Nietzsche's Beyond Good And Evil

In chapter four of Nietzsche’s book Beyond Good and Evil (Epigrams and Interludes), Nietzsche focuses on many themes and the chapter is broken down into many one liners that all focus on the philosophical thought of an individual rather than pertaining to many people. However, that is a narrow look at what Nietzsche is saying. In fact, most of these relate to our society and personal agendas in some form or fashion. He also tends to dig up things that we may dislike in others and reflects our own selves rather than just an individual, making it more personal. For example, “ The vanity of others offends our taste only when it offends our vanity.” (Nietzsche, 93) He writes on many aspects including sexuality, Christianity, and values just to name a few. He even reflects on human nature which is the topic for which I have chose to write this paper. In the same chapter Nietzsche analyses the human nature when he says “Under peaceful conditions a warlike man sets upon himself.” (Nietzsche, 81). This psychological observation of the human condition reflects the tendency of violence that we all posses. Well, we aren’t all warlike and Nietzsche doesn’t really …show more content…
His article War, Madness, and Death: The Paradox of Honor in Hobbes’s Leviathan goes in depth about the reflections that Hobbe had toward fear, honor, and how those relate to the human character. The author begins with “The Worst part of life during wartime, which is the same as the state of nature, Hobbes claims, is the ‘“continual fear, and danger of violent death”’ (McClure, 114) I disagree with this in the perspective of Nietzsche’s “warlike” character. I would say this fear of violent death plays a part in why the warlike man is so uneasy during times of peace. Otherwise, according to Hobbes, the warlike man would be content with peace, not resorting to attack