Nietzsche’s Philosophy: Critique of Western Values and the Will to Power
Nietzsche’s philosophy is a critical philosophy, which can be divided into two periods: the first deconstructive (against Western culture) and the second constructive (proposing to overcome these decadent values). In his first book, The Birth of Tragedy, he presents two ways of life in Greek culture: that of Apollo, representing rational light, and that of Dionysus, representing the irrational, feelings. The Greek people held together these two forms of life, but with Euripides, Plato, and Socrates, decadence began. They created an alternate world of ideas, establishing a duality and placing reason over life, producing a material subordination (Dionysus) to ideas (Apollo), and soul over body. Symptoms of decline began when Plato and Socrates divided reality into two worlds: one material (apparent) and the other ideal (the real), influencing morality, anthropology, and creating metaphysical nihilism. Nietzsche criticized all the traditional values of Western culture and disagreed with this nihilism as it denies the values of life. From the pre-Socratic philosophers, almost all had embraced egipticismo, denying any kind of change, thus condemning the body, making up what is right or wrong. This was not only the work of Plato; Christianity enlarged this decline against life, using a morality which opposed the existence of man. Plato’s thought became rooted in Christianity. In Christianity, God is the only truth, meaning that duty, obedience, and punishment are above all. Combined with a nihilism that denies pleasure and enjoyment, this creates an unnatural morality. Nietzsche proposed the contrary: mortality. For Nietzsche, metaphysical nihilism could be seen from three perspectives: the ontological, the anthropological, and the epistemological. This decline, this metaphysical nihilism, must have an origin, which Nietzsche explores using the genealogical method. This method attempts to understand the past from the present, bringing to light what is hidden, a critical approach seeking the reason for that decline. Time in Christianity is conceived as a unique direction toward a goal, where God is the beginning and end of everything. This conception of linear time remained in force throughout history, influencing actions based on that end (reaching heaven). Given this linear time conception, Nietzsche proposed time as an eternal return. Nietzsche considers the past from the perspective of each individual. For Nietzsche, we live all times “as if they were the last” (carpe diem), including the bad times, thus following the Dionysian ideal of life where, despite bad and terrible times, we continue to live, accepting it as part of life. Nietzsche, through his genealogical method, studied the origin of the concept of truth. While Plato and Christianity held that truth was the world of ideas, Nietzsche posited only one world, the one we live in, which philosophers considered apparent due to its constant change, creation, and destruction. Therefore, truth depends on one’s perspective, so truth is relative. Similarly, reason does not prevail over instincts. Even language should be an instrument of life, not what Western tradition maintained, where language was regarded as a representation of reality, a false reality for Nietzsche as it was based on life-denying entities.
Thus, for Nietzsche, words do not have fixed meanings, and applying a word to many things is wrong since nothing is identical. What is critical is using language as an instrument of truth. Nietzsche argues that language is the source of error, as it has been moralized, telling us what is right and wrong. Against these criticisms, Nietzsche proposed the creation of new post-metaphysical values. From nihilism, he not only denied the values of morality, religion, and metaphysics but also proposed the creation of new values such as vitalism, perspectivism, and atheism. This is exposed in the metaphor “Thus Spoke Zarathustra,” which speaks of three stages: 1st, in the form of a camel, representing the period from Plato to modern times and revealing the decadence of Western culture; 2nd, played by a lion, reflecting the post-metaphysical nihilism that destroys all existing values; and 3rd, as a child, representing innocence and creating values, embracing life as a whole (Dionysus). From Plato to the Enlightenment, reason is used as a symbol of its age. The goal will be reason as something absolute. For Plato, reason is above the senses, leading to the duality between self and duty, radicalized by Hegel. For Hegel, what is and what ought to be are the same. Both are symptoms of decline, according to Nietzsche. Since Hegel maintained that the real is rational, he based it on the lower, something Nietzsche disagreed with; for him, the opposite is true, favoring a vitalist conception over Hegel’s thought. Along with vitalism are the values of perspectivism and atheism. Against Platonism, which held that man will know the truth through the world of ideas (reason), because the apparent world represents error, Nietzsche finds a representation of this in Comte’s positivism. For positivism, truth is reached when we set aside theology and philosophy to achieve a world of particular facts, maintaining the duality between the subjective and objective world. Nietzsche criticized this world of duality and opposed positivism, not believing in any kind of objectivism, arguing for no facts but interpretations (from each perspective), so there is no dualism between truth and error. What was truth for Plato and Christians is, for Nietzsche, an illusion used to cope with the uncertainty of life. Thus, against the will which is God (will of fiction), Nietzsche proposed the will to power, a desire for the affirmation of life that accepts irrationality, contradiction, and the limits of our existence. And through the eternal return, he announced the death of God (death of traditional values) and, therefore, the principle from which to create new values that go against the life-denying ones. The post-metaphysical nihilism that Nietzsche defended has a different meaning from Christian nihilism (metaphysical) and reactive nihilism. Metaphysical nihilism is characterized by denying any life-affirming value, while reactive nihilism is a pessimistic nihilism that declares God is dead. The post-metaphysical nihilism that Nietzsche defended denies any kind of duality or supreme value, proclaiming the affirmation of life (not pessimistically) following the death of God. After the death of God emerges a new man, the ultrahombre, who does not believe in any supreme value. He will be faithful to the values of life by proposing to live without traditional values, overcoming the characteristic values of Western culture (living in finitude, liking risk, not fleeing from suffering, having no fear of difference or multiplicity, and loving life).