THE QUESTION I ASKED CHAT GPT: According to his second essay in the Genealogy Of

Morals, which period between Past, Present and Future would Nietzche prefer?

Answer given by Chat GPT:

In his second essay in "On the Genealogy of Morals," Friedrich Nietzsche critiques his time's

dominant moral and social order and suggests a radical revaluation of values. However, he does

not explicitly express a preference for any particular time period between the past, present, and

future.

Nietzsche's view of the past is complex. On the one hand, he acknowledges the importance of

tradition and heritage in shaping human values and culture, and draws inspiration from the

great thinkers and artists of the past. On the other hand, he recognizes the dangers of clinging

too tightly to the past and allowing it to constrain individual creativity and agency. Nietzsche

believes that a healthy relationship with the past requires a delicate balance between reverence

and critical evaluation, and that individuals must constantly reevaluate and reinterpret the past

in light of their own experiences and values.

Similarly, Nietzsche's critique of the present is multifaceted. He sees the dominant social and

moral order of his time as repressive and stifling to individual creativity and freedom, and calls

for a radical revaluation of values that would allow individuals to break free from its

constraints. At the same time, Nietzsche recognises that the present is also a source of potential

and possibility, and that individuals must seize the opportunities available to them in order to

realize their full potential.

As for the future, Nietzsche believes that it is shaped by the actions of individuals in the present.

He sees the future as an opportunity to create a new and better society, but also recognizes the

potential dangers of blindly pursuing progress without consideration for the consequences.

Nietzsche's vision of the future is one in which individuals are empowered to take control of their

own lives and shape the course of human history through their actions and choices.

Overall, Nietzsche's philosophy is focused on the individual and the pursuit of self-mastery and

the realization of one's own potential. While he does not express a preference for any particular

time period, his emphasis on the importance of individual agency and creativity suggests that he

sees the potential for greatness and achievement in all eras of human history.

MY EVALUATION:

Nietzche examines the creation and evolution of human morality throughout history. He critiques

the current moral and social order as it existed in his time. He questions the past changes our

systems of order and social interaction have undergone. Even further, he examines how these

changes have impacted our ability to express our natural drives and instincts as human beings.

He traces the development of our collective moral consciousness and the emergence of guilt as a

consequence. He speaks of the future when he advocates for the infiniteness of human potential.

He believes we could reach it by critically reevaluating ourselves and engaging in continuous

self-improvement and experimentation to reach our ultimate potential for greatness. In summary,

The answer provided by chat GPT understands and makes apparent that Neitzche shares complex

and multifaceted views of human existence in the past, present, and future.

However, while He is equally critical of the past and present, he recognises the importance of

previous traditions and institutions in shaping human cultures and values of co-existence;
however, he is critical of ways institutions can be imposing, especially on our individual

creativity and freedom.

Nietzche argues against the "slave morality" that continues to bleed into the modern intuitions of

our present. However, whilst he is critical of the future, he believes in its promise. This belief is

given that we learn and grow from our past and can imagine the future with a lens that contains

the depth of our past experiences. Hence, though not immediately apparent, and despite his

scathing critiques of all three periods, a critical examination reveals that Nietzsche's view of the

future is not pessimistic. Nietzsche examines the present and past through the harsh lens of

hindsight. However, at the core of his writing in this essay, he affirms the limitlessness of human

potential and its infinite manifestations within future possibilities. Hence, learning from the past,

he shows a preference and hope for the future and humanity's existence within in it,

Chat GPT as an AI is adept at covering the basics of any text, including Nietzche's second essay

in the Genealogy Of Morals. It recognises the positive and negative evaluations Neitzcse has

given for all three periods. However, despite understanding the basic argument, it fails to

interpret the ultimately optimistic implications Nietzche makes about the future. The following

essay will further strengthen the correct points Chat GPT makes about Nietzsche's thoughts

about the past and present and build on the gaps the answer has in its understanding of

Nietzsche's thoughts of the future.

Nietzsche's view of ancient times was characterised by a great degree of violence, suffering, and

cruelty. Human beings' violent tendencies were externalised and taken out on each other. He

traces the ability to make promises and pay off debts as the origin of violence in society, violence

inflicted by the creditor upon the party that has failed to fulfil their "promise" and debt. They are

now guilty of not fulfilling a promise, and this violation of the debt warranted violence in ancient
societies. "the pleasure of being allowed to vent his power freely upon one who is powerless.".

