Friedrich Nietzsche - a portrait

    Friedrich Nietzsche once described his works as philosophizing with a hammer. To paint a picture of the great German philosopher scarcely is there a better metaphor than that. His philosophy rarely provides broad metaphysical truths, but rather focuses on the individual and his/her perspective of things. For this reason, he often referred to himself as a psychologist rather than a philosopher. Similarly, great psychologists and psychoanalysts such as Freud and Jung owe much of their ideas to the influence of Nietzsche. It is due to the unforgiving way of the formulation of his arguments as well as the lack of care for what he brings down with them that the hammer is the right tool to represent his philosophy. Not only does he question the ideas that are so embedded in the western culture that they are most often taken as a given, but he brings them down ferociously, poetically, and with a touch of brilliant but bitter humor – as he formulated, he must hit the idols with a hammer to see which of them are hollow. Among others, these idols include the traditional western Judaeo-Christian morality (to which he refers to as slave morality), religion as such (especially Christianity which he argues to be opposed to life), ancient Greek rationalism, his view of science, the importance of truth, etc.

Since he sees large truths as not universal but tied to a certain culture, he doesn’t bother answering much of the historically important broad philosophical questions (eg. free will, the existence of objective reality separate from the mind, what is good, etc.), but, rather, poses new and, in his eyes, better questions. Equally, he doesn’t view truth as a priori valuable, as most philosophers implicitly or explicitly do, but as somewhat of a means to an end of a good psychological state of the individual. In other words, he disallows any value to be taken as a given, either by the state, culture, religion or any other authority, and argues that the higher people – the best of us (what he coined the Ubermensch) – must create their own values. The path to that is difficult and includes going through the abyss of nihilism, and is consequently not for everyone, but is what divides the extraordinary from the ordinary and creates heroes. His personal values seem to include the enhancement of culture, and great individuals (which cause the enhancement).

 

Without further ado, a few of Nietzsche’s main concepts will be explored henceforth.

 

1. God is dead

Despite what many people think, Nietzsche’s proclamation of the death of God wasn’t celebratory - it was rather a dark warning against the possible consequences of the decay of the western value system.

 

 “God is dead. God remains dead. And we have killed him. How shall we comfort ourselves, the murderers of all murderers? What was holiest and mightiest of all that the world has yet owned has bled to death under our knives: who will wipe this blood off us? What water is there for us to clean ourselves? What festivals of atonement, what sacred games shall we have to invent? Is not the greatness of this deed too great for us? Must we ourselves not become gods simply to appear worthy of it?” - The Gay Science

 

With the development of Enlightenment thinking (which brought scientific and technological progress with it) along with certain mistakes made by the traditional and rigid Judeo-Christian system (one of which is, in Nietzsche’s eyes, its insistence on truth even though it is impossible for religious systems to win the battle for truth when empirical science is on the other side), the western society experienced radical changes in its mentality and world view during the 19th century. The European mind that for two millennia had the idea of God in its center has now shifted its focus towards scientific rationalism (i.e., viewing the world and existence primarily through the physical/natural lens). Interestingly, in spite of the necessity for this to happen, as the unquestionable dogmas present throughout history impeded on the (in Kantian terms) disinterested quest for truth, and in spite of Nietzsche being one of the strongest critics of Christianity ever, he recognized what might happen when such grand belief systems collapse. Roughly speaking, Nietzsche saw 2 possibilities - somewhat equally dangerous; firstly, that people will fill the void left by the death of God with totalitarian state leaders, and secondly, that the collapse of a person’s belief system might not only signal to him that that particular system was wrong but, due to the trauma of such an event, that all belief systems must subsequently be abolished. In other words, there is totalitarianism on the one hand, as people will naturally look for something to replace the ultimate authority of God and will, thus, deify their worldly leaders, and on the other hand, nihilism, as the rejection of all belief systems (i.e., concluding that there are no values and, therefore, no meaning). Along with the great Fyodor Dostoevsky, it was Nietzsche who warned on the dangers of communism almost 100 years before they happened, basing his predictions on the aforementioned logic. Luckily, Nietzsche provided the third possibility following the death of God, and it was something that was further developed into the core of his philosophy. Namely, he postulated that we must start to create our own values. Once we realize that God is dead, and thus, find ourselves in the empty desert void of any meaning, we are given a unique opportunity to begin creating our values. Being the harsh cultural and societal critic that he was, Nietzsche always questioned (and most often rejected) all of the values/norms that are not truly ours but are imposed on us through external factors such as the state, society, religion, etc. The creation of our values and coherently living by them is what allows true individual achievement and, with it, cultural progress (as already mentioned, two of Nietzsche’s highest values seem to be heroic individuals and cultural betterment through them). Thus, the death of God is certainly a terrifying event, but such events are necessary to  differentiate the best among us. Greatness is, after all, proportional to the difficulty of achieving it. As Nietzsche put it, “There are no beautiful surfaces without a terrible depth”.

