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Single Idea 4513

[filed under theme 23. Ethics / F. Existentialism / 6. Authentic Self ]

Full Idea

A virtuous man is a lower species because he is not a "person" but acquires his value by conforming to a pattern of man that is fixed once and for all.

Gist of Idea

Virtuous people are inferior because they are not 'persons', but conform to a fixed pattern

Source

Friedrich Nietzsche (The Will to Power (notebooks) [1888], §319)

Book Ref

Nietzsche,Friedrich: 'The Will to Power', ed/tr. Kaufmann,W /Hollingdate,R [Vintage 1968], p.176

A Reaction

A penetrating critque of virtue theory. If, even now, we are trying to conform to Aristotle's model, that is VERY conservative. The obliteration of individual identity is also a charge against Kant and Bentham. Virtues are more flexible than rules.

The 82 ideas from 'The Will to Power (notebooks)'

5652 True beliefs are those which augment one's power [Nietzsche, by Scruton]
4485 Every belief is a considering-something-true [Nietzsche]
4486 The extreme view is there are only perspectives, no true beliefs, because there is no true world [Nietzsche]
4487 A note for asses: What convinces is not necessarily true - it is merely convincing [Nietzsche]
4488 Those who have abandoned God cling that much more firmly to the faith in morality [Nietzsche]
4489 If faith is lost, people seek other authorities, in order to avoid the risk of willing personal goals [Nietzsche]
4491 In modern society virtue is 'equal rights', but only because everyone is zero, so it is a sum of zeroes [Nietzsche]
4493 Be natural! But how, if one happens to be "unnatural"? [Nietzsche]
20357 Truth was given value by morality, but eventually turned against its own source [Nietzsche]
4494 Not "return to nature", for there has never yet been a natural humanity [Nietzsche]
4495 The high points of culture and civilization do not coincide [Nietzsche]
4484 Nihilism results from valuing the world by the 'categories of reason', because that is fiction [Nietzsche]
4496 'Conscience' is invented to value actions by intention and conformity to 'law', rather than consequences [Nietzsche]
4497 The concept of 'God' represents a turning away from life, and a critique of life [Nietzsche]
4498 'Love your enemy' is unnatural, for the natural law says 'love your neighbour and hate your enemy' [Nietzsche]
4499 Primitive Christianity is abolition of the state; it is opposed to defence, justice, patriotism and class [Nietzsche]
4500 It is a sign of degeneration when eudaimonistic values begin to prevail [Nietzsche]
20359 The nature of being, of things, is much easier to understand than is becoming [Nietzsche]
4502 Morality cannot survive when the God who sanctions it is missing [Nietzsche]
4501 Utilitarianism criticises the origins of morality, but still believes in it as much as Christians [Nietzsche]
20383 The wisest man is full of contradictions, and attuned to other people, with occasional harmony [Nietzsche]
20370 All evaluation is from some perspective, and aims at survival [Nietzsche]
4504 Morality used to be for preservation, but now we can only experiment, giving ourselves moral goals [Nietzsche]
4505 How can it be that I should prefer my neighbour to myself, but he should prefer me to himself? [Nietzsche]
4506 There is a conspiracy (a will to power) to make morality dominate other values, like knowledge and art [Nietzsche]
4507 The categorical imperative needs either God behind it, or a metaphysic of the unity of reason [Nietzsche]
4508 The truth is what gives us the minimum of spiritual effort, and avoids the exhaustion of lying [Nietzsche]
20372 The instinct of the herd, the majority, aims for the mean, in the middle [Nietzsche]
4509 Utilitarians prefer consequences because intentions are unknowable - but so are consequences! [Nietzsche]
4510 A path to power: to introduce a new virtue under the name of an old one [Nietzsche]
4511 We would avoid a person who always needed reasons for remaining decent [Nietzsche]
4512 Virtue is pursued from self-interest and prudence, and reduces people to non-entities [Nietzsche]
4513 Virtuous people are inferior because they are not 'persons', but conform to a fixed pattern [Nietzsche]
4514 The basic tendency of the weak has always been to pull down the strong, using morality [Nietzsche]
4515 Modesty, industriousness, benevolence and temperance are the virtues of a good slave [Nietzsche]
