I might have expected you to reply to my comments by clarifying your interpretation of Nietzsche's use of the terms "instinct" and "race". I didn't think you seemed the sort who's reluctant to expound.The rest of your commentary includes too many questions. Could we limit ourselves to one? — David Mo
I had asked how your interpretation of Nietzsche at one point in your discussion "jives" with your interpretation of Nietzsche at another point in your discussion. Here are excerpts from the two passages:My sentence referred to someone's Darwinian interpretation of the distinction between Nietzsche's "two races": the servants and the lords. I tried to explain that Nietzsche did not understand the will to power in terms of the survival of the fittest. Noble men are strong in excellence not in ability for survival. — David Mo
Nietzsche's racism divides humanity into two: races of lords and races of servants. Lords are dominant, individualistic, violent and instinctive. Servants are intellectual, weak, resentful, moralistic and religious. Lords are healthy, servants are ill. Aryans were masters in the past; Jews are a race of servants.
But these races do not exist in a pure state now. History has mixed them up. Therefore, the battle between lordship and servitude occurs in the same man.[....]
Nietzsche believed that he was the prophet of a new race - he was not very modest, I insist - in which the instinct of power would definitely triumph. The overmen. This is another story. — David Mo
On my reading, the first passage suggests that Nietzsche's talk of "race" does indeed involve some conception of distinct biological lineages or "stocks" -- feel free to supply your favorite term here -- at least some of which he characterized as "races of masters" and "races of servants", exemplified by Aryans and Jews.To summarize: "power", "strong", "lord", "life" refer to individual and vital forces that oppose the concept of species in biological Darwinism or of nation and race in social Darwinism. That's why he hated German antisemitism. — David Mo
An excellent point. I agree.Talking about race and culture doesn’t make the author ‘racist’. — I like sushi
It remains to be seen in our conversation how this attitude you've attributed to Nietzsche is manifest in his views on race.He openly deplores racism and calls the German attitudes of the time something like the ‘lowest’ because they think of groups of people’s as being the same — I like sushi
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