 

2. Master/slave morality + Ubermensch

Those that manage to achieve greatness are, in Nietzsche’s perspective, the higher class of people; namely, the Ubermensch. Controversially, Nietzsche clearly distinguishes between people based on their quality. In fact, he argues that society isn’t organized for the thriving of all, but rather merely as a stepping stone for a few among us. Those few are the ones who manage to fully create their own values; with no accountability to anyone, these are the ones who say yes to life with all of its suffering and darkness. Nietzsche famously asserts suffering not only as necessary but as desirable for it is solely by suffering that true meaning can be found. With no suffering, there is no testing of the person, and with no testing, there is no possibility to prove your worth.

 

“To those human beings who are of any concern to me I wish suffering, desolation, sickness, ill-treatment, indignities — I wish that they should not remain unfamiliar with profound self-contempt, the torture of self-mistrust, the wretchedness of the vanquished: I have no pity for them, because I wish them the only thing that can prove today whether one is worth anything or not — that one endures.” - The will to power

 

Statements like these are what make Nietzsche who he is; scarcely is there anyone else who would exclaim such a, at the first glance, paradoxical statement (that suffering is wished upon those we care about) so poetically and with such certainty. In any case, Nietzsche draws a distinct line between people and from it, derives his “morality” which he coins the master/slave morality. In his criticisms of traditional morality, he argues that morality has largely developed not because people wanted to be good, but rather as a means to an end. It was the lower classes of people (slaves, citizens of conquered lands, minorities, etc.) that, Nietzsche contends, needed a justification for their position so they postulated in their minds that they are, in fact, morally superior to their masters. Consequently, characteristics such as modesty, empathy, and meekness are deemed good while strength, nobility, and courageousness are evil. The oppressed are not good because of goodness itself, but because the only counterattack they can form towards the oppressors is that of moral superiority. Morality is, hence, merely an intelligent way of vengeance which Nietzsche rejects by arguing that we should transcend the false dichotomy of good and evil and strive to be the best.

 

"...there are no moral phenomena at all, only moral interpretations of phenomena... For strong-willed men, the "good" is the noble, strong, and powerful, while the "bad" is the weak, cowardly, timid, and petty.” - Beyond good and evil

 

While some of these views could be described as elitist (and that is putting it mildly), there aren’t many philosophers who were misused and misinterpreted as Nietzsche. Some of those misinterpretations were in the center of some of the most horrific events in human history (Nazism), but it is crucial to understand that most of them are grossly simplified and merely a caricature of Nietzsche’s philosophy. It is, nevertheless, the case that many of Nietzsche’s ideas are controversial from today’s perspective and despite his philosophical and psychological greatness, it is probably a good idea that we decided not to politically construct our society in Nietzschean terms.

