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22. Metaethics / A. Ethics Foundations / 2. Source of Ethics / f. Übermensch

[moral visionaries as the source of ethical systems]

18 ideas
Plato found that he could only enforce rational moral justification by creating an authoritarian society [Williams,B on Plato]
     Full Idea: For Plato, the problem of making the ethical into a force was the problem of making society embody rational justification, and that problem could only have an authoritarian solution.
     From: comment on Plato (The Republic [c.374 BCE]) by Bernard Williams - Ethics and the Limits of Philosophy Ch. 2
     A reaction: Plato's citizens were largely illiterate. We can be more carrot and less stick.
For the great-souled man it is sometimes better to be dead [Aristotle]
     Full Idea: For the magnanimous or great-souled man there are some circumstances in which it is not worth living.
     From: Aristotle (Nicomachean Ethics [c.334 BCE], 1124b08)
     A reaction: He is not talking of suicide here, but of risking one's life. This seems to be a hallmark of the normally virtuous person, as well as of someone exceptional. Most people would agree with this, but for Aristotle it is a central issue.
Every species produces exceptional beings, and we must just accept their nature [Epictetus]
     Full Idea: In every species nature produces some exceptional being, in oxen, in dogs, in bees, in horses. We do not say to them 'Who are you?' It will tell you 'I am like the purple in the robe. Do not expect me to be like the rest, or find fault with my nature'.
     From: Epictetus (The Discourses [c.56], 3.01.23)
     A reaction: This idea began with Aristotle's 'great soul', and presumably culminates in Nietzsche, who fills in more detail. In the modern world such people are mostly nothing but trouble.
Christianity is at war with the higher type of man, and excommunicates his basic instincts [Nietzsche]
     Full Idea: Christianity has waged a war to the death against the higher type of man, it has excommunicated all the fundamental instincts of this type.
     From: Friedrich Nietzsche (The Anti-Christ [1889], 05)
     A reaction: It seems rather insulting to say that the finest and most dedicated altruism practised by the most admirable Christians is the expression of a 'lower' instinct.
Nietzsche's judgement of actions by psychology instead of outcome was poisonous [Foot on Nietzsche]
     Full Idea: Nietzsche wants to judge actions not by what is done, but by the nature of the person who does them, and that is poisonous. We have to be horrified by what is done by Hitler and Stalin, without inquiring into their psychology.
     From: comment on Friedrich Nietzsche (Beyond Good and Evil [1886]) by Philippa Foot - Interview with Philippa Foot p.37
     A reaction: She says morality should focus on social needs, not on spontaneity, energy and passion. Nietzsche was very much a product of romanticism. Some of Nietzsche's heroes are military conquerors, so I think she is right.
Noble people see themselves as the determiners of values [Nietzsche]
     Full Idea: The noble type of man feels himself to be the determiner of values.
     From: Friedrich Nietzsche (Beyond Good and Evil [1886], §260)
     A reaction: So do criminals
Caesar and Napoleon point to the future, when they pursue their task regardless of human sacrifice [Nietzsche]
     Full Idea: In nature's such as Caesar and Napoleon we intuit something of a 'disinterested' laboring on one's marble, regardless of any sacrifice of human beings. The future of the highest human beings lies on here: to bear responsibility and not collapse under it.
     From: Friedrich Nietzsche (Fragments from 1885-1886 [1886], 1[056])
     A reaction: Hideous. Nietzsche at his absolute worst. You would think there was some wonderful higher good to which they were leading the human race, when they just strike me as people who liked fighting, and adored winning.
Napoleon was very focused, and rightly ignored compassion [Nietzsche]
     Full Idea: With Napoleon only the essential instincts of humanity came into consideration during his calculations, and he had a right not to take notice of the exceptional ones e.g. of compassion.
     From: Friedrich Nietzsche (Fragments from 1885-1886 [1886], 34[131])
     A reaction: Napoleon was notoriously indifferent to casualties, and I find it depressing that Nietzsche supports him. Napoleon brought misery to Europe for nearly twenties, mainly because he loved winning battles. Nothing über about that.
Higher human beings see and hear far more than others, and do it more thoughtfully [Nietzsche]
     Full Idea: What distinguishes the higher human being from the lower is that the former see and hear immeasurably more, and see and hear thoughtfully - and precisely this distinguishes human beings from animals, and the higher animals from the lower.
     From: Friedrich Nietzsche (The Gay (Joyful) Science [1882], §301)
     A reaction: Since most people are well equipped with eyes and ears, I take it that this phenomenon, if true, arises from the 'higher' type of person having more interest in what they experience.
