Reading Blog 3: First response to Morality as Anti-Nature

(Numbers correspond to number labels in the reading)

1- I like that Nietzsche thinks it is stupid to try to get rid of passions even though they cause people to do stupid things. I also like the dental analogy because my mom is a dentist. (347)

He really goes off on the church. Its practices are “hostile to life” (348).

2 – is interesting because he does not think highly of the need to cut something completely out of your life to resist temptations… huh… I do that.

3- “one remains young only as long as the soul does not stretch itself and desire peace” (349). So I guess I am old now... Why does it make me old to feel sad when people are bullied?

“There is nothing we envy less than the moralistic cow” (349). I don’t 100% agree with this, but I think that most people envy wealth more than they envy people with morals (There is a huge market for reality TV Shows that star wealthy people and their cribs).

What is he saying about peace of soul?! (349)

4- Oh my goodness, preach, Nietzsche. Finally someone brings up the point that every moral code taught so far is nearly impossible. Also, I think Appiah would agree with this point because he said something about the unlikelihood of becoming a virtuous person.

“almost every morality which has so far been taught… turns, conversely, against the instincts of life: it is condemnation of these instincts, now secret, now outspoken and impudent” (349). I especially like the ‘now secret’ part because it is so weird to me that some natural things in life cannot be spoken about. I do not wish to list examples because I have grown up feeling uncomfortable discussing them.

“life has come to an end where the ‘kingdom of God’ begins” (350). This is funny because only the dead can get into the kingdom of heaven.

5- I like that he refers to himself as an “immoralist”.

The Four Great Errors

1-

2- I like how he calls the error of confusing cause and effect the “immortal unreason”.

Appiah would not agree with Nietzsche’s statement that “his virtue is the effect of his happiness”.

I he saying that every claim that people make about virtues making your life better are false? In that case, Nietzsche and Appiah would agree because Appiah acknowledged that living a virtuous life would not necessarily lead to positive consequences.

3-

4- I don’t understand what he is trying to say about dreaming and how it relates to imaginary causes.

5- I agree with his paragraph about the brain ‘imagining causes’ because I learned about the brain’s tendency to immediately compartmentalize in psychology.

6- Is he trying to say that feelings are not caused by anything? So why do people I feel guilty when they do something wrong?

I agree with his claim that faith does not award you with pleasurable feelings but rather the ability to write things off that are unexplainable, therefore easing the compartmentalizing mind.

7- Whoa, Nietzsche is about to attack free will.

“the doctrine of the will has been invented essentially for the purpose of punishment, that is, because one wanted to impute guilt” (355). Nietzsche’s last idea that free will is an error is probably one of his craziest. How would you prove something so abstract? Even so, I like where he is going with this idea. But at the same time, I still feel like some actions should be considered bad even if they were not made by choice or free will.