J.P. Stern on Nietzsche: Section 3

Vehement repudiation of Christian and liberal ethics; the detestation of democratic ideals; the celebration of the "superman"; the death of God; and a life-affirming "will to power" are the philosophical legacies of Friedrich Nietzsche. In this program, Nietzsche philosopher J.P. Stern discusses these concepts as the genesis of existentialism, and as the root philosophies of fascist political movements.

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Education

Tags:

• Bryan
• Magee
• J.P.
• Stern
• Friedrich
• Nietzsche
• Philosophy
• Existentialism

[faisalleszion]

yes, yes, yes, yes, no well yes, yes, yes, yes

[kingeric77]

things were so brown in those days

[gorgolyt]

@george120050 This is a bad comment and you should feel bad about having written it.

[gorgolyt]

to me nietzsche is not really a philosopher. he despises the whole idea of systems of philosophy, and wasn't even bothered to understand concepts like natural selection. to me he's just a literary figure. not interesting.

[dedbusted]

8:24 -10:37 is very good

[andmaketherain]

J.P. Stearn likes to say yes a lot.

[george120050]

I don't see how criticizing the current order and promoting strength over weakness aligns them, when the Nazis didn't even reject the current order, just certain restrictions on them, they were arch traditional Teutonic Christians with some Aryan race myths mixed in.The Nazis didn't present much new, which is why they were able to roll over so many areas without protest. Nazism was mostly banal stuff people were used to, how do you think Nietzsche called them out decades earlier? He hated Nazis.

[george120050]

You're pointing out similarities between Nietzsche and the Nazis, when the man flung himself at Wagner and other proto-Nazis with all his strength. To point to similarities rather than overwhelming differences is to be deceptive. "Both express a violent contempt for the sort of liberal-democratic ethics and politics." That is vague, seems like you're using the common sense of those words, what they connote. Are those Judeo-Christian ethics? Hitler made contradictory statements on Christianity.

[speaktoithoratio]

To repeat some of the glaring affinities between Nietzsche's writings and Nazi discourse: both express a violent contempt for the sort of liberal-democratic ethics and politics ushered in by the modern era (if not its science and technology), and triumph the notion of militaristic social and political order governed by will-strong heroes. I didn't say that the Nazi regime actually embodied this order, only that like Nietzsche, the Nazis espoused the vision of such an order.

[speaktoithoratio]

@george120050 you keep insisting on the points of disagreement, some about which you are undeniably right, without addressing the specific affinities I've pointed out, save for your remark about Nazism being ideologically both democratic and egalitarian, which was really very wrong.

[george120050]

Nietzsche and the Nazis aren't just incongruent at some points, they're diametrically opposed. This is a man who thought everything died everywhere Germany went and flowers bloomed everywhere France went. Marx is the one who thought Europe should subjugate itself to Germany, maybe you'd have more luck projecting you're bad values onto him.

[george120050]

Besides anything, the Nazis & Fascists were weak and lost to the superior United States, where's their strength and heroism? Hitler as a superman is Nazi propaganda into which you've bought and superman is a distortion of Nietzsche's uberman anyway. How did the Nazis scorn rationalism? How could they build all of that war machine being anti science? There's no such thing as Nietzscheanism! The man was a supreme anti collectivist and insulted those looking for a leader, a fuhrer.