Friedrich Nietzsche Essays (Examples)

This is because he believes the people in the slave morality are suffering. He sees violation of their humanity. According to him, they do not have freedom and are weary. This perspective of Nietzsche concerning the slave morality is discouraging. This is because all human being should be free from oppression. Further, according to this description of slave morality it gives evidence that the people under it are miserable.

Slave morality according to Nietzsche make a person a pessimist. Negative attitude towards life makes life to be difficult. Nietzsche is against the slave morality as it makes an individual to be full of condemnation. He is of the perspective that life is good. Therefore, he finds it difficult to agree with morality that he sees as perpetrating of sorrows. According to Nietzsche, the people who have slave morality cannot achieve genuine happiness.

The values that the people who hold slave…

C). These ideas were embryonic in nature laying the foundations of the modern Social Sciences. Republic was considered as a central piece of Western philosophy. Socrates challenged the pagan traditions and talked about some order in the society, however music and intoxication remained the central piece of that ideal life with a concept of providing temporary relief to the individual. The moral ideals were created through dialogue between mythos (Religion) and Logos (Logic). The responsibility to set these standards of morality lies on the philosopher. Unfortunately, Christianity came to help the down trodden of the society (plebs), instead Nietzsche thinks that the new religion became a tool in the hand of the autocrats/bourgeoisie (Durant).

Nietzsche was a rebel of his age. Using the method of dialectic he wanted to give meaning to life. He was a philologist. To challenge the Nihilism in European life and make a way out towards…

In addition, the philosopher will approach the manner in which man achieves the understanding of the world. In his opinion, the knowledge which man generally has is not a pure one. On the contrary he will generally deal with appearances. He underlines that the value of a thing is generally not intrinsic nor universal. On the contrary people will consider a thing to be valuable or not depending on the time and place where they stand as well as on their desires and beliefs of the moment. This is an argument that is used in order to support the thesis according to which man's knowledge of the world is far from being pure and objective.

All in all in can be stated that Nietzsche is one of the most lucid philosophers who have tried to analyze the condition and values of humanity. He caused controversy through his work in which…

"Slave morality is, for Nietzsche, clearly a decadent, unhealthy morality" and it is meant to relate to people putting across bitterness with regard to individuals controlling the social order. Slave morality is, in essence, focused on the well-being of humanity as a whole rather than just on the well-being of individuals in control.

Nietzsche devised the concept of master morality as a means to provide the world with a more complex understanding of morality types that would be beneficial for society when considering matters from a technological point-of-view. The Genealogy of morals actually reinforces this idea. "A genealogical account of the development of the slave morality that has triumphed in Europe is presented in order to indicate the decadence of that morality" (Smith).

One of the main reasons why Nietzsche came to believe that the morality will eventually come to be more common is the fact that slave morality is…

Nietzsche "Twilight of the Idols"

Friedrich Nietzsche was a 19th century German Philosopher who did not shy away from either criticism or conflict with other philosophers. One example of this was Nietzsche's remarks on Rousseau, equality, and democracy. In Nietzsche's book Twilight of the Idols in the chapter entitled "Skirmishes of an Untimely Man," section 48 is devoted to Rousseau, and his idea of the natural equality of humans. (Nietzsche, 82-84) Nietzsche begins his rant by criticizing, in the most egregious terms, Rousseau and his idea of returning to nature. Nietzsche does not seem to know what Rousseau means by "nature," and must ask the question of him "…to what did Rousseau was to return?" (Nietzsche, 82-84) and answering this question by comparing Rousseau's state of nature to the violence and terror of the French Revolution.

The French Revolution was based upon the idea of equality; making everyone equal. Nietzsche…

Together the two forms of morality combine to create the systems of morals and social balances which govern Christian nations all over the world. Along with slave morality being associated with the Christian religion, it is also closely related to Judaism as well. These two make up most of the religious beliefs of the Western world, and therefore were a major source of criticism for Nietzsche. He believed that all forms of morality associated with religious beliefs were a product of society's inability to cope with the real nature of life. He also believed religion to be almost like a drug to many people who could not live life without the need to believe in a false belief of a father figure guiding them and looking out for them. Christianity, although it preaches goodness, relies on the sole fact that it condemns others as evil. Therefore the essential foundations on…

However, Nietzsche is keen to observe that the fact that there are varying standards of morality or different moralities does not mean that there is no form of biding morality. If this is the case therefore, then it is logical to argue that there are as well varying kinds of 'binding' originating from the varying moralities, for instance, the Christian binding cannot be deemed the same as the binding fronted by the Kantian philosophy on life. These two bindings have to be different it can be argued. Either of the Christian philosophies and moralities, or the Kantian moralities or any other out there cannot be said to be a universal phenomena but an evolution and a product of a specific circumstance meant to fulfill a given deficiency. The fact that they must have different 'bindings' also does not mean that they are therefore useless, indeed they are central for different…

Nietzsche's Morality

Nietzsche

Friedrich Nietzsche has been a leading mind regarding the concept of morality, which he attacks due to the subject of human nature. Morality is a matter subjected to two different aspects: "noble" or "master" morality, and "slave" morality. Here, the concept of "good" and "bad" become redefined value systems between the master and the slave. It is also in this idea of anti-morality that Nietzsche prescribes the parable of the birds of prey vs. The lambs, as well as explains the re-sentiment (ressentiment) that the slaves have over the master.

