Basic Writings (International Nietzsche Studies) by Paul Ree & Robin Small

Author:Paul Ree & Robin Small [Ree, Paul]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: University of Illinois Press
Published: 2010-09-30T22:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 1

The Origin of the Concepts “Good” and “Evil”

Every person combines two drives within himself, namely, the egoistic drive and the non-egoistic drive.

Through the egoistic drive he strives for his own welfare, above all his own preservation, the satisfaction of his sexual instinct, and the satisfaction of his vanity.

The satisfaction of each of these particular forms of the egoistic instinct can possibly do harm to the welfare of other people; for instance, to preserve one’s own life, one will perhaps destroy someone else’s; to satisfy one’s sexual instinct, one will perhaps destroy a woman’s happiness, or kill one’s rival. Vanity finally inspires the desire to please and be admired. Anyone who has this desire—and everyone does—will however hate those who please and are admired more than himself. He will therefore try to bring them down, to eliminate them, and if this succeeds he will feel malicious pleasure [Schadenfreude]. Vanity can lead to injuring others in other ways as well: for instance, in order to be admired for one’s wealth, one may perhaps acquire the property of others in an unjust fashion.

On account of the non-egoistic drive, a man makes the welfare of others the final end of his actions, whether he seeks their welfare for their own sake or refrains from harming them for their own sake.

The person who acts in a non-egoistic way is also called compassionate, benevolent, and charitable.

The fact that the egoistic actions just described are not only possible but occur all the time clearly indicates that the non-egoistic instinct is weak. Some philosophers, Helvétius in particular, even claim that non-egoistic sensations or actions are not present at all in human nature, and that what seems to be non-egoistic is only a disguised form of the egoistic drive. They say: anyone who sees other people suffer cannot help imagining their pain. The idea of this pain produces a sensation of displeasure, and this is called compassion.

This sort of compassion is certainly often found, but it is not the only kind. Sometimes we feel pain not only because we imagine the sufferings of another person but rather because just the fact of his suffering makes us suffer; our feeling is non-egoistic. For example, a mother who sees her child suffering does not feel the pain because she imagines the child’s suffering—in that case, the person of the child would be indifferent to her—rather, it is just the fact that the child suffers that pains her. This non-egoistic compassion does not appear solely in parental love but in many other cases as well. Further, if anyone who feels compassion in the first sense helps those for whom he feels compassion, this does without doubt occur out of egoism, that is, in order to free himself from the mental picture of a pain. On the other hand, if someone who feels compassion in the second (non-egoistic) sense helps the person for whom he feels compassion, that occurs in order to relieve the other’s suffering; he helps for the other’s sake

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