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.t ³However, Aristotle and Nietzsche have more in common than Nietzsche s attackon eudaimonism and philosophies of well-being may suggest.It should beremembered that Aristotle himself does not believe that pleasure is an intrinsicgood: what is good without qualification is pleasure handled excellently.It is truethat Aristotle, unlike Nietzsche, does not have much to say about suffering heis far more concerned about the evils of unrestrained pursuit of pleasure.Sotemperance is a key virtue, understood as an excellent attitude towards the bodilypleasures; but there is no reason not to incorporate a virtue concerned withan excellent attitude towards suffering, and the excellent handling of suffering.Surprisingly we do not (I think) have a name for such a virtue the nearestperhaps is stoicism, but I fear Nietzsche would not approve.For stoicismnow has the somewhat mundane connotation of stiff upper lip a banalsubstitute for the kind of embracing of meaningful suffering of which Nietzschespeaks:The discipline of suffering, of great suffering do you not know that it is this disciplinealone which has created every elevation of mankind hitherto? That tension of the soul inmisfortune which cultivates its strength.its inventiveness and bravery in undergoing,enduring.has it not been bestowed through suffering, through the discipline of greatsuffering?t tThe fact that Nietzsche rejects welfarist conceptions of human nature doesnot imply that he has no conception of human nature.For Nietzsche, as forAristotle, a basic biological conception of humanity is the starting-point of hisconception of health or excellence, but that starting-point is constituted by a thinrather than a thick conception of human nature.The linchpin of Aristotle s con-ception delivered by the ergon argument is the idea of distinctively humanrationality.This thin conception of the human ergon is thickened throughout theNicomachean Ethics by substantive normative conceptions of various emotions,conceptions of fine or noble human ends, and by his accounts of phronesis(practical wisdom), prohairesis (deliberative desire), and nous.In Nietzsche, thecatch-cry is will to power.The thin conception offered in Beyond Good andEvil A living thing desires above all to vent its strength life as such is willto power t u is likewise fleshed out throughout his writings by substantiveaccounts, and examples, of distorted or sick manifestations of will to power.t vt ³ Beyond Good and Evil, § 225, 154 5.t t Ibid.155.t u Ibid.13, 44.t v In highlighting the importance of this notion for Nietzsche s psychology/ethics, I am notdissenting from Bernd Magnus s view that the notion has but little general ontological/metaphysical Can Nietzsche be Both an Existentialist and a Virtue Ethicist? 183As in Aristotle, the transformation of the thin account of human nature intothe thick is irreducibly normative.In Aristotle, rational activity as characteristichuman activity is transformed into substantive conceptions of the fine and thenoble.In Nietzsche, will to power as a venting of strength and energy, expansion,and growth, is transformed into substantive conceptions of life-affirming orhealthy expressions via contrasts with a variety of neuroses sick or life-denying forms.In both Nietzsche and Aristotle these normative transformationsare the basis of accounts of virtue and vice in Nietzsche.5 ACCEPTANCE OR SELF-LOVEWe need now to flesh out some of the transformations of the thin conception ofwill to power so we can obtain a more substantive idea of virtue and vice.At the core of undistorted will to power or, put positively, life-affirming orhealthy will to power,t w are two key features, acceptance or self-love, and creativ-ity.Acceptance or self-love is the basis of health.Genuine health as acceptanceis not just mere adjustment to reality.As the humanist psychologist AbrahamMaslow recognized,t x it also requires self-actualization or self-realization.This forNietzsche is constituted by joyfulness, a zest for life, courage for experimentation.Without acceptance, we fall into the vices of despair, resentment, hopelessness,cynicism: vices which are energy-sapping, because energy is dissipated into angerand anxiety [ Pobierz caÅ‚ość w formacie PDF ]
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.t ³However, Aristotle and Nietzsche have more in common than Nietzsche s attackon eudaimonism and philosophies of well-being may suggest.It should beremembered that Aristotle himself does not believe that pleasure is an intrinsicgood: what is good without qualification is pleasure handled excellently.It is truethat Aristotle, unlike Nietzsche, does not have much to say about suffering heis far more concerned about the evils of unrestrained pursuit of pleasure.Sotemperance is a key virtue, understood as an excellent attitude towards the bodilypleasures; but there is no reason not to incorporate a virtue concerned withan excellent attitude towards suffering, and the excellent handling of suffering.Surprisingly we do not (I think) have a name for such a virtue the nearestperhaps is stoicism, but I fear Nietzsche would not approve.For stoicismnow has the somewhat mundane connotation of stiff upper lip a banalsubstitute for the kind of embracing of meaningful suffering of which Nietzschespeaks:The discipline of suffering, of great suffering do you not know that it is this disciplinealone which has created every elevation of mankind hitherto? That tension of the soul inmisfortune which cultivates its strength.its inventiveness and bravery in undergoing,enduring.has it not been bestowed through suffering, through the discipline of greatsuffering?t tThe fact that Nietzsche rejects welfarist conceptions of human nature doesnot imply that he has no conception of human nature.For Nietzsche, as forAristotle, a basic biological conception of humanity is the starting-point of hisconception of health or excellence, but that starting-point is constituted by a thinrather than a thick conception of human nature.The linchpin of Aristotle s con-ception delivered by the ergon argument is the idea of distinctively humanrationality.This thin conception of the human ergon is thickened throughout theNicomachean Ethics by substantive normative conceptions of various emotions,conceptions of fine or noble human ends, and by his accounts of phronesis(practical wisdom), prohairesis (deliberative desire), and nous.In Nietzsche, thecatch-cry is will to power.The thin conception offered in Beyond Good andEvil A living thing desires above all to vent its strength life as such is willto power t u is likewise fleshed out throughout his writings by substantiveaccounts, and examples, of distorted or sick manifestations of will to power.t vt ³ Beyond Good and Evil, § 225, 154 5.t t Ibid.155.t u Ibid.13, 44.t v In highlighting the importance of this notion for Nietzsche s psychology/ethics, I am notdissenting from Bernd Magnus s view that the notion has but little general ontological/metaphysical Can Nietzsche be Both an Existentialist and a Virtue Ethicist? 183As in Aristotle, the transformation of the thin account of human nature intothe thick is irreducibly normative.In Aristotle, rational activity as characteristichuman activity is transformed into substantive conceptions of the fine and thenoble.In Nietzsche, will to power as a venting of strength and energy, expansion,and growth, is transformed into substantive conceptions of life-affirming orhealthy expressions via contrasts with a variety of neuroses sick or life-denying forms.In both Nietzsche and Aristotle these normative transformationsare the basis of accounts of virtue and vice in Nietzsche.5 ACCEPTANCE OR SELF-LOVEWe need now to flesh out some of the transformations of the thin conception ofwill to power so we can obtain a more substantive idea of virtue and vice.At the core of undistorted will to power or, put positively, life-affirming orhealthy will to power,t w are two key features, acceptance or self-love, and creativ-ity.Acceptance or self-love is the basis of health.Genuine health as acceptanceis not just mere adjustment to reality.As the humanist psychologist AbrahamMaslow recognized,t x it also requires self-actualization or self-realization.This forNietzsche is constituted by joyfulness, a zest for life, courage for experimentation.Without acceptance, we fall into the vices of despair, resentment, hopelessness,cynicism: vices which are energy-sapping, because energy is dissipated into angerand anxiety [ Pobierz caÅ‚ość w formacie PDF ]