[LBO-talk] Master Morality (was Nietzsche: free will)
Yoshie Furuhashi critical.montages at gmail.com Mon Jun 11 06:58:10 PDT 2007
Yoshie writes:
A Nietzschean Marxist might say that, since "it is the peculiar _right of masters_ to create values" (Beyond Good and Evil), the working class must first become masters, think and act as masters, learn the art of honor, in order to create the values they want to create, of which responsibility may or may not be one, which is the essence of the dictatorship of the proletariat.
To my mind a Nietzschean Marxist is a contradiction in terms -- Marx is Aristotelian. I don't think it is the right of masters to create values -- we discover them, as is the case with the Golden Rule. That is why we talk of natural justice's being violated, or its requiring due procedure.
However, Nietzsche may well be right in what he attacks -- for instance the dogma (to my mind a Protestant, not a Catholic one) that human nature is bad. But I do not agree with his methods. For instance his denial of free will (and blame) is tied to the defence of domination on the grounds that it is as natural and necessary (and as little motivated by evil) as the eagle's preying on the lamb.
I agree with Yoshie that the working class and the oppressed peoples need honour --Marx said that in its struggle the working class would need its honour more than it would need bread. He often used that concept and the concept of nobility. But the purpose of the dictatorship of the proletariat would be to abolish the social structures which require the power of some human beings over others, which Nietzsche patently did not want.
James Daly