What does Nietzsche mean when he says that God is dead? Is he right?

Nietzsches idea that God is dead is one of the most famous philosophical sound bites. Those who have heard nothing of Nietzsches reams of philosophy will have doubtless heard of his idea that God is dead. As such, a prima facie understanding could lead to the conclusion that Nietzsche is making a contentious statement that provocatively declares his atheism. However, Nietzsche is offering more than an attack on God in this statement. Throughout this essay I am going to argue that by saying God is dead Nietzsche is not attempting to provide any discussion involving the possible existence or non-existence of God (for Nietzsche there is no question in the matter). Instead what God is dead means is an attack on truth, a representation of the underlying nihilism of European and Western philosophical culture and a discussion of the implications following the death of God. Nietzsches (self-professed) nihilism is thus offered as the problem of the death of God but through his understanding of eternal recurrence and Amor fati Nietzsche offers a solution to the meaninglessness and purposelessness of nihilism. The context of the question is he right? therefore needs to be understood a bit further; I shall take this to mean, is Nietzsche right when he says that following the death of God nihilism is inescapable and that there must be a moral revaluation1 in the absence of some higher transcendent ideal? Whilst Nietzsche offers a concise, fundamental understanding of what true nihilism involves, his proposition of meaning through eternal recurrence seems somewhat unsatisfactory. Nietzsche attempts to sever lies in systematic philosophy using a philosopher proper2 method, however, in doing so he subscribes to his own system. Although he would not agree and his nihilistic understanding of truth and eternal recurrence are (for him) independent of philosophical system3, they appear to form a philosophical system of their own. As Danto writes, Nietzsche sees himself as free from any philosophical system, radicalspontaneousirrational, but his work does have an identifiable quality, so surely there is a system in the uniqueness.4 Therefore I shall argue that within the framework of nihilism, Nietzsches claim that God is dead, is both correct and useful, providing an interesting account of the human reliance on an ultimate truth. Outside of this Nietzsche is not concerned with the legitimacy of his claim that God is dead, for him, it is not at all a personal confession of atheism or loss of faith; nor

Kaufmann, W.A. The death of God and the revaluation. In Nietzsche: Philosopher, psychologist, antichrist (Princeton: Princeton University, 1974) pp.96-120 2 Ibid. p.108 3 Richardson, J. Nietzsches System (Oxford: Oxford University Press Publishing, 1996) pp. 223-284 4 Danto, A.C. Philosophical Nihilism in Nietzsche: Philosopher, psychologist, antichrist (New York: Columbia Press, 1965) pp. 19-35

is it so for the various characters who make this proclamation. Rather, it is for Nietzsche, a cultural and historical event.5 As Danto points out, understanding the true meaning of the recurring God is dead theme throughout Nietzsche is somewhat difficult. Nietzsche appears to have no structure, no rigidity and no development in his writing that could lead us to an understanding of what he is trying to say about the death of God overall. Attempting to piece together the various bits of Nietzsches philosophy is approached by Danto who correctly acknowledges that Nietzsches nihilism is connected through his use of aphorisms to his doctrines as identifiable and untamperable.6 What Danto shows, therefore, is that in the unique method of writing that Nietzsche expresses he forms some sort of philosophical format that displays his nihilism. Having established this let us now look at the context in which the phrase God is dead is placed. The first appearance in Nietzsche is to be found in his book The Gay Science in a fictional parable entitled The madman. Nietzsche sets the story in a time where many of those who did not believe in God laugh at a madman running through the streets exclaiming I seek God! I seek God! and finally claiming that God is dead. God remains dead. And we have killed him.7 The implications of this statement are further outlined by the madman; Are we not continually plunging, is there still any up or downwhat festivals of atonement, what sacred games shall we have to invent?8 Through this parable Nietzsche articulates the problem with the death of God, and I shall deal with this in four areas. Firstly, by understanding Nietzsches argument as a polemic to Western contemporary philosophical thought, then by understanding Nietzsches true nihilism following the death of God. Thirdly, I shall deal the human need for God before, finally, investigating the issue of the absence of truth. Nietzsche is keen to criticise the philosophical failings of others throughout his work. Indeed, he argues that the problem with contemporary philosophy is his underlying belief that humans continually subscribe to beliefs in order to protect their sense of dignity and importance. He believes that this belief or worldview becomes inseparable from philosophical reasoning, and uses it as a fundamental reason for not accepting the moral doctrines of others. He states, error is spread unnecessarily when moral doctrines, which are vitiated by personal bias or a compromise with state or church, are allowed to become the basis for metaphysical or epistemological considerations.9 This is his problem with moral doctrines posed by the likes of Kant, Hegel and Schopenhauer as it is with philosophy in general. As such, Nietzsche seeks a philosophy outside of this traditional realm, in
5 6

