With this dissertation, firstly, I address the issue of Friedrich Nietzsche’s (1844-1900) so-called ‘immoralism’. When he calls himself an ‘immoralist’ and even ‘the first immoralist’ (EH Destiny 2), he seems to be the first philosopher to consider morality as something negative, something we had better got rid of. Yet, he favours ‘noble morality’ and ‘higher moralities’ which he insists ought to be possible (BGE 202). I shall interpret Nietzsche’s explicit claim of ‘immoralism’ and his ‘campaign against morality’ as a rejection of a particular kind of morality ¾ Christian morality ‘that has become prevalent and predominant as morality itself’ (EH Destiny 4). His ‘immoralism’ does not reject the idea of an ethical life. Nietzsche favours a ‘supra-moral’ version of life (GM II 2&BGE 257). The move from a moral to a supra-moral orientation to life implies a kind of self-overcoming, a process which has both a ‘negative’ (‘destructive’) and a ‘positive’ (‘productive’) side. Firstly, I shall give an account of the ‘negative’ side, which involves Nietzsche’s genealogical critique of morality. In his Genealogy, Nietzsche criticizes the man of ressentiment, the metaphysical two-worlds distinction: ‘true world’ and ‘apparent world’, and the ascetic ideal of the will to truth, which he considers as a will to nothingness (GM III 28). His notion of perspectivism advocates a plurality of values and perspectives as opposed to any notion of an absolute truth. Then, I shall look into his ‘positive’ ethic, as exemplified in the figures of Zarathustra and the Übermensch, and the paradox of the Übermenschas ‘the annihilator of morality’ (EH Books 1) and as ‘the designation of a type of supreme achievement’ (EH Books 1). By proclaiming a process of ‘self-overcoming of morality’ (BGE 32), I believe that Nietzsche proposes an experimental morality in order to improve mankind. He considers morality as a pose, as progress (BGE 216), and ‘mere symptomatology’ (TI ‘Improvers’ of Mankind 1). Morality is the effect, or symptom of a continuous improvement within an individual. Nietzsche seeks to make us become aware of our continuous self-improvement, that we should invent our own virtue (A 11) in order to become what we are. Nietzsche envisions the possibility of evolving a magnanimous and courageous human type who is capable of giving style to his character (GS 290), the supreme human achievement ¾ the Übermensch. His idea of the Übermensch implies a never-ending struggle for self-perfection and self-fulfilment. There are affinities between Nietzsche’s philosophy and Buddhism, such as emphasizing practice, the recognition of the transient nature of human existence, and an emphasis on impermanence. Buddhist teachings show various feasible ways to attain enlightenment and buddhahood. The path to enlightenment and buddhahood can be shown to share some features with Nietzsche’s process of self-overcoming, which leads to self-transformation and self-perfection. The emphasis on the practice of the spirit of Bodhisattva by Humanistic Buddhism seems to lend itself as complement to Nietzsche’s philosophy, a notion I explore in the concluding chapter of the dissertation. / Dissertation (MA (Philosophy))--University of Pretoria, 2005. / Philosophy / unrestricted

Today the conception of human rights is an idea that preserves its intransitive, inalienable and indivisible quality with a cross-cultural reference. The idea of human rights, entering our lives from the 18th century onwards, has gained a worldwide recognition through the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The idea occupies place both at the level of rules and principles as a project and at the level of our daily problem solutions, modifications and the daily course of our lives as a pragmatics. The political framework provides the idea of human rights such a justification that it constitutes a significant part of our decisions, thoughts and actions. On the other hand, the grounds of the idea has been questioned as a part of the Enlightenment project since it was first articulated and especially in recent decades certain radical criticisms originating from Nietzche&rsquo / s thought became prevalent. The thesis questions this easy alliance between Nietzsche and radical attacks to human rights thought. In the first chapter, I first provided a brief historical overview of the idea of human rights. Then, I had a closer look towards the principles of universality, equality, autonomy and is-ought distinction with special reference to Kantian formulations of these concepts and in the second chapter, I elaborate Nietzsche&rsquo / s perception of these same principles and our understanding of conventional morality in general, to reach an articulated answer to the question: Would Nietzsche be categorically against human rights? I conclude that his philosophical attitude to these four principles differ from each other. In this context the thesis regards Nietzschean informal structures over the Kantian formal ones as complementary for a full grasp of the idea of human rights by offering a connection of the transitionality between Kant and Nietzsche.

