He says, “Independence is for the very few; it is a privilege of the strong. And whoever attempts it even with the best right but without inner constraint proves that he is probably not only strong, but also daring to the point of recklessness.” Nietzsche possessed the notion that only the few will live up to the true aim of man, the will to power, and that the disease of the masses is to deceive themselves and in so doing, eliminate real truth. In a later work, “The Gay Science,” Nietzsche describes what this disease has done, and it occurs in a story that he calls the Madman. He says, “Have you not heard of that madman who lit a lantern in the bright morning hours, ran to the market place, and cried incessantly: “I seek God! I seek God!” He continues a bit further. Then he says (in the voice of the madman), “Wither is God?” he cried; “I will tell you. We have killed him--you and I. All of us are his murders.”” This, of course, reveals two important implications about Nietzsche's work. First, he believes that the disease of the masses has resulted in the death of God. The masses are dogmatic and calculative, having a deleterious effect on the understanding of God, which for Nietzsche must transcend the bounds of dogma. Second, and maybe not quite as evident, that Nietzsche, by saying that God is dead, is attempting to murder the concept that an “out there” standard of absolutism exists.
While Nietzsche's intent of instigating pluralism and perspecitivalism into philosophy seems to be quite clear through these examples, it is my belief that his philosophy, as stated exists in a state of dissonance or incongruency. Nietzsche argues the non-existence of an objective standard according to which things are rendered true and false. Further, he claims that this is what all philosophers throughout history have done. This presents Nietzsche's first locus of dissonance. In attempting to avoid absolutes as existing outside of man, Nietzsche has become absolutely negative. By negative I don't mean Eeyore-like. Rather, I mean that he has negated in an absolute sense; Nietzsche has negated thoroughly the works of philosophers of history as dogmatic. So perhaps this becomes the first of Nietzsche's foundations for further unraveling of his philosophical thought. Secondly, and perhaps most importantly, I believe that Nietzsche himself explicitly illuminates his own foundation or absolute. Nietzsche believes that the absolute aim of man is to will oneself to power. He later would pen a book entitled “Will to Power.” In this way, it seems to me as though Nietzsche has really only shifted the placement of an absolute foundation from an objective morality to the absolute of power or not-power (weakness). This becomes his foundation. Nothing, as Nietzsche sees it, in the actions of men is free of the motive of will to power; it is simply that most men are too weak and/or inadequate to accomplish the task of grasping true power, freedom, and autonomy. Even with Nietzsche's highly apparent desire to do away with dogmatism, totally, it seems to me that in many ways, he has created new dogma. It is nominally this: all man's thought of ages previous has been in entirety dogmatic, and therefore must be done away with, because what is really going on is that at root, man has the will to power, and this is absolute. Of course this is a paraphrase, in my own words, of Nietzsche's thought, but I believe it captures well the essence of his philosophy, even though Nietzsche himself would loathe the observation.
Philosopher Four: Martin Heidegger
Martin Heidegger is a German philosopher and, along with Wittgenstein (a fellow German), is one of the most influential philosophers of the twentieth century. Heidegger inhabits a rather broad expanse of philosophical discourse, and has done work in several areas of philosophy, in addition to dabbling in poetry.
Heidegger's best known philosophy occurs perhaps within the realm of existential philosophy. Existential has been a powerful philosophical movement in the Contemporary Era. It has several basic tenets. First, as Jean Paul Sartre said, “existence precedes essence.” By this the existentialist means that man, at birth, has no essential self, rather man simply exists and the essence of one's “self” is created as one lives. This is the second tenet of existentialism, which states roughly that humans are the product of their choices, or in other words, the choices that a person makes decides what is his/her essence. Other philosophers in the existential movement discussed the concept of “bad faith,” which describes the greatest existential “no- no.” In this way, existentialism gives the appearance of being totally subjective. The only truth, for the existentialist, is the truth that you make. In this way, then, the existentialist is to take responsibility for what Heidegger calls one's “project.” This concept conveys the notion that life and the essence of the self and character is created by the choices one makes. Heidegger unfolds these thoughts more full in his work “Being and Time.” In this book, Heidegger discusses what he calls, from the German, Dasein. Dasein is a word that does not translate effectively into English, however, there are ways that it can be described. When talking about being, Heidegger is trying to get at the essence of what it means to be. He describes being as “being toward,” or “being toward death,” which for Heidegger is not-being. He uses very vague, cloudy language to discuss this topic, and this is because the concept he is trying to convey does not sculpt easily into language. Heidegger continues his treatment of the nature of being in his work, “Discourse on Thinking.”