Nietzsche stresses that human nature brings about the idea of "will to power," where the values of "good" and "evil" are thereby relative to the particular group, whether it be master or slave. In his views, the master morality is an "affirmation of life," a "life-enhancing" morality that characterizes morality as being that of the strong-willed (Lewis,…

Nietzsche's philosophy of nobility, and why the noble person must be aggressive in order to be successful. Criticize this philosophy by developing a scenario where it would fail in the human services workplace.

Only the strong shall survive." "You're fired." In today's business climate, it is both popular and attractive on a visceral level to think that aggression rather than compassion is the best philosophy for a human being to employ in his or her daily life, to achieve success -- even if one is not Donald Trump. Many years ago, the German philosopher Nietzsche stressed that in a world where God was "dead" and traditional ethical rules of conduct had been shown to be false, humans must assume their responsibilities to set their own, harsh and noble rules that advanced their own personal interests in an individualistic fashion. Only though such aggression and individualism could humans eschew the often…

Philosophy

In Die Welt als Wille und Vorstellung (The World as Will and Representation), German philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer presents his core philosophies. One of the themes in The World as Will and Representation is the function of the human will as providing the impetus for the manifest world and not just the means for understanding that world. In this way, Schopenhauer distinguishes himself from Kant and distances himself from the Kantian worldview. The mind and reality are one; this represents a resolution of the crisis of duality. In spite of his monistic vision of will and representation, Schopenhauer continues to rely on the Kantian forms and framework for reality. He critiques the Kantian division of the world, by stating that Kant's system of classifications is unnecessary. Moreover, Kant depicted the human being as separate from the object of knowledge. For Schopenhauer, the human being and the universe are fundamentally one.…

Nietzsche: Genealogy of MolarityNietzsches statement that man has killed God and does not know he is dead suggests that man is unconscious of the repercussions of their actions. When writing The Gay Science, Nietzsche observed that the ruling class acted out of adoration and ego, corrupting the moral fabric upon which society was constructed (Geuss & Skinner, 2006). Notably, religion was synonymous with political governance since the religious leaders also doubled in the governance of the state. He observed the deformation of humans as subjects of Christian moralization and civilization and the emergence of humanity with the erosion of the Christian moral culture.He cautions against the assumption of absolute confidence in what we might think we know since how we understand might not be what historically meant. He sees human forgetfulness as a great undoing of civilization and the erosion of Christian morals as the death of God (Geuss &…

Foremost, though, is the Nietzschian concept that freedom is never free -- there are costs; personal, societal, and spiritual. To continue that sense of freedom, one must be constantly vigilant and in danger of losing that freedom, for the moment the individual gasps a sigh of relief and feels "free" from contemplating freedom, tyranny will ensue. He believed that it was the internal cost that contained value. This, however, still presents a problem for Nietzsche, in that he must find a way to connect the objective -- the rose is beautiful, with the "idea" of beauty (essence). Thus, the idea of freedom and the objective reality of freedom are dependent upon the manner in which the individual perceives their own path towards such a concept. emembering that Nietzsche lived while monarchs still reigned, his view of freedom from a political and cultural paradigm was heavily influenced by Bismarckian politics, which…

Nietzsche, what is the difference between master morality and slave morality? hich does he prefer and why?

The philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche's seminal document The Genealogy of Morality attempts to chronicle the history or 'birth' of morality, which for Nietzsche does not originate within the innate human character but as a result of social impositions. In pre-Christian, pagan times, the strong were naturally considered to be the 'better' of the two main classes of people -- the masters and the slaves. "The former had an unquestioning hold over the latter -- they had a feeling of ruling and superiority that was justified by the fact that they were ruling and they were superior. Nietzsche calls this feeling of the superior over the inferior the pathos of distance" (allace, "Nietzsche: On the Genealogy of Morals"). The ruling classes were made up of "noble, the powerful, the superior, and the high-minded" and they…

Nietzsche's oman is by turns simply a reflection of common attitudes of the time, although he occasionally sees her in a more sympathetic view. In a modern light, the understanding of Nietzsche's philosophy has often been tainted by the view of his writings as racist and misogynist. Indeed, a cursory look shows that Nietzsche's perception of women is largely negative and unflattering. Nonetheless, the great philosopher is sometimes clearly sympathetic to women. The end result is that his work seems largely inconsistent and poorly thought out on the subject of women. Many philosophers, including Simone De Bauviour and Mill, have had a much different conception of woman than Nietzsche. Ultimately, Nietzsche has little important insight to offer on the subject of women, a disappointing oversight from a philosopher who repeatedly offered such perceptive and daring views on many important subjects.

Modern interpretation and analysis of Nietzsche's works is often tainted…

Nietzsche and Nihilism

"Nihilism" was the term used by Friederich Nietzsche to describe what he considered the devaluation of the highest values posited by the ascetic ideal. The age in which he lived was viewed by the German philosopher as one of passive nihilism, which he defined as the unawareness of the fact that the religious and philosophical absolutes had dissolved in the emergence of the 19th century Positivism. Since traditional morality collapsed, along with its metaphysical and theological foundations, the only thing that remained was a sense of meaningless and purposelessness.

The triumph of meaninglessness coincides with the triumph of nihilism, under the slogan "God is dead." Nietzsche believed that people would start seeking absoluteness in nationalism, just as they previously did it in philosophy and religion, a conception which later lead to catastrophically consequences.