The concept of 'good' was created by aristocrats to describe their own actions [Nietzsche]
     Full Idea: The judgement 'good' did not first originate with those to whom goodness was shown! Rather it was the 'good' themselves, that is to say the noble, powerful, high-stationed and high-minded who established themselves and their action as good.
     From: Friedrich Nietzsche (On the Genealogy of Morals [1887], I.§02)
     A reaction: This may be right, but not very profound. Virtually all concepts are created by the most educated classes. The first recipient of charity may not have had the concept, but they would have been gobsmacked by the novelty.
A strong rounded person soon forgets enemies, misfortunes, and even misdeeds [Nietzsche]
     Full Idea: To be unable to take his enemies, his misfortunes and even his misdeeds seriously for long - that is the sign of strong, rounded natures with a superabundance of power.
     From: Friedrich Nietzsche (On the Genealogy of Morals [1887], I.§10)
     A reaction: An aspect of the 'higher man' that I don't recall being mentioned elsewhere. I basically approve of this, if it means not holding grudges, and living for the future rather than for the past.
Originally it was the rulers who requited good for good and evil for evil who were called 'good' [Nietzsche]
     Full Idea: In the soul of the original ruling clans and castes, the man who has the power to requite goodness with goodness, evil with evil, and really does practice requital by being grateful and vengeful, is called 'good'.
     From: Friedrich Nietzsche (Human, All Too Human [1878], 045)
     A reaction: The idea that evil should indeed repay evil was very much a feature of goodness until the philosophers came in on the act. In those days no one else had any power, so they had no scope for goodness.
There is an extended logic to a great man's life, achieved by a sustained will [Nietzsche]
     Full Idea: There is a logic in all of a great man's activities, hard to survey because of its length .... he has the ability to extend his will across great stretches of his life.
     From: Friedrich Nietzsche (The Will to Power (notebooks) [1888], §962 (1885))
     A reaction: This looks very close to Nietzsche's moral ideal - that one creates a life in impeccable taste, like a great work of art, by deliberately training one's nature, like a gardener. He talks of it as having 'style' in character.
The highest man can endure and control the greatest combination of powerful drives [Nietzsche]
     Full Idea: The highest man has the greatest multiplicity of drives, in the relatively greatest strength that can be endured. Indeed, when the plant 'man' shows himself strongest one finds instincts that conflict powerfully (e.g. in Shakespeare), but are controlled.
     From: Friedrich Nietzsche (The Will to Power (notebooks) [1888], §966)
     A reaction: Are there some people, perhaps in mental hospitals, who cannot endure or control such things? Do these people have some drives which the rest of us never experience? Do good people only have good drives?
The highest man directs the values of the highest natures over millenia [Nietzsche]
     Full Idea: He who determines values and directs the will of millenia by giving direction to the highest natures is the highest man.
     From: Friedrich Nietzsche (The Will to Power (notebooks) [1888], §999)
     A reaction: The second half is the interesting bit. If Ghengis Khan inspires hordes to commit massacres, he certainly creates values, but he hasn't inspired highest natures. So who inspires highest natures? Who are the role models of role models?
The superman is a monstrous oddity, not a serious idea [MacIntyre on Nietzsche]
     Full Idea: The Übermensch belongs in the pages of a philosophical bestiary rather than in serious discussion.
     From: comment on Friedrich Nietzsche (Works (refs to 8 vol Colli and Montinari) [1885]) by Alasdair MacIntyre - After Virtue: a Study in Moral Theory Ch.2
     A reaction: It may just be an empirical and historical fact that the value-systems of a culture arise from the characters of a few strong-willed and charismatic individuals, rather than from collective need - let along collective philosophising.
Nietzsche's higher type of man is much more important than the idealised 'superman' [Nietzsche, by Leiter]
     Full Idea: The 'superman' has received far more attention from commentators than it warrants: the higher type of human being (a Goethe or a Nietzsche) is much more important than the hyperbolic, and often obscure, Zarathustrian rhetoric about the über-mensch.
     From: report of Friedrich Nietzsche (Works (refs to 8 vol Colli and Montinari) [1885]) by Brian Leiter - Nietzsche On Morality 4 'Higher' n2
     A reaction: Leiter says the über-mensch idea almost entirely drops out of Nietzsche's mature work.
The noble man wants new virtues; the good man preserves what is old [Nietzsche]
     Full Idea: The noble man wants to create new things and a new virtue. The good man wants the old things and that the old things shall be preserved.
     From: Friedrich Nietzsche (Thus Spake Zarathustra [1884], 1.09)
     A reaction: There is a limit to how many plausible virtues the noble men can come up with. We may already have run out. Are we going to have to re-run the Iliad?