TABLE
OF CONTENT
CHAPTER ONE
1.0
RELIGIOUS NIHILISM
1.1 What is nihilism? … … … … … … … 1
1.2 Nietzsche’s conception of nihilism … … … … 3
1.3
Nietzsche’s conception of Christianity … … … … 6
1.4
Anti-Christ … … … … … … … … 13
1.5
The death of God … … … … … … … 15
CHAPTER TWO
2.0 MORALITY IN QUESTION
2.1 Nietzsche’s conception of
Morality … … … … 19
2.2
Master slave morality … … … … … 22
2.3
Moral valuation (good and evil) … … … … … 28
2.4
Critique of the moral ideals … … … … … … 31
CHAPTER THREE
3.0
THE REMEDIES ON NIHILISM
3.1 The will to power … … … … … … … 34
3.2 The ubermensch
(superman) … … … … … 38
CHAPTER
FOUR.
4.0 Critical evaluation … … … … … … … 45
4.0 Conclusion … … … … … … … … 55
BIBLOGRAPHY … … … … … … 58
PROPOSAL
GENERAL NTRODUCTION.
Statement
of
problem.
Down the
stages of the history of philosophy, the modern philosophy of consciousness,
attention has been directed to the mastery of the natural world. This is a
period whose character of rational optimism was diametrically opposed to
tradition and authority upon which stood the veracity and logic of primitive
religion. It has been a period oriented to the practical. The possession of and
ownership of the real. With Kant, the practical reason is already being
understood as will. Schopenhauer took up this indication from Kant and
conceived reality as will and idea. He opines that the world is a meaningless
and purposeless existence or will to live. Nietzsche however, finally accepts
the fundamental notion of Schopenhauer that the will is the principle of
existence, but he conceives this will not merely as the will to live, but as
the will for power.
Along the way to the will to power, the
anthropological subject has become central. This turn towards the subject
excludes any supreme value in man. Thus, when Nietzsche proclaimed and declared
the death of God, he believed that he was accomplishing the work, which other
existentialist philosophers started but were unable to complete. Little did he
realize the havoc he had caused to the contemporary man. Consequently he joined
other thinkers of his time to sweep off the hold of God on the modern man.
With “the death of God” man could surpass
himself and attain his greatness.
Now it is
up to man to give his life meaning by raising himself above the animals. Our
so-called human nature is precisely what we should do well to overcome…
It
becomes succinctly comprehensible that God, the supreme value was a barrier to
man’s attainment of self-fulfillment. However, with the elimination of the idea
of God, supposedly a vacuum will be created and thus nothingness could break
out in all directions. This at least goes to show the nothingness of religion, which it’s values and morality,
find their meaning in God. This is thus the focus of nihilism, which also
involves the revaluation of these values. Through nihilism, Nietzsche was able
to posit a new value that would replace the old and eliminated` supreme value.
Purpose of study.
This
project is necessary in the face of the present-day unscrutinized quest for
faith or religion. For this reason, it will follow a thought-pattern that will
argue for the credibility of God and religion. Thus the major task of this work
is to criticize without reservation this religious and moral demise of
Nietzsche and restore the supreme value to its place in the world.
Scope of the Study
This work
does not however guarantee to exhaust the rigorous arguments concerning the
existence of God. It does not even pretend to expose the whole philosophical
thought of Nietzsche. It will evaluate and criticize Nietzsche’s arguments
concerning the existence of God.
Method of Study
For the
purpose lucidity this work will be largely critical and expository. More so, a
brief historical survey of Nietzsche is adopted to bring to limelight, his
conception about God.
Division of Work
This work
is divided into four chapters. Apart from the introduction, the first chapter
will x-ray the meaning of nihilism for Nietzsche, and the religion and its
values as attacked and refuted by him. In chapter two, we shall be exposing the
nihilistic morality as presented by Nietzsche. Chapter three centers on the
remedies offered by Nietzsche as the ideal value after his nihilism of supreme
value. Chapter four will evaluate Nietzsche’s philosophy of nihilism.
