Beyond Good & Evil #1: Faith in Opposite Values (preface-I.5)

Today we begin our analysis of Beyond Good & Evil. This episode concerns the preface, which is perhaps my favorite of Nietzsche’s, and the first five sections of chapter one: On the Prejudices of Philosophers. As always I move incredibly slowly during the opening sections because of their incredible importance for understanding the entirety of the work, but promise to move more quickly as we proceed. I’m not sure how many parts this series will require; we’re going to make it up as we go along. Episode art: Giovanni di Paolo -- The Creation of the World and the Expulsion from Paradise

#nietzsche #philosophy #historyofphilosophy #history #thenietzschepodcast

[ihsir]

00:00 📚 Nietzsche's "Beyond Good and Evil" is an attempt to present his entire philosophy, including major ideas, for a broader audience who may not be familiar with his work.
02:44 📖 Nietzsche essentially self-published "Beyond Good and Evil, " and it was one of his most successful books at the time, despite only selling 114 copies initially.
05:00 🌐 Nietzsche's main task in "Beyond Good and Evil" is to question the value of the search for truth and challenge the belief in opposite values, leading to a critique of morality and metaphysics.
07:01 🔄 Nietzsche rejects the notion of opposite values, seeing good and evil as interdependent gradations rather than mutually opposed concepts, and he argues for an immoralist perspective.
14:12 💔 Nietzsche reconceptualizes truth as an object of desire, challenging the idea that philosophers engage in disinterested, rational reasoning, and highlighting the inherent irrationality in truth-seeking.
20:47 🌍 The 19th century is characterized by a shift from the romantic idealization of human reason to a more cynical view of human nature, marked by the recognition of our animalistic origins and unconscious motivations.
22:09 📚 Nietzsche criticizes dogmatism, highlighting that it may appear solemn but is often childish and amateurish in its attempts to capture truth.
24:11 🤔 Nietzsche points out that the separation of the doer from the deed, a hallmark of dogmatism, is a seduction by grammar and a product of linguistic limitations.
29:27 💭 Nietzsche sees dogmatic philosophies like vedanta and platonism as errors that, despite their shortcomings, contributed to human culture and civilization.
42:08 🗣 Nietzsche provocatively questions whether Socrates, who influenced Plato's dogmatism, may have deserved his fate of execution, given the negative impact of Plato's ideas.
43:46 🤔 Nietzsche discusses the absence of an absolute perceiver and the role of perspective in shaping our perception of reality.
44:11 🦁 Nietzsche uses the example of lambs and birds of prey to illustrate how different perspectives shape moral perception.
45:19 🔍 Our perception of reality is influenced by our vantage point, existence, and the scale at which we exist.
46:00 ⚖ Nietzsche argues that there is no absolute judge, and beings assert themselves based on their perspectives.
46:53 🧐 Nietzsche criticizes the error of universalizing one's perspective and discusses Plato's potential corruption by Socrates.
48:02 🌍 Nietzsche describes the tension created by the conflict between immoralists and moralists in European thought.
50:33 🏹 Nietzsche views the tension of the spirit as a valuable asset, comparable to drawing a bow, which allows for the pursuit of distant goals.
51:00 📰 Nietzsche criticizes newspaper reading as shallow and argues that it hinders the experience of spiritual need and tension.
51:57 🎯 Nietzsche references Jesuitism as an attempt to resolve the tension between morality and immorality, highlighting the ends justifying the means.
01:00:01 🤔 Nietzsche questions what within us truly desires truth and the origins of our will to truth, emphasizing the enigmatic nature of this desire.
01:05:24 🤔 Nietzsche raises the question of the value of truth-seeking and why we prioritize truth over untruth, uncertainty, or ignorance in our pursuit of knowledge.
01:07:32 🤯 Nietzsche explores the paradox of questioning the value of seeking the truth when truth-seeking itself is the highest value, leading to a self-reflective process.
01:13:33 🧐 Nietzsche criticizes the metaphysicians' fundamental faith in opposite values, highlighting the need for doubt at the threshold of philosophical inquiry.
01:22:30 🌍 Nietzsche challenges the idea of opposites and questions whether our valuations are provisional perspectives or frog perspectives that fail to see the larger reality.
01:25:16 🤔 Nietzsche suggests that fundamental value for life might be ascribed to deception, selfishness, and lust, challenging traditional notions of good and revered things.
01:25:45 🧐 Nietzsche anticipates the emergence of new philosophers who will be different from traditional dogmatists and explore the dangerous possibility that seemingly opposite values share the same essence.
01:28:19 🤯 Nietzsche argues that conscious thinking, even in philosophy, is guided by instincts, challenging the idea that it's the opposite of instinctual behavior.
01:31:42 🧐 Nietzsche contends that logic and conscious thinking are driven by physiological demands for the preservation of a certain type of life rather than being purely rational processes.
01:37:22 🤯 Nietzsche explains that false judgments, including synthetic judgments a priori, are indispensable for human existence, emphasizing that truth and logic are not objective but serve pragmatic purposes.
01:46:22 🤔 Nietzsche criticizes philosophers for not being honest enough in their work and posing as if they reached their opinions through pure, divine dialectic, when it's often driven by personal desires.
01:47:34 🧐 Nietzsche acknowledges that his own truth-seeking is driven by irrational passion, just like mystics who claim inspiration, but he emphasizes the importance of honesty about this drive.
01:49:07 😄 Nietzsche criticizes philosophers for their solemnness and seriousness, contrasting it with his lighthearted approach to truth-seeking, highlighting the irony that he's the most truthful by questioning the will to truth.
01:52:06 🧙 Nietzsche critiques philosophers like Kant and Spinoza for cloaking their philosophies in complex, impenetrable forms, using it to mask their personal insecurities and vulnerabilities.