Nihilism is most often associated with Nietzsche. The philosopher felt that there is no…

In many ways this is how Nietzsche assimilates the idea that people are "artistically creative subjects." To Nietzsche the idea of truth is relative to the reality of how "truth" becomes a conscript of human communication and perception. "Insofar as the individual wishes to preserve himself in relation to other individuals, in the state of nature he mostly used his intellect for concealment and dissimulation." (143) to Nietzsche the only real reason why people really began to accept the idea of varied truths was to conform to living in groups, as apposed to fighting amongst each other for the same space and resources.

Truth is therefore not a concrete accumulation of facts, as they occur but a culmination of facts, as they are remembered and illusions associated with individual perceptions of how to best portray him or herself to those he or she must live with. There is no shame…

Nietzsche and Power

What does Nietzsche mean by a "will to power," or "life affirmation?"

"The world itself is the will to power -- and nothing else. And you, yourself are the will to power, and nothing else!" F. Nietzsche

Much of Nietzsche's thought seems to be about the concept of human beings, not individuals, but the species, overcoming mediocrity and becoming "better." Certainly, his ideas are sometimes translated out to mean "nothing matters," but his basic views do not seem to fit that idea. Nietzsche's advice is somewhat of an argument -- man is the immature being, and there is an ongoing process that must happen for humans to actualize. Nietzsche is not saying that he is this ubermensch, this person who has all the power; nor is he arguing knowing that people cannot rise to the occasion. Instead, he is asking humans to rise above the mundane, to…

But even many devout believers in America today state that we all worship the same God, and thus participate in the same 'truth' regardless of our affiliation. Even atheists validate the feeling of believers and state that although science is factually true, the human mind and faith has its own truth that can emotionally and psychologically move mountains. In other words, there are different kinds of truths -- truths that can be proven with a scientific experiment and emotional truths that are subjective in nature (like true love and true friendship).

Of course, some philosophers suggested that different types of truths have more solid truth claims than others, even in the past. But few people have radically questioned the ability to know the truth on every level as much as we do today. In fact, maybe the word 'truth' is not a good word for what we are seeking, when…

He also did not consider that the attribution of goodness or perfection was not exclusive to early nobles, the Roman warrior, the Greek artist or the Jewish priest who trusted in a Messiah. Common people and slaves always held their own beliefs in what is true and good and by their own ethical codes, believed that observing them would justify their actions and choices. What went into historical records were the experiences and opinions of the nobles, scholars and others with the skills or access to those records. The lowly and incapable did not have that access to records, which could have taken note of their beliefs and experiences too.

Nietzsche could have grounded his argument that goodness evolved almost entirely or consistently from nobles, warriors and, lately, from inventiveness but abusive Jewish priests, according to commonly accepted and extant historical records. He should have allowed some opening for insufficiency…

Similarly, Zarathustra's time in the mountains offered him wisdom, knowledge that he needed to share with others; thus he resolved to "go under" (Nietzsche 10), and share the truth with the unenlightened 'herd.' Much of society is founded on this central tenet of education being a central good, and indeed everyday interaction seems to be predicated on the assumption that ignorance is potentially harmful. For example, many alcoholics are ignorant of their condition, and this ignorance causes physical and emotional harm. It would seem as though friends who know someone with alcoholism (and who, furthermore, know some truth that the alcoholic does not, namely, that alcoholism is harmful) have a moral obligation to try and educate that person in an effort to curb his or her drinking. To not do so would be to betray one's social role as a friend, and ignore one's moral responsibility implied by that role.…

This does not suggest that one assimilate the ideas of another without having first contemplated those ideas at length, rounded them with individual ideas, expectations, experiences and theories before adopting those ideas and holding the originator of the ideas as a source of ideological guidance.

Engels is described by social researcher Dudley Knowles (2002) as a "Hegelian (20)." As mentioned earlier, Engels took a position in favor of Hegel when the philosopher was coming under fire from the university philosophy professor where Engels attended university. As has been previously mentioned, again, and from the positions Engels took and his manner of expressing his positions that were counter authority and anti-authority in nature, it leaves open to speculation Engels' motivation in backing Hegel; was it sincere agreement in philosophy, or his tendency to follow his young and somewhat immature tendencies to thwart the sitting authority? Given that Engels took a journalistic…

Progress of History: Hegel, Nietzsche and Heidegger

For Hegel, the idea of the progress of history was tied to his immersion in the world of Enlightenment and Romantic writers and thinkers. He lived at a time when the French Revolution occurred and reshaped the direction of history. The Revolution expressed and institutionalized new ideas about Reason (literally deified by the Revolution) as well as socio-political philosophy regarding fraternity, equality and liberty. Hegel came to maturity during this era and for him, philosophy consisted of a clash of forces -- and the old world concept of philosophy (the love of knowledge/wisdom) was what Hegel sought to transform in The Phenomenology of Spirit, as he clearly states in the book's Preface: "To help to bring philosophy nearer to the form of science -- that goal where it can lay aside the name of love of knowledge and be actual knowledge -- that…

Existentialist thought is not a particularly easy or simple concept for the aspiring philosopher to apply generally while promoting universal principles. Frederick Nietzsche is considered by most as the purest form of an existential philosophical author. Nietzsche's works, although extremely aesthetically pleasing, are also a practical but mystical approach to metaphysics and the inner workings of the mind. In another example, Aleister Crowley, in his own and unique voice, echoed many of the existential thought processes Frederick Nietzsche emotionally and effectively created in his brilliant works of philosophical writings. The purpose of this essay is to promote Aleister Crowley as an existentialist thinker in the same vein as Nietzsche. I will describe and highlight Frederick Nietzsche most prominent and distinguishable traits that significantly align with those of Crowley's to demonstrate this relationship in order to promote and create new applications towards understanding and relating important information in an academic setting.…

The slave revolt happened through creativity and through the desire for the once-weak and lowly to find happiness.

