Friedrich Nietzsche’s Twilight of the Idols is a book that touches on topics of decadence and nihilism in figures, societies, and cultures. This book contains a chapter on Socrates, labeled “The Problem of Socrates”. The chapter focuses on a critique of Socrates’ beliefs through Nietzsche’s views on Socrates’ philosophy on the value of life, dialectics, and reason. And this will help in understanding how Socrates’ perspective of these topics makes him a “décadent” according to Nietzsche.
To begin, when Nietzsche refers to the term “idols”, he is speaking about representations of God in the real world such as, for example, statues of God. He is also referring to the idea of God, an empty Christian idea of God. A figure in the masses idolizes and worships. However, in this case, Nietzsche is mostly talking about the beliefs and ideals that the masses follow and Socrates is an instance of this influence. Socrates has projected his beliefs onto many other philosophers, the belief that virtue is the key to happiness.
Socrates followed the belief that life was worthless and that he lived his own life in sickness. To Socrates, death is not to be feared and philosophy shall grant you preparation for death. And only in death will one be cured of this supposed sickness. Therefore, he rejects life and sees death as the answer. In death, one will find truth and all knowledge. He saw virtue and happiness as one and connected. Therefore, he saw knowledge as something above instincts. However, since Nietzsche believed in the will to power, a desire for growth in one’s self and existence, which essentially values life, he and Socrates saw two opposites of the value of life. Since Nietzsche did not see life’s value as something that cannot be estimated, one cannot judge the true value of life. Socrates' believed of reason as a means of granting happiness was not possible. To find happiness, one must follow instincts which are the passions and desires of an individual. Socrates’ philosophy is something he believes is the reality of things, an objective view of life’s truths, yet Nietzsche does not agree that this is the case. He thinks the value of life is not something that one can measure, one would have to be separated from it to be able to properly evaluate its value.
In addition, Nietzsche states that Socrates was so physically unattractive that it did not make sense that he was Greek since his appearance did not align with the beauty of the Greeks. Through this, Nietzsche mentions that Socrates is “monstrum in front, monstrum in animo” which means that he is “a monster in the face, a monster in the soul” (Nietzsche 40). He means to say that Socrates’ outward physical ugliness reflects what he is on the inside, if he is ugly on the outside then he must be ugly on the inside. Essentially, Socrates’ ugliness mirrors his decadence, a state of disorder in which there’s an abandonment of instincts in exchange for rationalism. Nietzsche saw wisdom as a product of decadence.
Furthermore, Nietzsche brings up the topic of dialectics and condemns it for the fact that Socrates, as well as many who followed his philosophy, believed in the notion that dialectics was the solution to understanding life and to deconstructing the truths of life. However, Socrates’ dialectical method insinuates that there is objective truth, but Nietzsche thinks otherwise. In other words, the use of dialectics was the only form of interpretation and through this dialogue of debate, one can easily use arguments to convince the other that their opinion of the truth is the ultimate truth, even if it is false. According to Nietzsche, “one can play the tyrant; one compromises by conquering” by utilizing the dialectic method of Socrates (Nietzsche 42). It forces one to use this method to deprive the other of their intellectual ability, to render them obliged to assure they are not incapable of understanding. The whole premise of dialectics seems to feed on placing one's superiority over another as revenge. And revenge would make dialectics a form of “ressentiment” because it is the negative feeling of inferiority being redirected and projected elsewhere as a means of putting blame and vilifying another. Henceforth, the “décadence” of Socrates is evident through his dialectic methods.
Moreover, to Nietzsche, the fight against instincts is opposed to the principles of life. He is being critical of Socrates’ notion that “reason = virtue = happiness” (Nietzsche 41). Socrates’ equation values knowledge as the path toward virtuosity. The reason for his condemnation of the equation is that Nietzsche believes that this philosophy is decadent. Socrates is depicted as a “décadent” due to his rejection of instincts in favor of reason. According to Nietzsche, this makes Socrates an ill man as his fight against instincts was an indication of sickness. Additionally, Socrates has been a driving force behind the decay of society. Nietzsche thought of Socrates as a source of what declined Greek culture since he spread this concept that one must control their instincts, but Nietzsche saw this as a sickness. It is hostility and rejection towards the instincts of life. Nietzsche states that “everywhere the instincts were in anarchy” and that there needed to be something to go against it, this was done through the making of “a tyrant of reason” (Nietzsche 43). Socrates devised this idea to avoid the degeneration of Athens, this was a cure for the instincts according to him. This concept in Western philosophy prevented another instrument from acting the part of the reason, therefore no Greek had a choice but to follow rationalism. While Socrates saw reason as the solution to curing decadence, Nietzsche saw it as the cause of decadence. It was instead a sickness, rather than a cure. Socrates was attempting to disguise his own immorality by enforcing rationalism in Greek culture and this resulted in his philosophy becoming the system of Athens. In other words, the people of Athens were left with no choice but to take this Socratic philosophy in order to fight against “dark desires” with the assistance of “daylight”, with daylight meaning reason (Nietzsche 43). Therefore, there would be no need to follow one's instincts if reason will provide happiness. As mentioned by Nietzsche, this pursuit towards steering clear of decadence through rationalism is self-deception since this means Socrates and Athens must get rid of instincts which is a fundamental part of life according to Nietzsche. In the end, Socrates’ entire philosophy on reason has been a misunderstanding of what brings happiness, it has convinced itself that this equation is the foundation for morality. But it is the will to power, the instincts that give way to the powerful and get rid of the weak.
To conclude, Nietzsche is quite critical of Socrates’ philosophy, and he projects his point of view on this topic in Twilight of the Idols. The conclusion that Socrates is decadent and is also another puppet in the grand scheme of idols was analyzed through the discussion of Socrates’ opinion on the value of life, dialectics, and reason.