尼采與薩特NietzscheandSa.ppt

1、Nietzsche and Sartre,Nietzsche on Teleology Nietzsches Critique of Christianity Sartre on Human Nature Thick vs. Thin Conceptions of Nature,Nietzsche,Nietzshe, Plato and Aristotle Natural vs. Supernatural Values Nietzsches Critique of Faith, Hope the analogy to art),Absurdity of Self-Creation,In add

2、ition, the radical negation of human nature is absurd: Nothing can create itself from nothingness: to create anything, the self must already exist. Hence, the self cannot create itself.,How to Interpret Sartre?,Most charitable interpretation is to take the earlier, negative statements as hyperbole (

3、intentional exaggeration for effect). We have a human nature, and that human nature is the basis for value. What, then, is Sartre rejecting?,Thick vs. Thin Conceptions of Human Nature,Key: story of the young man and the Resistance Thick conception of human nature (Aristotle): we can find a definite

4、answer, by consulting human nature and the young mans concrete situation. Which action will in fact most fully realize that nature?,A Straw Man?,Straw man version of this view: we can find a mechanical recipe for doing this. Some eudaemonistic calculating device. This is clearly not Aristotles posit

5、ion: discerning what to do requires the virtue of prudence or practical wisdom. Practical wisdom cannot be reduced to a set of instructions. It requires the exercising of sound judgment.,Sartres Thin Conception,What Sartre is clearly rejecting is this thick conception of human nature. Thin conceptio

6、n of human nature: we have a human nature, and it does provide a basis for value, but it also suffers from considerable indeterminacy.,Implications of the Thin Conception,There are many questions of value and of decision for which human nature provides no answer. We can partially define ourselves: f

7、ill in the blank slots in our nature through our own decisions. Human nature itself gives us the capacity and the responsibility of doing so.,The Young Man and the Resistance,Sartre is claiming that all the ethical insight and practical wisdom in the world does not suffice to justify a unique soluti

8、on to the young mans dilemma.,Sartre vs. Kierkegaard,Kierkegaard anticipated this problem, and Sartres solution, in The Sickness Unto Death. According to Kierkegaard, it is precisely dilemmas like the young mans that provide us the opportunity of becoming an individual self.,In the absence of such d

9、ilemmas, human beings are merely stamped out by the cookie cutter of human nature, universal ethics. We are different only to the extent that we are defective.,Kierkegaards Critique of Sartre,The problem lies in the temporality of the self. I change through time, and since my individuality is not ye

10、t fully formed, there is an element of caprice, accident and arbitrariness to these changes. I cannot now bind myself in the future.,Consequently, my attempts to form myself into an individual must fail. The individual choices by which I define myself cannot cohere into a single unity.,Temporality and Eternity,To use the analogy to a work of art: I am like a mural, each part of which is painted by a different artist. The overall work lacks u