4516 Many virtues are merely restraints on the most creative qualities of a human being [Nietzsche]
4517 Egoism is inescapable, and when it grows weak, the power of love also grows weak [Nietzsche]
4518 The question about egoism is: what kind of ego? since not all egos are equal [Nietzsche]
4519 The ego is only a fiction, and doesn't exist at all [Nietzsche]
23938 Passions are ranked, as if they are non-rational and animal pleasure seeking [Nietzsche]
23939 We fail to see that reason is a network of passions, and every passion contains some reason [Nietzsche]
4520 I don't want to persuade anyone to be a philosopher; they should be rare plants [Nietzsche]
4521 None of the ancients had the courage to deny morality by denying free will [Nietzsche]
4523 What can be 'demonstrated' is of little worth [Nietzsche]
20374 Consciousness is a terminal phenomenon, and causes nothing [Nietzsche]
4525 There are no facts in themselves, only interpretations [Nietzsche]
4527 Perhaps we are not single subjects, but a multiplicity of 'cells', interacting to create thought [Nietzsche]
4528 For me, a priori 'truths' are just provisional assumptions [Nietzsche]
4529 All sense perceptions are permeated with value judgements (useful or harmful) [Nietzsche]
4530 Reason is a mere idiosyncrasy of a certain species of animal [Nietzsche]
4531 Our inability to both affirm and deny a single thing is merely an inability, not a 'necessity' [Nietzsche]
4532 We can have two opposite sensations, like hard and soft, at the same time [Nietzsche]
4533 Logic and maths refer to fictitious entities which we have created [Nietzsche]
4534 'Truth' is the will to be master over the multiplicity of sensations [Nietzsche]
4535 A 'species' is a stable phase of evolution, implying the false notion that evolution has a goal [Nietzsche]
4536 It is a major blunder to think of consciousness as a unity, and hence as an entity, a thing [Nietzsche]
4539 The forms of 'knowledge' about logic which precede experience are actually regulations of belief [Nietzsche]
4537 We can't know whether there is knowledge if we don't know what it is [Nietzsche]
4538 Judgements can't be true and known in isolation; the only surety is in connections and relations [Nietzsche]
4541 Everything simple is merely imaginary [Nietzsche]
4542 Science has taken the meaning out of causation; cause and effect are two equal sides of an equation [Nietzsche]
4543 There are no 'facts-in-themselves', since a sense must be projected into them to make them 'facts' [Nietzsche]
4544 A thing has no properties if it has no effect on other 'things' [Nietzsche]
4545 Could not the objective character of things be merely a difference of degree within the subjective? [Nietzsche]
4546 We realise that properties are sensations of the feeling subject, not part of the thing [Nietzsche]
4548 Only because there is thought is there untruth [Nietzsche]
4551 Great self-examination is to become conscious of oneself not as an individual, but as mankind [Nietzsche]
4550 Pleasure and pain are mere epiphenomena, and achievement requires that one desire both [Nietzsche]
20362 We saw unity in things because our ego seemed unified (but now we doubt the ego!) [Nietzsche]
20361 We need 'unities' for reckoning, but that does not mean they exist [Nietzsche]
4553 We derive the popular belief in cause and effect from our belief that our free will causes things [Nietzsche]
4552 There is no such things a pure 'willing' on its own; the aim must always be part of it [Nietzsche]
4554 The concept of the 'will' is just a false simplification by our understanding [Nietzsche]
20354 The ruling drives of our culture all want to be the highest court of our values [Nietzsche]
4555 The great error is to think that happiness derives from virtue, which in turn derives from free will [Nietzsche]
4557 The supposed great lovers of honour (Alexander etc) were actually great despisers of honour [Nietzsche]
4558 We have no more right to 'happiness' than worms [Nietzsche]
4559 When powerless one desires freedom; if power is too weak, one desires equal power ('justice') [Nietzsche]
4560 The Golden Rule prohibits harmful actions, with the premise that actions will be requited [Nietzsche]
20136 There is an extended logic to a great man's life, achieved by a sustained will [Nietzsche]
20358 The highest man can endure and control the greatest combination of powerful drives [Nietzsche]
20369 The highest man directs the values of the highest natures over millenia [Nietzsche]