Wednesday, March 13, 2019

Eternal Recurrence and Evaluation

Kant's Noumenon-Phenomenon duality revises Cartesian Mind-Body and Theological Spirit-Matter dichotomies, by introducing a new factor into the contrast.  His discovery of the primacy of Pure Practical Reason entails the duality of what has more recently been termed Ought vs. Is, or, equivalently, Value vs. Fact, with the latter overt, on which the former is a potential hidden influence.  As is well-known, Mill attempts to reduce Ought to Is, but as is less well-recognized, so, too, does Schopenhauer, as is expressed in his doctrine of fixed character.  And, as is obscured by a focus on the theoretical structure of Eternal Recurrence, e. g. Heidegger, Nietzsche's saying Yes to it, like Schopenhauer's saying No to it, entails a Value-Fact distinction.  But, having repudiated Super-Naturalism, Nietzsche needs a Naturalist ground of that distinction, to which the concept of Will to Power is his solution.  For, entailed in the concept of Self-Overcoming is a conatus from a given condition, to a superior condition, or, in other words, an Evaluation of a Fact, the prototype of which is overcoming the fact of Eternal Recurrence by saying Yes to it. Accordingly, Nietzsche subsequently shifts his attention to Evaluation, and to the implementation of Evaluation via Legislation.  But, he has not abandoned his earlier focus on Psychology; rather, he has discovered that Morality-Psychology is another duality that is internalized in the concept of Will to Power, without Morality being reduced to either a Fact or an Epiphenomenon.

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