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Nietzsche on Rule of Law and Democracy è stato pubblicato in forma integrale. Il Saggio in PDF con l’Indice, la Bibliografia, le note a piè di pagina, etc …, lo potete trovare nella pagina DIRITTO & CRIMINOLOGIA.
ENGLISH
Nietzsche on Rule of Law and Democracy have been published.
The Book in PDF with Index, Bibliography, etc … is available in the page LAW & CRIMINOLOGY.
ABSTRACT
Although this study presents and elaborates the philosophy of Nietzsche about Rule of Law and Democracy, it is an analysis of the Simmonds’ Legal Theory. Simmonds was Reader of Jurisprudence at the University of Cambridge in 2005/2006. Right at that time, he developed and published an article, Law as a Moral Archetype, where he presented (for the first time) “his” Legal Theory. This study reports one the first criticisms, which were done, about “his” Legal Theory as it was published and lectured at that time.
It is argued that Simmonds’ Legal Theory is not original at all. Simmonds took previous ideas of other philosophers (such as: Plato; Saint Augustine; Ockham; and the Italian Ardigò) to elaborate a “different theory” from Finnis’ Legal Theory, which (on the contrary) took a lot from Saint Aquinas. But, Simmonds did not archive a good result, as he “corrupted” the former philosophical ideas to something that (at the end): sounded “weird” and “discriminatory”; leaded to totalitarian and intolerant views.
Furthermore, this study presents the Epis’ Legal Theory (as it was formulated at that time): Law as a Social Prototype.
INTRODUCTION
Truth, Nihilism and the “empiricism” of Nietzsche
According to Vattimo G. (1974; 1986; 1988; 1992), Nietzsche prepared the groundwork for the Post-Modernism. This is supported by the strong relationship between the Nietzsche’s Nihilism and the Post-Modernism’s view. Indeed, Nietzsche was “the prime theorist of nihilism in modernity … (and) … also one of the prime precursors of postmodern theory in the philosophical tradition. This means, then, that Nietzsche’s thought contains large elements of what—in retrospect—may be called “postmodern”. It also suggests that to a certain extent his theory of modernity may in fact be prophetic of postmodernity” (Woodward A. 2002).
Even if I disagree with Vattimo G. (1986; 1988; 1992) and Woodward A. (2002), this study starts analysing Nietzsche’s Nihilism.
Nietzsche’s Nihilism is the logical answer at any attempt (made by Humanity) to investigate the foundation of Truth, Values and Life’s meaning, inside metaphysical realms inhabited by Gods and Idols, instead of the physical and empirical one. Nietzsche explained this, using the paradigm of Christian Morality.
But, Nietzsche’s philosophy is not a Discourse pro or contra either metaphysics or physics in themselves. Nietzsche’s philosophy does not want analysing the different theories of knowledge for supporting one of them, instead of another one. Simply, Nietzsche wanted to put the individual at the centre of his philosophy. He wanted to suggest a change of prospective. According to Nietzsche, the singular individuals are the source of their own Truth, their own Values and their own Life-meaning.
Indeed, all the time human beings attempt to look for an answer outside them(selves), they fall into nihilism. There is NOT any empirical reality outside the individual experience. The empiricism of Nietzsche is not Materialism and/or Reductionism (against any metaphysical reality in itself). It is not also scientism. But, the empiricism of Nietzsche is an individual empiricism for the reasons that are clarified infra (below).
The only EMPIRICAL REALITY is the INDIVIDUAL EXPERIENCE
After Nihilism proved that: no absolute Truth exists; all the different points of view have the same epistemic value and dignity; no Certainty is real; etc …; … individuals found themselves in front of a choice. On one hand, they could choose to believe in, and to live for, their own Truth (that comes from their own living experiences). On the other hand, they can choose to “believe” in, and to serve, the point of view of someone else.
Knowledge and Power
Nietzsche would have agreed with Foucault that Power and Knowledge are the two faces of the same coin. The society, indeed, is nothing more than a relationship of power among people. People are divided in two main groups: Masters and Slaves. The form (which those two groups and their bond take) changes: from Time to Time; from Culture to Culture; from Legal System to Legal System. But, at the end, the substance is always the same. Few persons lead; the majority follows.
