Nietzsche, Friedrich Wilhelm, 1844-1900; Nietzsche, Friedrich Wilhelm, 1844-1900 -- Criticism and interpretation; Philosophy
Finally Nietzsche inquires into the habits and practices of
psychologists. Not even among these workers does he find a basis for
philosophy. Psychology, he argues, has been guided, not by a detached
and lofty desire to ascertain truth in its relation to the human
mind, but by prejudices and fears grounded in moral considerations.
He finds a constant desire on the part of experimenters to account
for "good" impulses as distinguished from "bad" ones. And in this
desire lies the superimposing of moral prejudices on a science which,
more than all others, deals with problems farthest removed from
moral influences. These prejudices in psychology, as well as in all
branches of philosophy, are the obstacles which stand in the way of any
deep penetration into the motives beneath human conduct. Nietzsche,
in his analyses and criticisms, is not solely destructive: he is
subterraneously constructing his own philosophical system founded
on the will to power. This phrase is used many times in the careful
research of the first chapter. As the book proceeds, this doctrine
develops.
Nietzsche's best definition of what he calls the "free spirit," namely:
the thinking man, the intellectual aristocrat, the philosopher and
ruler, is contained in the twenty-six pages of the second chapter of
"Beyond Good and Evil." In a series of paragraphs--longer than is
Nietzsche's wont--the leading characteristics of this superior man
are described. The "free spirit," however, must not be confused with
the superman. The former is the "bridge" which the present-day man
must cross in the process of surpassing himself. In the delineation
and analysis of him, as presented to us here, we can glimpse his most
salient mental features. Heretofore, as in "Thus Spake Zarathustra,"
he has been but partially and provisionally defined. Now his instincts
and desires, his habits and activities are outlined. Furthermore, we
are given an explanation of his relation to the inferior man and to
the organisms of his environment. The chapter is an important one,
for at many points it is a subtle elucidation of many of Nietzsche's
dominant philosophic principles. By inference, the differences of class
distinction are strictly drawn. The slave-morality _(sklavmoral)_ and
the master-morality (_herrenmoral_), though as yet undefined, are
balanced against each other; and the deportmental standards of the
masters and slaves are defined by way of differentiating between these
two opposing human factions. While the serving class is constantly
manifesting its need of a guiding dogma, the ruling class is constantly
approaching the state wherein the arbitrary moral mandates are denied.
Nietzsche sees a new order of philosophers appearing--men who will
stand beyond good and evil, who will be not only free spirits, "but
something more, higher, greater, and fundamentally different." In
describing these men of the future, of which the present free men are
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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