Nietzsche 3
OK, now to the "will to ignorance" thing. Right in the preface Nietzsche says that philosophical dogmatizing is a "noble childishness," and he means "dogmatizing" as an insult but "noble" as a compliment. This is a tension in Nietzsche. On the one hand he wants us to grow up and recognize ourselves as the creators of our truths, and so take
( Read more... )
1a: which is sometimes glossed as "is this perspective necessary for the survival of the species"?
2: he means "does this perspective help enrich life and experience?"
2a: which is sometimes glossed as "does this perspective help enrich your very particular life and experience?"
Putting aside the word "perspective" ("set of ideas" would be more to the point; "way of doing things" too), "survival of the person or the species" is never at issue in Beyond Good And Evil. "Will to power" is the core motive, not "will to survive," the latter being Schopenhauer's formula, not Nietzsche's. "Power" here is creativity and shaping as much as it is domination, but I think Nietzsche thinks of domination and of shaping as being the same basic impulse: you dominate by giving things shape (but he also can see drives vying for power within a particular person; so "will to power" isn't necessarily tied to an individual; can be both within an individual and can be an attribute of certain collectives).
And as far as I can tell he's perfectly ambivalent about what we would call "multiculturalism" (which, again, I insist is not multiple "perspectives"). The noble urge to simplify and select is not due to the inability to gather or organize data but rather to the impulse to develop one's own culture and art to its fullest - undiluted by race mixing or by a knowledge of different ways of doing things in the past and different ways of doing things in the present, which make us "a kind of chaos." But on the other hand he seems to revel in that chaos as well, if I'm reading him right. The book is back at the library, but I copied this down: "Measure is alien to us, let us own it; our thrill is the thrill of the infinite, the unmeasured. Like a rider on a steed that flies forward, we drop the reins before the infinite, we modern men, like semi-barbarians - and reach our bliss only when we are most - in danger." (Generally he's used "modern man" as a sarcastic, derogatory term, but here he's fully identifying himself with it.) But still, this isn't about helping the species as a whole to survive, it's about the enjoyment of risk. This was from Section 224. Tellingly, back in Section 212 he's saying "'modern ideas'... would banish everybody into a corner, a specialty," so the philosopher "would be compelled to find the greatness of man, the concept of 'greatness,' precisely in his range and multiplicity." But this isn't an eternal value; Nietzsche is saying that the philosopher supports this to counteract the shortcomings of his age. Back in Socrates' day the Athenian notables "let themselves go - 'toward happiness.'" So to counter that what was needed were "Socratic sarcastic assurances of the old physician and plebeian who cut ruthlessly into his own flesh, as he did into the flesh and heart of the 'noble,' with a look that said clearly enough: 'Don't dissemble in front of me! Here - we are equal.'" [So Nietzsche's positing the Socrates - hardly a democrat - as nonetheless a Leveller!] I'd say the principle here, if there is any, is "What - given the current circumstances - can we do best to produce greatness?"
Reply
Leave a comment