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Nietzsche casts himself, quite provocatively, as an “immoralist”. In this post, I want to make clear what Nietzsche means by this term as a first step towards understanding the exact nature and scope of his hostility to morality. As should already be apparent to longtime Camels With Hammers readers, I am optimistic about philosophy’s possibilities [...]
Archive for the ‘Historical Philosophy’ Category
Nietzsche's Immoralism As Rebellion Against The Authoritarian Tendencies Of Moralities
August 21st, 2011 
Daniel Fincke 
Posted in Authority, Authority, Autonomy, Autonomy, Ethical Pluralism, Ethical Pluralism, Ethics, Ethics, Featured, Historical Ethics, Historical Ethics, Historical Philosophy, Historical Philosophy, Metaethics, Metaethics, Morality, Morality, Nietzsche, Nietzsche, Philosophical Ethics, Philosophical Ethics, Philosophy 
Tags: Authoritarianism, Beyond Good and Evil 202, Daybreak 3, Hypocrisy, Immoralism, Will To Power 306, Will To Power 308 
2 Comments »Coming Soon To Camels With Hammers: More Nietzsche
August 17th, 2011 Daniel Fincke I wrote my doctoral dissertation primarily on Nietzsche’s philosophy. In the first four chapters, I developed a textual, systematic reading of Nietzsche’s views on metaphysics, epistemology, and ethics, and in the fifth chapter I gave my own account of metaethics which attempted, on the one hand, to further develop, supplement, and systematize Nietzsche’s best ideas, [...]
Gays, Jesus, and Judging
July 6th, 2011 Daniel Fincke In response to my earlier post praising a young Christian man who reached out with love to what he thought was a lesbian couple being berated by a cruel and judgmental waitress, Justin writes: Not to point out the obvious, but homosexuality is a sin, You have indeed not pointed out anything obvious. Homosexuality is [...]
Posted in Christianity, Christianity, Contemporary Ethics, Contemporary Ethics, Ethics, Ethics, Featured, Fundamentalism, Fundamentalism, God, God, Homophobia, Homophobia, Homosexuality, Homosexuality, Jesus, Jesus, LGBTQAA, Morality, Morality, Nietzsche, Nietzsche, Philosophy Of Religion, Religion, Religion Tags: Immoralism, Moral Reformation, Moral Reformers 2 Comments »Blood Poisons The Purest Teaching
April 15th, 2011 Daniel Fincke Ophelia Benson, PZ Myers, and Jerry Coyne are dismissing the bizarre notion that lacking the New Atheists somehow lack credibility for lacking martyrs. On this topic, Nietzsche has already far more eloquently said far more than I ever could: Zealously and with much shouting they drove their herd over their bridge: as if to the [...]
Posted in Atheism, Atheism, New Atheism, New Atheism, New Atheism, New Atheism, Nietzsche, Nietzsche, Philosophy, Religion, Religion 2 Comments »Hello Nietzsche
March 24th, 2011 Daniel Fincke Buy one from the Unemployed Philosophers Guild (whose proceeds go to support unemployed philosophers. A most worthy cause). And via Malcolm, here’s an avatar version for your use on your Facebook (or other) profile! Your Thoughts?
On Zealously, Tentatively, and Perspectivally Holding Viewpoints
March 2nd, 2011 Daniel Fincke In a recent post, I wrote the following: Changing people’s minds to make them stop holding positions dogmatically and instead hold them tentatively is still a change of mind one may zealously pursue. On Facebook, Greg writes in reply: I want to address the peculiarity of this statement. One may passionately pursue such a change [...]
Posted in Epistemic Justification, Epistemic Justification, Epistemology, Epistemology, Featured, Intellectual Virtues, Intellectual Virtues, Nietzsche, Nietzsche, Personal, Philosophy, Skepticism, Skepticism Tags: Nietzsche's Perspectivism, Nietzsche's Perspectivist Theory of Truth, Perspectival Epistemology, Perspectivalism 5 Comments »Is it Too Risky to Debate Morality's Foundations in the Public Square?
February 28th, 2011 Daniel Fincke Jean Kazez argues that the public square is not the place for atheists to be arguing that science and religion are incompatible. I strongly reject her position on this point because not only do I believe that ordinary people are quite capable of handling a vigorous, no-holds-barred debate about religion but because I believe the [...]
