Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900) On Beyond Good and Evil 1 Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche is one of the most prolific philosophical writers of the 19 th and the 20 th centuries. Though he passed away at the turn of the 20 th century, his writings continue to be some of the most discussed and comprise some of most controversial philosophical ideas even today, in the 21 st century. Why? Simple, when a person of such stature writes that God is dead and that The falseness of a judgement is [ ] not necessarily an objection to a judgement (11), and that untruth is as valuable as Truth (11), many are will to take objection. In addition to his deep philosophical musings, what also continues to keep Nietzsche in the fore of philosophical discussions is his alleged direct or indirect connections to the philosophical underpinnings of the infamous Nazi party and the subsequent Holocaust. While some of the language of the Nazi party is reminiscent of Nietzsche s superman or obermensche, and while the principles of a superior class with respective privileges is also reminiscent of the practices and statements of Nazi party leaders, including Adolf Hitler, there is much dispute as to whether Nietzsche set the stage for Hitler and the Nazi party or if the Nazi party leaders hijacked the philosophy as they hijacked the swastika as the party symbol. Nietzsche s notion that most people are 1
Slave like and that only a few become a Master moralist, some critics argue, he must then have believed those who are Master-moralists are beyond the law, beyond judgement and, therefore, dangerous to the average, more numerous, Slave-moralists. And, like party members, these Master moralists would be beyond the reach of social justice. That ultimate power would ultimately corrupt those who possessed it. While some critics connected Nietzsche to Nazi immunity from social justice, others focused on his suggestion that To recognize untruth as a condition of life that certainly means resisting accustomed value feelings in a dangerous way; and a philosophy that risks this would by that token alone place itself beyond good and evil (12). Beyond good and evil? Beyond religious dogma? These ideas were surely a sort of validation of the Nazi party s assertion that as Aryans they and their attempt to exterminate German and world Jewry were beyond judgement in this world or the next. For others, Nietzsche is about everything anti-nazi, from the notion of a national father figure to the idea of dying for a cause or signing on to party membership. The very characteristics of a Master-moralist would preclude even the concept of a party platform and would especially exclude such Master-moralists from performing the work of the Lord, such as is explicated in Hitler s autobiography, Mein Kampf, when the future Fuhrer claims he is doing God s work as he rids the world of its Jews. You be the judge. Nietzsche: Pro-Nazi or Anti-Nazi? In addition to noting that earlier philosophers have claimed to have sought the Truth (with a big T), as in the one-and-only Truth, Nietzsche, in Beyond Good and Evil, argues these earlier conclusions have all been shaded by their the philosophers own social, religious, economic, and even biological drives. When he writes, There is a point in every philosophy when the philosopher s conviction appears on the stage [ ] (15), Nietzsche is arguing that their searches for the Truth have really been their searching for and their shaping of what they find into support for their own earlier inspirations or moral schema, that their conclusions have shaped their discoveries, and, therefore, those Truths are not truths at all. Instead he writes, I do not believe that a drive to knowledge is the father of philosophy; but rather that another drive has, here as elsewhere, employed understanding (and misunderstanding) as a mere instrument (13). These religious philosophers of whom Nietzsche primarily speaks, in fact, he 2
argues, lead people away from discovering the Truth* that man is limited and cannot understand his/her own existence let alone some Truth extends beyond this life. Instead of exercising what he calls a will to Truth, Nietzsche asserts we should be exercising our inherent Will to Power : The power to shape our own lives, to create our own values, and to live a life that each of us determines worthy. Historical Western societies have equated this Will to Power of which Nietzsche speaks with aristocratic and corporate exploitation of the working and lower classes, that type of exploitation that led to the guillotines of the French Revolution and the 1989 and 2001 stock market crashes that impoverished millions and made millions for the few thieves who designed and executed the rip-offs. Yet, for Nietzsche, according to Professor David O. Sutton, there is no reason to believe that such a Will to Power as Nietzsche describes will have such negative effects; contrariwise, Nietzsche, and later Jean Paul Sartre, the 20 th century French existentialist, wonders that we would not discover that many of the values that are necessary for social development including an abiding respect for elders who have lived in the world before us, a willingness to suffer the 3