In the parable of the lambs and the bird of prey, Nietzsche begins by explaining that it is understandable that lambs, being weak, would hate birds of prey because they know that birds of prey kill and eat lambs. So for the lambs, everything that is not a bird of prey can be thought of as good. All the birds of prey, however, are thought of as bad or evil. Nietzsche reiterates that this is completely understandable; it makes sense. However, can we really hate all birds of prey because they kill lambs? Nietzsche says no because birds of prey are doing what they are created to do. It would be just like hating lambs because they do not kill. Killing is something that the strong do to survive and Nietzsche blames…

Fredrich Nietzsche believed that an individual should create his own set of values, which are developed in isolation from society, religion or authority. This paper discusses whether such an approach is possible at all and whether it is optimal, too.

IS IT POSSIBLE TO CEATE VALUE FO ONESELF

Fredrich Nietzsche believed that an individual should create his own set of values, which are developed in isolation from society, religion or authority. For this purpose, he deconstructed collectivism or "herdism" so as to purport that man create his own values.

Nietzsche believed that society should not be allowed to influence an individual' values, his sense of right and wrong; where a society is a group of people who come together for some common purpose. This society possesses common values and judgements, which are not necessarily the judgements of any other society. Nietzsche lamented that since society only exists as a pack,…

But the progress of philosophy in Nietzsche's modern age and the progress of science has actually denied the mystery of God and helped create an atheistic period. In such a period where the effort of philosophy is strongly empirical, the soul also has been sacrificed. But because it has been sacrificed, in a way the sacrifice renews religion. People sacrifice themselves to God. This can be seen in the way of Kierkegaard, as he sacrifices his entire will to power to engage a God that has been denied by his rational world. But in Nietzsche's world, since that God has been sacrificed by science, there is nothing left but nihilism and pessimism. This tightens the grip upon the lonely and questing individual. Such a thought would only enliven and strengthen the will to power of the self as free spirit.

Nietzsche's method is rich and does not stop in its…

Language

Power and Language

The concept of power has been examined closely by many philosophers throughout human history. These philosophers have different ideas of what power is, but they all, in some way, believe that the concept of language is central to power. In On Violence, Hannah Arendt quotes several such definitions. She says that power may be "making others act as I choose," "to command and be obeyed," or "the instinct of domination" (36-7). All of these definitions have some basis in the reality of the concept, but the two philosophers who will be the focus of this essay, Arendt and Nietzsche, disagree with this basic premise and attempt to quantify power in different terms. They also make the case of the centrality of language to power. In other words, that there is a language to power, and the creation of power, that needs to be understood before the…

Fear Morality

Fear and Morality in Nietzsche

Nietzsche believed that there was no real ethic and that since there was no moral without fear, that there were no true morals. The problem with this is how he developed this idea. This paper first breaks down how Nietzsche theorized morality, and then gives two cases to refute his assertions.

Nietzsche's Theory of Morality

From the beginning of his diatribe, Nietzsche shows that he has had a superior intellect from the time he was very young, and he is thus, the supposition has to be, uniquely qualified to judge ethics and morality. He wrote his very first treatise on morality at the "tender" age of thirteen (Nietzsche 1). His views of ethics were shaped by his method of questioning, determining answers, and then building more questions based on these answers, until, he says, "at last I had my own country, my own…

Living authentically "as if" my actions had the force of reason strikes me as very similar to living in deliberate opposition to reason -- which, in a contemporary milieu, often entails structuring a life according to personal experience or even faith. In an era in which the irrational is widely accepted and even embraced -- through the thought of Freud, Kierkegaard, and others in addition to Nietzsche himself -- Kant's confidence in the a priori categories of reason as self-evident universal organizing principles seems innocent at best.

Finally, in a society that jealously protects the perspective of the individual, Kant's appeal to universal or even "categorical" patterns of thought and morality is difficult to integrate into everyday life. If society reserves judgment on moral questions, then how can we ascribe objective force to our own maxims for a just life? Perhaps ironically, the best way to live under such circumstances…

The book discusses the prevalent impression of oneself as a separate ego covered in a bag of skin that is similar to a hallucination that accords neither with experimental philosophy nor with the religions of the east, more specifically Hinduism. This hallucination undermines the use of technology and of formal education in general, because of its involvement in the destruction of humanity. atts favors the kind of education that gives us a sense of existence.