Posted in Atheism, Atheism, Atheistic Ethics, Atheistic Ethics, Contemporary Ethics, Contemporary Ethics, Cultural Secularism, Cultural Secularism, Duty, Duty, Epistemic Justification, Epistemic Justification, Epistemology, Ethics, Ethics, Featured, Metaethics, Metaethics, Moral Psychology, Moral Psychology, Morality, Morality, New Atheism, New Atheism, New Atheism, New Atheism, Nietzsche, Nietzsche, Philosophical Ethics, Philosophical Ethics, Philosophy, Philosophy Of Religion, Politics, Politics, Religion, Religious Extremism, Religious Extremism, Right Wing Politics, Right Wing Politics, Sarah Palin, Sarah Palin, Secularism, Skepticism, Skepticism Tags: J.L. Mackie, Jean Kazez, Jean-Paul Sartre, Moral Anti-Realism, Moral Error Theory, Moral Realism, Pragmatism, Russell Blackford, Sam Harris, The Death of God 8 Comments »The Religious Conservative's False Choice: "Big Brother" Or "Heavenly Father"
February 23rd, 2011 Daniel Fincke In an e-mail to me, Caroline proposes thought provoking reasons for non-believers to encourage (or at least to not actively discourage) religious beliefs: It would also be nice if people would carry out actions in good conscience of just being decent human beings rather than in fear of reprisal in the afterlife, but as there [...]
Posted in Applied Ethics, Applied Ethics, Atheism, Atheism, Atheistic Ethics, Atheistic Ethics, Authoritarianism, Authoritarianism, Authority, Authority, Autonomy, Autonomy, Christianity, Christianity, Civil Liberties, Civil Liberties, Contemporary Ethics, Contemporary Ethics, Cultural Secularism, Cultural Secularism, Duty, Duty, Ethics, Ethics, Featured, Fundamentalism, Fundamentalism, George W. Bush, George W. Bush, Hypocrisy, Hypocrisy, Law, Law, Law & Politics, Moral Psychology, Moral Psychology, Morality, Morality, New Atheism, New Atheism, New Atheism, New Atheism, News Discussion, News Discussion, Nietzsche, Nietzsche, Philosophical Ethics, Philosophical Ethics, Philosophy, Philosophy Of Religion, Political Secularism, Political Secularism, Politics, Politics, Psychology, Psychology, Religion, Religion, Religious Extremism, Religious Extremism, Right Wing Politics, Right Wing Politics, Secularism, Social Psychology, Social Psychology, Sociology, Sociology, Theocrats, Theocrats, Torture, Torture, Virtues, Virtues, World Affairs, World Affairs Tags: Political Philosophy, Social Contract, Victor Frankl 4 Comments »The Banality Of Facts
February 23rd, 2011 Daniel Fincke Sendai Anonymous picks apart a critique of Hannah Arendt’s famous analysis of Nazi Adolf Eichmann as embodying the banality of evil: It is the last paragraph of Sholem’s letter that seems to me most revealing: Sholem remarks that he regrets that she rejected the previous version of her analysis of evil, an analysis that was [...]
Posted in Historical Philosophy, Historical Philosophy, History, Philosophy Tags: Adolf Eichmann, Banality of Evil, Evil, Hannah Arendt 1 Comment »I Am Interviewed About My Personal (Atheistic) Religiosity/Spirituality
February 19th, 2011 Daniel Fincke Through Facebook, I was recently contacted by an old friend from high school (who was actually the first girl to go on a date with me). She is working on her Master’s in nursing and has an assignment which involves interviewing people about their views on religion and spirituality, for the purpose of thinking about approaches [...]
Posted in Atheism, Atheism, Atheistic Ethics, Atheistic Ethics, Ethics, Ethics, Featured, Indie Music, Indie Music, Indie Rock, Indie Rock, Love, Love, Moral Psychology, Moral Psychology, Music, Music, Nietzsche, Nietzsche, Personal, Philosophy, Religion, Religion, Secularism Tags: Eternal Recurrence, Eternal Recurrence of the Same, Existentialism, Jean-Paul Sartre, Martin Heidegger, Stoicism No Comments »Apostasy As A Religious Act (Or "Why A Camel Hammers The Idols Of Faith")
February 17th, 2011 Daniel Fincke In “The Three Transformations of the Spirit” in Nietzsche’s Thus Spoke Zarathustra: A Book for Everyone and Nobody, Nietzsche’s Zarathustra describes the human spirit as successively taking three different forms: the camel, the lion, and the child. The transformations begin with the spirit of the camel, which Nietzsche characterizes as consisting of obedient, self-sacrificing, reverential, [...]
