Nietzsche’s Critique: Traditional Values and the Death of God
Nietzsche’s Critique of Traditional Values
A) Criticism of Traditional Values.
This is an attack on Platonism and all consequences of this philosophy, especially as taken over by Christianity. To further clarify the concepts, we distinguish within the critique of traditional values: moral criticism, criticism of religion, and the critique of philosophy.
I. Criticism of Morality
Nietzsche’s criticism is a deep critique of Western culture. The fundamental error of traditional morality has been going against life itself. The foundation of morality is precisely Platonism, which places ideals and values outside of this world and this life. That has led to the prevailing values of the weak against the true values of primitive morality. That was a primitive moral of moral gentlemen who love life. This morality is of the superman. Morality based on Platonism is a slave morality. In a reversal of values that comes with Judaism and Christianity, based on Platonism, virtues are precisely the negative values such as humility, obedience, resignation, compassion, and so on. Nietzsche’s criticism, however, is not only of Platonic morality enshrined in Christian morality, but also the morality of artwork because he said it’s secularized Christian values. Nor is he released from his critical Kantian formalism given its sound fundamentals.
II. Criticism of Christianity
In close connection with the preceding paragraph, religion comes from fear, helplessness felt by man himself. God is merely a human projection leading to ratify a terrible loss of authentic values. In particular, Christianity, in line with Plato, has invented a heavenly world as opposed to the world and earthly life.
III. Criticism of Traditional Philosophy
- From the standpoint of traditional philosophy ontology, Plato believed that true reality is the immutable, universal, and abstract, exactly the opposite of life itself and that is becoming reality. Logically for Nietzsche, the only philosopher of antiquity who did not distort the reality was Heraclitus.
- From the standpoint of knowledge, traditional philosophy is dogmatic and intended to enclose the true concepts that are only intended to reflect mummies that reality and be the reality. The intellect is lying to us to make us believe that through the concepts we grasp the true life. For Nietzsche, all knowledge depends on the subjective knower, and this subjectivity is different not only in each species but also in each individual.
- As regards the language, words are metaphors. They become concepts when applied to a plurality of individuals and therein lies the error, nature, life is unique and specific non-formal and abstract, then the concepts are only the residue of metaphors can not express the reality of life.
The destructive criticism that Nietzsche brings to traditional values is what this author refers to as the death of God. The death of God means that the pillars holding up the tradition, history, and culture of the West have collapsed, because it all rested on the idea of God.
Finally, the death of God leads to nihilism. This means that Western civilization is out of their values. These values are no longer useful because man has finally understood that they are the denial of life itself.