Allan atts, in his book: "On the Taboo Against Knowing hom you are" starts by questioning the amount of knowledge that a young person is supposed to seek in order to be in the know. He suggests the presence of some inside information and some special taboo on life that most teachers and parents have not taught. Culture plays a crucial role in the education of the young people through offering a platform for cultural…

Plato, Epictetus, & Nietzsche

When we discuss how Plato presents the most appropriate human attitude toward bodily appetite and/or passion, it is vital to note that Plato's method of discussing philosophy in dialogue -- as though this were a drama with characters each competing for attention, but with an overarching dramatic structure above and beyond those chattering characters which more subtly guides the way we are meant to understand the competing arguments -- makes it difficult to say what Plato himself thought about the question of bodily desire, because the Symposium's dramatic structure may give the climactic pride of place to Socrates's speech, but then seemingly Plato directly undercuts the loftier sentiments of Socrates's discourse on love by ending it with the farcical entry of the drunken Alcibiades. So this is important to notice before examining Socrates's vision of the bodily appetites -- in this case, specifically the sexual appetite…

Nietzsche's "madman" and the Madness of the First orld ar as viewed "In Flanders's Field" and All Quiet on the estern Front

The essence of the philosophy of Friedrich Nietzsche is a stated view of human existence where all individuals possessing attributes of excellence or superiority are at odds with their complacent, or intellectually slumbering society. Nietzsche's supposed madman of his famous "Parable" voiced a critique and a prophesy of the world, a world that had killed God, for better or for worse. Yet the world, said the madman, temporarily remained willfully ignorant of this fact and thus the madman's truth remained unheard and deliberately misunderstood by the masses as merely the voice of madness, so spoke Nietzsche in the "Parable of the Madman." (Nietzsche, 1882).

In his parable as well, Nietzsche suggested that such willed acts of individual knowledge and by extension, excellence, in the form of 'killing God,'…

Ingenious Pain Andrew Miller

prompt: One major themes discussed Alain de

One of the central philosophical components of Friedrich Nietzsche's varied stance is the fact that pain is integral to providing meaning to the human life. This basic tenet is echoed in Andrew Miller's Novel, Ingenious Pain, which chronicles a protagonist who is born with a marked inability to perceive suffering or physical pain -- whether it is his or that of someone else (Barnard). Although the life of James Dyer -- the protagonist -- is highly eventful and full of action, it is curiously devoid of much meaning from Dyer's perspective, until a change encounter with a woman named Mary bestows upon him the capacity to feel pain. The sudden transition for the young man, and the fledgling empathy he eventually develops as a result, eventually overrides his life and leads to his death. Yet in the process, Dyer's…

Life in a Godless orld

For as long as mankind has contemplated its own creation philosophers have pondered the meaning of life largely within the context of humanity's relationship to the divine, from Aristotle's metaphysical conception of God as all actuality to Descartes' systematic attempt to develop a proof of God's existence. The dominance of Christianity throughout much the civilized world invariably constrained the ability of great thinkers to challenge many of the religion's most fundamental precepts, from the concept of free will to the nature of good and evil, leaving much of the early philosophical canon regrettably limited by a reliance on unquestioned faith. After the European Renaissance validated the structural foundations of scientific inquiry, the glaring inability to empirically observe God in any conceivable form prompted many to privately question the dogmatic assertions of the Pope and his church. It wasn't until the momentous contribution of the German…

Mill believed that any act may itself be inherently moral, so long as the outcome of that action produces a benign effect. Mill believed that the most ethical act is that which produces the most good, even if the act itself is one which is traditionally considered evil. An example of utilitarian philosophy would include the killing of innocent animals to determine a cure for some infectious disease. And while there are components of this philosophy that would certainly align with Aristotle's definition of ethics, it seems difficult to picture the latter condoning any method to achieve moral behavior, particularly in regards to the following quotation from Nichomachean Ethics. "A man will not live like that by virtue of his humanness, but by virtue of some divine thing within him. His activity is as superior to the activity of the other virtues as this divine thing is to his composite…

Freud, Nietzsche & Russell

The Discovery and Realization of the Self in the Philosophies of Bertrand Russell, Sigmund Freud and Friedrich Nietzsche

With the emergence of nineteenth and twentieth centuries, human history had been introduced to new philosophies that seek to celebrate individualism and the intelligence of human beings. From the philosophical discourses proposed by Sigmund Freud, Bertrand Russell, and Friedrich Nietzsche, it becomes evident that there no longer exists subsistence to religious idols and personalities, which had been the prevalent ideology and philosophy among societies in human history's early history until the 18th century.

In the texts that follow, this paper discusses and analyzes the philosophies of the three philosophers cited earlier. With references to the following texts, "Thus spake Zarathustra" by Friedrich Nietzsche, "Why I am not a Christian" by Bertrand Russell, and "Lecture 35: A philosophy of life" by Sigmund Freud, this paper argues that the philosophers'…

Genealogy of Morality (APA Citation)

The Genealogy of Morality

"the Genealogy of Morality"

In the modern world the term "genealogy" has taken on the connotation of the study of a family history, or a list of ancestors and offspring of a particular family. While this definition is the most common, there is another definition of the term "genealogy" which involves an account of the origin and historical development of something. It is easy to see how the study of a family's history has evolved from this term, since it too is the origin and development of a series of relatives. But it is the more general definition of genealogy, studying the origin and historical development of something, that Friedrich Nietzsche used for the title of his book On The Genealogy of Morality. The book contains three individual essays involving a discussion of morals within modern society and the evolution of…

and, through the scientific study of modern, cognitive science, the idea that 'I' am doing the thinking in a way that is separate from my body and that this can be rationally deducted, simply by thinking and without scientific experimentation would be confounded.

