Moving Beyond Good and Evil
The overarching theme of this work is Nietzsche’s contention that progress is impossible in the face of acquiescence to conventional notions of morality and ethics. Since those values were created by men for the purpose of controlling the masses, the only way forward progression of civilization can ever be possible is if there are people of courage willing to trust their own instinct and then act on that instinct. In this way, progress moves beyond contemporary notions of good and evil to establish a new set values which must, in turn, eventually be rejected and moved beyond by a new breed of people acting on their instincts.
Creativity Is Rebellion
Another important element that take civilization and society beyond good and evil to the next evolutionary step in values is creativity. True creativity cannot be reactionary; by definition any artistic work that serves merely to reproduce the prevailing dominant ideology is neither creative nor artistic. Creativity, it should be noted, is more than mere artistic expression. When Nietzsche speaks of living creatively, he is not limiting that only to artists. Everyone has the power to live as an artist; indeed, a foundation tenet of Nietzsche’s philosophy is that every person should make should make the effort to give style to their character which they can then use to fashion their entire life into an artistic statement. This is only possible, of course, if one is committed to re-interpreting conventional values to to align with this style and artistic statement. In other words, one must be rebel in order to be creative.
Science Is Judgment
Nietzsche is very distrustful of the scientific mind. His conclusion is that factual evidence has too often been subjugated to the external influences which has the result of obstructing judgment. Scientific investigations thus have become too susceptible to the prejudices and fears that that such investigations inevitably stimulate. To realize that that Nietzsche’s fears have hardly been overcome in the more than a century since he warned against this potential, one need only look at the way that climate change and global warning has become a victim of prejudice and fear to the point that overwhelming consensus within the scientific community has been so corrupted that an astonishing percentage of the population honestly believes the evidence remains “inconclusive.” Nietzsche would look at such a situation not flaw of intelligence on the public’s part, but a lack of character on the part of the scientific community for being weak enough to allow the power of their will to be denied.
Trusting Your Gut
Beyond Good and Evil is also suspicious of reason. Logical reasoning too often arrives at the destination of justifying the existing morality which thus inhibits action. Reasoning is all very well and good, if it does not merely serve to reinforce existing ideas which in turn makes one question one’s instinct that that existing ideas are flawed. Reason, Nietzsche is essentially saying, can be both logical and deeply flawed. When the connection that is made by connecting the dots goes against one’s instinctual intuition that the conclusion is flawed or wrong, one must be courageous enough to trust in that gut feeling. If one truly trusts their gut is right and all the reasoned arguments are wrong, it is then incumbent upon the individual to act on the instinct even when that instinct flies in the face of reason and brings on criticism and distrust. Of course, it is extremely important to note here that Nietzsche is talking about trusting instinct on intangibles like morality and values. Facts and logical reasoning, in other words, are not necessarily the same thing.
We Are All Liars
Within Beyond Good and Evil, Nietzsche elaborates on how we only take in select portions of information, and “guess” the rest. He uses two phenomenal examples to show this, firstly, he discusses how, when we read a book or passage, we do not take in every word. He estimates we take in around 5 out of 20 words, not digesting the rest and so filling in the blanks to try to gain the main message, often with it ending up convoluted, or wrong. Furthermore, he speaks of how when one gazes upon a tree, one sees not the trees leaves, color, or shape, but merely the outline of a tree, for which we fill the rest up with preconceived notions and prior knowledge. People often desire to be knowledgeable about a certain topic, however, such people usually never see past the superficial and the surface level and thus they make do with what splotchy knowledge they have, filling in the blanks with what they “think” must be true, often being fueled by bias and ignorance.
