Tuesday, September 10, 2013

The Value of Evaluation (Revised)

For all his examination of Value and Evaluation, Nietzsche never seems to directly formulate what the value of Evaluation is.  In some passages, he seems to suggest that to evaluate X is to express one's superior strength in relation to X, while elsewhere, he seems to suggest that to evaluate X is to recommend to others a course of action regarding X.  But, an Evaluation is a verbal formulation, and, as has been previously discussed, he seems committed to denying the possibility of a private language.  Hence, whether or not he explicitly recognizes it as such, the ultimate value of Evaluation in his doctrine is Social, i. e. it expresses a private moment--the feeling of Power--in a public medium.  Kant briefly arrives at a similar conclusion, when discerning how Aesthetic enjoyment stimulates Communication.  If he had pursued that insight, his eventual formulation might have been 'Aesthetic Judgment promotes Morality', rather than 'Beauty is the symbol of Morality'. 

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