The Philosophy of Friedrich NietzscheMencken, H. L. (Henry Louis)
Philosophy
The Philosophy of Friedrich Nietzsche
Mencken, H. L. (Henry Louis)
Nietzsche, Friedrich Wilhelm, 1844-1900; Philosophy, German -- 19th century
That this exaltation of sympathy was imprudent, and that its effects,
in our own time, are far from satisfactory, Mr. More is disposed
to grant freely. It is perfectly true, as Nietzsche argues, that
humanitarianism has been guilty of gross excesses, that there is a
"danger that threatens true progress in any system of education and
government which makes the advantage of the average rather than the
distinguished man its chief object." But Mr. More holds that the
danger thus inherent in sympathy is matched by a danger inherent in
selfishness, that we are no worse off on one horn of Hume's dual ethic
than we should be on the other. Sympathy unbalanced by self-seeking
leads us into maudlin futilities and crimes against efficiency;
self-seeking unchecked by sympathy would lead us into sheer savagery.
If there is any choice between the two, that choice is probably in
favor of sympathy, for the reason that it is happily impossible of
realization. The most lachrymose of the romantics, in the midst of
their sentimentalizing, were yet careful of their own welfare. Many of
them, indeed, displayed a quite extraordinary egoism, and there was
some justice in Byron's sneer that Sterne, for one, preferred weeping
over a dead ass to relieving the want (at cost to himself) of a living
mother.
But in urging all this against Nietzsche, Mr. More and the other
destructive critics of the superman make a serious error, and that
is the error of assuming that Nietzsche hoped to abolish Christian
morality completely, that he proposed a unanimous desertion of the
idea of sympathy for the idea of intelligent self-seeking. As a matter
of fact, he had no such hope and made no such proposal. Nothing was
more firmly fixed in his mind, indeed, than the notion that the vast
majority of men would cling indefinitely, and perhaps for all time,
to some system of morality more or less resembling the Christian
morality of today. Not only did he have no expectation of winning that
majority from its idols, but he bitterly resented any suggestion that
such a result might follow from his work. The whole of his preaching
was addressed, not to men in the mass, but to the small minority of
exceptional men--not to those who live by obeying, but to those who
live by commanding--not to the race as a race, but only to its masters.
It would seem to be impossible that any reader of Nietzsche should
overlook this important fact, and yet it is constantly overlooked by
most of his critics. They proceed to prove, elaborately and, it must
be said, quite convincingly, that if his transvaluation of values were
made by all men, the world would be no better off than it is today,
and perhaps a good deal worse, but all they accomplish thereby is to
demolish a hobgoblin of straw. Nietzsche himself sensed the essential
value of Hume's dualism. What he sought to do was not to destroy it,
but to restore it, and, restoring it, to raise it to a state of active
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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