Nehamas on Nietzsche: Chapter 7 - Essay Example

Nehamas on Nietzsche: Ch. 7 In the chapter en d "Beyond Good and Evil," Nehamas discusses Nietzsche's campaign against morality. Nehamas s that "Nietzsche believes that morality, like life itself, is immoral, he also believes that we can only act immorally, whether we like it or not" (Nehamas 1985). The reason behind this idea is that Nietzsche believed that it was impossible for a system of morality to be established without breaking the laws it is set up t uphold. While there are many ways to interpret the phrase "Beyond Good and Evil," the most appropriate and wide reaching implication of the statement is the terms moral and immoral and without meaning.

Nehamas does not take this meaning of the phrase into consideration as he instead focuses on how "to be beyond good and evil is to combine all of one's features and qualities, whatever their traditional moral value, into a controlled and coherent whole." One of Nietzsche's precursors in this matter is Machiavelli, who many people found disturbing because his political writings, such as The Prince, concentrated on how things are instead of developing an ideal society that sounds good on paper but could never really exist.

Nietzsche also concentrated on how things were instead of on how things should be. Under such a system it becomes important to realize how meaningless certain ideas are, such as morality and immorality. Nehamas states that "To show that something is immoral, even if that is morality itself, is therefore not at all to show that it must be rejected." However, it would be meaningless to reject either morality or immorality if they are without meaning. If, as Nehamas states, that morality does not need to be rejected because of immoral means by which to accomplish it, then there really is no point in accepting an idea such as morality.

For a term to include its negation, both of the terms lose their meaning. A term without meaning is of no consequence, especially in consideration of whether the term should be accepted or rejected. Instead of morality, a new term needs to be developed.Machiavelli understood the futility of the act of developing an ideal system which could never actually take place, such as the one that Plato developed in The Republic. Nietzsche simply took this idea even further by stating that the reason that these utopian, ideal states cannot exist is because of the impossibility of a true morality in its traditional sense.

This is why it is so important to take the idea of being "Beyond Good and Evil." By moving beyond these terms, it is possible to move beyond the restraints that have been placed on societies. By people insisting on living in a society whose rules are based on words without any real meaning, we will be stuck in a contradictory system that attempts to punish people for being themselves. Society will not be able to grow and develop beyond its limited means if people are unable to let go of terms such as morality and immorality.

Instead of taking into consideration that Nietzsche did not feel that the rejection of morality because of its inherent immorality was necessary, we should consider the extent to which this attitude itself limits people's abilities to move beyond good and evil.Works CitedNehamas, Alexander (1985) Nietzsche: Life as Literature. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press.