Nietzsche’s Philosophy: Apparent World, Value Transmutation, and Innocence of Becoming
Nietzsche’s Concept of the Apparent World
The “apparent world,” in Nietzsche’s philosophy, refers to his division of reality into two realms, a concept influenced by metaphysics and religion. One realm is considered superior, attainable through reason, objective, immutable, eternal, and associated with good and the spiritual. This corresponds to Plato’s world of Ideas, the Christian concept of God, and Kant’s realm of noumena. The other realm, the lower world, is the “apparent world”—subjective, changing, a world of corruption, change, and death, associated with the body and evil. This aligns with Plato’s sensible world, Christianity’s underworld or valley of tears, and Kant’s realm of phenomena.
Reversing the Hierarchy of Worlds
Nietzsche argues that this division must be reversed. The world previously considered “apparent” should be recognized as the real world, while the world previously regarded as superior and true should be seen as false and nonexistent. The “apparent world” is the only world we have, and denying or fleeing from it is characteristic of the weak and resentful.
The Death of God and the World of Becoming
The death of God signifies the death of the “real world” and the retrieval of the only world we possess—the world of becoming, change, and death. We must face this world knowing there are no laws beyond those we humans invent. We must embrace life as it is, without denying it or inventing perfect worlds to comfort us in our sorrows.
Transmutation of Values
This involves inverting the values of unnatural morality and replacing the values of traditional morality, which Nietzsche labels “slave morality.” This is a morality that denies the pleasures of life and renounces it, as seen in Christian and bourgeois values. In its place, Nietzsche proposes a strong, creative morality that affirms life and gives supreme value to the affirmation and reaffirmation of humanity.
The Superman and the Death of God
This transmutation can only occur after the death of God, once we have eradicated the absolute upon which moral values are based. It is about transforming man from a child of God and a lover of absolute truth into the superman. The superman is brave, accepts life with its pain and tragedy, and continues to love it. The superman desires to grow and be generous for its own sake, without seeking reward in another life. This understanding signifies the death of God, even if it involves anguish. The transmutation of values is the affirmation of life and becoming, and therefore the recognition that we are alone, without God, facing life while affirming all its pleasures and pains.
Establishing a Master Morality
We must establish a master morality that values difference over equality, strength, and heroes over the humble and meek.
Innocence of Becoming
According to Nietzsche, traditional philosophy has always rejected evolution, the changing nature, and the flow of things. It has pursued an illusory ideal of a higher reality possessing characteristics contrary to the changing world in which we inhabit.
Embracing Change and Flow
The flowing character of reality—change, becoming—has been bothersome because it does not produce the tranquility that truth, in their view, should produce. For them, true reality should be immutable, eternal, and universal. Nietzsche, however, asserts that becoming is the only existence, albeit an irregular one. The “innocence of becoming” is the understanding of reality and ourselves without order, without permanence, without any legality imposed from the outside. Order and legality are imposed by humans in a changing world to deny it. Becoming has no single sense, no single reality, and no single way of being valued and appreciated.
Beyond Good and Evil
Becoming is flowing and changing, multifaceted and immeasurable. It means accepting the world as it appears to us, not as reason would like it to be. The innocence of becoming is a behavior that transcends good and evil, concepts that are closed and deny the fluidity of existence. It is the understanding of change and appearances, free from the human vanity that seeks to find absolute truths and values.