PHIL304: Existentialism

4.3: Nietzsche's Critique of Dogma

• 4.3.1: Nietzsche's Critique of Socrates

  • Dr. Volker Gerhardt's "Philosophizing against Philosophy: Nietzsche's Provocation of the Philosophical Tradition" URL

    Read this article. Pay special attention to section 3, titled "Socrates, the Disavowed Hero." As you read, consider the following question: How is Nietzsche's critique of traditional philosophy a critique of Socrates and the Socratic tradition?
    

• 4.3.2: The Death of God

  • Friedrich Nietzsche's The Gay Science: "Parable of the Madman" URL

    Read this passage from Nietzsche's book The Gay Science. As you read, pay special attention to how Nietzsche uses the phrase "God is dead" and what this statement refers to specifically. Pay attention to the ways in which Nietzsche's remark about the death of God is not a theological statement - that is, it is not about religion. How exactly is Nietzsche's pronouncement that God is dead not a religious statement? How is Nietzsche's proclamation that "we have killed [God]" a condemnation of religion, and particularly a critique of those Western values passed down from Christianity? In other words, is God really dead, or are the values and commitments we derived from God's existence dead? 
    

• 4.3.3: Nietzsche's Liberal Nihilism

  • Dr. Allan Bloom's "Nietzsche" URL

    Listen to the first and second parts of Bloom's lecture. As you listen to the lecture, consider the following questions: What is Nietzsche's nihilism? What does Dr. Bloom mean by the phrase liberal nihilism?