Nietzsche and Other Exponents of IndividualismCarus, Paul
Philosophy
Nietzsche and Other Exponents of Individualism
Carus, Paul
Individualism; Nietzsche, Friedrich Wilhelm, 1844-1900
We must understand that to a great extent our choice of a profession
and other preferences in our occupations or valuations are naturally
different according to conditions; some men are fit to be musicians,
or scholars, or traders, or farmers, or manufacturers, and others
are not. The same profession would not be appropriate for every one.
But there is a field common to all occupations which deals with man's
attitude toward his fellow beings and, in fact, toward the whole
universe in general. This it is with which we are mainly concerned
in our discussion of a criterion of value because it is the field
occupied by religion, philosophy and ethics. Tradition has sanctioned
definite views on this very subject which have been codified in certain
rules of conduct different in many details in different countries
according to religion, national and climatic conditions, and the type
of civilization; yet, after all, they agree in most remarkable and
surprising coincidences in all essential points.
Nietzsche, the most radical of radicals, sets up a standard of
valuation of his own, placing it in the acquisition of power, and he
claims that it alone is entitled to serve as a measure for judging
worth because, says he, it alone deals with that which is real in the
world; yet at the same time he disdains to recognize the existence of
any objective criterion of the several standards of value. If he were
consistent, he ought to give the palm of highest morality to the man
who succeeds best in trampling under foot his fellowmen, and he does
so by calling him the overman, but he does not call him moral. To be
sure this would be a novel conception of morality and would sanction
what is commonly execrated as one of the most devilish forms of
immorality. Nietzsche takes morality in its accepted meaning, and so
in contradiction to himself denies its justification in general.
Considering that every one carries a standard of valuation in himself
we propose the question, "Is there no objective criterion of valuation,
or are all valuations purely subjective?" This question means whether
the constitution of the objective world in which we all live, is such
as to favor a definite mode of action determined by some definite
criterion of value.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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