Nietzsche’s Transvaluation of Values & Eternal Return
Critique of Dominant Values in Nietzsche’s Philosophy
Nietzsche’s critical niche culture is considered decadent because it challenges dominant values founded on the following pillars:
- Platonic Metaphysics: The notion of a fictional world more real than this one.
- Rejection of Rationalism: Dismissing rationalism and its emphasis on a life detached from this world.
- Christian Values: Critiquing Christian values as representing a discourse of moral condemnation and an appreciation of weakness.
- Scientific Revolution’s Ideals: Challenging the emphasis on standards and systems that give preponderance to logical reason, viewing this as a form of dogmatism where logical discourse is taken as the sole model.
The Transmutation of Values
Nietzsche’s transvaluation of values uses metaphors to express his thoughts. This should be understood as representing new values arising from an atavistic fear, aiming to overcome nihilism. Through terms such as “the death of God,” “morality of lords and slave morality,” and “will to power,” Nietzsche introduces new values. Those who cultivate these new values are not yet fully aware of the moral or philosophical theories that have promoted them since ancient times. Instead, they look at everything with different eyes, interpreting and evaluating from a new aesthetic perspective.
Nietzsche seeks to overcome old thoughts that prioritized reason over the senses, truth over opinion. He achieves this through persistence and a focus on life.
Eternal Return, Progress, Time, and the Superman
Nietzsche’s subversive intent questions two important representations: progress and time. He views progress as proximity to an object over linear time. In this view, life seems to deny its origin. For Nietzsche, temporary moral progress, sought by the will to power, is a constant renewal of the vital impulse, or the eternal recurrence of the same. If the transmutation of values creates a future to transform the target, it means that the past and the future are the same instant.
The Eternal Return
For the return of eternity, it is necessary to generate something akin to destruction. The methods with which it is produced are very important. It involves rejecting what is improper for a high spirit. Eternal return means the everlasting repetition of time, instants definitively deprived of any event attributed to one of them. It is the center of history; it is to fail to hate. In each instant, everything has a place and will return infinite times. The theory of eternal return is the culmination of Nietzsche’s work, affirming life with a desire for eternal repetition.
The Way of the Superman
One of the best-known concepts in Nietzsche’s philosophy is the Superman. This should *not* be understood as recognizing that any individual or race has cognitive superiority over others. Instead, it is necessary to affirm life. This is the way of the Superman, who cultivates many Apollonian and Dionysian values, who is aware of everything and of the death of God, with the power to govern the morality of masters and not slaves, and who embraces joy without resentment and with a sense of the earth.