Nietzsche on Christianity, Dialectic, Greeks and Instincts

Christianity and Moral Restraints

Christianity: a religion of "improvement" conceived as a model of training and dressage. Heir to the philosophy of Socrates and Plato, it is formed from individuals who gather the weak and mediocre, the sickly, in order to gain power against the nobles and the powerful. That creates a transcendent world (similar to the Platonic world) presented as the only true being, which is opposed to the sensible, the tangible, the material world and to the moral cosmos. Christianity is constructed as a natural repressor of passions and instincts.

Christianity has castrated higher individuals by inoculating concepts such as:

• sin,
• guilt (fault),
• divine punishment,
• humility,
• submission,
• hope in the afterlife.

Dialectic, Logos and Philosophical Method

Dialectics: a product of logos and reason. In Socratic art, one proceeds by dialogue: arguing and presenting evidence in favor of a defended idea. Contrasting positions lead to essential, single, universal, immutable definitions in Platonic thought. In the Platonic view, the ruling philosopher is educated to contemplate the world of Ideas.

For Nietzsche, dialectics are often one of the weaker weapons of the common people who lack authority or power to impose themselves. Power ultimately shapes law and discourse; discourses can be instruments of power.

Nietzsche on the Greeks

Greeks: Nietzsche recognizes that one cannot judge the Greeks as a single block. Some of them are the initiators of the pathological currents that have traveled through the history of our culture; others, however, deserve admiration and exerted an acknowledged influence on him.

Instincts, Passions and the Will to Power

Instincts and passions: vital forces rooted in bodily impulses that drive us and unite in the desire for power. They manifest in very different ways, including:

• the instinct for cruelty,
• the desire to dominate,
• the desire to surpass oneself,
• the desire to be master of one's own destiny,
• overflowing love,
• excess in many forms,
• and the creations of human culture: art, religion, moral values.

At some stages these instincts and passions are anarchic, chaotic, and indomitable, which can lead to harm and even self-destruction. The response to this situation has often been a kind of castrationism: combating those passions by removing or annihilating them. Nietzsche's proposal is different: to spiritualize the passions, to beautify them, and to channel them into life-affirming attitudes that create new values.