Nietzsche’s Philosophy: God’s Death and Moral Critique
The Death of God and Nihilism
The Death of God and Nihilism is the first part of Thus Spoke Zarathustra. God is dead, and we killed him with rationalism and the Enlightenment because if science is the only true god, what is the point? But his shadow is long; that is, it is everywhere: in language, traditions, etc. Everything is God’s appearance. Nietzsche said that God’s death has provoked fear in the weak and that his place has quickly been filled by reason, the theoretical man. Now man abdicates the passions and life to focus on the progress of science, so he has not achieved the union between the vital and the rational; now this is God. The death of God is not only the loss of faith but also the collapse of the moral ideals that underpin society. Upon the death of God, man will be free to create new values, the values of nothingness, the void (nihilism). Genuine nihilism in the will to power is the will of nowhere to deny or not recognize realities or important values.
Nihilism has a double meaning:
- As a sign of the growing power of the spirit: active nihilism.
- As decay and decline of power: passive nihilism.
Nihilism is defined as a function of the will to power. When that will diminishes or burns out, passive nihilism takes place. Nietzsche says that this type of nihilism is about to arrive. In effect, all values of Western culture are created by false values; they are the very negation of life and will come out of nowhere. When these values collapse, nihilism will necessarily follow. Western civilization was left without the values it has possessed up to now; the truth of God is passed to say that everything is false; you lose the meaning of life. This state has not yet arrived, but pessimism advertises the decline and exhaustion. When it appears, it will be the last time of man.
Against this passive nihilism, Nietzsche wants to react with active nihilism. On one side is the violent power of destruction that comes from a growing power of the spirit for which the current values are no longer valid. It is an active nihilism because the values are destroyed by the will to power. On the other hand, it is the condition for the willingness to create new values. All of Nietzsche’s critique of Western culture is a manifestation of this active nihilism trying to beat passive nihilism.
Moral Criticism
Criticism of religion and science does not add anything to this critique of philosophy. Christianity is Platonism for the people and suffers from its own shortcomings. Nietzsche attacks science: not everything is matter and mechanical movement; there are mostly forces (Dionysian vitalism), and the universe is not subject to deterministic laws; it is a chaos of forces.
On the Genealogy of Morals
On the Genealogy of Morals addresses the criticism of moral force from the study of the origin of moral prejudices. He uses the genealogical method, consisting of an etymological and historical investigation into the evolution of moral concepts. Nietzsche says his research led him to different languages; in all languages, originally, “good” means noble and aristocratic, as opposed to “bad,” meaning simple, vulgar, and plebeian. These two names are created for the noble and powerful. However, later comes another contrast, “good” and “evil,” with a moral character. This new contrast faces the previous one and moves it. The historical origin of such a shift is: those who were considered bad rebel; they call themselves good and the noble evil. Thus, morality is the result of the rebellion of slaves and is the result of an action of reactive resentment. Resentment creates the moral values of the West and is responsible for the appearance of an enemy of civilization and life, of an incurably mediocre man. In short, it is the cause of nihilism. However, Nietzsche dares to hope that if the struggle between the concepts of “good” and “bad” and “good” and “evil” has been resolved with the victory of the second pair, the day will come when we can live beyond good and evil, recover primitive innocence, and see the superman. Nietzsche wants a moral courage of the strong.