Part Two of Beyond Good and Evil is titled “The Free Spirit.”
It is 21 sections long and occupies about 21 pages in the Walter Kaufmann translation.
This part transitions from Part One, on the prejudices of past philosophers, and takes
up the nature of present philosophers, whom Nietzsche addresses as “we free spirits,”
and discusses the character of the philosophers of the future, the ones who are prophesied
as coming at the end of Part One.
This video will discuss the first half of Part Two, sections 24 to 31.
Major themes of these sections include the solitude and the elitism of the new philosophers.
In section 24 Nietzsche discusses the holy simplicity of prior philosophers, their thought
dominated by superficiality and wrong inferences.
Present philosophy retains its faith in opposite values, says Nietzsche, but we see through it.
In Section 25 Nietzsche offers a warning to his allies, fellow free spirits: do not be
tempted by martyrdom, he says, do not be lured into thinking that you will suffer for truth’s sake.
In fact, he says, be indifferent to the judgments of others entirely.
Instead choose solitude and wear a series of subtle masks to conceal your true teachings.
In this way you will avoid the fate of men like Bruno and Spinoza, whom Nietzsche thinks
ended in vengeance, bitterness, and moral indignation, qualities that are incompatible
with greatness of spirit.
In Section 26 Nietzsche characterizes the emotional life of the elitist philosopher.
It is one of disgust and disguise, and ultimately withdrawal into the solitude of one's self.
He also says here that cynicism is a base imitation of philosophy: he calls it the closest
that base men ever come to honesty.
In sections 27 and 28 Nietzsche takes up the questions of pacing and tempo.
We proceed, he says, at Ganges-pace, that is at an exceptionally slow civilizational tempo,
and we are misunderstood by our contemporaries who proceeded at a tortoise-pace or a frog-pace.
Even our good friends, Nietzsche says, should be given significant leeway as they will misunderstand
us for just this reason.
In section 28 Nietzsche continues this thought with a discussion of language and translation.
Languages, he says, have different tempos.
So for example German, being quite a slow language, is almost incapable of expressing
ideas and thoughts in the presto mode, that is, rapidly.
Nietzsche begins section 29 by saying independence is for the very few; it is a privilege of the strong.
The solitude that is required for these philosophers requires tremendous inner discipline and it
is spiritually quite dangerous.
If one enters the labyrinth unprepared, Nietzsche says, one is likely to be torn to shreds by
the minotaur of one's conscience.
In section 30 Nietzsche discusses the esoteric/exoteric distinction.
Our highest insights, he says, will sound like folly to ears they are not meant for.
That is, we will inevitably be misunderstood by the many.
But he redefines the exoteric and the esoteric: they are not a matter of clarity or hiddenness
or obscurity, but rather a matter of low and high.
The exoteric looks up at the truth from below and the esoteric looks down at it from above.
In this section there is also a hint of the transvaluation of values.
Nietzsche says what is nourishing for higher men will be poison to his inferiors.
The higher, better kind of man can endure things, morally and spiritually, that would
destroy lower men.
And in section 31 Nietzsche discusses the errors of youth, a kind of impetuous wrath
and reverence, loving and despising without sufficient nuance.
He notes that even the turn against one's youthful errors can itself be a product of
youthful thinking, as it involves taking sides, it involves again this faith in opposite values,
which he has been criticizing.
That brings us to the end of roughly the first half of Part Two of Beyond Good and Evil.
We will turn next to section 32 and then the second half of Part Two.
Thanks for watching today; goodbye.
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