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Chapter 6. The Positive Aspect of Nietzsche’s Philosophy
- State University of New York Press
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Chapter 6 The Positive Aspect of Nietzsche’s Philosophy And now, what is to be done? Humanity, family, the state, religion, morality, Right—poisoned by the contemporary table of values, handiwork of the slaves1 and the vanquished —they prod [contemporary humanity] to the indictment and negation of life itself. Is humanity destined to become extinct so soon, or are such despair and discomfiture, perhaps, birth pangs of a healthy, robust, and beautiful world?2 Are we perhaps [still] able to erect a new table of values— one that is in accordance with the infallible laws of nature, and consistent with a new mentality that can contribute to a noble enrichment of life? Nietzsche’s answer is affirmative, in a “Dionysian” vein.3 By discovering the global law that governs living organisms—plant, animal, and human life—we are in a position to found a new Decalogue that not only accepts and promotes life but also puts to use pessimism and nihilism themselves as instruments for living.4 On this law we shall fix firmly the entire contemporary human edifice ; it shall guide us so that we may find the destiny of humanity, family, the state and [better grasp] their mutual relationships, which henceforth will be truly just and moral, by being the consequence and harmonious evolution of a global law. What is this law? By studying the natural laws that are in evidence in each and every gradation of organic life, Nietzsche finds that their ultimate purpose and invincible inclination is the “will to power.”5 So, it is not the struggle to exist that governs beings but the struggle to prevail. Life is 55 not so meager and ascetic6 as to rest content in a vegetative subsistence, preservation and reproduction, merely ensuring for itself any narrow measure of welfare.7 Life is rather an intense longing for an externalization that is as broad as possible; life perpetually tends to transcend itself. Every healthy living organism posits for itself as goal—even unto its own harm and destruction—to conquer and predominate over its surrounding organisms , never to rest content on victory but to rush8 insatiate, toward ever new conquests—and all this perpetually and as long as life lasts.9 Day after day, we observed this to be the case with plants and animals —and it also applies to humans. All there is in the depths of a healthy human being is egoism10 —an unrestrained driving force11 to prevail, aggrandize oneself, have an effect and spread oneself over as expansive a radius as possible.12 Those who think that, deep down, human beings only long for happiness deceive themselves.13 They deceive themselves indeed, if by “happiness” they mean tranquillity, or a state of serene peace and contentedness beyond which nothing is desired. In fact, humanity is indeed tending toward such a condition of immobility, but it is doing so by means of perpetual, eternal motion.14 As soon as one reaches the point where he intended to stop, one rushes on toward new conquests, taking this point not as a terminus but as a new beginning. So, the deepest human need, indwelling in the innermost depths of human nature, is eternal unrest and a tendency toward expansion. Having discovered this fundamental law of life, the philosopher is obligated to posit it as the basis of the new table of values.15 In this way, one would succeed both in defining the purpose of humanity and in ranking the various values hierarchically in accordance with their utility for promoting humanity’s goal. To recapitulate: Foundation and principle of the new Decalogue introduced by Nietzsche is the will to prevail and dominate. An immediate corollary of this principle can be deduced: the purpose of a human being is to eternally surpass himself,16 to always and forever tend beyond and above the presently existent type of “Human” and produce another type, one fuller and more robust and more harmonious in accordance with the laws of nature—the “Übermensch.”17 How are we to define the “Übermensch” and what is it we must do to bring about actualization of this higher type of humanity—an end that, in the new Decalogue, becomes our purpose? The Übermensch is the one who “is able to heroically shake off the present table of values and develop harmonically, to the utmost degree, all human attributes; one who once again posits as the purpose of his life to eternally tend to become higher than himself.”18...