The Analysis of Part I in Beyond Good and Evil
The Analysis of Part I in Beyond Good and Evil
The book Beyond Good and Evil by Nietzsche is a philosophic book which mainly explains his earlier works Thus Spake Zarathustra. Except preface and finale, the whole is divided into nine chapters. The main theme of the first three chapters is about philosophy and religion while the main theme of the last five chapters is about moral and politics. In the following part, I would talk about the main theme of part one named On the Prejudice of Philosophers and analyze the why the theme is important.
The preface of the boom started with the sentence ‘Suppose truth is a woman, what then?’( Nietzsche, 6), which sets the keynote for the whole book and indicates the core points of his philosophies – metaphysics which demonstrates that although metaphysicians adore truth, they could not understand the underlying meaning of truth. The sentence is also a satire of Kant, who was regarded as a dogmatist in the eyes of Nietzsche. The first chapter mainly talks about the core of philosophy. Nietzsche criticized the ideas of metaphysics and put forward the concept of parapsychology and revealed the structure of power and will of parapsychology. Besides, Nietzsche also talked about why there was prejudice for philosophers.
The first chapter starts with the will to truth. Nietzsche stated that many philosophers always exploited the eternal questions which confuse human beings, but they seldom turned back to ask why we needed to seek for truth (Nietzsche, 3). In other words, when philosophers are running behind the truth, they have already preset what truth is. However, they did not connect life with truth. In the perspective of Nietzsche, metaphysicians were Oedipus while will for truth was a sphinx. Even though philosophers figured out the riddle of Sphinx, they lacked self-knowledge. That is, philosophers may answer all kinds of specific questions related to philosophy, but they could not answer the basic and vital question of why they would engage in philosophy, for they get involved in the conflict between life and truth because of lacking self-knowledge. Nietzsche thought that like normal people, the conscious thinking of philosophers would be influenced by instinct. Philosophers used systematic and abstract words to express what they needed, which is the human instinct. In the first chapter, Nietzsche also stated that the reason why philosophers were laughed at because they were dishonest. Philosophers talked in the way that their views were impartial without any personal feelings. In fact, the proposal and thoughts by philossssssowhich were the refinement of their inner desire were full of bias. Instead of admitting the fact, philosophers were trying to argue all the time to prove themselves justified.
In the chapter, Nietzsche put forward the famous saying – God has died, which indicates the building of faith has collapsed. By saying this, Nietzsche also wanted to indicate that the traditional western philosophy—metaphysics has broken down. On the other hand, Nietzsche also wanted to reveal that the faith of westerners to some extent crumbles. Once faith has gone, it is easy for people lost themselves and were trapped in the confusion. This saying is not only applicable to the times of Nietzsche but is also used for the modern time. The hero of the movie Beginners sets up a good example of showing the mental bewilderment of people. The movie Beginners mainly talks about the father of the hero Oliver confessed that he was a gay after Oliver’s mother had passed away. In the movie, it could be seen that Oliver always suppressed himself. He could not work up any enthusiasm towards anything because he could not find out the meaning of life. Oliver represented many modern people who lost themselves. Those people who lost themselves did not care what they lost. For example, Oliver did not feel much sad when his mother passed away. Neither he felt grieved when his girlfriend left him. It could be seen from Oliver that people who lose themselves, are walking dead. In addition, the saying also suggested that there was moral crisis since God could not be the moral standard and final goal of human beings.
As it is mentioned above, Nietzsche held the negative attitude towards metaphysics in the first chapter. In the first chapter, it can be seen that metaphysics preset a dualistic structure where production and presence, physical desire and absolute idea coexist. Philosophers always tried to convince people that the latter world where absolute idea predominates is true.
In the following part, Nietzsche criticized some philosophers such as Kant and Epicure. Nietzsche stated that the transcendentalism which demonstrated that concepts and ideas of human minds were free to exist deceived himself as well as a large number of readers. However, Kant has discovered an ability named transcendental method ability. But Nietzsche questioned the ability and stated that Kant did not convince him to believe it. Nietzsche defined beliefs in a variety of values as the beliefs that metaphysicians held. Nietzsche used interrogative sentences to question and to criticize the concept of the absolute idea. But he did not remove the possibility of the truth of an absolute idea. Instead, he suggested not crossing the borderline of ‘possibility.' In the eyes of Nietzsche, those ‘possibilities’ were dangerous. Questioning of those beliefs may stir the whole western traditional philosophic base. However, philosophers liked to build the truth upon the beliefs they seldom reflected. Hence, principally, philosophers were dogmatists. In this way, it was easy for philosophers to lose the real chance of improving self – awareness and self-education, which makes them miss the chance to get in contact with the real philosophy. Based on the above reasons, Nietzsche strongly advised readers to abandon Kant’s metalism because it may jeopardize philosophers’ pursuit for the real philosophy.
Nietzsche mentioned the word ‘wieder’ which means again in English twice at the end of the first chapter which indicates that his philosophy is not as new as what readers thought; instead, his philosophy was also quite traditional. Nietzsche also mentioned one very important concept parapsychology which demonstrated the relationship between moral and inner desire. By stating the concept of parapsychology, Nietzsche wanted to indicate that the traditional philosophy should be reformed. On the road of reforming, there must be full of conflicts between traditional morals and modern morals. In the perspective of Nietzsche, the reason why philosophy needed to be transformed was because crisis of human nature started to occur. People were indiffirent to everything, including religion and philosophy. Just as it is mentioned above, the protagonist Oliver in the movie Beginners was indifferent to everything including his father’s sexual orientation and his mother’s death. Hence, the saying of parapsychologyy by Nietszche has surpassed the limitation of time, which could be commonly used in any time.
In conclusion, the theme of the first chapter is centered around the criticism of philosophers and metaphysics. The theme of the first chapter is important is because Nietzsche overthrew the traditional western philosophy advocated by famous philosophers such as Kant. He also mentioned the new concept parapsychology which exerted great influence on the later philosophy. Nietzsche also mentioned the concept of moral crisis and how to deal with it, which transcends the time limit and has great impact on later generations.