20 minute presentation and 20 minute defence for philosophy capstone at Yale-NUS College

1. Culture and Axiology in
Nietzsche’s Untimely Meditations
Wee Jerrick

2. Untimely Meditations
1. David Strauss: the Confessor and the
Writer (1873)
2. On the Uses and Disadvantages of History
for Life (1874)
3. Schopenhauer as Educator (1874)
4. Richard Wagner in Bayreuth (1876)

3. Two preliminary observations:
1. Nietzsche has a conception of culture that
is normatively laden
2. Nietzsche assesses the value of genuine
cultures and ranks these cultures based on
their value

4. Guiding questions:
Why does Nietzsche have his
specific view of culture, and how
does he assess the value of genuine
cultures?

5. Section I:
Nietzsche’s conception of culture &
the problem of German “culture”

6. Culture is, above all, unity of
artistic style in all expressions
of the life of a people.
“
(p. 5, UM 1.1)

7. Culture is, above all, unity of
artistic style in all expressions
of the life of a people.
(p. 5, UM 1.1)
1
2 3
“

8. 1
Unity of artistic style

9. “Inner”:
A deep feeling and
knowledge of culture

10. “Outer”:
Visual Arts Philosophy
Architecture Cuisine
Music Literature
“Inner”:
A deep feeling and
Knowledge of culture
Cultural Achievements

11. “Outer”:
Visual Arts Philosophy
Architecture Cuisine
Music Literature
“Inner”:
A deep feeling and
Knowledge of culture
Nothing?

12. “ Our modern culture is not a real culture
at all but only a kind of knowledge of
culture; it has an idea of and feeling for
culture but no true cultural achievement
emerges from them.
(p. 87, UM 2.3)

13. The “outer” becomes
purely decorative;
With nothing to do with
the “inner”
French?
Italian?
English?
German?

15. 2
Plurality of expressions of life
(expressions of life in the plural)

16. [The cultural philistine] fancies that he is himself a son of
the muses and man of culture; an incomprehensible
delusion which reveals that he does not even know what a
philistine, and the antithesis of a philistine, is: so we shall
not be surprised to find that usually he solemnly denies
he is a philistine.
(p. 7, UM 1.2)
“

18. 3
A definite idea of a people [Volk]

19. (p. 160, UM 3.5)
“ … they set one in the midst of a
mighty community held together, not
by external forms and regulations, but
by a fundamental idea

20. (p. 142, UM 3.5)
“ … the procreation of genius —
which is the goal of all culture.

21. “ It is the fundamental idea of culture…:
to promote the production of the
philosopher, the artist and the saint
with us and without us…
(p. 160, UM 3.5)

22. The German pseudo-culture
1. no unity of style
2. a restrictive singular expression of life
3. a misguided goal to produce cultural
philistines instead of genius

23. Why does Nietzsche have this
conception of culture in the first place?

24. Section II:
Nietzsche’s perfectionism

25. Perfectionism is a theory that centres
on a conception of a good, in which
the good consists in perfection, i.e.
attaining human excellences.
What is perfectionism?

26. Animal aspect
Physical Disposition
Unhistorical
Human aspect
Metaphysical Disposition
Historical
Human nature

27. Animal aspect
Self-preservation
Desire to be happy
Human aspect
Happiness is not a concern
Desires the good life
Two conflicting impulses

28. Perfection, for Nietzsche, consists
in focusing on our truly human
capacities and enhancing the
human aspect of our nature.

29. Genius, the highest fruit of
life… the glorious, creative
human being…
“
(p. 146, UM 3.3)

30. Two criteria for perfection
Being an exemplary figure
A
Transcending animal aspect of
human nature
B

31. SaintPhilosopher Artist

32. A
Let us think of the philosopher’s eye resting upon
existence: he wants to determine its value anew.
For it has been the proper task of all great
thinkers to be lawgivers as to the measure,
stamp, and weight of things.
(p. 144, UM 3.3)

33. B
… through [a philosopher] we are all able to
educate ourselves against our age
(p. 146, UM 3.4)

34. SaintPhilosopher Artist

35. A
‘I have often said’, Goethe once exclaimed, ‘and I
shall often repeat, that the causa finalis of the
activities of men and the world is dramatic
poetry. For the stuff is of absolutely no other use.’
(p. 160, UM 3.5)

36. B But the greatness and indispensability of art lie
precisely in its being able to produce the
appearance of a simpler world, a shorter solution
of the riddle of life. No one who suffers from life
can do without this appearance, just as no one
can do without sleep.
(p. 213, UM 4.4)

37. SaintPhilosopher Artist

38. A
… the saint, in whom the ego is completely
melted away and whose life of suffering is no
longer felt as his own but as a profound feeling
of oneness and identity with all living things.
(p. 161, UM 3.5)

39. B
It is incontestable that we are all related and
allied to the saint… there are moments and as it
were bright sparks of the fire of love in whose
light we cease to understand the word “I”…
(p. 161, UM 3.5)

40. SaintPhilosopher Artist

41. Section III:
Nietzsche’s perfectionism as the
evaluative standard for assessing
culture

42. Nietzsche has this specific conception of culture as such a
conception of culture renders society productive for human
perfection.
Why does Nietzsche have his specific
conception of culture?
Question:

43. People do not fall apart into an
“inner” and “outer”.
A united style enhances life.
1
Unity of artistic style

44. …the philosophers of Greece taught, through
their bearing, what they wore and ate, and their
morals, rather than by what they said, let alone
by what they wrote
“
(p. 137, UM 3.4)

45. It is quite impossible to produce the highest
and purest effect of which the art of the theatre
is capable without at the same time effecting
innovations everywhere, in morality and
politics, in education and society.
“
(p. 210, UM 4.4)

46. Just having one ideal type
impedes others from attaining
perfection.
Plurality of expressions of life
counterbalances the excesses of
each expression.
2
Plurality of expressions of life

47. The poetic element in Wagner is disclosed by
the fact that he thinks in visible and palpable
events, not in concepts; that is to say, he thinks
mythically, as the folk has always thought.
“
(p. 236, UM 4.9)

48. Goal of the community to strive
for the genius.
An individual’s consecration to
culture.
3
Definite idea of a people

49. The individual must be consecrated to something
higher than himself—that is the meaning of tragedy;
he must be free of the terrible anxiety which death
and time evoke in the individual: for at any moment, in
the briefest atom of his life's course, he may
encounter something holy that endlessly outweighs all
his struggle and all his distress…
“
(p. 213, UM 4.4)

50. Nietzsche assesses the value of culture by the degree that
which a culture is productive for human perfection.
How does Nietzsche assess the value
of genuine cultures?
Question:

51. Questions & Answers

52. 1. Degree of unity hypothesis
2. Superior cultural achievements hypothesis
3. Maximising production of genius hypothesis
Three hypothesis:

53. Military Leaders
Politics as art?
Scientific Man/Scholar
Science as vocation completely
removed from meagre necessities
of physical existence