NietzschePhilosophy Through the Centuries

BRENT SILBYUnlimited (UPT)

Nietzsche (1844 – 1900)

“God is Dead” – Nietzsche (1882)

Nietzsche (1844 – 1900)

Most famous for writings on Existentialism and Postmodernism

Existentialism?

What is Existentialism?

Suggestion that Philosophical thought should deal with existence of the individual person

The alternative style of Philosophy focuses on objective truthsof Mathematics and Science

But Existentialists think these don’t get to the heart of humanexperience.

Existentialists focus on subjective experience of the individual

They focus on the individual’s emotions, actions, and thoughts

Postmodern Philosophy

What is Postmodern Philosophy?

Critical of the traditional structure and foundation of Philosophy

Postmodernists are skeptical and nihilistic towards manyassumptions Philosophers make, for example:“That one form of government can be shown to be better than another”

Postmodern Philosophers believe there is no absolute truth

Nietzsche

Nietzsche was a postmodern existentialist philosopher

Reading his work, you will not find standard arguments thathave a logical form.

He contradicts himself all through his work

- Though, this contradiction could be appropriate to the type of work he is doing.

Nietzsche

He seems to tell us that there is no absolute truth

- Truth is subjective

This is to say that truth depends on your point of view

Problem: How can it be true that there is no truth?

- This problem is a reflexive paradox

Nietzsche

Perhaps he was saying that there is no rationally discoverablestructure to the world.

But if so, is it rational to believe this statement?

Problem with subjectivism is that it all comes down to personalpoint of view.

Its all interpretation.

But an interpretation can’t really be true, its just a way to representsomething – to understand

Nietzsche

Sometimes we hear people saying things like:“Its true for me that God exists”

But we don’t want to live in a world where truth just becomes amatter of opinion. Imagine saying “Its not true for me thatJupiter exists”

Doesn’t make sense !

Nietzsche

Where’s all this come from?

Nietzsche thinks it comes from the death of God and the resulting nihilism

Nietzsche and the Death of God

Where has God gone? … I shall tell you. We have killed him - you and I. We are his murderers. But how have we done this? How were we able to drink up the sea? Who gave us the sponge to wipe away the entire horizon? What did we do when we unchained the earth from its sun? Whither is it moving now? Whither are we moving now? Away from all suns? Are we not perpetually falling? Backward, sideward, forward, in all directions? Is there any up or down left?

Are we not straying … through an infinite nothing? Do we not feel the breath of empty space? Has it not become colder? Is it not more and more night coming on all the time? Must not lanterns belit in the morning? Do we not hear anything yet of the noise of the gravediggers who are burying God? Do we not smell anything yet of God's decomposition?

Gods too decompose. God is dead. God remains dead. And we have killed him. How shall we, murderers of all murderers, console ourselves? That which was the holiest and mightiest of all that the world has yet possessed has bled to death under our knives.

Who will wipe this blood off us?

With what water could we purify ourselves?

Nietzsche

So what was that all about?

Nietzsche is worried that God is dead in our modern world view. He thinks rationalism and science killed him.

It’s as if we have learned so much about the world that we don’tneed God anymore.

Nietzsche thought that the idea of God provided a moral, whichgave us an approach to living life.

Nietzsche

He worries that if we remove God from our world, we also losemorality and purpose to life.

This leads to a nihilistic situation- our lives are not constrained by morality or guided by a faith based sense of purpose

Nihilism

Nihilism is the view that life has no objective meaning- There is no purpose to life- There is no comprehensible truth- Nothing has any real value

With no God there is no objective moral standard and no realmeaning to life

- Life is meaningless- Everything is permitted

Nihilism

Nihilism is the view that our existence is insignificant and hasno meaning. We pass through the universe in a blink of an eye forno real reason. It just happens.

Eternal Recurrence

Nietzsche argued that the universe will continue to recur aninfinite number of times.

This means we live our lives over and over again forever

Why?If space and matter are finite, but time is infinite, then everythingthat can possibly happen will happen, again and again and again.

Eternal Recurrence

Given what we know about physics, is eternal recurrence a possibility?

First law of thermodynamics:Heat and work are forms of energy transfer.Total energy in a closed system remains constant

Second law of thermodynamicsA closed system evolves towards maximum entropy (i.e. uniform temperature).A system in equilibrium (maximum entropy) has no energy available to do work.

[draw bucket of cold water with hot stone – steam drive engine for work, butstone and water reach equilibrium, no energy left for work in this closed system]

Nihilism

History and future of Universe

- Big Bang – 13 billion years ago (13x 109)

- Age of the stars and planets

- Degenerate Age – 1014 to 1040 years in future

Galaxy formation ceases. Planets and stars orbits decayBy end of epoch, all protons decayed

- Black Hole Age – 1040 to 10100 years in futureMost black holes disintegrate by end of this epoch

- Dark Age – 10100 to 10150 years in futureRemaining black holes disintegrate

- Photon Age – 10150 to ??? in futureUniverse reaches a low energy state, i.e. maximum entropy

Increasingentropy

Nihilism

Easy to slip into a nihilistic world view when see how insignificantwe are!

So, what does Nietzsche propose to get over this?

Nietzsche is sounding a warning. He is warning us against slipping into nihilism.

Nietzsche proposes a new set of values- values that do not rely on God

Ubermensch

He suggests that we humans can transcend our current state andbecome “Ubermensche”

- Uberman - some have translated to “Superman”- some have translated to “overman”- most likely meaning is “beyond man”

Christians look to other worlds, non earthly existence for hopeand value

Ubermensch

Nietzsche suggests that Ubermensch is the meaning of earth

Ubermensche is the creator of new values

Here, Nietzsche has overcome the problem of God’s death andnihilism

How?The Ubermensche creates new values which fill the void ofnihilsm.

We don’t need God! We can create our own set of values and purpose!

Ubermensch

Humanity’s first goal is the movement towards becomingubermensch

Ubermensch

Nietzsche seems to be saying that we should build a new societyof ubermensch (or supermen) to take the place of the old stylehuman

Does he mean that we should embark on a program of eugenics?- selective breeding of humans such as in Nazi Germany

Ubermensch

Jury may be out on that, but I don’t think this is what he meant

He was probably referring to cultural rather than genetic traits- with a change in culture we could encourage humans to become ubermensch and transcend humanity’s earlier religious or valueless existence

Despite this, Nietzsche was considered the official Philosopher of the “Third Reich”

- This was long after his death.- His works were misinterpreted by the Nazi’s as in support of their ideals

Ubermensch

Ubermensch

Why?After his death, Nietzsche’s sister re-edited his writings tosupport the Aryan ideal of racial purity and superiority

Ubermensch

Hitler in Nietzsche museum, viewing bust of Nietzsche

Nietzsche died in 1900 after ten years of insanity. He was in avegetative state for most of that time.

Ubermensch

His sister cared for him, and allowed tourists to come in to viewthe great Philosopher

That’s how it ended for Nietzsche

“God is Dead” – Nietzsche (1882)

“Nietzsche is Dead” – God (1900)

Powerpoint by BRENT SILBY

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