Nietzsche's Criticism Of American Philosophy

Improved Essays
Cultural critic and German philosopher, Friedrich Nietzsche, in “Section I: On the Prejudices of Philosophers,” Nietzsche starts by criticizing at numerous philosophical concepts that originated from respected philosophers that made an influence to the branches of philosophy (Epistemology, Metaphysics, Ethics, and etcetera). However, one should consider that Nietzsche’s criticisms are not based out of randomness, instead to determine which philosopher holds the strongest argument. For instance, Nietzsche questions Rene Descartes concept of “I think, therefore I am,” to comprehend where the “I” originated from (Descartes). To elaborate, Descartes assumes that an “I” would produce every part of our judgements that remain formulated through rationality

Related Documents

  • Improved Essays

    Music in America is known for being incredibly diverse; even within the many genres of music, there are thousands of playing styles embedded in its culture. In his article, “United States of America”, Richard Crawford goes through the roots of America’s music by tracing the styles and genres all the way back to the eighteenth century. He argues that all American music is made through the combination of two different cultures or genres. Another author, Laura Keith, builds on his argument in her work, “Cultural Diversity”, which specifically uses African American music to argue the same point as Crawford, except she focuses on convincing the reader that students need to be taught about these diverse songs. Crawford’s article is not very effective in convincing the reader of his point because he essentially only spouts off facts, briefly using logos and diction to strengthen the backbone of his argument, but is not successful in making any strong points.…

    • 997 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    I want to start off by saying that Friedrich Nietzsche was one of the more complicated philosophers that I ever had pleasure of studying. What I took away from Friedrich Nietzsche opinions on the death of God is that he was referring to the declining belief and respect for God or religion in general. Nietzsche felt that with the loss of religion the west would lose its distinctive cultural identity. Friedrich Nietzsche was not a big fan of Christianity to say the least, but he still understood its importance and its benefits to the culture. Friedrich Nietzsche, in my humble opinion had a strange outlook on morality.…

    • 388 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    He sees the opinions and views of both philosophers but does not always agree with both…

    • 1487 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In conclusion, I will present the concise summary of what I wrote in this essay. Friedrich Nietzsche was a German specialist and philosopher that was conceived in the mid-nineteenth century. His book, Beyond Good and Evil was one of the last books he composed, during the time of 1886 to…

    • 952 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    The German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche’s book On the Genealogy of Morals covers three different themes in its text. The first topic is morality. The second topic is punishment. The third topic is power. Based off of these topics there are different arguments that stem from them.…

    • 1221 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    “From where in the human head did logic arise? Certainly from the illogical, whose domain must originally have been tremendous.” (Guignon/Pereboom, pp. 136). In the first sentences of Nietzsche’s aphorism “source of the logical” Nietzsche establishes his original style of writing as he introduces the topic of discussion. The commencement has a sort of elegance to it mainly due to the contradictory connotations implied. Nietzsche’s unique way of writing leaves plenty of room for personal interpretations and, as a result, a few key concepts arise. Is Nietzsche referencing an evolutionary perspective? Stating that the logical part of the brain developed through natural selection out of a large illogical part.…

    • 1034 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Decent Essays

    Excellent article, because simply being an international student is difficult, on top of our already complex culture and language. Assimilation assistance must come from numerous sources to aid these young people embarking on their life’s journey. Most struggle in their efforts and need guidance from schools’ international departments, immigration protection, host families, concerned neighbors and fellow students, and even informative books to extend a cultural helping hand so we all have a win-win situation. An award-winning worldwide book/ebook that reaches out to help anyone coming to the US is "What Foreigners Need To Know About America From A To Z: How to Understand Crazy American Culture, People, Government, Business, Language and…

    • 278 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Great Essays

    Critique of Reason Through a Nietzschean Lens Reason has arguably been the driving force behind most popular philosophies since the peak of the Greco-Roman era thousands of years ago. The works of philosophers of reason, like Plato, who Nietzsche fervently critiques, have laid the groundwork for many of his ideological successors to proving reason to be the ultimate goal of all philosophy - a way to explain the unknown world and utilize knowledge as a means to quantify and qualify existence. Reason, no doubt, is critical to philosophical thought; however, it’s reached a point where the questions reason poses overpower intuitive and emotional philosophizing that favors a deeper understanding of oneself, one’s desires, and one’s relationship…

    • 1873 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    John Stuart Mill and Friedrich Nietzsche both analyzed the outlooks fostered by the ancients, Christianity and modern morality in regard to the qualities of character that each group developed. The two men held similar views regarding the Christians and modern morality believing that each was creating a herd like mentality where individualism was being suppressed. The two interestingly differed on their view of the ancients, where Nietzsche disagreed with their rationality, Mill praised their individualism. For starters, Nietzsche viewed the character that each society developed in the context of whether or not they fostered the will to power. Will to power for Nietzsche was the driving force of man, and he believed that any hindrance or alteration…

    • 996 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Decent Essays

    I personally do not think Americanism should be promoted in my school or community because America is a wreck. I have a suggestion on how to “Make America Great Again.” How about some laws against the use of guns? In the last week, this country has had another mass shooting at a Florida high school, killing 17 people. Innocent lives are being lost; many of those being young with their whole lives ahead of them.…

    • 259 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Improved Essays

    His motivation for a focus on the individual arrived from his faith in Christianity, deplacement with modern Christendom, and being a reactory to Hegel’s historical and political philosophies. Kierkegaard saw the individual to be of the most importance when evaluating concepts such as truth and religion because Kierkegaard saw all truth to be a subjective phenomenon; therefore, every philosophical system can only be true insofar as it allows for the individual to reach the individual's version of truth; for Kierkegaard, truth was found by a “leap of faith” into the religious life. Nietzsche, on the other hand, did not believe that there was truth for the individual, and that the individual was to create the individual's own truth. Nietzsche held the individual in high esteem, in other words, because he believed for the individual to be the only one that can choose to live the good life and he/she does this by willing to power himself over all other obstacles in his/her…

    • 1147 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    This splitting between theoretical methods and fields gives Foucault his importance, he is believed to have started the beginning of works in many fields like philosophy, sociology, and cultural studies. Nietszche maintains an similar position to Foucault’s, but since Nietzsche writings were before Foucault it is fitting that Foucault brings out the contributions of Nietzsche. Both Philosophers overlap theories and ideas because they deal not only with similar writings, but are fixated with one major component which is power. Foucault believed that Nietzsche’s theory, that power controls the sequence of history, was correct, and disagreed with other philosophers such as Hegel who believed that the global mind creates the history and future of…

    • 730 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    There are many American myths, there is the idea that one will have a better life the moment they can work in the land of opportunity. One of the longest standing American Myths is the idea that there is a definition to the word American. There is also the myth that people define what it means to be American. As explored by Jean Paul- Sartre “Americans and their Myths”, both of these ideas are false. Sartre begins his article with an interesting idea, that we cannot agree what it means to be American.…

    • 1001 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Nietzsche says that language is created by humans when they take an outside factor and internalize it to fit their own understanding. From this process comes the formation of concepts, and everything that fits that concept is deemed a truth while everything that falls outside of those…

    • 887 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The commonality with the mentioned philosopher is that their…

    • 936 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays