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22473
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Nietzsche said the will doesn't exist, so it can't ground moral responsibility [Nietzsche, by Foot]
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Full Idea:
Nietzsche challenged belief in free will, on the ground that will itself …is non-existent. The will is in truth nothing but a complex of sensations, as of power and resistance, and it is illusion to think of it as a basis for 'moral responsibility'.
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From:
report of Friedrich Nietzsche (Human, All Too Human [1878], 107) by Philippa Foot - Nietzsche's Immoralism p.153
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A reaction:
Modern neuroscience seems to support Nietzsche on this, though I will continue to use the concept of 'will' in philosophy, to mean the main brain events which normally combine in decision-making. That makes the will a process, not a entity.
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14807
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The history of morality rests on an error called 'responsibility', which rests on an error called 'free will' [Nietzsche]
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Full Idea:
The history of moral feelings is the history of an error, an error called 'responsibility', which in turn rests on an error called 'freedom of the will'.
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From:
Friedrich Nietzsche (Human, All Too Human [1878], 039)
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A reaction:
I totally agree with this, though I think the term 'responsible' is useful in ethics, though only in the sense that the lightning was responsible for the thunder. Nietzsche appears to have anticipated Mackie's error theory about morality.
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14823
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Ceasing to believe in human responsibility is bitter, if you had based the nobility of humanity on it [Nietzsche]
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Full Idea:
Man's complete lack of responsibility, for his behaviour and for his nature, is the bitterest drop which the man of knowledge must swallow, if he had been in the habit of seeing responsibility and duty as humanity's claim to nobility.
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From:
Friedrich Nietzsche (Human, All Too Human [1878], 107)
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A reaction:
If you were seeing humanity as little transient angels, living a moral life that was an echo of God's, then you needed cutting down to size. But if you ask if there is anything 'noble' in the universe, it will still be the fine deeds of humanity.
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14824
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It is absurd to blame nature and necessity; we should no more praise actions than we praise plants or artworks [Nietzsche]
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Full Idea:
Man may no longer praise, no longer blame, for it is nonsensical to praise and blame nature and necessity. Just as he loves a work of art (or a plant) but does not praise it, because it can do nothing about itself, so he must regard human actions.
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From:
Friedrich Nietzsche (Human, All Too Human [1878], 107)
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A reaction:
But humans can 'do something about themselves'. They can read the works of Nietzsche. He overestimates the importance of the loss of free will, when we grasp that there is no such thing.
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14810
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Originally it was the rulers who requited good for good and evil for evil who were called 'good' [Nietzsche]
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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'.
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From:
Friedrich Nietzsche (Human, All Too Human [1878], 045)
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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.
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