BRIEF PROFILE OF FRIEDRICH NIETZSCHE
Friedrich
Wilhelm Nietzsche was born on October 15, 1844 at Bocken in the province of
Saxony. He was the son and grandson of Lutheran ministers. His father died at
the tender age of four and he grew up under the care of his mother Fran
Nietzsche and his sister, Elizabeth.
At the age of fourteen,
he was sent to the famous Pforta School where he studied classics, religion and
German literature. In 1864, he went to the University of Bonn and studied
theology. But having lost his faith in Christian religion in 1865 he abandoned
theological studies, left Bonn and went to Leipzig where he studied philology.
Here, also he came upon Schopenhauer’s works, The
World as Will and Idea, which had an influence on him and confirmed his
atheistic standpoint. He was also influenced by the Wagnerian music he came in
contact with.
His outstanding
intelligence merited him the appointment as a lecturer at the age of twenty,
and later at the age of twenty-four, was yet appointed to the chair of
classical philology at the university of Basal. He was at this school until
heath forced him to resign his professorship in 1879. It was during this period
that he came close to a relationship with Wagner but thy later separated. From
1880 to 1889, he lived life of solitude. He surprisingly became insane in 1889
and remained in that state of mental and physical paralysis until his death on
August 25, 1900 at the of fifty-five.
Nietzsche
was a prolific writer and wrote extensively even while ill. His major works
include: The Birth of Tragedy, which he wrote in
1872. Between the periods of 1873 to 1876, he published the Untimely
Meditations and Human, All-to-Human. Then, again between
the periods of 1881 to 1887, he wrote these five books: The Dawn, The Gay Science, Thus spoke Zarathusthra,
Beyond Good and Evil and Genealogy of
Morals. In 1888, he yet
produced these books: The Case of Wagner,
Twilight of Idols, Anti-Christ, Ecce Homo, Nietzsche contra Wagner and completed work, The revaluation of all Values (The Will to
Power).
CHAPTER ONE
1.0 RELIGIOUS NIHILISM.
1.1 WHAT IS NIHILISM?
The term
“nihilism” comes from the Latin word “Nihil” meaning “Nothingness”. The new
Webster dictionary defines nihilism as, “… All attitude rejecting philosophical
or ethical principles”. It
further describes historical nihilism as, “the doctrine or program of a
nineteenth century and twentieth century Russian revolutionary group which
rejected all forms of tradition and authoritarianism in politics, religion,
morality and art”.
The name
“nihilism” first appeared in Ivan Turgenerou’s novel, namely, Father and Son. One character in the
book says that,
A nihilist is a man who does
not bow before any authority; who does not take any principle of faith;
whatever reverences that principle of faith may be enshrined in…
Nihilism
consists in the dogmatic tendency to deny not only the existence of God but
also the permanence of reality. One can therefore say nothing that is
absolutely true of anything since no claim to truth have authentic or objective
foundations. A classical exponent of nihilism in its intellectual aspect is
Gorgias in Plato’s dialogue of that name, in contrast with the earlier
philosopher, Protogoras, who held that “man is the measure of all things.” That truth is relative to persons and
circumstances, Gorgias taught that there could be no truths at all. Mikhail
Bakum (1814-1976) taught that societies only hope lies in its destruction. The
more radical Dmittrii Pisarev (1984-1876) taught that society is so devilish
that its destruction is a good itself. Furthermore, nihilism involves a denial
of all higher and objective values. In Western Europe, nihilism meant a denial
of objective truth and values. Furthermore, nihilism is a way of thinking and a
psychological condition that arises as a direct consequence of the suspicion
that there is really no external or internal moral authority. So, Nietzsche
became a nihilist when he attacked accepted values. He held the view that the
interpretation, which Christianity bequeathed to Europe, was a life-negating
pessimism.
Nihilism
takes either a passive or an active form. Passive nihilism underscores the
absence of values and purposelessness of existence. Active nihilism seeks to
destroy that which it no longer believes. This was the form that Nietzsche
undertook and prophesied.
