Twilight of the idols by Friedrich Nietzsche Essay - 1

Twilight of the idols by Friedrich Nietzsche - Essay Example In the critique of this view, I have given a counter argument to demonstrate that Nietzsche is indeed wrong in his ethical worldview. Nietzsche’s critique of Traditional Christian morality can be summarized as follows. According to Nietzsche, the defining characteristic of human being is the will to life, or will to power as he variously called it. For this reason, Nietzsche argued that the main drive in human actions is the will to power or the will to life. Nietzsche saw human actions as flowing from the desire of human beings to live. To support this view, Nietzsche contended that while it is possible for human beings to forgo any other treasures of life, it is not actually possible to forgo the desire to live. Nietzsche therefore concluded that the will to power is the main driving force in human actions. The second element of Nietzsche’s view of ethics and critique of traditional Christian morality is the view that the true human ethics must be life affirming. By affirming life here Nietzsche meant that true human morality must be compatible with the human beings’ will to power. For this reason, therefore, Nietzsche contended that true ethics must be unrestrictive; restrictions hinder human beings from pursuing life itself, i.e. the will to life. For Nietzsche, therefore, nothing should be forbidden in life as long as furthers human beings will to power. Nietzsche argued that this kind of ethics will enable human beings to become superman (Ubermensch). For this reason, therefore, Nietzsche saw traditional Christian morality as anti-natural because it tries to exterminate natural passions. In other words, Nietzsche saw the traditional Christian morality as being against the nature of human beings because it discourages being led by our passions in making moral decisions ; Nietzsche saw Christian morality as a fiction (Nietzsche).