Posted in Atheism, Atheism, Atheistic Ethics, Atheistic Ethics, Christianity, Christianity, Cultural Secularism, Cultural Secularism, Featured, Fundamentalism, Fundamentalism, Morality, Morality, New Atheism, New Atheism, New Atheism, New Atheism, Nietzsche, Nietzsche, Philosophy Of Religion, Religion, Religion, Religious Moderates, Religious Moderates, Religious Secularism, Religious Secularism, Secularism, Why I Am Not A Christian, Why I Am Not A Christian Tags: "The Three Transformations of the Spirit", Camels, Camels With Hammers, Nietzsche on the Camel, Nietzsche on the Lion, Thou Shalt Not Lie, Thus Spoke Zarathustra, Truth, Truthfulness 21 Comments »Wow! I Belonged To The TRUE Christian Church!!
February 8th, 2011 Daniel Fincke From ages 5-21, my entire time as part of the Protestant Christian Church, I was more specifically a member of the “non-denominational” Church of Christ which arose out of the “Restoration Movement” of America’s 2nd Great Awakening. John W. Loftus, a former minister and fellow former member of the Church of Christ turned atheist, has a [...]
Posted in Christianity, Christianity, Nietzsche, Nietzsche, Religion, Religion Tags: Baptists, Charts, Christian Denominations, Church Of Christ, Congregationalist, Episcopalians, Exclusivism in Christianity, Greek Orthodox Church, Heresies, Hiddenness of God, Lutherans, Methodists, Presbyterian, Protestants, Restoration Movement, Schisms in Christianity, United Brethren 7 Comments »Pleasure And Pain As Intrinsic Instrumental Goods
January 27th, 2011 Daniel Fincke In recent posts I have been arguing that there is one sense of the word “good” which can be analyzed in terms of facts and that this is the kind of “goodness” which we can consider a real part of the world. This real, intrinsic, factual sense of goodness is its meaning as “effectiveness”. We [...]
Posted in Applied Ethics, Applied Ethics, Atheistic Ethics, Atheistic Ethics, Autonomy, Autonomy, Contemporary Ethics, Contemporary Ethics, Ethics, Ethics, Featured, Historical Ethics, Historical Ethics, Metaethics, Metaethics, Moral Psychology, Moral Psychology, Morality, Morality, Nietzsche, Nietzsche, Philosophical Ethics, Philosophical Ethics, Philosophy, Problem of Evil, Problem of Evil, Teleology, Teleology, Torture, Torture, Virtues, Virtues Tags: Bernard Reginster, Pain, Pains, Pleasure, Pleasures, Will to Power 5 Comments »Non-Reductionistic Analysis Of Values Into Facts
January 27th, 2011 Daniel Fincke I have recently been arguing that the term good: must be cashed out in fact terms lest it just be a projection of our preferences and nothing more. [And] if it means anything objective, it means effectiveness. In reply, James Gray accuses me of reductionism: One, “good” does not have be defined in non-good terms. [...]
Posted in Atheistic Ethics, Atheistic Ethics, Contemporary Ethics, Contemporary Ethics, Ethical Pluralism, Ethical Pluralism, Ethics, Ethics, Featured, Metaethics, Metaethics, Metaphysics, Metaphysics, Moral Psychology, Moral Psychology, Morality, Morality, Naturalistic Fallacy, Naturalistic Fallacy, Nietzsche, Nietzsche, Philosophical Ethics, Philosophical Ethics, Philosophy, Philosophy of Mind, Philosophy of Mind, Teleology, Teleology Tags: Good, Immoralism, Intrinsic Goods, Metaphysics of Value, Natural Good, Non-Good Terms, Non-Reductionism, Reductionism, Values 8 Comments »Mutable Morality, Not Subjective Morality. Moral Pluralism, Not Moral Relativism.
January 18th, 2011 Daniel Fincke I hope soon to engage a few of the specifics of a debate going on at our friend George’s blog Misplaced Grace which started when a Christian apologist named Peter tried to argue that atheism has no way of ruling out pedophilia as immoral. Peter’s first remarks were critical of posts at Jason Thibeault’s blog Lousy Canuck. [...]
Posted in Atheism, Bible, Bible, Christianity, Christianity, Contemporary Ethics, Contemporary Ethics, Ethical Pluralism, Ethical Pluralism, Ethics, Ethics, Featured, God, God, Historical Philosophy, Metaethics, Metaethics, Morality, Morality, Philosophical Ethics, Philosophical Ethics, Philosophy, Religion, Religion 17 Comments »A Video Of Me Rambling About Nietzsche
January 17th, 2011 Daniel Fincke This is from 2007 and I just found that it pops right up when one Googles me. It’s hard for me to watch because it involves watching me. But I figured it might be of interest to others. Forgive the extemporaneousness of it all and enjoy some of the more hilarious hand gestures. (My favorite [...]
