“Friedrich Nietzsche”

 or 

“Philosphy of Truth, Life and Death” 

by Timothy Greenlee



There are, I think, three great minds that have presented the greatest challenge ever to traditional western philosophical and religious thought: Nietzsche, Marx and Freud. In general they all present a strong argument for a kind of “relativism”.

Nietzsche demonstrates that we are who we are because of the conditions of our birth, not because of some kind of “soul” or “substance”. He and Freud convincingly argued, I think, that our religion has more to do with psychological desire than truth.
Marx demonstrates how “values” are nothing but a way for the powerful $ rich to keep the powerless $ poor under control.
Together, some of the most beloved themes of philosophy seem to be dead, i.e. – questions of right and wrong, questions of God and questions of what is – what is real and what is unreal.

But, one must ask oneself, I think, this question after reading Nietzsche: “Does his perspectivism mean that there is no truth, or does it mean that there is no absolute truth?” Relativism always holds a paradoxical position:
How can it be that the truth is that there is no truth? *wink* If that is so, then the statement “there is no truth” is also untrue. I would say that we can find certain truths and have done so – in science, philosophy, etc, but there is not some kind of overacting ultimate truth.

Most philosophers are not concerned with God as a big, immortal Daddy up in the sky, who tells you what is right and what is wrong. Such a conception seems obviously imsguided and a result of culture and not reality. The brillant French mathematician and philosopher, René Descartes, who is considered the father of modern philosophy, thought that God guaranteed truth. – He guarantees that we are not just brains floating around in some alien spaceship being manipulated. For Benedict Spinoza, the Dutch philosopher, God becomes what is – a kind of cosmological view. They do not discuss “Should Timothy be imprisoned for something that never occurred?” or some such ethical question. And by stating that “God is dead” Nietzsche does not just suggest that we can now forget about going to church, but that we must question, if we can rely on God to answer those problematical philosophical questions that are not answered – what is real, how can we know truth?, etc.

The reason that I started to become committed to serious study of philosophy was, because Nietzsche made me think something, that completely uprooted my world-view – the idea that morals are relative. Of course, one knows that in China customs are different than in the USA, but I always assumed that things like murder were wrong and that telling the truth was right in all cultures, in all times. From a Nietzschean viewpoint there is no right or wrong. “Wrong” is a historical definition, not a real “thing”.

Although for a long time I was deeply committed to this point of view, I am now uncertain. I am not sure about the existence of any God, but I do believe that we have a duty to try to work together for the betterment of all people and wildlife, and not just to be “good” persons, as in not killing, etc. I have found experiences in my life could only be defined as “religious”. But, of course, I can not say these experiences mean that something godlike exists, or are merely internal sentiments that signify nothing.

What I suppose that I find lacking in most moral systems is the idea of being active and not just reactive. Of course, I do not think one should run around selling out ones friends, murdering the innocent, etc. but since I think most people do not have such life or death choices, the question is: “ How do I know, what the right thing to do is, when I am not presented with a problem? Can I just live my life however I see fit without hurting others?” I would answer myself and say: “That is the least expected of you.” One should also try and do something better than just “not” doing what is wrong. In this sense I agree with Nietzsche’s viewpoint. I do not think that the law should say “ you must help others”, but that one is an ugly person, if you do not. I disbelieve in relativism. But ultimately, I can not justify without a doubt my reasons for believing in the necessity of helping others. I think it is some kind of emotional sense of WE ARE ALL IN THIS LIFE TOGETHER.

The reason that Nietzsche is very interesting to read, still and always, is, that he spoke of some truths of human existence that perhaps are not “eternal” truths, but, nonetheless, I think truth can be understood as an adjective better than a noun. Truth about something, but perhaps there is no universal truth. This is problematic as I have sketchily written about, when it comes to ethics, since many of us would like to think that, what is good is always good. But if one takes this route, then truth starts to take on a kind of reality or substance, which belies its real natures a concept, that helps describe human thoughts and actions.

I want to share some “far-out” ideas with you, now. In Nietzsche, there is a notion of the “eternal return” which says that one should affirm every event in ones life again and again. Some would say it is a kind of carpe diem – “seize the day” - attitude. But, in Nietzsche, it appears always at the mention of death. Cross this idea with the cosmopological theory of “The Big Bang”, which says that the universe is much like a balloon; it will expand to a certain point and then because of the gravitational pull have to collapse back into itself – and then it will explode back out in expansion, then collapse back into itself, tehn explode back out, collapes back in…and infinitum. Then the external return says that not only should you affirm your life and I mine, but that in fact our lives will happen exactly as they already have over and over again. Everything in time plays itself over again in an endless repeat – all atoms line up, the planets, our sun, the dinosaurs, human life, the death of human life, the death of all species on earth, the end of the universe, and all over again. To affirm life is to affirm destiny. In 200 billion years I will be born again, but since I have no immortal soul, I will not know it, but everything – me sitting here writing these exact words to you – everything – will happen exactly as it is happening now.

This is hardly a well-supportal thesis, but an interesting cross of theories – huh?  I hope that this has been worth reading.

© Copyright 2003 Timothy Greenlee

The truth about Supermax by Timothy

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