Nietzsche's Critique of Language, Morality, and Nihilism
Language and Conceptual Reality
Language: Philosophers know the world and represent "true" reality through language. They construct a concrete language where concepts are conceptual terms. These terms designate classes of things or experiences, leaving aside individual cases. Each term is used differently from others. Reality is not composed of identical, immutable, universal cases. Therefore, Nietzsche argues that language cannot express the reality of life, which is defined by constant change and transformation. Concepts are a distortion of reality because they kill the individual experience of reality and replace it with alien, strange material that is short of life itself. Conceptual language is a human construction created to understand a reality that, in perpetual flux, escapes a definitive and unique definition.
The True World vs. The Apparent World
World vs. Apparent World: Most philosophers have claimed that the world provided by the senses is apparent, false, and misleading. For Nietzsche, there is only the unique world of becoming—a constant flow of events, a world of different faces on each occasion, sometimes incongruent. Appearance is simply one of the forms of reality. On the contrary, the history of philosophy and Christianity considers the "real world" to be accessible only through reason—a world of fixed and eternal truths. For Nietzsche, these are not real, but fictional, human-made metaphysical worlds; they are false gods used by human beings to self-deceive due to their inability to withstand the reality of becoming.
Natural vs. Unnatural Moral Systems
Natural vs. Unnatural Moral: For Nietzsche, the only valid criterion to distinguish "good" from "bad" is life itself. That which is "good" favors life, its health, and its empowerment. Therefore, a natural, healthy morality will not view our impulses as dangerous forces that must be curbed. Instead, it uses their energy as a source of creativity and health, which leads to a fuller and more satisfactory life.
The Crisis of Nihilism
Nihilism: Western culture is sick, and this illness is nihilism. The cause is the discovery that the idols once worshiped were false fetishes. Now, humanity cannot believe in anything and walks aimlessly into a void of meaning. Having noticed that society was built on a fiction that is now decaying, traditional values have lost their worth, and pessimism invades everything. It is time for the "Twilight of the Idols"—those who have deceived us and dominated through passive nihilism. Nietzsche reacts with active nihilism: one must complete the overthrow of old values and move beyond nihilism by creating new ones rooted in the body and instinct, to foster a new human being different from the one we know today.