Posted in Applied Ethics, Applied Ethics, Bio-Medical Ethics, Bio-Medical Ethics, Ethics, Featured, Historical Philosophy, Historical Philosophy, Moral Psychology, Moral Psychology, Morality, Morality, Nietzsche, Nietzsche, Personal, Philosophical Ethics, Philosophy Tags: Daniel Fincke, John Hazlet, Normativity, Truth, Values 9 Comments »Disambiguating Faith: Faith Which Exploits Infinitesimal Probabilities As Openings For Strong Affirmations
January 8th, 2011 Daniel Fincke Pete C. argues that because our comprehension is limited, it is hubris for us to rule out faith in things that alleged to go beyond it: I’m not sure where I fall in the spectrum of agnosticism (if i belong there at all) so I can’t really self identify. But I will offer an explanation [...]
Posted in Arguments Against The Existence of God, Arguments Against The Existence of God, Arguments for the Existence of God, Arguments for the Existence of God, Atheism, Atheism, Disambiguating Faith, Disambiguating Faith, Epistemic Justification, Epistemic Justification, Epistemology, Epistemology, Evidence, Evidence, Faith, Faith, Featured, God, God, Intellectual Vices, Intellectual Vices, Intellectual Virtues, Intellectual Virtues, Metaphysics, Metaphysics, Philosophy, Philosophy Of Religion, Spinoza, Spinoza 2 Comments »On Defending True Spirituality And Taking The Word Back From Spiritually Bankrupt Fundamentalism
January 6th, 2011 Daniel Fincke So Chris Mooney’s article in Playboy about the spirituality of scientists has sparked some interesting debate in the atheist blogosphere. His new post on the subject explicitly interprets his aims and themes in the piece as essentially saying what I interpreted them to be—to defend the idea that you can have completely sufficient spirituality without [...]
Posted in Atheism, Atheism, Atheistic Ethics, Atheistic Ethics, Cultural Secularism, Cultural Secularism, Ethics, Ethics, Featured, Fundamentalism, Fundamentalism, Morality, Morality, New Atheism, New Atheism, New Atheism, New Atheism, Nietzsche, Nietzsche, Philosophical Ethics, Philosophical Ethics, Philosophy, Philosophy Of Religion, Rationalism, Religion, Religion, Religion and Science, Religious Moderates, Religious Moderates, Religious Secularism, Religious Secularism, Secularism, Spinoza, Spinoza Tags: Existentialism, Jean-Paul Sartre, Jerry Coyne 9 Comments »My Perspectivist, Teleological Account Of The Relative Values Of Pleasure And Pain
October 7th, 2010 Daniel Fincke With Sam Harris doing the rounds promoting a utilitarianism that seems to take the pleasures of sentient beings to be the good to be maximized, it’s as appropriate a time as ever to flesh out my objections to prioritizing pleasure and pain as the central goods in life. More specifically, you can read my already [...]
Posted in Contemporary Ethics, Contemporary Ethics, Epistemology, Epistemology, Ethics, Ethics, Featured, Intellectual Virtues, Intellectual Virtues, Metaethics, Metaethics, Moral Psychology, Moral Psychology, Morality, Morality, Nietzsche, Nietzsche, Philosophical Ethics, Philosophical Ethics, Philosophy, Teleology, Teleology, Virtues, Virtues Tags: Genealogy of Morals III:12, Nietzsche's Perspectivism, Pain, Perspectival Knowledge, Perspectivism, Pleasure 12 Comments »How Our Morality Realizes Our Humanity
July 11th, 2010 Daniel Fincke In a previous post, I discussed the intrinsic connection between being and goodness and between functional activity and being. I argued, for example that the various components of a heart need to function as a heart to be a heart and similarly that a human being must act morally to realize her humanity. Specifically, I [...]
Posted in Contemporary Ethics, Contemporary Ethics, Duty, Duty, Ethics, Ethics, Featured, Historical Ethics, Historical Ethics, Historical Philosophy, Intellectual Virtues, Intellectual Virtues, Love, Love, Metaethics, Metaethics, Moral Psychology, Moral Psychology, Morality, Morality, Nietzsche, Nietzsche, Philosophical Ethics, Philosophical Ethics, Philosophy, Teleology, Teleology, Virtues, Virtues Tags: Aristotle, Empowerment, Existentialism, Functionalism, Power, Teleological Ethics 13 Comments »Why I Think Theistic Religion’s Psychological Grip Can Be Weakened Or Broken
July 10th, 2010 Daniel Fincke In a recent comments section, Gregory Wahl argued to me that religion is so deeply rooted in psychological needs, specifically the longing for immortality, that there is an inherent limitation to the ability of all my philosophical arguments to dissuade the faithful. As this line of reasoning goes, they do not believe for intellectual reasons [...]
