Nietzsche’s Philosophy: Metaphysics, Morality, and the Will to Power
Friedrich Nietzsche: A Philosophical Overview
Nietzsche was born in 1844 and died in 1900. His death coincided with Spain’s loss of its last colonies, including Cuba, which gained independence in 1808. Hegel’s influence is significant, particularly in Hegel’s dialectic across all peoples (ethics), which Nietzsche addresses in his realm of morality.
Nietzsche’s Critique of Metaphysics
Nietzsche was a denier who passionately rejected the foundations of Western metaphysics.
Key Concepts in Nietzsche’s Philosophy
- The “I think” does not think: Analyzing the proposition “I think” presupposes comparing one’s present state with others to establish what that state is.
- There is no subject-substance: There is no being behind doing; the subject or soul is independent of the will.
- Not a subject-will: One who does not know their will introduces things, believing there is a will within.
- Free cause or subject: If there is no subject that is of will, there is just the old cause of itself. We serve the cause. Substance is a fiction, a product of the will to power that subjects the concept and forgets the violence that creates real learning by way of substance.
- There is no subject-this: A thought comes when it wants, not when I want; the subject-self is the condition of the predicate “I think.”
- The subject is a mask, called hypocrisy: The subject, although “I am,” is neither it nor identical to itself, can only be plural, dispersed, a continuous mask with a faceless background. Nietzsche called for each subject out of this desire that has more force each time. Facing the front of consistency and invariability, the opposite behavior, ruptures, carnival, etc., always doing his own will, the only thing is to wear a mask trying to be always the same.
- Man, animal sick: A man bursting with health, safety, and confidence would produce only the incurable disease recognition will future human health.
Major Works
- The Birth of Tragedy
- Untimely Meditations
- Human, All Too Human
- The Gay Science
- Beyond Good and Evil
Critique of Moral Ideas
Nietzsche rejects fixed, immutable, and universal human essences, as well as the notion of responsibility.
Denial of Moral Facts
Without the notion of a human being, there is no notion of memory, and without memory, there is no morality. Being, above good and evil, is innocent. There is just enough in itself; any kind of obligations, there must be some, our momentary taste is what counts.
Apollo vs. Dionysus
Nietzsche preferred the Dionysian attitude, born of momentum, orgiastic adventure, which has the effect regardless of its causes, which is energized and intensified the entire system of affections. Dionysus says yes to life and also to problems.
Nietzsche’s Proposal: The Will to Power
Nietzsche’s claim regarding what he saw as the great failure of Western culture can be summed up with the notion expressed by the term will to power. Moral identity of the subject is not in memory but in the will to power.
The Investment of Values
Nietzsche proposed the investment of all values, starting with the values of good and evil. There is nothing written above the human will; nothing can be imposed on the man won, and that is the first manifestation of nihilism. God is dead, and therefore everything is permitted.
The Super Man
Nihilism reaches its second dimension; he wants it all, no individual will ever exhaust himself to the status of Super Man.
Superman Against God
“God is dead,” and Superman is born. Nietzsche was convinced that man is called to replace God. The losers are the downward slope of life, but its advocates are Christians.
Anti-Christian Sentiment
While the attacks are fascinated, preferring the Old Testament, a mixture of sadness and admiration for Christ and a negative position toward St. Paul.