The malaise of western philosophy from Nietzsche’s perspective

Abstract

The present work aims to present, from a Nietzschean perspective, some aspects of the theory of decadence, limiting itself to its clash with the Socratic-Platonic metaphysical philosophy, relating them to the possibility of “diagnosing” a process of physio-psychological degeneration in the individual. and in Western culture. To carry out this endeavor, we focus on the philosopher's third phase and on the writings of Nietzsche's last year of production. In fact, during the period the author carries out a thorough investigation of Socrates, in Twilight of the Idols, from 1888. In view of this, at first, in order to introduce ourselves to the genealogical-physiological procedure through which the philosopher investigates the concept of décadence, we highlight some specific aspects of the historical context of the concept in question that emerged from the French literary movement of the second half of the 19th century. Then, the analysis and effects caused by the Socratic/Platonic philosophy illustrated by Nietzsche, provided the raw material to compare a philosophy that expresses a state of decadence and a philosophy that reveals itself as a manifestation of the will to power for the individual and for culture. Soon after, the investigation follows the path of physiopsychological decadence that manifests itself in philosophies such as that of Socrates and Plato, pointing its interpretation to the physiopsychological configuration of Socrates' decadence (anarchy of instincts), in order to demonstrate that this concept was common to philosophers who misinterpreted life, devaluing it. Finally, we will conclude by emphasizing the evils that this relationship causes both in the individual and in the culture and what such individuals and cultures have in common, that is, nihilism and the ascetic ideal, symptoms of physiological-psychological decadence that cause the disintegration of instincts. Therefore, Socratic-Platonic philosophy is one of the masks to hide the “nausea” that Western civilization has suffered for centuries, signaling the harm it has caused both to the individual and to culture. In this way, both (individual and culture) were guiding threads of an analysis that provides elements to undertake a “diagnosis” of the history of European civilization which, for Nietzsche, is a movement of decadence.