hardships that come with living in a changing world, as well as a conviction that the search for what is good rather than for what is True, will help each of us create a life that is better for all of us. For the Slave-moralist, the lesser developed human being, following and staying safe and comfortable are the primary forces that drive decision making and action. While a Master moralist respects his ancestors, he does not bind himself to trying to relive their lives falsely believing that reliving life is safer than recognizing the uniqueness of our own lives and having to decide for ourselves what life is. Nietzsche, as Professor Sutton also asserts, is not talking of a Slave moralist as the slave of African-American slavery, during which time the individual slave was deprived of the very essence of individual control. Nietzsche s Slave-moralists, instead, are slaves to their desires to suppress the anxieties of life by surrendering that control and conforming to the predominant common sense and religious values of his/her times. A Slave moralist is one of many of his/her type. Slave moralists always lured by the false promises, moral right, and religious Truth, and in that way trying to release themselves of their responsibility to make themselves. Only a Master-moralist can make him/herself. Yet, no one is a Master moralist at all times; one slips and slides. One constantly struggles to bring his/her life into existence. Few if any are always Mastermoralistic. Ironically, in terms of analysis, such Master/Slave characteristics can only rarely be discerned from the outside world. The only persons who can really know the source that drives the action may be those who commit the acts. Whether one rescues a child from a burning building and does it because he/she is expected to (Slave moralist) or because he/she has decided that his/her doing so is good in itself (Master moralist) may never be known to any degree of certainty from an outside observer, for it is the invisible motivation of the act that makes it a Master or Slave moralist act. Yet, this perspective, from outside, is the only position from which observers can begin to determine the character of others. Was Adolf Hitler and were Nazi party members Master-moralists who came together while pursuing their own truths or were they Slave-moralists conforming to the masses around them, abiding by values created for them, afraid to oppose the Fuhrer? Such questions can, for the most part, be determined by examining the context of the different situations and identifying the motivating forces that led to action. Was the motivation to 4
be one of the many? Was the motivation to fulfill the individual s unique potential? Was the action the result of following predetermined values or the result of creating and determining one s own values? We can look around ourselves, at the actions of those who live among us and understand or we can look away, close our eyes and be moved by those who would lead us. But determining what it takes to make an authentic, unique life, requires critical reading skills that take practice to master. Master Moralist Traits Slave Moralistic Traits From bottom to top Self-satisfaction Creating Value Will to Power Suffer Hardships Take Risks Comfort Conformity Desire Freedom Suppress Anxiety Seek Safety What did it take to survive the Nazi death camps? Was it better to stand out or blend in? Which would have been the Master or Slave moralistic choice? Nietzsche observes that There is a point in every philosophy when the philosopher s conviction appears on the stage [ ] (15). So too, do our driving forces appear, as do the driving forces of others reveal themselves, if we only learn to look closely enough. Our task in this unit is to search out such appearances by examining the survivor narratives of two men who were at the Polish/German death camp known as Auschwitz at the very same time, through the end of the war, and whose experiences are notably different. We must in no way suggest that these survivors wrote of their experiences as illustrations of Master and Slave moralistic qualities. And, it is also true that overcoming our sense that the juxtaposition of the words Slave moralist and survivor is somehow immoral is challenging, and so it should be. 5
In this exercise of critical reading skills, the task is not to label the survivors this or that but practice seeing motive in action, to have an opportunity to look deeper into the reasons people act as they do. Such practice might be useful in our lives by helping us to critically read the historical significance of events going on around us. Achieving this end requires that we familiarize ourselves with the characteristics and terms associated with both the Master and Slave moralism, then to identify and explain how Nietzsche might have considered these particular incidents Master or Slave moralistically motivated. Remember, we are never judging the survivor: How dare we? We are, through a process of presentist reprocessing (LaCapra), only considering certain actions and the possible motives for those actions described in the works as they can be related to Nietzsche s Master-Slave moralistic categories. For instance, when Moshe the beadle returns to Sighet, Eli asks why Moshe continues to try and warn the people of his experience even though they turn away and call him crazy. Moshe responds by explaining that he does it because it is the right thing to do. Perhaps Nietzsche might have seen Moshe s persistence as an act of a Master moralist because Moshe suffers the hardships of ridicule, takes the chance that he will be denounced, but chooses to act because doing so, he has decided, is the right thing for him to do. Watch for similar examples. 1. Sutton, David O. Diagram (see powerpoint). 2. Nietzsche, Fredrich. Beyond Good and Evil. Trans. Walter Kaufman. New York: Vintage Books, 1966. 6