Cultural Heritage II

Nietzsche, Nursing, and Nationalism

Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900):

“God is Dead” (?)

No objective “Good” or “Truth”/there is only “The Will to Power”

Nihilism (nothing matters):

Christianity (and secularized Christian ethics—liberalism?) as “Slave Morality”:

Life-denying values attack Life-affirming values (Apollonian vs. Dionysian)

Transvaluation of Values (Moral Revolution):

Übermensch (Superman or Overman, Capitalist Robber Baron)

Social Darwinism and the New Imperialism (later):

Realpolitik and Bismarck’s policy of “Blood and Iron”

Imperialism/World War I/World War II:

“Genealogy” . . . of Morals (leads to Foucault and Postmodern Criticism, e.g., “History of Sexuality,” “History of Madness”)

Nietzsche vs. Kant: “Power is Truth” vs. the “Categorical Imperative”

Discussion?: What is likely to happen when a religion that has taken root over 2,000 years is suddenly declared irrelevant? How can Nietzsche’s philosophy work inside a society? Wouldn’t it mean war of all against all? Are people only motivated, ultimately, by the “will to power”? Is religion the servant of power disguised as “Faith” or “Morality”? Do the values of liberalism keep humanity from achieving its fullest potential?

Florence Nightingale (1820-1910), Heroine of the Crimean War (1854-1856), Notes on Nursing (1860), and the Nightingale Schools

Clara Barton (1821-1912) and the Sanitary Commission in the American Civil War, later involved in the founding of The International Red Cross

National Unification Movements:

Italy, Cavour and Garibaldi

Germany, Bismarck

United States, Lincoln

American Civil War (1861-65):

Why did the war happen?

The Extension of Slavery and Abolitionism:

Fugitive Slave Act (1850)

Harriet Beecher Stowe (1811-1896): Uncle Tom’s Cabin (1852)

John Brown and Bleeding Kansas (1854); Harper’s Ferry, Hanged (1859)

Election of Lincoln (1860); Firing on Fort Sumter (1861)

“Gettysburg Address” (1863)

Lincoln’s “Letter to the New York Tribune” (1862)

“Emancipation Proclamation” (1863):

Colonization Plan (Liberia):

Assassination of Lincoln (1865)

Discussion?: Can one lead a country and be a moral absolutist (or at least a person of absolute integrity)? Or must one become a moral relativist, even if one’s intentions are good. Can what is “good” ever be known by an individual, or determined by vote in a democracy? What were some possible motives for the “Emancipation Proclamation”? Were Lincoln’s motives arguably pure in a Kantian sense (principles)? Or was Emancipation an example of Realpolitik? Were there any military or political advantages? Have the circumstances of Lincoln’s death and the needs of national unity altered our historical memory?