Nietzsche and Marx: Philosophical Critiques of Western Culture and Modern Life

Friedrich Nietzsche: Critique of Western Morality

Friedrich Nietzsche performed the third major criticism of Western culture. He promoted life affirmation as a fundamental value and strongly criticized Western morality, which is based on Christian values and the rationalism stemming from Socrates and Plato. For Nietzsche, the result of these values is a decadent culture that destroys authentic human life. Thus, the Judeo-Christian moral system causes man to forget the concrete and the real because:

• It places the key to transcendent life in another world, causing contempt for this earthly life.
• It claims that someone outside the world (God) directs human existence.
• It uses punishment and guilt to destroy the noblest values of life, such as innocence.
• It extols the values of the flock: pain, renunciation, resignation, obedience, humility, and sacrifice.

Nietzsche's Proposal: The Path to the Superman

Against this decadence, Nietzsche proposes a new human being characterized by:

• A new morality that accepts and exalts life, grandeur, joy, nobility, pride, passion, and the denial of limits.
• New human values achieved through the Will to Power (Wille zur Macht): the tendency to be more, to develop, grow, and create; the instinct for improvement; absolute energy.
• The overcoming of the current state of man to reach the Superman (Übermensch), who can create new values, love life and the world above all else, be strong, and be the master of himself to grow and create.

Karl Marx: Critique of Industrial Society and Alienation

The society that emerged from the Industrial Revolution featured great inequalities and inhumane working conditions; for example, workers often worked seven days a week for fourteen hours or more.

Marx analyzed this societal model and its influence on humans, concluding that the social and economic system prevents man from fully developing.

The Nature of Man and Work According to Marx

• For Marx, man is active and dynamic; he is not a completed being but is in constant development. Man is constantly building history and himself, characterized by the ability to transform reality.
• This transformation is done through work, which serves not only to earn a wage but, above all, to achieve personal fulfillment and interact with others.
• Work is the highest human activity because it signifies the union of theory and practice, thought and activity—the primary distinction between humans and animals.

In an ideal job, man projects himself onto the products he creates, investing his personality, effort, time, and creativity. The works belong to him, from the initial plan until completion.

The Problem of Alienation in Capitalism

However, Marx complained, what is truly happening is that the product of the worker does not belong to him but to the owner of the means of production. This results in the alienation of the person:

• The product of their labor is separated from them and becomes strange.
• The more the worker produces, the poorer he becomes, while the owner of the means of production grows richer.
• The product eventually becomes the worker's enemy when it should be a symbol of personal fulfillment.