Knowledge, Ethics and Education, are functional means for this kind of hierarchical structure. As Power cannot employ brutal physical force to make people serve its own interests in the modern societies, the role of creeds, beliefs and propaganda, is dramatically increased.
Indeed, beliefs have become the new form of “slavery’s chains”. They are used by Power to make people serve its own interests. But, beliefs have nothing to do with Truth. Simply, to believe is to have faith in something like a dogma. Persons do not have any knowledge about their beliefs, but they are certain of something as someone else told it!!!! In other words, people accept as true, rely on, anything that is stated and supported by Authority, Social Pressure and Groupthink. These forces make people live and believe in a Hyper-Reality (which they build for their own aims), but Hyper-Reality is NOT Reality. Hyper-Realty is a Realm of illusions and lies. People have faith in those beliefs (and act in compliance of them) as a sheep follows the flock!!!!. But faith, … it does not matter in / for What (Religion; Science; State; etc…) is always been one of the worst mean to archive Knowledge. This is Nietzsche’s message.
Nowadays, the framework of Weick’s studies about sensemaking and enactment could be operatively used to explain as Power uses and misuses beliefs to pursue its own aims. They should not be limited for approaching only the working contexts inside the Companies. Actually, they are very useful for analyzing the general social dynamics.
From Knowledge to Nihilism
As knowledge has served and has been serving Power and its interests, any investigation on beliefs’ foundations turns to be untrue.
Gods and Idols are used to found most beliefs as they cannot be founded anywhere else. Moreover, God was (in a retrospective way) the first Global Panopticon!! As Power could not control people 24 hours per day, Power makes people believe that God can. So, people complied with Power’s Will, fearing the punishment of God. In other words, God was employed by Power like a Panopticon’s gaoler!!!! God’s job was: to watch everyone 24 hours per day; to punish those people who disobey or infringe Authority’s norms. But, a God reduced to be a Panopticon’s gaoler is not anymore God. Can you believe in an omnipotent Being, who created the entire universe to make all His Creation be a Panopticon? Can you believe in a God who reduced Himself to be a Panopticon’s Gaoler and/or a Prison Director?!?!?!?
No, it is not believable.
“I conjure you, my brethren, remain true to the earth and believe not those who speak onto you of hopes beyond the compass of the earth! Poisoners are they, whether they know it or not”
Nietzsche, Thus Spake Zarathustra, Prologue, III.
Why are Gods and Idols used to found Truth and Values?
Surely has God been a good mean of Social Control.
Yet, God has been and is a way to exit from the Agrippa’s trilemma (also called: Munchhausen trilemma).
The Agrippa’s trilemma is an Epistemological Argument that goes back to Ancient Greek Skepticism. In the modern time, Hans Albert has re-formulated it. According to Albert, the Munchhausen trilemma is able to prove the impossibility to found and to justify any truth and/or value with any existing method (deductive; inductive; causal; transcendental; logical; etc …). The trilemma proves the impossibility to found any truth. Any attempt, indeed, falls into one of these three cases:
- regressive argument ad infinitum or progress ad infinitum. Each proof requires a further proof ad infinitum. This argumentum: both, is not practicable; and, does not provide any certain foundation;
- vicious circle and/or circular argument (known in scholasticism as diallelus). The belief is based on circularity (a logical circle in the deduction). At a certain stage of the chain of arguments, a proof needs for its own foundation a previous “proof”, which needs for its own foundation the subsequent proof!! In other words, the latter is based on the former; the former on the latter. Exempli gratia, A is based on B, B is based on C, C is based on D. But, D is based on A. This is a circle. It does not lead to: both, any certain foundation; and, any final proof;
- break of searching. At a certain point, people get tired to look for proofs and evidences of their beliefs. So, they end their researches at some stages. They create an assumption. An assumption is nothing more than a hypothesis that is not proved. Yet, they pretend those assumptions to be self–evident (axiomatic argument)!! But, this is nothing more than cheating. According to Albert, even if an axiomatic argument can appear “reasonable” to lay people, it is nothing more than a random suspension of the principle of sufficient reason. It does not lead to any certain proof. It leads only to: both, Dogmas; and, ipse dixit!
