Lena Church
Dr. Voldoire C Band History
Due: 12-2-16
Freedom and the Authentic Self
Mill and Nietzsche are both 19th century philosophers who looked at significant theoretical questions, among which were how humans can achieve freedom best in their lives. They sought to improve the excellence of each person by advocating for individuality and believed this could be accomplished by having as much freedom as possible. To discuss common ground between Nietzsche and Mill’s ideas of freedom, however, one first needs to define freedom adequately so that it can be used as a basis for comparison. Each theorist’s position on what freedom might be, however, is fairly distinct. Mill might describe freedom as the absence of constraints to original, individual …show more content…
Mill asserts that the goal of freedom is to protect and support one’s autonomy and individuality, which allows for overall human progress. In order to accomplish this, people must be allowed freedom of thought and speech, provided it does not impinge on the rights of others. While Mill views this as good, specifically for the individual, it is more broadly conceived as good because it serves the benefit of all. Mill’s core utilitarian premise considers the idea of maximal social good or happiness as a benchmark for determining how much freedom individuals should have. In this way, utility and freedom are inextricably linked. In contrast, Nietzsche would view the concept of utility as a critical impediment to freedom, and the negation of one’s individual will and potential. Utility theory for Nietzsche, like other constructs, represents a false way of describing or achieving freedom. For Nietzsche, production of human greatness is the goal of freedom, but not for the good of all or the betterment of conditions for all humans, but rather for the enhancement of the best examples of the species. Thus, Nietzsche is not concerned with the good of all and believes this focus functions to support the essence of slave morality: what is good is defined as that which is most useful for the whole community, rather than its strongest members. The slave values themselves are what makes humans unfree because they are based on “bad conscience” turned inward, rather than against that which opposes human flourishing and affirming life. According to him, the goal of the slave morality is to express its will by subverting strength. It works toward making everyone slaves, rather than overcoming the masters. Thus the enemy of freedom, maximal social “good” for Nietzsche, is a key construct for
Dr. Voldoire C Band History
Due: 12-2-16
Freedom and the Authentic Self
Mill and Nietzsche are both 19th century philosophers who looked at significant theoretical questions, among which were how humans can achieve freedom best in their lives. They sought to improve the excellence of each person by advocating for individuality and believed this could be accomplished by having as much freedom as possible. To discuss common ground between Nietzsche and Mill’s ideas of freedom, however, one first needs to define freedom adequately so that it can be used as a basis for comparison. Each theorist’s position on what freedom might be, however, is fairly distinct. Mill might describe freedom as the absence of constraints to original, individual …show more content…
Mill asserts that the goal of freedom is to protect and support one’s autonomy and individuality, which allows for overall human progress. In order to accomplish this, people must be allowed freedom of thought and speech, provided it does not impinge on the rights of others. While Mill views this as good, specifically for the individual, it is more broadly conceived as good because it serves the benefit of all. Mill’s core utilitarian premise considers the idea of maximal social good or happiness as a benchmark for determining how much freedom individuals should have. In this way, utility and freedom are inextricably linked. In contrast, Nietzsche would view the concept of utility as a critical impediment to freedom, and the negation of one’s individual will and potential. Utility theory for Nietzsche, like other constructs, represents a false way of describing or achieving freedom. For Nietzsche, production of human greatness is the goal of freedom, but not for the good of all or the betterment of conditions for all humans, but rather for the enhancement of the best examples of the species. Thus, Nietzsche is not concerned with the good of all and believes this focus functions to support the essence of slave morality: what is good is defined as that which is most useful for the whole community, rather than its strongest members. The slave values themselves are what makes humans unfree because they are based on “bad conscience” turned inward, rather than against that which opposes human flourishing and affirming life. According to him, the goal of the slave morality is to express its will by subverting strength. It works toward making everyone slaves, rather than overcoming the masters. Thus the enemy of freedom, maximal social “good” for Nietzsche, is a key construct for