Friday, July 19, 2013

Autonomy and Anarchism

Nietzsche's characterizations of himself as 'immoral' or 'atheistic' may be merely rhetorical, since he does recognize an order of rank in conduct, and he is a disciple of the god Dionysus.  However, a third analogously negative classification may more substantively suit him--'anarchist'.  For, he would likely agree with R. P, Wolff that Autonomy is inconsistent with the legitimacy of any external authority, plus, as has been previously discussed, he fails to show that an autonomous being is necessarily suited to rule others, in which case it remains inconsistent with the Oligarchism that he seems to espouse.  However, his very few references to 'anarchists' are derogatory, though they have not discouraged the association with him of a watered-down version of Anarchism, i. e. 'Libertariansim', by Rand and her followers.  So, at minimum, what the very plausibility that he is an 'Anarchist', in the most rigorous sense of the term, perhaps most strongly indicates is that despite his reliance on Political categories, e. g. 'master', 'slave', 'noble', etc. a Political Philosophy remains underdeveloped in his oeuvre.

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