Sunday, May 12, 2013

Perspectivism, Egalitarianism, Comprehensiveness

Egalitarianism, a concomitant of social fragmentation, as has been previously discussed, constitutes a social crisis, i. e. incipient Nihilism, according to Nietzsche.  But, it also threatens his own diagnostic tools.  For, he advocates Perspectivism--the thesis that all experience expresses an interpretation from a unique point-of-view--which is, thus, in itself egalitarian.  Accordingly, without an accompanying Order of Rank, his evaluations have no distinctive value.  Now, as has been previously discussed, passages in Beyond Good and Evil plainly show that his criterion for Order of Rank is Comprehensiveness, and not market value or military capacity, as have sometimes been ascribed to him.  But, despite the continuing predominance of those adjudicators of contemporary Perspectivism, there are some notable examples of respect for his actual position--the appeal of advocates of Creativism to the explanatory power of that doctrine in the debate with Evolutionism, and the reliance of the 'trickle-down' model to demonstrate that Capitalism benefits more than a few.  Still, whenever one opinion is taken to be inherently as valuable as any other, egalitarian Perspectivism is implicitly being invoked. 

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