It’s funny how many great works are titled “On _____”.
“On Writing Well” says nothing about creative, well written titles.
“On The Shortness of Life” neglects to talk about short titles.
Anyway, creativity isn’t my strong suit. Forgive the shitty, unoriginal title.
Before I give my thoughts and opinions on Nietzsche’s ideas, I want to preface this with a few things.
Friedrich Nietzsche was a genius. Not only was he a genius, but he may be one of the most influential thinkers of both the 19th and 20th century. Top ten—no question. At the very least, top five.
I agree with a lot of what Nietzsche says but I also disagree with a lot.
It is absolutely possible to admire someone while also disagreeing with some of, or even most of their ideas.
When I was fourteen I got a tattoo of Nietzsche on my leg. I was familiar with some of his ideas, but more so it was something to represent my early love of philosophy.
I’m not sure it needs to be stated, but—I know critiquing Nietzsche is sort of like a finger-painting toddler critiquing the Mona Lisa. However, I’m not trying to blaspheme the Mona Lisa—I’m only trying to improve my finger painting.
“Dancing in all its forms cannot be excluded from the curriculum of all noble education: dancing with feet, with ideas, with words, and, need I add that one must also be able to dance with pen—that one must learn how to write.”
Friedrich Nietzsche, Twilight of the Idols
Master Morality and Slave Morality
One of the most profound ideas that characterized Nietzsche’s philosophy is that being passive doesn’t make you virtuous. Nietzsche viewed morality as having two different categories, “master morality” and “slave morality” While masters created morals such as pride and power, slave morality was made in response to master morality. Slave morality values kindness, empathy, and sympathy.
I believe Nietzsche was right in saying that slave morality isn’t virtuous. Or at least mostly right. The way I would put it is, “slave morality is not virtuous in and of itself“. For instance, if you are by nature timid and kind—that’s not virtue. You’re just harmless. Like a rabbit. A rabbit isn’t virtuous. Instead, something like kindness is only virtuous if you are capable of monstrous things and you are kind in spite of your monstrous capabilities. As for master morality, well, we run into the same issue. Power and pride aren’t inherently virtuous, but they can be virtuous depending on the situation.
Women and War
Nietzsche is a master at poeticizing things like war and the relationship between the sexes. Although insight is possible without experience, I can’t bring myself to take all of Nietzsche’s advice seriously on these topics. Not only was he not involved in any sort of combat, Nietzsche was never married and is speculated to have died a virgin. In Thus Spoke Zarathustra Nietzsche writes “Unconcerned, mocking, violent—thus wisdom wants us: she is a woman and always loves only a warrior”—a sentence I can’t disagree with, but which is more credible coming from someone like Napoleon or Genghis Khan.
The Atheist Dilemma
Throughout his writings, Nietzsche makes the error that is inherent in atheism—that is, he assumes the position—with absolute certainty—that there are no metaphysics. It’s the reverse problem of religious ideology which assumes certainty in metaphysics. Nietzsche correctly questions religion and dogma—and even questions nihilism—but he doesn’t question atheism. He defends atheism with a blind certainty—you might even call it faith.
Tarantulas
What you would today call “social justice warriors”, Nietzsche called “tarantulas” in 1883. Nietzsche pointed out the fact that the want for vengeance is often disguised as the preaching of equality. “You preachers of equality, the tyrant-madness of impotence cries thus in you for ‘equality’: thus your most secret tyrant appetite disguises itself in words of virtue!” says Zarathustra and in The Genealogy of Morals Nietzsche writes, “how ready they are at bottom to make one pay; how they crave to be hangmen. There is among them an abundance of the vengeful disguised as judges, who constantly bear the word ‘justice’ in their mouths…to represent some form of superiority, their instinct for devious paths to tyranny over the healthy”. While a small percentage of people chant “equality” in good faith, most chant it from a place of bitterness. The twentieth century was filled with tarantulas.
Best Idea
My favorite concept that Nietzsche wrote about was simple—like all great ideas. Nietzsche explains this concept in his book Ecce Homo:
“My formula for greatness in a human being is amor fati [love of fate]: that one wants nothing to be different, not forward, not backward, not in all eternity. Not merely bear what is necessary, still less conceal it—all idealism is mendaciousness in the face of what is necessary—but love it.”
For someone who mocked the Stoics, Nietzsche seemed to have fundamentally agreed with them, whether he admitted it or not.
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