Nietzsche: Truth, Morality, and the Death of God
Nietzsche on Truth and Knowledge
The classical conception of truth claims that the world has a fixed structure and that its objective truth is the correspondence of a proposition with reality. Nietzsche rejects this conception. According to him, there is no truth, only different interpretations. The unique and objective truth is an invention of the past. The language used to express thought is a convention invented by humankind. Therefore, objective truth does not exist. The knowledge we call true is no more than knowledge that has proven useful.
Perspectivism: Knowledge as Interpretation
Perspectivism is the doctrine that all knowledge is the result of a particular perspective that conditions it. Our knowledge results from the vital needs of the knowing subject, which place them in a perspective that captures reality. Each perspective is the expression, the result of certain forces that Nietzsche denominates the instinctive desire for power.
Nietzsche’s Critique of Moral Values
Nietzsche criticizes traditional metaphysical concepts, methods, metaphysical knowledge, and moral values that are contrary to the vital instincts that inspire metaphysics. He unmasks old philosophy through the transvaluation of values that have hitherto dominated European culture.
The Genealogy of Morality Explained
Nietzsche states that philosophy has traditionally based morality on an objective reality, from which moral values are derived. For example:
- For Plato, the basis of morality lies in the world of Ideas, specifically the Idea of the Good.
- For St. Thomas Aquinas, the foundation of morality is the light from God.
- For Hume, it is moral sentiment.
- For Kant, it is practical reason.
Nietzsche argues that morality is not based on these foundations; instead, he seeks to unmask the origin, the genesis of moral values, and proceeds to show how they have evolved throughout history.
Master Morality vs. Slave Morality
According to Nietzsche, it is Judeo-Christian morality that has become dominant. He aims to retrieve the original value of moral terms, discovering that they formerly had a different meaning than their current one.
In the classical period:
- ‘Good’ meant noble, aristocratic, distinguished.
- ‘Bad’ meant low, vulgar, plebeian.
The ‘good’ were the stronger (masters/gentlemen); the ‘bad’ were the weak and ill (slaves).
Later, under the influence of Judeo-Christian morals, the terms ‘good’ and ‘bad’ took on different values. ‘Bad’ comes to mean ‘good’, and ‘evil’ becomes ‘good’ today. The result was that ‘good’ was applied to the weak, and ‘bad’ (or ‘evil’) to the strong. Nietzsche asserts that we must place ourselves beyond good and evil, as there are no true or false moral codes. However, there is a morality in favor of life—the morality of the noble or strong—and a morality that negates earthly life, which is the morality of the weak or slaves. The weak, defeated by life, have invented a ‘beyond’ where they can find solace from the misery they have suffered in earthly life.
The Death of God and Its Implications
The expression ‘God is dead’ is a metaphor signifying the collapse of the transcendent order previously used to explain earthly facts. It represents the death of absolute truths, the demise of ideals that guided human life, and the end of Western beliefs. With the death of God, our civilization is undermined, as all its values were based on the belief that the meaning of the world lay outside the world itself. Now, humanity’s task is to generate new values.
The death of God has led to the appearance of the ‘last man’. Humans, living in the sad end of a civilization where lies are hidden (QE Milena), are beings that live without ideals and are rushed into nihilism. The disappearance of eternal values leads humanity to believe in nothing, to find no meaning in anything, and to have no goals for which to fight. Humans who only seek everyday comfort and pleasures exemplify nihilistic Western civilization, which has run out of values. This nihilistic stage is temporary, as Nietzsche announces the advent of a new world where the values of life will once again dominate.