Cox, C. Nietzsche: Naturalism and Interpretation (California: University of California Press, 1999) p.16 Danto, A. p27 7 Nietzsche, F The Gay Science (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001) para. 125 8 Ibid. para. 125 9 Kaufmann, W.A p.107

the light of the non-existence of God which he, himself terms nihilism. Nietzsches nihilism therefore attempts to go beyond any constraints of personal beliefs or truths. This is to be done by the philosopher proper, the genuine philosopher, a poet and collector and travellera moralist and seerand free spirit.10 It is the job of the philosopher proper to first accept true nihilism, before moving through it towards meaning in the face of absolute meaninglessness. The God is dead statement, argues Cox, is a radical reconstruction of previous Western and European philosophical thought11, it marks the renouncement of Western philosophy by Nietzsche as he moves beyond their questions even to the point of rejecting the possibility of truth.12 Cox continues by saying the death of God serves to place human beings squarely within the natural world as creatures like any other and without special ontological status; Rejecting the peculiar origins and functions of such features as reason, morality, logic and language.13 Nietzsche instead attempts to provide hypothetical, contingent and pragmatic explanations of their origins and functions that draw upon resources of physiology, psychology, history, sociology and evolutionary theory.14 Having established Nietzsches desire to depart from traditional philosophical thought, I shall now give an account of Nietzsches nihilism, that is a product of the madmans cries of God is deadWe are all his murderers.15 Following the death of God the question stands, what remains if there is no God? Cox states that the death of God inevitably leads to naturalism, that is, rejection of all other unworldly frameworksa re-situation and being within the world of life, nature and history.16 The madman does not offer an explanation of how he has come to know God is dead, the fact is, God is dead. It is from here that we understand what Nietzsche is attempting to show-not that one day people will turn around and say God is no longer a part of life, rather that humanity will discover the absence of God and need to fill the hole it leaves to avoid nihilism. Nietzsche amplifies and reconstitutes contemporary nihilism in order to reach his true understanding of what nihilism is. Schopenhauers philosophy on the nihilism of emptiness conveys the view that there is no absolute, and attachment to the absolute is attachment to an illusion. Although Nietzsche agrees with this he expresses his understanding that there is no perfect world or perfect form; the nihilist is a man who judges the world as it is that it ought not to be, and of the world that as it ought to be that it does not exist.17 Schopenhauers nihilism of emptiness attempts to establish purpose from
10 11

Ibid. p. 108 Cox, C. p.16 12 Cox, C. p.17 13 The tools of contemporary Western philosophy as used by commentators such Kant, Hume, Hegel and Schopenhauer. 14 Cox, C. p. 75 15 Nietzsche, F. The Gay Science para. 125 16 Cox, C. p.57 17 Nietzsche, F. The Will to Power (New York: Random House Inc., 1968) para 585

