Friday, May 27, 2016

Morality, Will to Power, Superid

The concept of Morality that Freud ascribes to the Superego is primarily what Nietzsche calls a Morality of Mores, i. e.  a set of conventional norms.  But, the extension of the concept to the Morality of Autonomy can be problematic.  For example, while the Deontological dimension of Kant's principle, as he himself shows, is derivable from convention, qua Pure Reason, it is self-generated.  Likewise, Aristotle's Mean is essentially a homeostatic principle.  But, a greater challenge is not from a variety of Rationalism, rather from Nietzsche's Will to Power, one expression of which is a drive to Self-Overcome, which can explain not only Autonomy, but the transcending of oneself towards benefiting others.  Indeed, since the Will to Power is the fundamental instinct in any entity, this source of Morality could be classified as what Marcuse briefly calls, though for other purposes, the Superid.

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