Up@dawn 2.0

Saturday, April 29, 2017

Kylan Stribling's 2nd Installment


Kylan Stribling
Dr. James Oliver
Introduction to Philosophy
2 May 2017
Installment two: Beyond good and evil
In my first installment in the book “Beyond Good and Evil,” written by Friedrich Nietzsche. I gave a brief summary of what the key points are about in the book. For my second Installment I will give my personal opinions on the book and go into greater detail than the first installment. My favorite part of the book is when Nietzsche talks about morality and religion. He sheds light of the pre-moral period of mankind when people were judged by their actions. He mentions over the past ten thousand years people are starting to judge each other on their intentions rather than their actions. I thought this was true for today’s world. I feel like we focus so much on why people do what they do, rather than focusing on what they actually did. Nietzsche says if you focus on the intentions instead of the actions you will have a prejudice. He said a prejudice is something provisional and must be overcome. I would have to agree again with Nietzsche because if you focus too much on someone’s intentions instead of their actions you could end up gaining negative or positive prejudice towards that individual. Nietzsche states he hates egoistic morality and says that morality must bow down to the chain of command. Then he follows up with saying that every high culture society begins by recognizing the pathos of distance. What Nietzsche is saying is that any upper class society knows how to distance themselves from moral arguments to avoid prejudice. Yet again he is right, because America is a high culture society and our legal departments try to be fair and not use emotions when judging someone in the courtroom. That is why in America we say justice is blind because we see no prejudice in the courtroom.
Religiously Nietzsche compares northern and southern Christianity in Europe. Most people from southern Europe are Catholic, while people from northern Europe are Protestant. Nietzsche claims that northern Europe lacks talent for religion, and states they do not have southern delicacy. I just thought it was very interesting to see even in Europe that the southern part of the continent was more religious than the northern part, just like North America. Nietzsche also praised the old testament, but showed that the new testament was of little worth. Nietzsche says that religion has always been connected to three dietary prescriptions: solitude, fasting, and sexual abstinence. This is true because the Christian, Jewish, and Muslim religions all refer to these three important prescriptions and most of the entire world believes in these combined three religions. He mentions that  most religions believe in some form of sacrifice too. He touches on a specific religion a lot in the book and that religion is Christianity. He explains that Christianity has beaten everything joyful, assertive, and autocratic out of mankind and has turned mankind into a sublime abortion. This is one quote I would have to disagree with. I think Christianity does the complete opposite for mankind. It was surprising when  Nietzsche said this because he praised the old testament so much. When the book Beyond Good and Evil touched on the sensitive topics about morality and religion I agreed with most of it, but not everything. It at least opened my eyes how to view morality and religion in a overseeing way without prejudice. I loved reading the book and cannot wait to read another philosophy book in the future.



3 comments:

  1. This Justin Brown and im making my second comment reading your summary I agree with your pint of view. I did my second instsallment on Beyond Good and Evil and I two agree that it touched sensitive topics about morality and religion

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  2. This is Carl Windham with my second response on the course. I love where you went with the concept of Good and Evil. It was an eye opener to the fact that there are multiple religions out in the world. My Christianity has always been my stronghold in life from a young age. The touch on American prejudice being the reason most cannot truly accept many religions was the highlight of your post in my opinion. Overall a great post that I'd recommend others to read.

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  3. The focus of intention over action is definitely something prominent in America today. An excellently written installment.

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