The illusion of free will, and Nietzsche as apologist for the bird of prey: Do I have to add that the wise Oedipus was right that we really are not responsible for our dreams, but just as little for our waking life, and that the doctrine of will has human pride and feeling of power for its mother and father ~Daybreak, Nietzsche. Man has no power over the content of his dreams, and his desires and impulses in his waking hours are largely the consequence of unconscious processes. Man is dimly aware of the unconscious processes that rule him. Man has a feeling of free will, and this phenomenology of thought gives man reason to assume cause and effect, and thus ascribe moral responsibility to man for his actions, successes, and failures. The doctrine of free will was invented for the purpose of punishment because man wanted to impute guilt ` Twilight of the Idols. Nietzsche separates cause and effect, man from his action, as a bolt of lightning from its flash. To blame the bird of prey for its predatory actions is illogical, and so too, to blame man for his carnivorous impulses, is illogical. Man is, after all, for Nietzsche, driven by impulses that he cannot control, lest understand. Here, from Geneology: People separate lightning from the flash and take the latter as the doing; as an effect of a subject called lightning, so popular morality separates strength from the expressions of strength, as if there were behind the strong an indifferent substratum that is free to express strength, or not to. But there is no substratum..... and basically, upholds no other belief as ardently as this one, that the strong is free to be weak, and the bird of prey to be a lamb. They thereby grant themselves the right to hold the bird of prey accountable Of course, while apologist for birds of prey, Nietzsche also frees the weak, the addled, the incompetent and the weakling from all blame. If the predator is but as a wild animal, unaware and not in control of his impulses, too, the floundering weakling is likewise left blameless for his inadequacies. This is not a pretty philosophy. Bryan Rothr Jerrold Arnowitz Kimball Corson Gregory Peters AJ Calhoun Steve Wesby
Posted on: Mon, 19 May 2014 07:00:15 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015