by the god Dionysus).
Nietzsche’s Critique of Morality
For Nietzsche, morality is the whole set of rules that aim to remove man from life. This approach leads to moral slaves, who put the goal of life beyond this one. In this, moral values appear as good that are bad according to the morality of men. According to Nietzsche, the moral basis of Lords to get the morality of slaves has been a reversal of values, conducted by the priests, who are a mix of aristocratic and slave. In the end, the slave morality of slaves creates a metaphysics, which attempts to demonstrate the existence of a sensible world, which serves to defend the world of sense, that is all there is.
Nietzsche’s Critique of Metaphysics
The critique of metaphysics revolves around several aspects: as opposed to traditional ontology, which considered being as eternal and immutable, Nietzsche suggests that being is a consequence of change, of becoming. To support this idea, he introduces two concepts: the will to power and eternal return.
The Will to Power
The will to power is that what a man really wants is not to live because he is already alive, but only wants power and that this will be achieved. He will also face the classic view of reality, saying that what really matters is having a full life and sometimes, to get there, one must flee from the truth.
The Eternal Return
The eternal return is the idea that everything will be repeated as we are living it now. It arises from eliminating the creation of the world, thereby eliminating the beginning and end of it, that is, it is a reflection in time. For this reason, Nietzsche claims that being and change are two sides of the same reality.
Nietzsche’s Critique of Knowledge
The critique of knowledge is primarily directed at mechanism and positivism. Nietzsche is against the idea that life can be captured by concepts. Life is much broader and more complex than any discipline, like mathematics, can reify. There is nothing that is presented as an objective truth. Therefore, he suggests metaphor, instead of the concept, as the appropriate means for understanding reality. Moreover, in opposition to positivism, Nietzsche argues that facts must be construed to have meaning, since they occur within a particular conception of the world.
Finally, he criticizes the idea of progress, which he said is only good for a man to flee from his mind, focusing on a future that does not exist.
Nietzsche’s New Ethics Based on Nihilism
Nietzsche proposes a new ethics based on nihilism. Nihilism is the absence of values in the modern world. This can be negative and positive. If we consider that there is no value, we can create a new world, the Superman. This nihilism is the basis on which the Superman appears. According to him, the Superman must accept the idea of eternal return and live life fully.