Postmodern Roots in Nietzsche’s Beyond Good and Evil
Modernism presents a number of meta-narratives, including Enlightenment rationalism and its economic counterpart, capitalism. These meta-narratives represent an attempt to explain the emergence of seemingly random socio-political systems within the western world. While Marxism presents a reactionary viewpoint, it too qualifies as a meta-narrative because it attempts to provide both a universal account for occurrences and a viable alternative paradigm. As Marxism battles rationalistic capitalism, modernity itself, along with its meta-narratives, become the target of postmodern skepticism. Indeed, Lyotard defines postmodernism as, “[…] Incredulity toward metanarratives” (356). The advent of post-modern thought typically coincides with the end of WWII, yet shades of its tenets can be found in much earlier works, such as Nietzsche’s Beyond Good and Evil (1886). By juxtaposing Nietzsche’s text with postmodern theory, we can examine Nietzsche’s probable influence on his intellectual successors.
Nietzsche begins his critique by taking aim at the people he refers to as “philosophers” (5), yet the approach of his scathing appraisal can be considered highly innovative. Instead of focusing on the validity of his predecessor’s conclusions, Nietzsche, “[…] Calls into question the very basis of philosophizing” (Holub 11). Nietzsche’s willingness to attack the act of philosophizing itself reflects the later hyperbolic postmodern doubt. Furthermore, Nietzsche’s diction in this instance is somewhat misleading, because he includes natural scientists in the same category as philosophers. As a philologist, Nietzsche loves manipulating language—especially to subtly convey a deeper meaning. Thus he likely refers to scientists as philosophers in an effort to unmask the hidden value system within an ostensibly value-neutral meta-narrative. Nietzsche’s somewhat nuanced point echoes in Lyotard’s observation about positivism: “[Science] then produces a discourse of legitimation with respect to its own status, a discourse called philosophy”(354). Lyotard’s insight seems to be an attempt to explicitly state what Nietzsche merely implies. Similarities between the two texts are so striking—that it’s nearly impossible to assume that the former does not inspire the latter.
Although Nietzsche lacks Lyotard’s directness, he hints at the existence of multiple meta-narratives. In his chapter on philosophers, Nietzsche states that, “It now may be dawning on five or six thinkers that even physics is only a way of interpreting or arranging the world (if [he] may say so: according to [him and his brethren]) and not a way of explaining the world”(15). Here Nietzsche clearly distinguishes physic’s supposedly objective emphasis on the empirical from its place within the value-laden scientific meta-narrative. Essentially, Nietzsche’s recognizing the presence of the meta-narrative, though he stops short of labeling the overarching framework as such. Additionally, Nietzsche becomes notorious for his identification and subsequent rejection of the religious meta-narrative: “Being religious and finding a religious significance to life sheds sunshine on the constantly afflicted people, even enabling them to bear the sight of themselves; it has the same effect as the Epicurean philosophy tends to have an a higher class of sufferer: refreshing, purifying, exploiting suffering, as it were, and ultimately even sanctifying and justifying it” (55). This passage illuminates another of Nietzsche’s contributions to post-modernism, because in it he articulates the oppressive nature of the religious meta-narrative. Nietzsche probably isn’t the first to discover the repressiveness of religion, but his description of the systematic way in which the religious meta-narrative enslaves its adherents undoubtedly plants the seeds of ensuing postmodern cynicism.
Works Cited
Holub, Robert C. “Introduction to Beyond Good and Evil.” Beyond Good and Evil. Friedrich Nietzsche. Trans. Marion Faber. Oxford University Press, New York, 1998.
Lyotard, Jean-Francois. “The Postmodern Condition.” Literary Theory: An Anthology. Eds. Julie Rivkin and Michael Ryan. Blackwell Publishing, Maldon, Ma, 2004.
Nietzsche, Friedrich. Beyond Good and Evil. Trans. Marion Faber. Oxford University Press, New York, 1998.
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