Marx
argues that human nature isn't fixed; it's determined by man's material conditions. In
particular, it's the economic system that determines how people behave at any given time and any
given place. That being the case, if we want to change how humans behave, especially towards
each other, then we need to change man's environment, and with it, the economic system of which
he is a part.
In practical terms, this leads, or should lead, at any rate, to
the eventual abolition of the capitalist system and its subsequent replacement by Communism.
Under Communism, so Marx argues, there will be no more class division, and therefore no more
exploitation. Everyone will work together for the good of all.
Nietzsche
approaches the question of human nature from an entirely different perspective. He sees human
nature as being in a process of long-term decline. Due largely to the development of modern
ideas such as liberalism, socialism, and democracy, human nature in the West has become less
noble, less aristocratic than it was in ancient Greece, which for Nietzsche was the apex of
Western civilization.
What is needed, then, is a radical transformation of
human nature, one that rejects what Nietzsche sees as the restrictions on self-fulfillment
imposed by modern ideologies, all of which he despises, and all of which he regards as having
their common origin in Christianity.
Successive generations of scholars have
argued over the precise social and political implications of Nietzsche's theory of human nature.
But at the very least one can safely assume that Nietzsche believed that society should be run
by, and for the benefit of, an elite.
The precise composition of that elite
remains elusive, however, as Nietzsche was never in the business of providing blueprints for how
society should be organized. However, in decisively rejecting modern social and political ideas,
Nietzsche sought to recall Western man to what he saw as the greatness of pre-Christian
humanity.
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