without18 through habit and the belief that the world is not as it ought to be, whereas Nietzsche is keen to impress that true nihilism does not believe the world has been intended to be in any way, it is completely purposeless and as such there is no right or wrong way in which the world ought to be. Furthermore, Nietzsche counteracts the Russian understanding of nihilism as expressed in nihilism of negativity19. Russian nihilism, states Danto, also relies on the approval of an external authority whilst rejecting morals and values. Essentially Russian nihilism appears to be the first attempted escape from institutionalised religion in favour of a nihilistic worldview. It is Nietzsche, however, that takes both nihilism of emptiness and nihilism of negativity to produce his own true nihilism formed of pessimism and joy. Nietzsches pessimistic nihilism is most obvious in his numerous renditions of God is dead. The madman asks the question Is there still any up or down? suggesting the chaos associated with accepting the death of God-for all of mankind. The death of God is an act of Silean wisdom, in that it reveals the terrifying absurdity and purposelessness of human life.20 Indeed, the death of God is used by Nietzsche to explain the lack of the absolute, the lack of morality and the lack of meaning and purpose as there is no true world-no ultimate reality in which to frame ones life. Danto expresses Nietzsches nihilism as follows; to say the world is valueless is the same as attempting to ascribe weights to numbers. It is not to say that the number 2 is weightless, and it is not to say the number 2 is light, instead it is senseless to assign any weight at all. Value, for Nietzsche has no place in the world, neither does meaning nor purpose. Nihilism is, for Nietzsche, the inevitable result of the death of God for those who truly understand what it is for God to be dead. Indeed, as the madman asks must we ourselves not become gods simply to appear worthy of it? The madman exemplifies one who has understood the death of God, realised the implications (the purposelessness of life) and attempted to leave nihilism in the most common, innately human way; by expressing his need for God. Kaufmann writes, man often craves religious certainty in direct proportion to his profound and tormenting doubts, and it appears that humanity does indeed feel some urge to place an authoritative figure at the head of its worldview. Nietzsche is not just limiting the need for God to actually being the creator-God, but also reason, morality, logic and truth.21 As Fraser points out, only God-or something God-like-is able to fill the hole left by Gods death. Even the nihilist can understand the need for God, Fraser argues that even Nietzsches thought is shaped by a powerful, almost overwhelming sense of the need for redemption, coupled with a devastating critique of the provenance of that need and the pathologies

18 19

Danto, A p.31 Ibid. p. 30 20 Fraser, G. Redeeming Nietzsche: On the Piety of Unbelief (New York: Routledge, 2002) p. 61 21 Cox, C. p.57

inherent within it.22 The murder of God and the need to fill his place with something to live by is Nietzsches underlying problem with Russian nihilism. Here, the absence of God is filled with the following of science, which for Nietzsche is a set of convenient fictions, useful conventions, which has as little basis in reality as any alleged set of fictions which might be though to conflict with it.23 Simply substituting in something seemingly more worthy or factually accurate in the place of God is incoherent for Nietzsche. What is needed therefore is Nietzsches true nihilism, the understanding that there is nothing besides existence; the idea that human life requires some source of meaning external to itself is both false and ultimately degrading.24 Just as God is dead, Nietzsche believes that there is no ultimate truth-no referent that expresses some form of Cartesian absolute perfection, by which imperfection can be known. Nietzsche believes that our entire model of thought is based on the belief in a better world, or a perfect world which legitimises our belief that there is truth25. The truth for Nietzsche therefore, is in untruth-it is the understanding that there is no absolute, and no ensuing truths. Fraser explains this development as such; Nietzsche is about facing the truth that God is dead and that purposelessness and meaninglessness ensue. But instead of truth offering salvation, it is actually that from which we need saving. In other words, understanding the truth about truth leads to nihilism and valuelessness; essentially Truth is dead. We are left then, with a choice, either to accept that the truth damns us (using Frasers terminology) to nihilism and purposelessness or we can live in illusion and in our minds be saved. Instead of attacking the truth of God, Nietzsche questions the very notion of truth itself. His concern is the fact that truth requires a stable reality persisting beneath or behind the change visible around us26, states Richardson, and as this cannot be the case for Nietzsche, the notion of truth is subsequently denied. Instead of absolute truth, Nietzsche argues from the position of perspectivism; that truth is the position of errors relative to one another. Certain errors tyrannise27 over society for such an extended period of time that they become needed, and this is where Nietzsche leaves God. With this in mind, humanity is left, following the death of God, in a purposeless existence without value or meaning. Nietzsche, however, believes there is the opportunity to rescue oneself from nihilism; through revaluation. In order to do this, he proposes as an alternative to religious views that seek

