Nietzsche’s Philosophy: Key Concepts and Cultural Critique
Nietzsche’s Core Philosophical Concepts
Introduction to Nietzsche’s Thought
Friedrich Nietzsche’s interest focuses on man and life. His philosophy is written in aphorisms. It is rooted in vitalism and represents a backlash against German idealism, among other philosophies. We can divide Nietzsche’s philosophy into two main areas:
- Critique of Western Culture: Examining its philosophy, science, and religion.
- Proposals: Concepts such as life as Will to Power, the Übermensch (Superman), and the idea of Eternal Recurrence.
Nietzsche considers Western culture a decadent culture, one that has unfolded reality. Its inherent hazards are considered incomprehensible.
Pessimism: Schopenhauer vs. Nietzsche
Nietzsche takes the idea of “pessimism” from Arthur Schopenhauer, who states that life is terrible, dangerous, and incomprehensible. Faced with life, there are two possibilities:
- Denial (Schopenhauer): Does not follow the impulses of life.
- Acceptance (Nietzsche): To “love life” with all its errors, as it is.
For Nietzsche, the acceptance and praise of life can take two forms:
- Dionysian: To surrender to life as it is, to embrace uncontrolled impulses without limit. Dionysus represents the night, unreasonable will, the primordial unity (original unity of all), and drunkenness.
- Apollonian: Life is covered by a veil of form and aesthetic beauty, creating beauty and giving beautiful shapes to things. Apollo represents the day, brightness, reason, appearance (opposed to essence), and the principle of individuation (that which makes a being unique).
The union of the Dionysian and the Apollonian created man and the ideal culture.
The Dionysian and Apollonian Principles
The Ideal Greek Culture
The ideal culture, for Nietzsche, was ancient Greek culture (before Socrates and Plato). This union would “give aesthetic form to the force.”
Nietzsche’s Critique of Socrates and Plato
Nietzsche considered Socrates and Plato corrupt, seeing their philosophies as the foundations of a culture that denied life, especially the Dionysian movement, but also aspects of the Apollonian.
The arts which represent these principles are:
- Apollonian: Visual arts (sculpture, architecture), Olympic mythology.
- Dionysian: Music, Greek tragedy. Nietzsche considered Greek tragedy the maximum expression of Greek culture.
Nietzsche was very critical of Western culture, where the rational (often associated with God) is overvalued. He held that Western culture is fundamentally anti-life, a basic error because it tries to create a world different from this one, inventing a different reality where reason has a clear leading role. To be static is to deny that mundane reality is real. This task was undertaken by Socrates and Plato, who tried to establish rationality. For them, static rationality was required for being, and reality was permanent. But for Nietzsche, reality is a continuous flow, a permanent change.
Critique of Religion and the Death of God
The Nature of Religious Belief
Nietzsche reviewed all monotheistic religions, but mainly Christianity. He held that religion is born out of men’s fear of themselves. Instead of being ourselves and taking our own destiny, we put our own game and standards into God’s hands. God establishes what is good and evil, which means we do not assume our responsibilities due to a lack of will. There are two types of men:
- Weak: Those who believe in God.
- Strong: Those who embrace their own will.
God is the projection of our inability to establish the fundamentals of our own values. Religion denies man, denies what he is, denies the Will to Power of man, steals his instinct, and diminishes his strength. Nietzsche established that the values of religion are contrary to life itself, promoting “herd morality.”
The Death of God and Nihilism
In The Gay Science, Nietzsche announces that God is dead. From this point, atheism generalizes. He was hostile to the Christian God, seeing it as contrary to life. Nietzsche values the death of God (an extension of atheism) positively. He sees it as a hope for the West, a possibility for man to again take responsibility and establish his own values. With atheism, the pillars of civilization sink, and a nihilistic stage begins in Western culture. Nihilism