Research Paper Doctorate 368 words

Philosophy concepts and applications

Last reviewed: July 9, 2005 ~2 min read

Kant says "The inherent value of the world, the summun bonum [highest good], is freedom in accordance with a will which is not necessitated to action. Freedom is thus the inner value of the world." How would Nietzsche evaluate this statement?

In contrast to the philosopher Immanuel Kant, Frederick Nietzsche often expressed his anger over the ways that pagan and Classical values, as manifest in ancient Rome and ancient Greece, had been overcome in Western philosophy by notions of the superiority of Christian practices and thought. Along the lines of Christian belief structures, Kant stressed that the indivdiual ought to always act as if he or she was setting the standards for the rest of humanity, and thus function as if creating the summum bonum, or highest good for all, no matter what his or her station or circumstances in life. The goodness of Christianity, for Kant, was that as the human will was always free. Thus the actor or the believer had the ability and duty to choose good, as opposed to have good forced upon one's will.

But Nietzsche believed that Christianity itself was an imposition upon free will, rather than a guide as to how to exercise one's innate free will and choice. He would state that the aforementioned quote showed how Kant confused Christian impositions upon morality with free choice -- in other words, like Christian philsosophers before him, Kant was equating freedom with the will and goodness with the 'freedom' to chose Christian belief structures and norms over non-Christian beliefs. Kant saw this as mere conformity and no freedom at all. It went against the true greatness of natural human impulses and inclinations, according to Nietzsche's belief structure.

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PaperDue. (2005). Philosophy concepts and applications. PaperDue. https://paperdue.com/essay/kant-says-the-inherent-value-of-the-65718

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