However, those using empiricism as their main philosophical view of the world have also been able to twist the empiricism to use science's supposed rationalism and objectivity to justify tyranny of 'the best,' as in the case of eugenics, and the notion of 'survival of the fittest,' which suggests that the 'best' (morally, racially, and ethically) thrive and should be allowed to triumph over the 'weak.' In reality, Darwin's actual theory merely supports the idea that those best suited to an environment survive, not that survivors are innately better or superior creatures (a mutated moth that can blend in with a coal-blackened environment is not 'better' than…

What is intrinsic regarding this definition of evil is the value that ressentiment has upon it. Ressentiment is a term widely used by Nietzsche and other philosophers (such as Kierkegaard) to refer to the notion of resentment -- which can take many forms including jealousy and other forms of subjugation -- influencing a particular moral perception. Because the weak were oppressed by and opposed to the depredation of the strong, aristocratic nobles, they classified all they did and all that described them as being morally incorrect of evil.

This concept of ressentiment as applied to the terminology of good and evil that was originally used by the impotent masses (according to Nietzsche), would go on to play a prime role in the development and facilitation of the Christian religion, which the philosopher also believed has had a fundamental influence on the morality of the western world. As denoted earlier, the…

He purported the theory that strength is the only acceptable or even desired quality in a human being and weakness in any form was a great failing, good will survive, and bad will fail. Ultimately, goodness will be replaced by strength; humility will be replaced by pride, the very basis of survival will be threatened by equality and the principle of democracy and power will replace justice in all aspects, and power will eventually be the judge of the destiny of humankind. The Church and religious heads of the time vehemently opposed these theories since they felt that this meant that human kind would be subjected to the theory of the 'survival of the fittest' wherein the weak become exterminated by the strong. (it's a Matter of life or Death)

Nietzsche's thoughts, though for the most part forgotten, do stay alive in 'Philosophical Investigations' by Wittgenstein, where Nietzsche's 'Theory of…

Religion of the Spirits

In responding to adherents of the Religion of the Spirits, one might expect very different statements by St. Thomas Aquinas and the philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche. Indeed, these two personalities are opposite ends of the religious scale, with the former believing without any doubt that God exists and Catholicism is the true religion, and the latter being a believer in nihilism, physical life as the only existence that can reasonably be expected, and the non-existence of God. One similarity between Aquinas and Nietzsche is that they both believe unshakably in their respective viewpoints. There is therefore not much likelihood that the Religion of the Spirits will be able to convince either of their "truth."

If believers in the Religion of the Spirits were therefore to try and convince Thomas Aquinas of the truth of their religion, I believe he would in turn explain to them that there…

Absolute Truth in the Philosophical orks of Plato and Friedrich Nietzsche

The development of human civilization is a social movement that gave way for humans to further explore everything about the world they live in. Philosophers, in their pursuit for knowledge about humans and human understanding, had written discourses about the nature of human knowledge, and how humanity had come to possess this quality. More specifically, philosophers attempted to explain human understanding and knowledge through the concept of 'absolute truth,' which serves as the catalyst for knowledge to develop within an individual. Plato and Friedrich Nietzsche are two famous philosophers who have written philosophical discourses discussing the concept of Absolute Truth as the primary factor that influences and develops human knowledge. Influenced by their social experiences during the period and society they had lived in (Plato during the 5th century and Nietzsche, 19th century), both philosophers subsists to different interpretations…

Post-Impressionist artists were interested in the ideas of Friedrich Nietzsche, particularly in his concept of the Ubermensch, a superman who would be capable through intense struggle of surmounting the lower forces that would limit his ability to achieve. The idea that man could evolve beyond his present capacities influenced the relationship of European man to previous cultures and to contemporary but less "civilized" societies. This paper explores the ways in which Paul Gauguin applied the Ubermensch concept to his art and to his life, and examines parallel motifs in the oeuvres of his contemporaries.

The Artist Gauguin: Man, Nature, Ubermensch and God

At the beginning of the enaissance, Massacio painted The Expulsion of Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden, and initiated a new view of humanity: an intensely personal and emotionalized struggle against fate. In spite of the Neo-Classical return to the formal norms of the past, the…

Such events must be political in nature. The author alludes to the utilitarian aspect of monumental history with this quotation.

Of what use, then, is the monumentalistic conception of the past, engagement with the classic and rare of earlier times, to the man of the present? He learns from it that the greatness that once existed was in any event once possible and may thus be possible again; he goes his way with more cheerful step, for the doubt that once assailed him…has now been banished.

The practical use of history, then, is to serve as the inspiration and even in certain instances, the impetus for present action. Such history is "monumentalistic" when it details the lofty achievements of those before. Even if those particular achievements were not political in nature, although a great many of them were, the application of them within contemporary society would virtually have to have…

Role of Memory in Shaping Morality

Oscar Wilde once wrote that, "The man with a clear conscience probably has a poor memory." The role of memory and remembering in shaping moral decisions is a concept that is central to sections of Hannah Arendt's Responsibility and Judgment and Friedrich Nietzsche's On the Genealogy of Morals as both texts wrestle with how one knows that an action is morally wrong. It is a question that goes back to the earliest days of philosophical inquiry under Socrates: Does the understanding of morality come inherently from something within man or is it merely inculcated by society and thereby remembered. Drawing from her own experiences as a German Jewish refugee and after World War II as a reported at the Nuremberg Trials, Arendt argues that morality must exist beyond the scale of the individual as there is too much variability within humanity's perspective on moral…

