Nietzsche’s affirmative attitude towards ‘the life-affirming type of gods’:an investigation into the positive aspects of Nietzsche’s philosophy of religion

摘要

This thesis investigates certain key positive aspects of Nietzsche’s philosophy of religion, while respecting the way his philosophy as a whole changed throughout the course of his life. In the end, the aim is to produce a just portrait of Nietzsche, a philosopher who, contrary to the popular image of his being anti-religious, recognised keenly the positive effects a certain type of gods can have on human beings. I begin the thesis by suggesting that, after his abandonment of his early ‘religious communitarianism’, Nietzsche became a ‘religious’ aristocratic individualist who set the nurturing of ‘higher types’ as his highest goal and attempted to find the way to achieve it in a certain type of gods, what I call ‘the life-affirming type of gods’. Then, after discussing some interpretative issues concerning his writings in general, I examine his early positive religious thinking. Next, I discuss Nietzsche’s concern for the nurturing of ‘higher types’. I suggest that his conception of ‘higher types’ is an ultimate representation of his idea of ‘human greatness’ capable of creating cultural greatness and new ‘life-affirming’ values, all of which is connected with his concern for ‘suffering’. Further, to clarify the nature of ‘higher types’ in greater depth, I examine other related conceptions of his, namely ‘nobility’ and ‘life-affirmation’. In the final part of the thesis, as I illustrate how Nietzsche’s mature positive religious thinking focuses on ‘the life-affirming type of gods’, I examine his idea of the nature and effects of these gods, with reference to his criticism of the Christian conception of God. Finally, I present and argue for my view of how he intends the life-affirming type of gods to contribute towards the nurturing of ‘higher types’.