Study Questions for Nietzsche, Twilight of the Idols, pp. 72-92

1. Section 37: Why according to Nietzsche are “we moderns” tenderer, less cruel, and more committed to equal rights than were the people of the Renaissance? Why does he seem to think that this is a bad thing? What do you think?

2. Section 38: Freedom must be fought for to have value – so, presumably, those of us lucky enough to be borne in a free society have little appreciation of freedom, and thus are not really free. (We are too soft to be really free.) Do you agree?

3. Section 39: “Obviously modern marriage has lost all rationality” – What characteristics does Nietzsche identify as the basis of the ‘rationality’ of traditional marriage? Have we lost them? Do you agree that marriage has lost its ‘rationality’ by losing these features?

4. Section 40: With respect to the working class: “if one wills to have slaves, one is a fool to educate them to be masters.” Here Nietzsche continues his critique of the modern ideal of equality (equal rights). Are you willing to accept the proposition that some people should be educated (as we might now say) to be leaders and others should be educated to be followers? If not, why not?

5. Section 41: “In times like ours, depending on one’s instincts is just another disaster.” Why? So what must we do?

6. Section 42: What ‘truths’ do you think Nietzsche has in mind when he says (of philosophers), “they know what they have to prove . . .”? (Think of Descartes.) Do you agree that this means that they lack integrity?

7. Section 45: “[The criminal’s] virtues are banned by society.” What virtues? Do you think that Nietzsche really thinks that it would be a good idea to let criminal types act out these ‘virtues’? Do you agree that “almost all the forms of existence that we single out for praise today” were once regarded as criminal?

8. Section 47: Why is “Christianity ... the greatest misfortune of humanity up to now”? In what way did the Greeks have the right idea?

9. Section 48: Equality criticized again – What do you think of Nietzsche’s claim that true justice would say “Never make unequals equal”?

10. Section 49: Note the description (first paragraph on p.84) of Goethe’s conception of a free human being. Can we take this as Nietzsche’s own ideal? What do you think of it, as an ideal?

11. “What I Owe to the Ancients”: Nietzsche again expresses his preference for “the bold realism and immoralism” of the older Greeks over “the simpleminded uprightness of the Socratic schools.” What do you think he means by ‘realism’?

12. He also expresses his admiration for “the Dionysian.” How does he explain the Dionysian, and how does he contrast it with Christian attitudes toward sexuality?

13. Note: Nietzsche refers several times to “the eternal recurrence.” This doctrine, expounded at greatest length in his Thus Spoke Zarathustra, holds that since the universe is finite, but time is infinite, everything that is happening now must have happened before and will happen again, endlessly, and exactly as it is now happening. In the face of this “terrible fact,” we must find the strength to say “yes,” and to live in such a way that we can accept that we will live exactly these actions again and again, forever.