[uberboyo]

Instructions unclear; I just built a homemade rocket in my backyard and launched the contents of my home library into the Sun

[Brooder]

Nietzsche's genius was how he understood paradoxes of existence. Like Blake. This allowed him to move closer to a form of the wisdom of being and living more than any other thinker. As he says in Beyond Good and Evil: "'Live according to nature'? How could you not do that? Why make a principle of what you yourselves are and must be?"

[Rhimeson]

Another 2 hours of great content. Scaling Nietzsche's cranium is a formidable task, but every episode you manage to lead the way in an impressive and humble fashion, Thanks.

[MrJamesdryable]

There is nothing either good nor bad, but thinking makes it so.

- Shakespeare

[allenandrews]

I do believe Nietchze wanted a mechanism by which to allow individuals to make confident valuations, and not fall into apathetic nihilism at the sight of our own flaws and failures. So....allow me to make a confident valuation... your lectures are enlightening and inspiring....thank you so much for breakin it down. Hammer

[patrickpouler]

Hi. I have been seriously reading Nietzsche since 1980 as a grad student in London. And have read all the secondary literature as well. I've been listening to all your "lectures" over the last few years. Without a doubt, I think your take really captures the Nietzschean ethos much better than any of the famous commentators. ( I first encountered Kaufman in the late 70's and am delighted that you too cite him. Then, he was not popular) Thanks!

[nicolaswhitehouse]

Nietzsche's writings are lot more esoteric that one might think. He delibrately writes in a seducing way to the captivate the vast majority of people. I tend to think that he knew that his writings will be misused by politicians and other people, and laugh about it. Such laugh is Dionysian itself. All I could say in Nietzschean terms is a happy digestions and thank you for the videos.

[kennethanderson]

I listened to something quite personal and well done on a Sunday morning while walking around the beach on June 26. Thank you for that, it meant a lot. This has been an intense, and strange past few weeks for me. My dad’s dementia, combined with my instant recall of his serial philandering, my sweet mom’s complete denial of said behavior, and the absolute inflation of my shadow as a coping mechanism, generated some manic behavior at times (nice understatement). This podcast has helped me stay grounded, and focused on My future, for change. I was gonna write about my trippy plastic Jesus/ real, yet physically diminished Jesus dream from the spring of 2004, but that’ll have to be put on pause. I want to tell that story properly, because in this world of “flesh colored Christs that glow in the dark… it’s easy to see that not much is really sacred”.

[ionwatch]

This is such an excellent show. It’s really sad that our institutions have faltered so badly that academics really have no chance of being able to create something of quality like this that accomplishes their goal of education more effectively than they can.

[giovannimartin]

One of my favorite things about how rediscovering Nietzsche as an adult is how even as so much of his truth speaks to me, much of it is him roasting me specifically.

[Tehz]

This was the first work of Nietzsche I ever read. While I was captivated by it, a lot of his thought was still a mystery to me. So I checked out his other works like Daybreak, Birth of Tragedy, the Gay science, and twilight of idols also happened to be one of them. Then I went back and read Beyond Good and Evil again, and I finally understood him. So even though twilight of idols isn't as all-encompassing as Beyond Good and Evil, I actually had a much easier time reading it after I read his less popular works. But maybe that's just me.

[septseptsept]

Brilliant! Thank you! Looking forward to the next episode…

[hatestorm]

I stumbled on the "Nietzsche podcast" on Spotify and later on I found this is from the same author. Awesome job! What an absolute masterpiece of psychology analysis.

[auggiemarsh]

Such rich content. I’m just finishing my first listen and I feel like I’m the very first archaeologists to have stumbled upon a treasure trove of Paleolithic human remains and stone tools which represents almost the entire period of human prehistoric technology extending from the earliest known use of stone tools by hominini, c. 3.3 million years ago to the end of the Pleistocene, c. 11, 650. Time to take out my archeological digging tools.

[ted_umeh]

I’m extremely thankful to have found your YouTube channel.

[marhor]

I'm so glad I found this channel. I really don't have anyone around to do such through reading. And philosophy can be tough when you are alone at it (for me, at least). It's so nice to read along and make some notes from your explanations. Thank you!

[yeyohuevonhassassin]

I read this work a few years ago but I wasnt that experienced in philosophy, I had read the stoics but Nietzche always seemed to have like a magnet on me, like this guy knew something I had to know in a way, I did not understand the book then, but later as I read Plato, Kant and read a lot of history concerning philosophy this book opened to me and also his other works.

[tomtsu]

Hey really excited to see this! I know this probably your favorite book so looking forward to a good one...

[Binyamin.Tsadik]

Been a lifetime of truth seeking and only discovering Nietzsche now, thanks to your podcast series.
It's funny that we come to a lot of the same conclusions, but go about getting there in vastly different paths.
Waiting to discover Nietzsche, gave me time to develop my own thoughts on all of these same subjects.
It's true that we all obsessively process the same topics.
Thank you sir, would love to hear how your thoughts differ from Nietzsche some time.