 

       3. Eternal recurrence (amor fati)

“What, if some day or night a demon were to steal after you into your loneliest loneliness and say to you: 'This life as you now live it and have lived it, you will have to live once more and innumerable times more; and there will be nothing new in it, but every pain and every joy and every thought and sigh and everything unutterably small or great in your life will have to return to you, all in the same succession and sequence' ... Would you not throw yourself down and gnash your teeth and curse the demon who spoke thus? Or have you once experienced a tremendous moment when you would have answered him: 'You are a god and never have I heard anything more divine.” - Will to power

 

In this way, Nietzsche formulated his thought experiment of eternal recurrence to further illustrate his ideas of heroic individuals who thrive in the chaos and on top of the waves of suffering. You must say yes to life with everything it brings. You must, in fact, say yes to such a degree that you are truly willing to live every second of it infinitely times over. In a stoic manner (as they expressed their feelings through the same term), Nietzsche expresses the love we must feel towards our destinies. We may not be able to change them, but we can certainly change our attitudes towards them. This he calls amor fati, the love of one’s faith. Eternal recurrence should, therefore, be seen primarily as a challenge to people, rather than a metaphysical account of existence (it is because of this, amidst others, that Nietzsche was previously described almost as a psychologist rather than a philosopher). If we manage to do this, there won’t be many things that can affect us. Our minds will be solid and ready to embrace any of the things we cannot change which will also allow us to focus on the things we can. The Stoics knew this as well only they built their argument on the fact that there is a transcendent logic by which the universe operates - the logos - with which they explained to themselves, roughly speaking, that everything happens for a higher reason. Nietzsche goes even further and removes this step as he argues that suffering should be embraced for suffering itself - another truly bold statement.

 

       4. Apollonian/Dionysian

Nietzsche highly valued the dramatic works (tragedies) of ancient Greece due to their cathartic nature. He saw their depiction of great struggles as somewhat of an affirmation of life. As previously explained, suffering is not only an essential part of life, but a necessary one, so Nietzsche regarded the works that illustrate this as true art. Art is, therefore, not here to improve us ethically or give us some new insight, but rather to purify our attitude towards existence through the identification with the hero and his story. In other words, knowledge isn’t the goal, but emotion and the enhancement of the previously mentioned amor fati. In Nietzschean terms (which he borrowed from Greek mythology), this is done by the interplay of two forces; the Apollonian and the Dionysian. The Apollonian represents the rational spirit; the logical and intellectual clarity and order while the Dionysian is the emotional; the disorderly ecstatic passion. True art must dance on the line between these two views. In broader terms, and connected to various similar ideas (like the yin and yang symbol), this can be understood as the line between chaos and order. We don’t want too much chaos as we cannot exist without a certain degree of structure, but we don’t want mere order as we become static and are unable to grow. The boundary between them is, thus, the right place to be with the ultimate goal being the creation of order from the chaos which happens once the unexplored territory becomes known. The hero is a person of rational calmness on the one hand and romantic emotionality on the other; he is stable enough not to break under pressure, but also passionate/emotional so that he can have a sort of intoxicated courage to take the world on his shoulders. Accordingly, Nietzsche was critical of Socrates and the later Greeks as he argued their focus was solely on the rational and was displeased with the fact that the west has largely adopted such rationality as the right pathway. As he proclaims;

 

“I say unto you: one must still have chaos in oneself to be able to give birth to a dancing star. I say unto you: you still have chaos in yourselves.”  - Thus spoke Zarathustra

 

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Due to the many controversies surrounding his philosophy - some owed to its depth and complexity which cause oversimplified interpretations and misuse, some openly highly controversial, and others on account of his unapologetic style of discussing “with a hammer” - Nietzsche just may be one of the most talked-about (and misused) philosophers in history. Love him or hate him, he is the sort of person for whom you can’t feel indifference. To conclude his portrait, perhaps it is best to leave the final touch to himself as it seems he would’ve wanted it that way;

“I know my fate. One day my name will be associated with the memory of something tremendous — a crisis without equal on earth, the most profound collision of conscience, a decision that was conjured up against everything that had been believed, demanded, hallowed so far. I am no man, I am dynamite.” - Ecce Homo