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TIMESTAMPS:
00:00 Introduction
02:25 Zarathustra’s Context
06:38 The Tropical Monster
18:07 The Hammer and the Sculptor
25:07 The Sipo Matador
34:54 Conclusion
MENTIONED IN THE VIDEO:
▶ Nietzsche's Warning to Scientists: https://youtu.be/Qy8Xof92OYQ
▶ Nietzsche on Cesare Borgia: https://youtu.be/V8PtXOEbnQo
OUR ANALYSES:
▶ Beyond Good and Evil: https://youtu.be/WIHXZUltfqk
▶ The Antichrist: https://youtu.be/qej1Z8Qzq_c
▶ Genealogy of Morals: https://youtu.be/6PUx4cOfFcI
▶ Twilight of the Idols: https://youtu.be/YpVr_NEvWYA
▶ The Will to Power: https://youtu.be/He6ZC7ZFBt8
▶ Daybreak: https://youtu.be/cOL2z7nuXdA
▶ The Joyful Science: https://youtu.be/U0fTBOJ-C_I
A puzzling passage in Nietzsche's Thus Spoke Zarathustra speaks of the need for mankind to "become more evil." Did Nietzsche write this purely for shock value, or is there more to it? And how do we square this strange demand with Nietzsche's broader philosophical project of going BEYOND good and evil?
We go through three aphorisms from Nietzsche's Beyond Good and Evil in order to answer these questions. Each illuminates a different aspect of what Nietzsche meant by the word "evil."
First, The Tropical Monster. Nietzsche argues that nature, morality and mankind are fundamentally misunderstood so long as we seek a defectiveness or morbidness in the "tropical growths", in the constitution and lives of so-called great men of action. He singles out Cesare Borgia as the prime example of what in his day was regarded as an evil man, possibly alluding to Jacob Burckhardt and his influential Civilization of Renaissance Italy, where the historian highlights the cruelty of Cesare's methods, cruelty that far exceeded the degree necessary for the achievement of his aims. Rather than viewing good/evil in a simple dichotomy, where the presence of one necessitates the absence of another, Nietzsche argues for a view where good and evil go together, as in the final analysis they are both about capability and power. Cesare Borgia is a "tropical growth", a force of nature. Those historians and contemporaries who call Cesare a monster, Nietzsche argues, are in favor of the "temperate zones" - in favor of mediocrity. Morals as timidity.
Second, the Hammer and Sculptor. The human being, for Nietzsche, is a conglomeration of different instincts and drives, always seeking their own expression. Becoming more evil (cruel) also implies being cruel towards your own lesser instincts, like how a sculptor fashions a statue from marble. Only in mankind's case, we are both marble and sculptor. We must sculpt away at our lesser instincts and seek to overcome them.
Third, tying both visions together, is the metaphor of the Sipo Matador, a strangler fig. A plant that grows by wrapping around a tree, climbing upwards, and using its host for support. Nietzsche urges his reader to confront the "hard truth" about the origin of so-called noble societies, saying that any aristocratic class has depended for its own sake upon the labor and existence of lower classes. Rather than talking about economics he analyses these societies psychologically; where the emergence of an aristocratic class necessitated a psychological mindset of those would-be nobles, the so-called pathos of distance, the ability and self-confidence to issue commands and wield power. Cultivating this type of power, from the outside looking in, will inevitable look cruel or evil, but if human society is to flourish, like the blooming flower of the Sipo Matador, such a mindset will be necessary.
Finally, all of this ties into Nietzsche's broader project of confronting ex
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