22 23

Fraser, G. pp. 141-154 Danto, A. C. p.30 24 Fraser, G. p.73 25 Danto, A.C. p.35 26 Richardson, J. p.224 27 Danto, A.C. 56

lifes meaning in an afterlife, an immanent appreciation of this life in aesthetic terms.28 This revaluation, states Kaufmann is not about asserting a new moral code or establishing any kind of value, it is, the alleged discovery that our morality is, by its own standards, poisonously immoral: that Christian love is the mimicry of impotent hatred; that most unselfishness is but a particularly vicious form of selfishness; and that ressentiment29 is at the core of our morals.30 Nietzsches revaluation takes the form of Amor fati (the love of fate) in the face of eternal recurrence. The doctrine of eternal recurrence in book 4 of The Gay Science and Thus Spoke Zarathustra was, by Nietzsches revival (from Greek myth) the suggestion (and vehement belief from Nietzsche) that time was both eternal and cyclical; that every moment-in the absence of anything other-is repeated and experienced continually for eternity. If this is the case, as Nietzsche believes it is, then there does appear to be some way of escaping from nihilism. Bernd Magnus suggests that if one can genuinely affirm eternal recurrence, one considers ones life intrinsically valuable, worth living over and over again.31 This should be done, not according to any moral-archetype, of which there is none, but instead to follow a Dionysian path of Amor fati. Throughout The Birth of Tragedy Nietzsche explains that his nihilism revives his Dionysian nature, that of pursuing pleasure (Dionysus being the Greek god of wine, religious ecstasy and what we may call hedonism now). Amor fati, continues along these lines, facing a world without purpose it is the cycle of life that is to be enjoyed-to its fullest. With no meaning or purpose this leaves humanity in a delicate position. With no objective truth and no referent Nietzsche appears to leave the door open for a dramatic amount of interpretation. The reader is left to conclude what he should do, and to what lengths he can go, given that Nietzsche is encouraging the consolation32 that sin provides. What can be seen therefore is that Nietzsches claim God is dead, is not a statement of defiant atheism, God, states Fraser, is not the target, but patterns of thought inscribed into European culture by Christian soteriology.33 It is at the same time a refusal of traditional notions of truth, philosophical system and morality. While he was keenly aware of the sense in which the existence of God might diminish the value of man, he also felt that the death of God threatened human life with a complete loss of all significance.34 Having established this, Nietzsche attempts to offer a solution to the problem by use of eternal recurrence and the joyous nihilism experience in the

28

Magnus, B. & Higgins, K. (eds.) The Cambridge Companion to Nietzsche (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press) pp. 223-252 29 Hostility directed to that which causes underlying conflict. 30 Kaufamn p.113 31 Magnus, B. Nietzsches Existential Imperative (Indiana: Indiana University Press, 1978) p.37 32 Nietzsche, F. Thus Spoke Zarathustra 73, The Higher Man (London: Penguin Books, 1961) para.5 33 Fraser,G. p. 73. 34 Kaufmann p.101

enjoyment of lifes eternal cycle. Nietzsche satisfies himself with his claim that God is dead, he rightly arrives at a true nihilism and he is incredibly accurate on the human need for some moralreferent. However, his Dionysian solution through eternal recurrence is not satisfactory, he himself, falls victim to deification and subscription to a system and, in a senseNietzsches philosophyis about the founding of a new sort of religion; at least, he invents a new and very exclusive conception of salvation which is disguised as anti-religion.35 So Nietzsche is right, from the nihilists understanding. However, the subscription to belief is something intrinsic to human existence whether founded on truth or not. (3059 Words)

Bibliography:
Cox, C. Nietzsche: Naturalism and Interpretation (California: University of California Press, 1999) Danto, A.C. Philosophical Nihilism in Nietzsche: Philosopher, psychologist, antichrist (New York: Columbia Press, 1965) Fraser, G. Redeeming Nietzsche: On the Piety of Unbelief (New York: Routledge, 2002) Kaufmann, W.A. The death of God and the revaluation. In Nietzsche: Philosopher, psychologist, antichrist (Princeton: Princeton University, 1974) Magnus, B. Nietzsches Existential Imperative (Indiana: Indiana University Press, 1978) Magnus, B. & Higgins, K. (eds.) The Cambridge Companion to Nietzsche (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press) Nietzsche, F. The Gay Science (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001) Nietzsche, F. The Will to Power (New York: Random House Inc., 1968) Nietzsche, F. Thus Spoke Zarathustra 73, The Higher Man (London: Penguin Books, 1961) Richardson, J. Nietzsches System (Oxford: Oxford University Press Publishing, 1996)

35

Ibid. p.145