So, at the end, Truth and Values cannot be found with any method. Thus, God was employed like “break of searching”. God was able to link together: the axiomatic argument with the Authority argument.
But, God was not the source of the beliefs that were founded on Him!
As we told supra (above), those truths and values were “all too human things”.
“Where you see ideal thing, I see – human, alas all too human things”
Friedrich W. Nietzsche, Human All Too Human
Nietzsche used the Catholic religion like paradigm. Christian beliefs, indeed, have changed continually from Time to Time to serve the Power’s interests. Those changes were not a change of mind of God, but they were a change in the historical interests of the pro tempore Power.
According to Weick’s framework, Power uses beliefs to make people work in compliance with its aims. The beliefs have been used and have been in the progress of being used by Power like human software. To make a computer do something, you need software. In the same way, to make people do something, you need to make them believe something.
The paradigm of God works also for idols.
Science, Psychology, Technology, Economics, Finance, Political Ideologies, etc…, could be idols. They are idols each time they demand faith. They are idols each time people have faith in them. They are idols each time they ask for homologation.
There is no difference in having faith in them and/or in God. There is no difference for people to homologate themselves in God’s Will and/or in Psychological / economical / political / etc … / constructs. All of them are human creations.
The social mechanisms behind faith and homologation are the same. Both of them, soon or later, lead to intolerance, discrimination, fanaticism, violence, and all the worst actions that Humanity has done in the History.
As Dominican monks were able to commit the most ferocious atrocities “in the name of” God, due the same blind faith (nowadays) scientists, psychologists, statesmen, financiers, …, can commit any kind of atrocity “in the name of” their new Idols. Instead of a Theocratic Tyranny (with its Holly Inquisition), these idols will found a Technocratic Tyranny (with its Profane Inquisition[1]). But, both of them are the same. Both of them demand homologation, faith, submission to the Power’s will. Sciences, indeed, is just a Power’s matter. The same beliefs and truths, which are part of the Scientific Paradigm, are consequences of the relationships of power among the members of that Scientific Community (Lyotard). Changes in the relationships of power become changes in the beliefs and in what is assumed to be true in that Paradigm, …, and vice versa. Power and Knowledge are the same, as we told supra (above).
Into Nihilism. The Choice: are You a Master or a Slave?
As Truth cannot be reached by any Science, any Religion, any Discipline, and any Methodology; …
As Truth and Justice, at the end, are nothing more than the interest of the most Powerful a là Trasimacus; …
As Power is, in its very Nature, the force to impose one point of view onto any others; …
… People find themselves into Nihilism.
So, the question is: is it possible to survive into Nihilism?
According to Nietzsche, it is.
Nihilism states only that it is not possible to found any Truth and/or Value in the external World. Each person should become the source of his/her own Truth and Values. Some people are able; other people are not. The latter prefer to follow the truth and values of other people instead of theirs own.
In other words, Nihilism marks the boundary between Masters and Slaves. Masters are those people who are able to trust themselves and to determinate their own Truth and Values.
On the contrary, slaves need to “trust” and to “serve” the point of view of someone else.
So, Nihilism puts the human beings in front of a choice.
Nihilism asks: “Are you a Master or a Slave?”
The answer depends from the individual ability to stand alone into Nihilism or not.
A Master is able to: stand-alone into Nihilism; go against the flow; be different from the flock; be creator of his own universe, truth, values, and life-meaning.
A Slave is not able. He/she prefers acting like a sheep and/or lemming. He/she needs: to follow uncritically the flock; to homologate and to uniform him/herself to the group to feel “normal”; to believe that who acts differently from the group is crazy. Psychopathology is the creed of the slaves. Psychopathology is a creation of the slaves’ thought. They demand norms and models. They need to homologate themselves to those norms and models. To be a flock of sheep, they need to be uniformed to those norms and models. Thus, they cannot tolerate anything that is different from their norms and models. Everything is different, indeed, must: either, be eliminated; or, be forced to conform to their norms and models. Everything is different from them, it is a threat and menace to: the flock; the Only-Allowed-Thought. As they think themselves normal, sane, right, …, everything is different must be abnormal, insane, crazy. As it/he/she is insane, they feel themselves to be justified, to force it/he/she to homologate to the flock. So, psychopathology has become the New Profane Inquisition. Psychopathology has become the justification and the instrument to make people: uniform to the flock; be uncritical servants of the Power and its Only-Allowed-Thought. Psychopathology has become a “mean” to create a new form of slavery. To be “normal” is to comply with, to believe in, the Only-Allowed-Thought.
