Beast of prey au fond

Nietzsche on Descartes

I wanted to share a passage from Nietzsche where Descartes is mentioned. Especially of interest to those who have read my work on Descartes, as here Nietzsche perfectly grasps what I have been explaining to you.

“Aristocratism: Descartes, rule of reason, testimony of the sovereignty of the will;

[…]

The seventeenth century is aristocratic, imposes order, looks down haughtily upon the animalic, is severe against the heart, not cozy, without sentiment, “un-German,” averse to what is burlesque and what is natural, inclined to generalizations and sovereign confronted with the past —for it believes in itself. Much beast of prey au fond, much ascetic habit to remain master. The century of strong will; also of strong passion.”

(Nietzsche, The Will to Power, I, §95)

Especially to be noted here is when he writes: “for it believes in itself.” With Descartes, there is this unbound confidence in man’s capacity to attain the truth. But also, the necessity of confidence for philosophy. Hence, why I have said before that with Descartes, confidence is first philosophy.

In the text I am reading now on this site, ‘The Search for Truth’, Descartes has the layman Polyander go on a search for truth by way of his own intellect. The first truth he attains is the certainty of universal doubt, and later, the certainty of his own existence as a thinking thing.

These are the first truths of philosophy, they concern the certainty of one’s own existence, a belief in oneself. But, before Polyander can realize these certainties, he first has to have the confidence to start thinking. And this is the ‘deeper’ theme of the dialogue, Eudoxus (Descartes) enacts a change in Polyander’s soul, making him realize that he is capable of attaining the truth, entirely by himself. He needs nothing else, no books, no education, no science, nothing. All he needs is the confidence to start thinking, and to believe in his own intellect.

The first truth of Descartes is the belief in the certainty of one’s own self (I think, I am), but to arrive at this truth, one has to believe in one’s own capacity to attain the truth.

There is something extremely powerful here with Descartes, nowhere else to be found in the history of philosophy. This extreme confidence in oneself, incapable of being shaken by anything whatsoever. And while most interpreters remain blind, Nietzsche is able to grasp the essence of Descartes in just a few lines.