God Immoral, in Nietzsche, Will to Power, § 304

by Corry Shores
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God Immoral

Friedrich Nietzsche

The Will to Power

§ 304

(Nov. 1887-March 1883)

Of the ideal of the moralist

Nietzsche introduces his treatise "How Virtue is Made to Dominate."

He will discuss the politics of virtue. So he will describe how those in power make their virtues dominate over others. But to desire that one dominates with virtue does not mean one must also himself be virtuous. In fact, he must renounce virtue. And it is worth the sacrifice.

one can achieve the domination of virtue only by the same means as those by which one can achieve domination of any kind, in any case not by means of virtue.

All philosophers will agree that perfection in politics is Machiavellianism, which in its purest state is "superhuman, divine, transcendental, it will never be achieved by man, at most approximated." (170c)

Those who spread their morals usually had once succumbed to the temptation to be themselves moral. This is the "first and capital error for a moralist — who must as such be an immoralist in practice." And it is the moralist's duty to never appear to be immoral despite that being the case.

Freedom from morality, also from truth, for the sake of that goal that outweighs every sacrifice: for the sake of the domination of virtue — that is the canon. (171b)

Thus the moralist is by nature an actor. The danger is if he succumbs to believing his own act and becomes moral himself.

The moralist is said to imitate God. This is true, because God also knows how to appear good when really he is not.

Nietzsche, Friedrich. The Will to Power. Ed. Walter Kaufmann. Transl Walter Kaufmann and R.J. Hollingdale. New York: Random House Vintage Books, 1967.