1.2 NIETZSCHE'S CONCEPT OF NIHILISM
What does
nihilism mean for Nietzsche? He answers thus: “… that the highest values
devaluated themselves” Nihilism
is understood as a historical event and he interprets the event as the
devaluing of the highest values. It is not in any way simply a phenomenon of
decay; rather nihilism, as the fundamental event of western history, is
simultaneously and above all the intrinsic law of that history. Nietzsche recognizes
that despite the devaluations, the world itself remains and above all becomes
valueless and presses inevitably towards a new positing of values.
After the former values have
become unsustainable the new positing of value changes, in respect to these
former values, into a revaluing of all values
The
negation of the values comes out of the affirmation of the new positing of
values. This explains Nietzsche’s contention that there is no compromise with
the former value; the absolute negation belongs within the affirmation of the
positing of new value. In order to provide a foundation for the new positing of
value as a countermovement, Nietzsche even designates the new positing of
values as Nihilism: “… that nihilism
through which the devaluing to a new positing of values that is alone
definitive, complete and consummates itself”. This
definitive phase of nihilism is called completed, that is, Classical Nihilism. Heidegger,
commenting on the meaning of nihilism as Nietzsche had, made us to believe that
he understands nihilism thus: “The devaluation of the highest value up to now…” He also
takes an affirmative stand towards nihilism in the sense of revaluing of all
previous values. Consequently, the name ‘nihilism’ remains ambiguous.
Considering it in two of its extreme forms, it always has primarily double
meaning. Firstly, it designates the mere devaluing of the highest value up to
now, while on the other hand, it also means at the same time the unconditional
countermovement to devaluation.
However, if
the highest values have devalued themselves, that is, if God in the sense of
the Christian God has disappeared from his authoritative position in the
suprasensible world, then his authoritative place itself is still always
preserved even though it appears as that which is no more.
But this empty place demands to be occupied by
a new and to have God now vanished from it replaced by something else
New ideals
are then set up, this setting up according to Nietzsche happens through
doctrines of world happiness, through socialism and Wagnerian music. With this,
there is thus the establishment of what Nietzsche calls incomplete nihilism.
It comes therefore to prevail. Nietzsche says this about it:
Incomplete nihilism, its
forms: we live in the midst of it. Attempts to escape nihilism without
revaluing our values so far, they produce the opposite; make the problem more
acute.
It is now
clear that Nietzsche has presented us with two levels of nihilism, namely, Complete and Incomplete nihilism.
From this presentation and according to his own interpretation, nihilism is
throughout the history in which it is a question of values- the establishing of
values, the devaluing of values, and the revaluing of values differently from
the old and eliminated ones
In the final
analysis, nihilism means the overthrow of the decadent Christian civilization
of Europe. At the same time, it will also clear way for the trans-valuation of
values, for the emergence of a higher type of man, Ubermensch.
1.3
NIETZSCHES’ CONCEPTION OF CHRISTIANITY
Religion
has debased the concept Man. It has put man into fear and thus man has
lost the love of man, reverence for man, and confidence in man, indeed the will
to power. This is nihilism. Its consequence is that everything good, great,
true is superhuman and is bestowed only through act of grace. Christianity is a
religion and Nietzsche conceives it as thus: “… Nihilistic religion that is
appropriate to people grown old and tame.”.
Christianity is never a historical reality. It represents the misuse of words
when some elements of debasement, which is a symbol of manifestation of decay
as Christian churches, Christian faith, and Christian life, label themselves
the holy name Christianity. In fact,
Christ denied everything that is today called Christianity according to
Nietzsche. He further gives a new interpretation of Christ’s death on the
cross. It has been only a sign of how one ought to behave in relation to the
authorities and laws of this world. It is a lesson for us that one should not defend
himself even in the face of danger. Nietzsche regards Christianity holistically
as a corrupt religion that was built on principles that are themselves
deceptive.
I regard Christianity as the
most fatal seductive lie that has yet existed, as the great unholy lie: I draw
after growth and sprouting of its ideal from beneath of every form of disguise,
I reject every compromise position with respect to it. I force war against it.
It is
obvious that Nietzsche totally rejects Christianity and everything associated
with it. He accused Christianity of destroying all the truth by which men had
lived in the pagan classical times. Tragic truth as lived and understood before
Socrates was undermined by Christian mythology. This period of antiquity is
blamed for preparing the way for the conquest of Christianity. Socrates and
Plato are accomplices and at the fulfillment of their work, Christianity
counteracted pagan truth with its venom.
