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'An aphorism, properly stamped and molded, has not been "deciphered" when it has simply been read; rather one has then to begin its interpretation, for which is required an art of interpretation.' -- Nietzsche, 'On the Genealogy of Morals'
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'An aphorism, properly stamped and molded, has not been "deciphered" when it has simply been read; rather one has then to begin its interpretation, for which is required an art of interpretation.' -- Nietzsche, 'On the Genealogy of Morals'

Heidegger: Nietzsche's 'good man' « Previous | |Next »
March 25, 2005

Chapter 12 of Heidegger's Nihilism book (vol.4 of Nietzsche) is entitled 'Nietzsche's "Moral" Interpretation of Metaphysics'. It is concerned with Platonism, which is understood in terms of a transcendent realm of the true and the good over and above the sensible material world.

Heidegger says:

If "truth"--that is, the true and the real---is transposed upward and beyond into a world in itself, then the being proper appears as that to which all life must be subordinated. The true is what is inherently desired, what ought to be. Human life is therefor worth soemthing, is determined by the correct virtues, only when these virtues exclusively urge and enable us to realize what is commanded and desired--to comply with, and so be subjected to, "ideals".

The person who so humbles himself before these transcendent ideals as the only true world is called the "good man" by Nietzsche. The will that wills the good man is a will to submission beneath ideals that exist in themselves, and over which human beings may no longer have any power.

Christianity is a Platonism as it divides the world of beings into two: the transcendent world of ideals, of what ought to be, the true in itself and the sensible world of unending toil and self-submission to the unconditioned ideal values. So morality is the morality of the good man who lives by and within the opposition to evil and not beyond good and evil. Beyond good and evil does not mean chaos outside all law and order; it means the necessity of a new positing of a different order against chaos.

And what is the way Nietzsche goes about doing this?

On Heidegger's reading Nietzschhe holds that this new positing involves human beings self-sconsciously imposing values on all things; a humanization of being:

"Man ought to claim everything for himself as his own, something he can do only if first of all he no longer regards himself as wretch and slave before beings as a whole, but establishes and prepares himself for absolute dominance. But his means that he himself is unconditioned will to power, and he regards himself as the master of such domination, and so consciously decides in favour of every exhibition of power; that is, decides for the continuous enhancement of power."

So Heidegger reads revaluation in terms of commanding and legislating by human beings as the lords of the universe. The man of such dominance is the Over-man. He steps out over the past, and is the master of the absolute administration of power with the fully developed power resources of the earth.

Heidegger is generally criticized for this interpretation of Nietzsche but there is good textual references for it in The Will to Power, especially Bk 4, part I section 4, entitled 'The Masters of the Earth.' In para. 957 Nietzsche poses the question:

"..how shall the earth as a whole be governed? And to what end shall 'man' as a whole---an no longer as a people or race--- be raised and trained"?

In para 958 he says that
'I write for a species of man that does not yet exist: for the "masters of the earth."'

Heidegger brings the chapter to an end by saying that we need to step beyond weat Nietzsche has revealed about metaphysics to take an orginal look into the history fo metaphysics. He says that he first step is to make Nietzsche's description and conception of metaphysics clearer. Nietzsche's is:
'..a "moral" conception. Morality means here a system of evaluations. Every interpretation of the world, be it naive or calculated, is a positing of values and thus a forming and shaping of the world according to the image of man. In particular, that valuation which acts on the basis of insight into the origin of human value and so completes nihilism must explicitly understand and will man as the lawgiver. it must seek the true and the real in the absolute humanization of all being.'
So Nietzsche's doctrine of the Overman thrusts human beings into the role and the absolute and unique measure of all things.

| Posted by Gary Sauer-Thompson at 11:50 PM | | Comments (0)
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