A Textual Analysis of Nietzsche’s Way of Being

Abstract

Friedrich Nietzsche is widely recognized as a critic of Western nihilism, yet his writings advocate destroying values as such, something a Nihilist would also do. However, Nietzsche’s critique of values is not an end in itself but a necessary step in a process that evaluates the origins of philosophical forces and the values they produce, ultimately destroying dogmatic values and creating them anew from the ashes that affirm difference through the will to power (Deleuze, 1983). This eternal renewal of the destruction of the old ensures the affirmation of difference and openness to change, making Nietzsche’s philosophy anti-nihilistic. The essay analyzes how Nietzsche’s mode of Being, as articulated in Thus Spoke Zarathustra and other texts, encourages individuals to transcend dogmatic adherence to inherited systems of belief and the “average everydayness” (Heidegger, 2010) that hinders individuality and the creative act of forming values anew from the destruction of the old.