Philosopher · Modern
Friedrich Nietzsche
1844–1900 · Perspectivism; will to power
A pastor's son who announced the death of God and signed his last letters “The Crucified” and “Dionysus.”
Nietzsche proclaimed that “God is dead” and that European morality, the “slave morality” of pity and equality born of Christian resentment, must be revalued by free spirits who create their own values; the will to power, the eternal recurrence and the Übermensch are his answers to nihilism. He was a psychologist of genius, a scourge of hypocrisy, and the most honest of atheists about what follows if there is no God.
Why he matters: De Lubac's Drama of Atheist Humanism treats him as the purest form of the modern revolt; Benedict XVI opened Deus Caritas Est (§ 3) by answering his charge that Christianity poisoned eros; MacIntyre poses the choice “Nietzsche or Aristotle”; and Fides et Ratio 46 names the nihilism that follows him.
Where to be careful
Atheism, the denial of objective truth and the moral law, the rejection of free will, the contempt for pity and for the weak, and the self-creation of values are each contrary to the faith (CCC 2123–2126; Dei Filius; Veritatis Splendor 32–35); the “master morality” inverts the Beatitudes.
Reading
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On the Genealogy of MoralityFriedrich Nietzsche · Slave morality, ressentiment and the ascetic ideal.
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Beyond Good and EvilFriedrich Nietzsche · Perspectivism and the critique of the philosophers.
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The Drama of Atheist HumanismHenri de Lubac, SJ · Feuerbach, Nietzsche, Comte and the Christian answer.
Documented positions
Where this thinker stands on each dispute the test covers.