Made available in DSpace on 2011-05-04T12:36:29Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 Previous issue date: 2010 / A proposta desse estudo é provocar um estranhamento a respeito de uma condição naturalizada e disseminada, principalmente pelos campos da saúde, política e economia, contudo apenas percebida, inicialmente, nos espaços de atuação da educação física. O fato em questão refere-se à transformação dos hábitos e comportamentos dos indivíduos, alvo de controle por parte de especialistas interessados em promover, a qualquer preço, a saúde, a beleza e o vigor dessas pessoas. No entanto, como o significado da saúde para esse conjunto de profissionais e leigos ficou reduzido aos seus aspectos biológicos, o corpo no século XXI se transformou em terreno favorável às ações obsessivas na ordem da prevenção. Outro ponto abordado no estudo é a rede estabelecida entre este fato e os empreendimentos criados por parte de empresas atuantes no mercado de bens destinados a otimizar a vida e a beleza; tudo isso com o endosso da ciência e da mídia de massa. O estudo, então, parte da visão foucaultiana de biopoder, acompanhando, ainda, as reformulações propostas para o nosso século, por Nikolas Rose, no que se refere a este poder sobre a vida dos indivíduos. É nesse sentido que traduzo a participação dos governos liberais avançados, na engrenagem de responsabilização do sujeito pela vida em si, como também interpreto o ambiente social estabelecido em decorrência desse processo de desqualificação do espaço público, incrementando projetos voltados à ampliação de estilos de vida individualizantes, ou seja, focados no próprio corpo. Dessa maneira, quando explano o interesse dos poderes oficiais e privados em incutir nos indivíduos a responsabilidade pela vida em si e todas as nuances embutidas nesse universo, emergem assuntos alinhados com as frequentes crises de insegurança, medo generalizado da morte e o lamentável perfil egoísta das relações modernas. Portanto, a atuação das autoridades engajadas com a biopolítica do indivíduo, não mais das populações, forja uma situação de sofrimento pouco considerada pela área da saúde. Foi por meio da articulação de conceitos como globalização, história da beleza, longevidade, hedonismo e o pensamento nietzscheano, que criei a base para construir a discussão teórica necessária que apontasse para o que denomino epidemia de fitness. O caminho realizado para atingir as fontes e o método empregado, dos saberes indiciários, partiu de um estudo de caso da Expo Wellness Rio 2009. E ainda, fazendo contraponto a este ambiente ascético, repleto de moralismo, em que as pessoas são impelidas ao autocontrole incessante, adoto a filosofia de Nietzsche para relativizar as certezas e ameaças sentidas pelo homem doente , expressão incessantemente empregada pelo filósofo em seu livro Genealogia da Moral. / The proposal of this study is to create a sensation of weirdness about a condition naturalized and widespread mainly in the fields of health, politics and economics, however, initially only perceived in the activities of physical education. The fact in question relates to the transformation of the habits and behaviors of individuals, subject to control by experts interested in promoting health, beauty and vigor of those people, no matter what it takes. However, as the meaning of health for this group of professionals and lay persons was reduced to its biological aspects, the body in the XXI century became a favorable terrain to obsessed actions in the field of prevention. Another topic is the network established between this fact and the enterprises created by companies whose field of action lies in the production of goods destinated to optimize life and beauty, all of this with the endorsement of science and mass media. Therefore, the study takes support on Foucault’s vision of biopower and follows the reformulations proposed for our century, by Nikolas Rose, with regard to such power on the lives of individuals. That is why I translate the participation of advanced liberal governments in the gear of the subject’s responsibility for life itself, but also I interpret the established social environment as a result of this process of disqualification of the public space, improving projects aimed at the increase of individualizing life styles, which means focused on the body. Thus, when speaking of the interest of official and private powers to instill in individuals the responsibility for life itself and all the nuances embedded in that universe, some issues emerge, in line with the frequent bouts of insecurity, widespread fear of death and the unfortunate selfish profile of modern relations. Therefore, the actions of the authorities concerned with the biopolitics of the individual, and no more of the populations, forge a situation of suffering poorly regarded by the health field. It was through the articulation of concepts such as globalization, history, beauty, longevity, hedonism and the nietzschean thought, that I created the foundation for building the necessary theoretical discussion that would point to what I call a “fitness epidemic”. The way I chose to achieving sources and the methods applied, indiciary knowledge, came from a case study of Expo Wellness Rio 2009. And yet, as a counterpart to this ascetic atmosphere, filled with moralism, in which people are driven to unceasing self-control ; I adopt the philosophy of Nietzsche to the relativize the certainties and threats experienced by the "sick man", a term constantly used by the philosopher in his book Genealogy of Morals.

