Greg Detre
Saturday, January 27, 2001
Dr Rosen, post-Kantian III
Is Nietzsche�s revaluation of all values an ethical
stance?
If so, what is its character?
BGE, Gay Science, Genealogy of morals, Daybreak
Kaufmann � Nietzsche
Schacht - Nietzsche
Godless world = like tragedy without salvation
prophecy = feeling his own anguishy so heavily as to feel it in a people
arrogance (quotes pg 99 Kaufmann)
atheism as the premise of his philosophy
God is dead = a psycho-cultural not strictly metaphysical observation
�God is a gross answer � you shall not think�, instinctive atheism
is Nietzsche in any way a rationalist???
the God we revere is not God-like
he�s repudiating the mental trappings of Christianity
God devalues this world and this life, yet his death �/span> complete insignificance of this life
trans vs revaluation
how then to escape nihilism? (pg 101)
attacked the spirit of gravity
naturalistic not moral values
truth vs art vs morality (vs will (to power)) � value???
opposition to rationality � the finding of bad reasons for what one believes on instinct (Bradley)
Kant failed to question the existence of the moral law as a synthetic judgement a priori � prove and dumbfound the common man to show that the common man is right
failure to question = failure to experience fully
lack of intellectual conscience
previously: rationalise the values of one�s own society
need to step outside one�s own time
Spinoza�s God??? rejection of moral value judgements??? WM 410
is Nietzsche himself a legislative philosopher???
is that what was intended with the WTP-TTOAV???
what more revaluation can there be beyond what he offers us???
are there infinite interpretations and values???
praises: honesty, moral courage, generosity, politeness, intellectual integrity
revlauation as (Shiva) destruction of old, not presentation of new (pg 111)
self-examination
can everyone be an Ubermensch, or must there always be some Undermenches too???
like the Greeks!
the diagnosis = the revaluation, looking for whatever mendaciousness lurks within
hence, not arbitrary
can we conceive of any of these revaluations???
are the future revaluationsto be more substantive??? and endless???
he is negating a negation � the Christian revaluation of antiquity
and its current internal inconsistencies
hammer to hear the hollowness as a tuning fork
�hammer blow of historical insight�, e.g. the origins of Christianity
Christianity�s values as poisonously immmoral inversions, pg 113
Preface to Revaluation
did not want to set up a slavish religion
evaluative scheme
is he sort of using metaphys � morals???
vehement language indicates/stems from moral prescriptions
is he a realist about value???
in BT, he was trying to understand how to escape Schopenhauer, and to affirm like the Greeks in the fact of the �absurdity� and �horror of existence� � justification of existence and the wrold as an aesthetic phenomenon
seeking an alternative/antidote to nihilism/pessimism
he himself has been through pessimism
WTP as the objective measure of value
naturalisation to oppose means becoming aims
Perhaps this revaluation will be a sort of revolutionary upheaval in the moral prices we attach to things: almost like in wartime, when rationing, trade decline and fevered production of war materials leads to an upheaval of the relative value of one good to another. Imported goods, even simple foodstuffs, are at a premium, while other goods are suddenly deemed irrelevant (the analogy does not quite hold, since almost everything is at a premium in wartime). After this revaluation of values, giving to charity and owning a shiny BMW will be seen as contemptible and morally worthless acts, while individualistic or brutal pursuits will be admired.
good: militaristic, aristocratic blood, leadership, self-sufficiency, pitilessness, contemptuousness, aloof teacher, artist, ironic, intellect, healthy, dignity`
bad: pity for others, pity for self, weakness, unwillingness to suffer, self-deceitful
Almost certainly not, and in this context we see what he meant to do in the context of his proclamations about truth and the philosophers of the future. Rather than bending to the will to truth as the Socratist scientists do today, acknowledging that there must be a truth out there under there to which we can aspire and uncover with enough work,
However, it is not so clear that this is where the revaluation would have ended. This is perhaps why Nietzsche appears to go out of his way to present himself as an antithesis to everything that has come before and stuck. By truly questioning everything, burrowing under even the Cartesian Method of Doubt, we are suddenly uncertain about assumptions, conclusions, consensus, convention � and more � reason, truth, the will to truth, morality and God. This is why the death of God is so critical and bound up with the revaluation of values and indeed, Nietzsche�s entire philosophical enterprise.
But it is not fair to say that Nietzsche�s atheism is his sole, though crucial, unquestioned first premise. Rather he instinct/rationality
We can see how he distances himself from such atheists who are merely Socratists in disguise in the Genealogy of Morals xxx�
Kaufmann � Madman, U II 9, EH II 1, GM III 27, A 47, WM 2, M 464, G VI 8, WM 243, WM 245, EH II 3, Z I 7, FW 193, A 12, FW 2, U III 8, U III 3, WM 424, WM 578, J 6, WM 413, WM 428, J 211, J212
J 44, ZII 12, A 57, EH-J 1, EH� IV I, WM 1007, EH-GT 4, EH II 10, WM-V4, WM 2, J 46, EH-MA 6, EH-W 4, FW 99, FW 106, FW 297, FW 319, WM 1038, XVI 51???, W-Very, EH-V, EH-IV 1, A 54, G I 142
being a Nietzschean is like being cool � as soon as you think you are, you�re not � to be a Nietzschean, you almot have to reject Nietzsche himself
did Nietzsche mean the �revaluation of all values� seriously � did he really expect everyone to try and create their own interpretations. wouldn�t this lead eventually to one holding soft tissue paper up as the most valuable thing in the world, simply because all the good values like nobility, honour, strength etc. had already been taken by someone else? is it intended to be almost like a Kantian categorical imperative (though he would have hated the comparison) � act as though you are with every action creating your own maxims �
what else could it be if not an ethical stance? value is a moral property.
in order to revalue something, doesn�t it have to have value in the first place? he attacks the philosophers of the past for attempting to find a rational ground for morality without ever questioning morality itself � how is this different?�
is the revaluation intended to be permanent and absolute � surely not? the revaluation of value needs to be seen in the context of what he says about truth
is there a difference between �revaluation� and �re-evaluation�?
what would have been the effect on the young Nietzsche if he had read his own later books?
is the reason that the reader finds him so difficult that the reader has not suffered or been through what Nietzsche has, mentally? in which case, can what Nietzsche has to say be conveyed?
ask about:
Out of life's school of war: What does not destroy me, makes me stronger.
why are ascetics bad?
did Nietzsche hate Soc??? is Soc evil???
differentiate between Socrates + Socratism.
can we try to reject Nietzsche�s premises/tenets one-by-one as with Euclid and see what weird models result???
does the death of God bring down the moral and rational world order???
ressentiment???
bad conscience???