So, which will your answer be, when you find yourself in front of Nihilism?
From Nihilism to Individual Empiricism: the implosion of the dichotomy between Nietzsche’s Philosophy and Christian Religion!!
Once human beings find themselves alone into Nihilism, they can only make one of the two above choices.
People, who are overwhelmed by fear, will look for a shelter into the point of view of someone else. They will not be able to live without absolute certainties; so, they will ask for someone, who is able to give them dogmas. They will look for an Only-Allowed-Thought at which uniform themselves. On the contrary, individuals, who are able to stand alone into Nihilism, will find a new beginning. Paradoxically, although Nietzsche’s speech seemed to be against the Christian God, they discover themselves “God’s sons”!!!!
According to the Bible, God made human beings look like Him. God was the Creator. He was the first being able to stand alone into Nihilism. Hence, his sons should be creators; his sons should be able to stand alone into Nihilism; … as He did at the beginning of the Time.
The superman of Nietzsche is this. According to Thus Spake Zarathustra, he is able to transmute himself into a Child (after having been a camel and a lion). The Child is the final step of his evolution. The Child is a creator. The Child is able to stand alone into Nihilism without fearing it.
But, whereas God was the creator of the entire Universe, the child is the creator of his own universe.
God was not a lemming. Could His Sons be lemmings?
God was not a sheep. Could His sons be uncritically followers of the flock?!?!
Thus, I disagree:
- both, with Woodward A. (2002), who describes Nietzsche like a nihilist who simply attempts to destroy any value to lead to a complete nihilism;
- and, with Vattimo (1998), who thinks that it is not possible to go over Nihilism (exempli gratia, searching a new foundation for Truth and Values), but it is possible only to change our attitude to it. In other words, Vattimo suggests accepting to live in a meaningless World.
Nietzsche does not abandon the idea of Truth. He suggests to change prospective.
“The sense of truth. – I approve of any form of scepticism to which I can replay, “Let’s try it!” But I want to hear nothing more about all the things and questions that don’t admit of experiment. This is the limit of my “sense of truth”; for there, courage has lost its right” (Gay Science, 51).
From Man to Super-Man
The individuals, who are able to pass through the three stages (camel; lion; Child), arrive to transmute themselves from men to super-men.
This means two things. On one hand, people discover themselves sons of God. On the other hand, society cannot long to be a flock of sheep.
Society has also to transmute itself from a flock of sheep to group of free Individuals, who are able to co-exist and to collaborate in their own (very strong) differences.
Only this kind of society will be a true Democracy.
Indeed, no democracy (at all) can exist among flocks of sheep as homologation is the worst kind of Tyranny.
It does not matter the form and/or the name that has been taken by tyranny. It does not matter the reason “in the name of” which, Homologation is demanded.
Without a doubt, flocks of sheep are always dominated by a Totalitarian Regime as they demand homologation. The only difference among these Regimes is about: the degree of how tyranny is overt or covert; and, the concrete historical / cultural form that has been taken by the Regime itself.
As we are going to explain in Part III, Democracy can exist only, and only if, there are free Individuals, who are not homologated among them.
[1] Psychopathology is: a new Malleolus Maleficarum (Epis, 2011/2015); the form that has been taken and has been in the progress of being taken by the Profane Inquisition. Indeed, it is used to “attack” whoever acts and/or believes differently from the flock. It is used to commit and to justify any modern atrocity “in the name of”: Homologation; and, Only-Allowed-Thought. Most of the times, it is used to (even) create the behaviours and situations that are used to justify (later) its use / intervention. It is an instrument able to trick the Legal System (with all its Rights and Liberties).