Underground Condition

In Notes from Underground Fyodor Dostoevsky presents the life of an individual living in the underground condition. Dostoevsky notes on the first page that the notes and the narrator are fictional. However, he also states that the narrator is "one representative of a generation that is still living out its life" (Dostoevsky 1). Dostoevsky then states that the narrator will introduce himself and "elucidate the reasons why he appeared and had to appear among us" (Dostoevsky 1). The narrator then represents the underground condition. A consideration of the narrator will show that the underground condition refers to a person defined by rejection and alienation, loneliness, a life based on fantasy, and anger and spite. Each of these aspects of the underground life will now be considered, with a focus on showing how these aspects define the person's life and on showing why the underground man acts the way…

Wulf, S.J. (2000). "The skeptical life in Hume's political thought. Polity, 33(1), 77.

Wulf uses David Hume's well-known skepticism to advance his concerning the extreme degrees to which philosophy had been taken before returning to less radical modes. He develops material about the antithetical ideas to those investigated here; that is, he puts into a context the ideas of those philosophers who, working at the edge of the intelligible, refused to "accede to the judgment of reason and even their own senses."

ukav, Gary. (1984) the dancing Wu Li masters: An overview of the new physics. New York: Bantam.

One of the first statements ukav makes in this book is that he found, visiting the Lawrence Livermore Laboratory in Berkeley, California, that physics "was not the sterile, boring discipline that I had assumed it to be. It was a rich, profound venture, which had become inseparable from philosophy. Incredibly, no…

By pointing straight up, it is emulating the church steeple, pointing perhaps to God, and Creator that has brought the stars and the moon and the clouds and the land to the people so they could build a village. In the village the lights are on in many of the houses, or are those bright windows merely reflecting the starry splendor from above?

In conclusion, Van Gogh's painting "Starry Night" received a great deal of exposure when Don McLean sang the song in 1970. Many listeners likely did not know at first the song was about Vincent Van Gogh, but a careful review of the lyrics clearly indicates that the song was an ode to the great expressionist. The painting will endure long after the song though. It will endure as long as humankind is still on the planet. And the planet is better for the fact that artists like…

Nietzsche's ideas center on the will-to-power to escape the triviality of the society. Nietzsche argued against the "slave mentality" that permeates society causing the people to live lives devoid of joy and grandeur (ibid).

Phenomenology

Phenomenology, on the other hand, focuses on the "essential structures found within the stream of conscious experience -- the stream of phenomena -- as these structures manifest themselves independently of the assumptions and presuppositions of science" (faxed material, date, p. 174).

Edmund Husserl, who is considered as the first great phenomenologist, developed transcendental phenomenology which very purpose is to investigate the phenomena of the world without making assumptions. This requires the exclusion of one's presupposition about the existence of the external, physical, and objective world. Phenomenology's end is to be able to describe the conscious experiences of human's "lifeworld" (ibid).

Heidegger, having heard Husserl's call for a need to develop a philosophical system which understands…

instant he knew, he ceased to know.

hroughout the history of literature, authors have used their works to underscore beliefs that they hold dear. his can happen whether the work is fiction, non-fiction or a combination of both. he work of the author can illustrate a point by using obvious comparisons and angles or it can use a more subtle approach such as metaphors or other methods of illustration.

Even when the work is fiction, often times the true feelings and beliefs of the author are interlaced throughout the story. When someone writes a story their life experiences and events come into play even if it is on a subconscious level.

Jack London was an author whose work was originally taken at face value and it was only after his death that the world began to analyze and see the underpinnings of his meanings. He wrote books about things he…

Two belief systems, then -- true believe, and justified true belief (Hauser, 1992).

Humans, however, according to Pierce, turn justified true beliefs into true beliefs by converting them into axioms. Once we have proven something there is no need to prove it again, and we use the part that was proven before to further extend our study and the inquisition of knowledge. And so it becomes necessary to accept things as the truth without proving them at every single moment. However, does not mean that the belief is an unjustified belief, for it again is the conflictual nature of justified against unjustified that, for scholars like Pierce, outpours a reality he can view as "true" (Ibid).

ene' Descartes' purpose was to make humans analyze the introspective nature of being, and to postulate on the veracity of truth as a nature of thought -- if we think it, it is, and…

.. The actual universe, with all its good and evil, exists on the basis of God's will and receives its meaning from His purpose. However, these two conclusions do not stand in simple contradiction, to one another. The one says that evil is bad, harmful, destructive, fearful and to be fought against as a matter of ultimate life and death. But the other does not deny this. It does not say that evil is not fearful and threatening, inimical to all good and to be absolutely resisted. It says that God has ordained a world which contains evil- real evil- as a means to the creation of the infinite good of a Kingdom of Heaven within which His creatures will have come as perfected persons to love and serve Him through a process in which their own free insight and response have been an essential element."

(Hick, 1978)

Arthur Schopenhauer,…

93)."

That the post modernists rejected the psychotherapy of the modernist era is by no means suggestive that the artists of the era have escaped psychological analysis. Because of the extreme nature of the pop culture, it has presented a psychological windfall for study in excessiveness. It is represented by an excess of economic affluence, drugs, sex, and expressions of behavior. The excessiveness is found not just in the music industry, but also in literature, film, and paintings and photography. It is all encompassing of all art expressions.

