Why is Nietzsche regarded as a Great Philosopher?

[SQAAD]

I know very little about Nietzsche's work. But his work is highly valued by our culture. Why is that? Why did Nietzsche's ideas became so famous and why is he considered a great philosopher?

If you have studied his work, let me know.

[DocWatts]

A ton to unpack here for a figure as complex and culturally important as Nietzsche, but the thrust of his work was that he was an early deconstructionist who teased apart the hidden motivations and assumptions behind the meta-ideologies that were prevalent in his day (namely Mythic religious values that were being supplanted by Modernity).

One of his lasting insights was that the advent of a scientific, rationalist worldview would have massive disruptive changes to society, and not all of them were positive. He was among the first philosophers to foresee that one potential outcome of the 'death of God' (which refers to Mythic belief structures that provide Meaning and Value becoming untenable due to scientific materialism) was the potential for alienation, social fragmentation, and nihilism.

He also showed that Morality is something that is Socially Constructed, using the example of a Master and a Slave to demonstrate how the Morality that each one adopts is created ad-hoc to suit thier survival needs.

The school of thought that he helped to define came later to be known as Existentialism, which based around the idea that Humans cannot rely on God or on the Universe to provide them with meaning or purpose, so by necessity Humans must create thier own meaning and purpose.

So obviously this is just a basic summation of a complex and wide ranging philosophy, one that doesn't get in to the problematic and ethically indefensible aspects of Nietzsche's work, but that is the basic gist of it.

 

Edited August 13, 2021 by DocWatts

[Carl-Richard]

@DocWatts ?

[AtheisticNonduality]

@DocWatts Thus Spoke Zarathustra is a slog. Watching the new ContraPoints video that talked about Nietzsche was a lot better.

[DocWatts]

@AtheisticNonduality I quite enjoyed the great Bertrand Russel's eviscerating takedown of Nietzsche's system of ethics, which includes a wonderful section near the end where he portrays an imagined conversation between Nietzsche and The Buddha.

For myself, I think there's still enough that's worthwhile in Nietzsche if you're a bit older and already have a worldview or philosophical principles grounded in compassion, and aren't tempted to adopt Nietzsche's deliberately amoral system of ethics (which are indefensible in my view).

There's a reason why Nietzsche's philosophy is so easily appropriated by SD-Red ideologies, namely that if one doesn't come in to it with a grounding in compassion, you'll find nothing in Nietzsche's philosophy which makes an affirmative case why other people are deserving of dignity and respect.

I think Nietzsche shares some similarities to Marx in that both are valuable primarily for sketching the outlines of a very real problem, rather than for the problematic solutions they offer.

Edited August 13, 2021 by DocWatts

[AtheisticNonduality]

@DocWatts I'd highly recommend ContraPoints if you think you'd be interested in some memetic transgender woman with really high video production values talk about political stuff and relate it to philosophical texts in a way that's very accessible with lots of dark or weird humor.

[undeather]

There is an argument to be made, that Nietzsche became enlightened in his later years -
The mainstream story is that he suffered from Syphillis which eventually drove him mad - but he was a seeker! 
This video was an interesting turning point for me: 
 

 

[DocWatts]

@AtheisticNonduality

If you have a link handy that you'd be willing to share, i'd appreciate it (didn't see a video with Nietzsche in the title on ContraPoint's youtube page).

Also interesting to note that the Sith from Star Wars are in many ways a direct refutation of Nietzsche's system of philosophy and ethics (if you're at all interested in using critical examination of pop culture to tease apart popular representations of different philosophical and ethical systems). 

 

Edited August 13, 2021 by DocWatts

[DocWatts]

21 minutes ago, undeather said:

There is an argument to be made, that Nietzsche became enlightened in his later years -
The mainstream story is that he suffered from Syphillis which eventually drove him mad - but he was a seeker! 
This video was an interesting turning point for me: 
 

 

The problem with Nietzsche in this regard was that he was too  damned selfish and insecure to become a truly enlightened person.

For as insightful as he was at times, much of his philosophical system basically amounted to the Power Fantasy of a weak man.

Edited August 13, 2021 by DocWatts

[AtheisticNonduality]

@undeather Nietzsche almost certainly died of brain cancer and not syphilis, like some people have suggested. So the idea is that a brain tumor was responsible for his hallucinations and altered state. That seems to be backed up by the enlightenment type comments he was recorded as saying in the video, which are definitely not something syphilis could cause. I also read a Dr Peter Sjöstedt text in a Carl Abrahamsson book that Nietzsche would do massive doses of alcohol or opium, so that probably had some sort of effect too.

@DocWatts It's the most recent video, and it talks about slave morality in anti-elite leftists in the second half.

[DocWatts]

@AtheisticNonduality Perfect. Thanks!

[undeather]

1 minute ago, AtheisticNonduality said:

@undeather Nietzsche almost certainly died of brain cancer and not syphilis, like some people have suggested. So the idea is that a brain tumor was responsible for his hallucinations and altered state. That seems to be backed up by the enlightenment type comments he was recorded as saying in the video, which are definitely not something syphilis could cause. I also read a Dr Peter Sjöstedt text in a Carl Abrahamsson book that Nietzsche would do massive doses of alcohol or opium, so that probably had some sort of effect too.

@DocWatts It's the most recent video, and it talks about slave morality in anti-elite leftists in the second half.

The end stage of syphilis is called neurosyphillis and is defintiely correlated with hallucinations and possible altered states.

Didnt know about that brain tumor thing though, pretty intersting! 

[AtheisticNonduality]

@undeather Yeah, but enlightenment type stuff is a bit specific is what I mean. I thought syphilis kinda just rotted your brain and made everything dysfunctional. A tumor is smaller and more likely to cause more specific stuff. If you know what I mean.

[undeather]

9 hours ago, AtheisticNonduality said:

@undeather Yeah, but enlightenment type stuff is a bit specific is what I mean. I thought syphilis kinda just rotted your brain and made everything dysfunctional. A tumor is smaller and more likely to cause more specific stuff. If you know what I mean.

Eben Alexander had his profound NDE while suffering from a severe case of gram-negative meningoencephalitis - thats basically the definition of rotting the brain. Thanks to a lot of research in the last years its pretty much a fact that lessening of brain activity/metabolism is causally linked to altered states of conciousness. Thats how psychodelics do it, thats how deep medidation works. Tumors dont tend to do such a thing, which doesnt mean they cant do it at all! 

Edited August 14, 2021 by undeather

[Carl-Richard]

3 hours ago, undeather said:

Tumors dont tend to do such a thing, which doesnt mean they cant do it at all! 

Terrence McKenna had some extremely bizarre dreams right before he discovered his brain tumor.

[AtheisticNonduality]

3 hours ago, Carl-Richard said:

Terrence McKenna had some extremely bizarre dreams right before he discovered his brain tumor.

This was what I was thinking of as well. Also, there is that guy with a pineal gland tumor that makes really psychedelic art.

@undeather

[Carl-Richard]

1 hour ago, AtheisticNonduality said:

Also, there is that guy with a pineal gland tumor that makes really psychedelic art.

I remember reading about that guy as well

[SQAAD]

@DocWatts Thank you. Great analysis!! 

[DocWatts]

19 hours ago, AtheisticNonduality said:

@DocWatts It's the most recent video, and it talks about slave morality in anti-elite leftists in the second half.

Thanks for the recommendation, not sure how I avoided her channel for so long.