Nietzsche has always seen the human society's and their moral concept of the world wrought by

concepts of "obligations", "conscience", "duty", and "guilt". He asks us to question the beginning

and conception of these human societies and ask ourselves if, since then, "fundamentally, this

world has never since lost a certain odour of blood and torture?" (Nietzche, 65)

This brings us to the present; popular opinions maintain that arbitrary violence in society has

decreased, and now our collectives are more humane. However, Neitzche's cruelty in present-day

society (at the time of his writing) has become internalised and directed at oneself through

religion. Nietzsche compares Christianity and Christ to the older Greek gods and explains how

cruelly was an intrinsic nature acknowledged even amongst the gods; however, in Christianity,

undergoing suffering is characterised differently, he says "every piece of suffering that the priest

(and naturally, with him, the whole priestly organisation) can impose on himself and on

humanity, in general, is a piece of service, a means to salvation, a holy action." (Neitzche, 58).

As humanity has progressed, we have begun to measure ourselves against more complex

abilities, such as making promises to and paying od debts. We have advanced societies that are

governed by laws, complex moral codes, and courts of justice. Forms of punishment make

violence more controlled but do not erase violence. Nietzsche characterises modern society and

its moral codes as slave mortality. He calls slavery humanity's focus on pity, humility, guilt and

self-sacrifice, all of which have been turned into religious ideals by Christianity. We have

internalised suffering, which prevents us from reaching our full potential.

Internalised and externalised suffering prevents us from developing; he describes our struggle

with morality, ethics and power dynamics that have defined the human race since the ancient

past. By forming societies and trying to "tame" our basic instincts, we have restricted ourselves
to guilt and shame. We define beauty in terms of everything we should try to be, not in terms of

who we are. This means we aim to attain a state of being and fundamentally change ourselves to

become better people. However, this means that so long as we make mistakes, are angry,

resentful, violent, or any other way expressive of our true nature, we are to live with our own

"bad conscience (Nietzche, 87-88). A bad conscience that Nietzsche likens to an illness. He says,

"The bad conscience is an illness, there is no doubt about that, but an illness as pregnancy is an

illness." (Neitzche, 88).

This cost of "bad conscience" on the progress of humanity is the existential problem Netizche

identifies; he speaks about how we inherited it from our ancestors and tribal societies. As time

passed, our indebtedness towards them only grew. Religion is the only word to exacerbates this,

providing us with moral codes we try and fail to keep up with, increasing suffering. Despite this,

he does believe there is hope for humanity in the future. (Neitzche, 89-91)

One Step towards this future might be to embrace atheism. Atheism would rid humanity of guilt

of its origins; it erases any indebtedness we might owe to our ancestors and gods. He calls

atheism a "second innocence". Something that will celebrate us being together and simply

existing instead of trying to atone for our sins. He knows this will not be easy, and he recognises

that humanity has struggled with its own ideas of "goodness" for a centuries.

Further, he understands because we have inherited the "conscience-vivisection and self .. tortures

of millennia". Because we have defined ourselves against such ideals for so long, it stands true

that even in the new century, someone might replace Christianity and gods with other

figureheads that hold us to our own ideals and remain restricted within them. He understands

society's natural instinct to not rebel against the status quo, to remain defined by what it knows.
Despite understanding these fundamental facts as his reality, he believes that humanity will one

day be able to overcome this tendency to self-torture. He believes "it would require even a kind

of sublime wickedness, an ultimate, supremely self-confident mischievousness· in the knowledge

that goes with great health; it would require, in brief, and alas, precisely this great health" to win

against ourselves. This hero, he imagines, will be one with a strong spirit, someone who has been

stretched by war, dancing and adventure. He will be a creative individual possessing great

strength that will liberate himself and us from the "great nausea" of idealism, of the decay

rampant in modern times, that will win against nihilism and even against god. (Nietzche, 95-97)

Netizche strongly believes in the idea of this possibility; his strength in belief can be

characterised as hope towards the future, as anti-pessimistic. Before concluding the text, he even

backstages his own enthusiasm and belief in the idea of this victorious future and says that he

sounds like someone who would be younger than himself. It is as if, against all his entries and

criticism, he cannot help but picture a future for humanity where we are absolute and freely

pursue our ideals and creativity to our highest potential.

Hence, even though he never explicitly states his optimism and anticipation towards the future, a

critical examination reveals a careful but giddy anticipation for the future. This undercurrent of

optimism is lost on the answer provided by Chat GPT. This oversight may be due to the lack of

subjective experience and ideals of Chat GPT, it does not relate his writing against its own

experiences of emotions, given that it doesn't possess any. It is hence that it misses on sub-text

and presents his thoughts as simple thoughts (positive and negative) that he holds about the past,

present, and future.

References:

● ChatGPT. (2023, April 30th 7). Re: According to his second essay in the Genealogy Of

Morals, which period between Past, Present and Future would Nietzche prefer]. Retrieved

from [https://chat.openai.com/]

● Nietzsche, F. (1887). On the genealogy of morals. In W. Kaufmann (Ed.), Basic writings

of Nietzsche (2nd ed., pp. -57-98). The Modern Library. (Original work published 1887)