One important definition of the post-modern, as a radically sceptical and questioning attitude of mind, is that provided by the philosopher Jean-Francois Lyotard (1984), who wrote of it in terms of 'the death of grand narratives', with Marxism and Freudianism particularly in mind. Lyotard would see as futile attempts to consider the modern and post-modern in terms of historical periodisation. For him,…

(a.D.A.M., 2008) Neurosyphilis has been speculated as the cause for eccentricites among well-known figures such as Henry VIII, Vincent Van Gogh, Adolf Hitler, Oscar Wilde, and Friedrich Nietzsche (McMyne, 2008). Oddly, some dementia caused by syphilis is preceded by a phase of mania and euphoria in which patients feel excitable and "high," often with relaxed inhibitions (Hayden, 2003).

In the United States today, syphilis rarely progresses beyond the first or second stage since treatment is widely available. Upon diagnosis, antibiotics such as penicillin or tetracycline are administered; follow-up tests must be performed at three, six, and twelve month intervals to ensure complete removal of the infection. Syphilis is always contagious, particularly in the first and second stages, so all sexual partners should be notified and treated as well. If treated during the primary stage, syphilis is completely curable with no risk of permanent health damage. Unfortunately, initial symptoms may be…

He can then be influenced to live what he now understands but has yet to do. The therapist or doctor must encourage the patient or awaken his social interest and raise his level of energy along with it. y developing a genuine human relationship with the patient, the therapist or doctor can re-establish the basic form of social interest, which the patient can use in transferring it to others. oth therapist and patient must realize that the latter's ultimate cure can come only from him.

Adler's approach has similarities with that of Socrates (Stein 1991). Socrates exhorted others to "know thyself," while Adler urged that people should think for themselves (Meyer 1980 as qtd in Stein 1991). Like Socrates, he would lead the person or patient through a series of questions to a contradiction within himself as revealed by his own answers. oth philosophers were committed to the search for…

This meant that people were no longer creating mythos, but taking the myths that had been developed earlier, with the understanding that religious myths were meant to be symbolic, as truth, rather than defining their own religious truths. Armstrong describes a very active process in prior religions. For example, she describes shamans seeing the world behind the one they see with their eyes, and spirit quests or journeys are part of the religious traditions in many prehistoric cultures. This is something far different from modern religious practices which largely discourage even individual interpretation of mythos.

hile Carr and Armstrong focus on different aspects of modern society, they both make it clear that they believe there has been a transition from activeness to passivity in the thought process of modern people. They indicate three changes in modern culture that reflect a transition from active agents to passive agents: changes in art,…

This responsibility -- using knowledge to actualize others, is a predominant theme in much of Plato's works that resonates directly with contemporary pedagogical theory.

The Allegory itself is written as a fictional dialog between Plato's teacher Socrates and Plato's brother Glaucon. In the allegory of the cave, the reader, whom Plato assumes is also a philosopher on a path towards enlightenment, is treated to a play within a play. There is a dark cave, cavernous and damp. Individuals (prisoners) have been chained in this chasm since birth so that they are able to move in a way that they can only look at the wall in front of them; otherwise they are immobile. "Conceive them as having their legs and necks fettered from childhood, so that they remain in the same spot, able to look forward only, and prevented by the fetters from turning their heads" (vii: 515). There is…

The creation and development of new knowledge is an important indicator that society is progressing towards social development. However, Foucault observed how society ceased to produce 'new knowledge' as it moved towards 20th century. The emergence of "-isms" are based on extant philosophies and knowledge; therefore, they are just products of these knowledge, rendering them not original, new, and influential to induce to social development.

Though individualism is a belief that had existed and was discussed upon for many years, it was noticeable that people have yet to actually believe and practice this philosophy. Putting into practice individualism can have remarkable results to the progression of social development. Eradicating the concept of power is one of these progressions that individualism can induce. The philosopher asserted that changing the perception that knowledge should have "congruence, love, unity, and pacification" and that it is inherently 'hateful and hostile' would help humanity redefine…

The key to understanding this quotation and its relevance to a shift in mindset is to deconstruct Nietzsche's conceit regarding the ocean, in which he implies there is an abundance of experiences (literally, entire depths) that most people never plunge into and merely ride the crest of, experiencing a mere surface-level of emotions and perceptions. There are other people, the philosopher implies, who know how to plummet what little experiences they have for all that they are worth. These are the people who have trained their mind to perceive things, the world and their particular space in it, and who can prove the fact that people can surely find that which they seek -- but only once they have decided to seek for it.

In conclusion, while it is true that a shift in mindset is directly responsible for a greater attunement to one's surroundings, an ability to get in…

geniuses, history will never even be aware that most people even lived at all, much less that their lives had any real purpose, meaning or worth. All ideas of human equality and natural rights are just pious little myths and fables, since only a handful will ever have the talent and intelligence to be recognized as standing out from the anonymous masses. This world is a very cruel and Darwinian place in which only a handful achieve success and recognition, at least by the material and monetary standards that the capitalist system values so highly. In short, the majority of people who ever lived have simple been drones and worker bees, and if they have any talents or worth, few will ever notice them outside of their narrow little spheres of existence. Many people may have certain natural talents but make little effort to develop them, and through bad luck…