Made available in DSpace on 2017-07-10T18:26:34Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Juarez de Oliveira Pacheco.pdf: 950203 bytes, checksum: 1299edb78191d14fba18ef20bee6d49b (MD5) Previous issue date: 2013-02-05 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior / By analyzing the concept of nihilism, which is shown polysemic in Nietzsche's work, we encounter frequent deadlocks concerning the origin of this phenomenon. This concept usually presents signifying a consequence of the moral development of the West, where the slave resentment and bad conscience, rooted in culture, ends up affecting modern man of a weariness and an emptying of value: it is nihilism in its own sense, a phenomenon of modern origin. On the other hand, there are aphorisms and excerpts, least discussed by the German philosopher in his work, indicating that the origin of nihilism refers to a distant period of human history, preceding the Christian moral-ascetic, and a phenomenon that opens a gap of absence of meaning about life and human suffering. These incompatible aspects of nihilism are present both in print, and in private notes of Nietzsche. The interior of the book Genealogy of Morals also holds that ambiguity of the concept of nihilism. The main objective of this work is to investigate the work Genealogy of Morals, with the help of other texts, trying to understand the meanings of nihilism and position in the history of civilization. Nietzsche s work as objects of study presents the concepts of resentment and bad conscience ascetic ideal, elements that are constitutive of Western morals. With interests in its topicality, Nietzsche investigates the past moral to its prehistory. Thus, this work is fundamental research into the origin of nihilism. His concepts are analyzed from a procedure that puts them in the realm of historical development and the dynamics instinctual, while concepts that change over time and have multiple meanings: with this polysemic feature that the central elements of the work are presented as well as nihilism. The Genealogy of Morals finally reveals that nihilism has various meanings, but that does not necessarily clash with each other. We show in this work a form of nihilism primordial, a "first nihilism" that is precedent-Christian ascetic morality, including that operates as one of the causes of this moral. However, nihilism is presented as historical product of peacemaking mechanisms of civilization, which inevitably leads to poor awareness and resentment. Human instincts turn inward, causing a great malaise of civilization in the form of a long suffering baseless. The ascetic priest gives an answer to this suffering, reverses the direction of resentment, bad conscience reinterpreting the animal, making it more serious, in a way defined as the interpretation of suffering for sin. The bad conscience made man suffer senseless with instincts that turned against him, however, with the ascetic interpretation, now he unloads his forces against them with a sense that justifies the suffering. / Ao analisar o conceito de niilismo, que se mostra polissêmico na obra de Nietzsche, nos deparamos com impasses frequentes referentes à origem desse fenômeno. Esse conceito se apresenta geralmente significando uma consequência do desenvolvimento da moral do ocidente, em que o ressentimento escravo e a má consciência, enraizados na cultura, se transformam até que terminam acometendo o homem moderno de um cansaço e de um esvaziamento de valor: é o niilismo em seu sentido mais próprio, um fenômeno de origem moderna. Por outro lado, há aforismos e trechos, menos debatidos pelo filósofo alemão em sua obra, que indicam que a origem do niilismo remete a um período longínquo da história humana, precedente à moral ascético-cristã, e a um fenômeno que abre uma lacuna de ausência de sentido em relação à vida e ao sofrimento humano. Esses aspectos incompatíveis do niilismo se apresentam tanto em textos publicados, quanto em anotações privadas de Nietzsche. O interior da obra Genealogia da moral também detém essa ambiguidade do conceito de niilismo. O objetivo principal desse trabalho é investigar a obra Genealogia da moral, com a ajuda de outros textos, buscando compreender os significados e a posição do niilismo na história da civilização. O escrito nietzschiano apresenta como objetos de estudo os conceitos de ressentimento, má consciência e ideal ascético, elementos que são constitutivos da moral ocidental. Com interesses na sua atualidade, Nietzsche investiga o passado moral até a sua pré-história. Com isso, essa obra é fundamental na investigação sobre a origem do niilismo. Seus conceitos são analisados a partir de um procedimento que os coloca sob a esfera do devir histórico e da dinâmica instintual, enquanto conceitos que se transformam ao longo do tempo e possuem múltiplos sentidos: é com essa característica polissêmica que os elementos centrais da obra se apresentam, assim como o niilismo. A Genealogia da moral revela finalmente que o niilismo possui sentidos variados, mas que não necessariamente se chocam entre si. Evidenciamos nessa obra uma forma de niilismo primordial, um niilismo primeiro , que é precedente à moral ascético-cristã, que opera inclusive como uma das causas dessa moral. Entretanto, o niilismo se apresenta como histórico, produto dos mecanismos de pacificação da civilização, que inevitavelmente levam à má consciência e ao ressentimento. Os instintos humanos se voltam para dentro, causando um grande mal estar civilizatório, sob a forma de um sofrimento por longo tempo sem fundamento. O sacerdote ascético dá uma resposta a esse sofrimento, inverte a direção do ressentimento, reinterpretando a má consciência animal, tornando-a mais grave, de uma forma definida, como a interpretação do sofrimento pelo pecado. A má consciência fazia o homem sofrer sem sentido com os instintos que se voltavam contra si, porém, com a interpretação ascética, ele agora descarrega suas forças contra si com um sentido que justifica o sofrimento.