Posted in Atheism, Atheism, Atheistic Ethics, Atheistic Ethics, Christianity, Christianity, Cultural Secularism, Cultural Secularism, New Atheism, New Atheism, New Atheism, New Atheism, Nietzsche, Nietzsche, Philosophy Of Religion, Psychology, Psychology, Religion, Religion, Religious Secularism, Religious Secularism, Secularism, Social Psychology, Social Psychology, Social Sciences, Sociology, Sociology Tags: Atheistic Existentialism, Atheistic Nihilism, Fundamentalism, Fundamentalist Nihilism, Healthy-Soul Religion, Jean-Paul Sartre, Nihilism, Nihilistic Existentialism, Sick-Soul Religion, The Varieties of Religious Experience, Values, William James 17 Comments »On God As The Source Of Being But Not Of Evil
July 9th, 2010 Daniel Fincke Introduction This post is a long one but an important one for understanding what sophisticated Roman Catholic philosophers have traditionally meant when they have said that “God is good” and that the existence of evil is not to be taken as counter-evidence to their belief in God’s goodness. Very often we atheists are dismissed as [...]
Posted in Arguments Against The Existence of God, Arguments Against The Existence of God, Arguments for the Existence of God, Arguments for the Existence of God, Atheism, Atheism, Christianity, Christianity, Ethics, Featured, God, God, Historical Philosophy, Historical Philosophy, Metaethics, Metaethics, Metaphysics, Metaphysics, Philosophy, Philosophy Of Religion, Pope Benedict XVI, Pope Benedict XVI, Problem of Evil, Problem of Evil, Religion, Religion, Roman Catholic Church, Roman Catholic Church, Teleology, Teleology, Virtues, Virtues Tags: Thomas Aquinas 19 Comments »The Cosmological Argument, The Composition Fallacy, And More Reasons Not To Believe In God
July 3rd, 2010 Daniel Fincke Shane Wilkins, a graduate student in philosophy at Fordham (where we were fellow students and colleagues until just recently), has been an invaluable regular commentator at Camels With Hammers. He has served as my primary theistic foil since the beginning, when our 7-part debate (which started with my post Objections to Religious Moderates and Intellecuals 1) propelled this [...]
Posted in Arguments Against The Existence of God, Arguments Against The Existence of God, Arguments for the Existence of God, Arguments for the Existence of God, Atheism, Atheism, Christianity, Christianity, Epistemic Justification, Epistemic Justification, Epistemology, Epistemology, Featured, Historical Philosophy, Jesus, Jesus, Metaphysics, Metaphysics, Philosophy, Religion, Spinoza, Spinoza, Why I Am Not A Christian, Why I Am Not A Christian Tags: Composition Fallacy, Compositional Wholes No Comments »6 Basic Kinds Of Answer To The Question “Why Is There Something Rather Than Nothing?”
July 1st, 2010 Daniel Fincke by Eric Steinhart Why is there something rather than nothing? This question includes God in its scope: if there is a God, then God is something, so we can always ask: why is there God rather than no God? This implies that the question cannot be answered by appealing to God. It can’t be answered [...]
Posted in Arguments Against The Existence of God, Arguments Against The Existence of God, Arguments for the Existence of God, Arguments for the Existence of God, Atheism, Atheism, Featured, God, God, Historical Philosophy, Historical Philosophy, Metaphysics, Metaphysics, Philosophy, Philosophy Of Religion, Plato, Plato Tags: "More Precisely: The Math You Need To Do Philosophy", "The Logic of Metaphor - Analogous Parts of Possible Worlds", "Why Is There Something Rather Than Nothing?", Being, Charles Sanders Peirce, Eric Steinhart, Heidegger, Jakob Boehme, John Leslie, Leibniz, Logic, Nishitani, Nothing, Paul Tillich, Plotinus, Pseudo-Dionysius, Thomas Aquinas, Victor Stenger 7 Comments »Sympathy For The Hate-Mailers
June 30th, 2010 Daniel Fincke Barrett Brown, the director of communications for the godless lobby “Enlighten The Vote” and a contributor to skeptic magazines, explains why he deserves all the mean e-mails he gets: In my defense, though, I didn’t choose to be either an atheist or a skeptic; rather, these were simply mindsets I came to adopt around the [...]
Posted in Atheism, Hilarious, New Atheism, Nietzsche, Nietzsche, Skepticism, Skepticism Tags: Indigo Children, New Age, Nostradamus No Comments »
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