… Such myths as a triune
God, moral world-order, sin, grace, redemption, immortality, resurrection,
hell, heaven thoroughly destroyed the appeal of paganism for the masses…
Christianity developed an
effective way of announcing and spreading its doctrines. We can credit
Christianity for promoting lies and hypnotizing men even to the extent of
believing in it. Christianity reduced reason, science and philosophy. It
praised God as its promulgator and demand that this should be accepted with
gratitude and humility. Nevertheless, it preached equality of every type of
person before God.
… Christianity shrewdly
nurtured the resentments of the mighty. She attracted outcasts and failures of
every sort by persuading them that they were their equals before God and the
redeemer of any other man…
Christianity
as a movement makes the weak, the ignorant and the foolish feel on top of the
world. Her doctrine is characterized by paradoxes such as life through death,
honour through humiliation, mastery through slavery. Christianity is in fact a
religion against the noble and the strong.
Christianity is a movement
aimed at conquering the strong; discouraging the noble, exploiting the miseries
of men, eroding their self-assurance, poisoning their natural instinct,
rendering them sick, weak until their will to power is reversed and turned
against them
It has waged war against the
highest type of man. It has taken the strong as a type of an outcast. In
reverse, it has taken the side of everything weak and made them ideal out of
opposition to the preservative instinct of strong life. It has taught men to
feel the supreme values of intellectuality as sinful, misleading and
temptations.
In
Christianity, there is no relationship between religion and morality with
nature. In other words, Christianity is anti-natural and full of imaginations
or unrealizable ideas.
Nothing but imaginary causes
(God, soul, ego, spirit, free will): Nothing but imaginary effects (sin,
redemption, grace, punishment, forgiveness of sins)… an imaginary teleology
(the kingdom of God, the last judgment, eternal life)
Furthermore,
the idea Christians have about God is the worst havoc and corrupt ideas about
God today on earth. For example, they regard God as:
… God of the sick, God as spider, God as
spirit, it even represents the low-water mark in the descending development of
God’s type.
God
degenerated to the contradiction to life instead of being a transfiguration and
eternal. In God there is the declaration of hostility towards life and nature.
… But we find that which has
been reverenced as God not godlike but pitiable, absurd, harmful, not merely an
error but an error against life.
Moreover, Christianity instead of
enhancing and developing the state, society and nature becomes an abolition of
them. This is because it forbids oath, wars, courts of justice, self defense as
made manifest in Christ’s exemplary life. It presupposes a narrow, remote,
completely non-political society. In a Christian state, politics is a piece of
imprudence, a lie and treats the ‘God of hosts’ as if he were a chief of staff.
The papacy is not capable of carrying Christian politics. So a Christian would
be anybody who abides by the above with regard to the state.
Whoever says today: I will
not be a soldier, I care nothing for the courts, I shall not claim the services
of the Police, I will do nothing that may disturb the peace within me: and if I
must suffer on that account; nothing will serve better to maintain my peace
than suffering – will be a Christian.
Nietzsche
also attacked the priest and theologians since they are Christians. He regarded
them as liars. Since lies are part and parcel of the theory of every
priesthood, according to him, lies are permitted in their midst as means to a
final end. It was in this lie that priests invented a God who rewards and
punishes. He therefore regards them as his enemies and developed a kind of pity
for them.
I pity these priests, they
go against my taste… they seemed to me as marked men and prisoners. He whom
they call redeemer has cast them into bondage…
At the end
of the whole attack, he pronounced his judgment on Christianity. “I condemn
Christianity; I bring against the Christian church the most terrible charge any
prosecutor has ever uttered” He
threatened to inscribe this eternal accusation against Christianity everywhere
there are walls with letters that will make even the blind see. He perennially
condemns Christian.
1.4 ANTI-CHRIST
Nietzsche
is anti-Christ because he rejected everything in connection with Christ. He
hates Christ because, according to him, he undermined man and has led him
astray, even to the point of self-destruction. Indeed, he really was
anti-Christ, but did he succeed? He said these of Christ.
