Nietzsche's Critique: Civilization, Nihilism, and Morality

Nietzsche's Critique of Western Civilization

Nietzsche's philosophy includes a significant critique of Western culture, denying many of the traditional cultural and philosophical foundations of Western civilizations. The characteristics of this criticism are:

• Method: Psychological analysis of genealogical form to research the development and conditions in which moral values arise.
• Diagnosis: Western culture is steeped in nihilism, leading to its own self-destruction.
• Common Enemy: Christianity.

Nihilism: A Diagnosis

Nihilism, as used by Nietzsche, criticizes any doctrine that denies the values he considers important. It has two meanings in his work:

1. Passive Nihilism: Decadence and decline of the spirit's power.
2. Active Nihilism: The growing power of the spirit.

Nihilism is defined in relation to the will to power. When that will diminishes or is exhausted, it leads to passive nihilism. All values created by Western culture are considered false, a negation of life itself, originating from nothingness. When these values collapse, it necessarily leads to nihilism. Thus, nihilism also means that the highest values lose their validity.

Nietzsche sought to react against passive nihilism through active nihilism, where the will to power destroys collapsing values and creates new ones, manifesting in the Superman vitalism.

Critique of Philosophy

Nietzsche criticized Western philosophy from Socrates and Plato onwards. He argued that Socrates corrupted and replaced vital man with rational man, and that Plato created a world that despised the real world. All of Western philosophy, according to Nietzsche, is a deception that hides the true instinct, the animalistic nature within. He only excludes Heraclitus, with his concept of becoming. The main metaphysical concepts are scams, and the primary error of metaphysics was admitting the existence of two worlds: one real and one apparent.

Critique of Truth

Nietzsche considered thinking a phenomenon. The will to truth is nothing but the will to power. Only that which increases power is considered real. This is perspectivism.

Additionally, Nietzsche defended a critique of religion and science. For Nietzsche, it is not all motion and matter, but there are forces (Dionysian vitalism). The universe is a chaos of forces.

Critique of Morality

Nietzsche undertook a critique of the morality of his time, using a genealogical method to explore the origins of moral prejudices. In all languages, 'good' initially meant noble or aristocratic morality, while 'bad' was synonymous with simple, common, and plebeian. Later, evil arises as the opposite of good. This shift occurs because those previously called bad (commoners) rebel and call themselves good, and begin to call those who were once considered good as evil. Thus, morality is the result of the slave rebellion.