Nietzsche's Metaphysics? - Galen Strawson

§1 Eleven claims (These are referenced throughout the lecture.)

[1] There’s no persisting and unitary self.

[2] There’s no fundamental (real) distinction between objects on the one hand and their propertiedness on the other.

[3] There’s no fundamental (real) distinction between the basic or basal properties of things and the power properties of things.

[4] There’s no fundamental (real) distinction between objects or substances on the one hand and processes and events on the other.

[5] Reality isn’t truly divisible into causes and effects.

[6] Objects aren’t governed by laws of nature ontologically distinct from them.

These claims are central to Nietzsche’s metaphysics. He also holds that

[7] there’s no free will as ordinarily understood

(although I won’t say much about this), and that

[8] nothing can ever happen otherwise than it does — a position which is often called ‘determinism’, although the name is not apt in Nietzsche’s case.

Finally (for now) he inclines towards the ancient—but also very modern—view that

[9] there is a fundamental (non-trivial) sense in which reality is one

and towards what is arguably the most plausible—although difficult—view of the nature of reality, i.e. the hard-nosed stuff-monist view that

[10] reality is suffused with—if it does not consist of—mentality in some form or sense.

One reason for attributing [10] to him is his recurrent attraction to the idea that

[11] everything is ‘will to power’

for it seems that to endorse [11] is already to endorse [10] in some form, to say that everything is in some respect mental, to deny that everything is a matter of power or force conceived of in some wholly non-mental way.

Here, I propose, we have the core of Nietzsche's metaphysics.

/ / /

“My route to panpsychism was through Nietzsche ... He emphasizes this notion of the will to power [which is] ultimately a drive that underlies what we see as matter. [It’s] not consciousness, absolutely; but it is a form of sentience which underlies everything.”

- Peter Sjöstedt-Hughs

/ / /

Keynote speeches and special session given at the international conference 'Nietzsche on Mind and Nature', held at St. Peter's College, Oxford, 11-13 September 2009, organized by the Faculty of Philosophy, University of Oxford.

[sgtpepper]

§1 Eleven claims (These are referenced throughout the lecture.)

[1] There’s no persisting and unitary self.

[2] There’s no fundamental (real) distinction between objects on the one hand and their propertiedness on the other.

[3] There’s no fundamental (real) distinction between the basic or basal properties of things and the power properties of things.

[4] There’s no fundamental (real) distinction between objects or substances on the one hand and processes and events on the other.

[5] Reality isn’t truly divisible into causes and effects.

[6] Objects aren’t governed by laws of nature ontologically distinct from them.These claims are central to Nietzsche’s metaphysics. He also holds that

[7] there’s no free will as ordinarily understood, although I won’t say much about this, and that

[8] nothing can ever happen otherwise than it does —a position which is often called ‘determinism’, although the name is not apt in Nietzsche’s case. Finally (for now) he inclines towards the ancient—but also very modern—view that there is a fundamental (non-trivial) sense in which

[9] reality is one

and towards what is arguably the most plausible—although difficult—view of the nature of reality, i.e. the hard-nosed stuff-monist view that

[10] reality is suffused with—if it does not consist of—mentality in some form or sense.

One reason for attributing [10] to him is his recurrent attraction to the idea that

[11] everything is ‘will to power’

for it seems that to endorse [11] is already to endorse [10] in some form, to say that everything is in some respect mental, to deny that everything is a matter of power or force conceived of in some wholly non-mental way.

Here, I propose, we have the core of Nietzsche's metaphysics.

[MandelTräd]

Holding a lecture in Nietzsche's theory of metaphysics in a church. Nice!

[David-dbmf]

Really interesting lecture. Thanks for posting!

[jbasti]

The irony of giving a lecture on Nietzsche in a church