I do not like at all
anything about that Jesus of Nazareth... He put many ideas into the heads of
little people, as if their modest virtues were of any consequence…
In his
attack on Christ, he is found in the paradox of uncertainty. In one place, he
conceives Christ as the only Christian that ever existed and on the other,
Christ is not the founder of Christian religion since what he has labeled
Christianity today is the very opposite of his life: “What did Christ deny?
Everything that is today called Christian” He was
against Christ because according to him, Christ advocated a type of life that
is full of the symptoms of decadence. Jesus did not bring new knowledge or new
faith, he only fashioned in himself a new way of life. For Nietzsche, the
message of Jesus when he used the words Light
or Life referred merely to the inner world, nature and reality. This led
him to conclude that Christ was anti-realist.
Nietzsche
also criticized Christ’s humility. He wanted Christ to be a man with great
power. So when he saw the opposite, he regarded it as weakness. For instance,
Jesus should have retaliated, resisted and fought back the injuries- calumny,
mockery, bearing of the cross meted on him, but he suffered, entreated and
rather loves those who punished him and did evil to him. Thus, Nietzsche could
not comprehend how one cannot defend himself, grow angry or even resist the evil
one. Jesus therefore paid dearly for it, thus:
… This bringer of glad
tidings, died as he lived, as he taught not to redeem mankind but to
demonstrate how one ought to live.
And the
death was even a shameful one “the fate of the evangel was determined by the
death, he hung on the cross… a shameful death.”
1.5 THE
DEATH OF GOD
From
Descartes, modern philosophy has emphasized the primacy of the self. The ego is
prior to any other existent and this is embedded in consciousness. So all that
modern philosophy had to offer man was the total rejection of any other
existent prior to man and such eliminated God. Some of the culprits include
Feuerbach, Karl Marx, Jean-Paul Sartre and Nietzsche.
For
Nietzsche, it is the belief in God that hinders the potentialities of man
towards this actualization of the subject. The death of God will therefore mean
the reassurance of man’s energy and freedom, which will now be geared towards
this realization of the subject. God stands in the way of the will to power. He
is also antithesis to any thesis. More still, Nietzsche, a philosopher of the
future and a prophet of nihilism, based on the decline of the belief on the
Christian God, hence proclaimed the death of God, God is dead. In his book, the gay science, a mad man makes this
proclamation. The madman lit a lantern and ran to market place, and cried
incessantly; “… I seek God, I seek God!” As many of
those who do not believe in God were standing there, he provoked laughter. He
was cajoled and mocked: Why did he get lost? Is he afraid of us? Or is he
hiding? But the madman decided to tell them where God was: “God is dead. God
remains dead, and we have killed him. All of us are his murderers.”
He
continues:
We have killed him – you and
I. 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. God remains dead.
The madman
could not understand the reason behind the killing of God and was bewildered.
To show his annoyance, he threw his lantern on the ground and it broke and he
went away. To mourn God therefore, he entered diverse churches and intoned his requiem
aeternam Deo. When he was called for explanations, he asked: “What are
churches now if they are not the tombs and sepulchers of God?”
Nonetheless,
he was of the opinion that man killed God to free himself from
nihilism-nothingness. Man had to take this noble and head blowing task to
murder God and make himself God
… God could not die a
natural death. In order that the world, for so long darkened by this vast
shadow, might at last emerge into the light, man had to take upon himself the
impossible crime…
Supposing
we ask this question. Did God ever exist? Nietzsche answers No because
He would be one if there was and it is only an illusion proceeding from man’s
weakness and inability to transcend himself. A mere fabrication of weak
Christians to manipulate men’s mind and turn them towards the beyond: “The
concept God was invented as the counter concept to life: everything harmful,
poisonous, slanderous, all deadly hostility to life...”
But with
death of God, he thought he has been able to deliver humanity from the
corruption of God. He has ended the prehistoric period of nihilism and opened a
new era. Consequently this liberation from nihilism ushers man to his destiny-
auto transcendence. With the death of God, morality and religion have no
foundation.
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