Nietzsche, like Plato and Aristotle, has a teleological conception of human nature.
The final cause, natural end = a complete life, lived according to instinct & natural wisdom
Evidences of teleology:
1. Contrast between health and sickness, advancing life and decadence.
Applied to our mental, spiritual life, as well as to ordinary physiology.
Compare Plato's use of the same metaphor in the Gorgias.
2. Human life is guided by instincts, drives, whose purpose is to move us toward a complete, fully human existence.
The word virtue in Greek (arete) and Latin has a meaning that isn't limited to morality. Any kind of strength or competency (like intelligence, wit, strength, endurance) would count as a "virtue".
Moral virtues are those virtues that concern one's character, one's capacity for rational choice and action.
Seven "cardinal virtues"
Natural:
Example: N.'s attitude toward marriage (p. 104). The essence of marriage is the indissoluble bond between man & woman.
His attack is restricted to the supernatural (Christian) virtues.
Not identical to political power, or the domination of others.
Again -- compare the treatment of "power" in Plato's Gorgias and in Boethius.
Power = the capacity to live well.
Political power is neither necessary nor sufficient for "power":
Not necessary: a creative loner can be powerful, even though politics, social life are avoided.
Not sufficient: a politician who rules by being inoffensive, likeable, demogoguic can be lacking in true power.
However, power can be exercised in the political sphere. When it is, the powerful human will be realistic, cunning, masterful, authoritative. Like Machiavelli's ideal prince.
N. sees the traditional supernatural values as inherently destructive of natural values.
Four possible positions:
(1) The natural and the supernatural are in essential, irreconcilable conflict.
(a) The natural are true, the supernatural false. Nietzsche's position.
(b) The supernatural are true, the natural false. Manichaean.
(2) There is no essential conflict between the two domains.
(a) There is no tension at all. Grace completes nature. Butler.
(b) There is real, ineliminable tension, but no conflict. Grace does not destroy or annihilate nature, although it does temper or qualify it. Aquinas <-----> Kierkegaard
N's critique is significant, because Christians reject both 1(a) and 1(b).
N. sees the discipline of faith as being destructive of reason & science.
Trains us to believe things we cannot verify or understand.
The scientific mind is based in doubt, in independence from tradition and authority.
The hope for eternal life causes a devaluation of this life.
Necessarily results in hostility to pleasure, especially sexual pleasure.
The fiction of eternal life is rooted in a hatred of the actual world.
Health and earthly life are denied, denigrated:
Unconditional, universal love obliterates all distinctions. Nullifies all principles of selectivity: "integrity, intelligence, manliness, pride, beauty and liberality of heart"
This leads to the political ideals of democracy and equality, by which the strong are hobbled by the masses.
Pity enables the weak and sickly to survive, and makes their weakness contagious.
G. K. Chesterton: Christian values are attacked for opposite reasons.
E.g., Nietzsche vs. post-modern multiculturalist.
| Nietzsche | Post-modernist |
|---|---|
| Effeminate, emasculating | Sexist, patriarchal |
| Destroys distinctions | Elitist, anti-egalitarian |
| Undermines hierarchy | Sustains hierarachy |
| Irrational | Logocentric |
Christians have been extreme rationalists, extreme irrationalists, and everything in between.
Rationalism: Aquinas, Leibniz
Those who emphasize the tensions between faith and reason: Tertullian, Luther, Kierkegaard.
Even in these, reason is encouraged as good in itself, bad only when in conflict with faith.
Kierkegaard: faith presupposes a vigorous, active reason, and does not damage it.
Again, we find a broad spectrum.
Some extreme asceticism: desert fathers in Egypt.
For the most part: moderation.
Example: the Song of Songs, a poetic celebration of physical love in Bible.
Does hope for eternity necessarily devalue this life?
Kierkegaard argued that the opposite is true.
The double movement of faith: first away from this world, and then back to it.
Everything we do takes on infinite significance because done coram Dei (in the presence of, and for the glory of, God).
Without hope for eternity, this world becomes meaningless, insignificant.
Nietzsche recognized this problem, and tried to cope with it through his myth of eternal recurrence.
Everything that happens will happen over and over again infinitely often. So, your actions take on infinite significance.
But -- the path not taken will presumably be taken infinitely often also -- so everything is levelled out.
Mainstream Christian theology seeks to maintain both an ultimate equality and a provisional, this-worldlly inequality.
All humans are of equal (infinite) value, but we have unequal functions and status in this world.
This is why slavery was a difficult and disputed question.
Had it been readily justified and accepted, the post-modernists would have been right.
Had it been universally and immediately condemned, Nietzsche would have been right.
Is compassion for the weak (pity) necessarilty destructive of health and strength?
Suppose compassion is combined with a demand for responsibility and self-development? What if a duty of gratitude and reciprocity is recognized?
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