As part of my graduation thesis, I have set out to consistently interpret a passage of the book Twilight of the Idols, or, How We Philosophize with a Hammer by Friedrich Nietzsche, which bears the subtitle How the »True World« Finally Became a Fable - The History of an Error. In this part of the book, Nietzsche carried out a complete destruction of the history of Western metaphysics, which he himself conceived as the history of the Idea, i.e. the Idea of the Good. In just six short paragraphs, he managed to define, identify and critically analyze each of the key stages in the history of metaphysics, starting with Plato's idealism, which, according to his analysis, went on to transform and transfigure during the spread of Christianity into the so-called slave morality (German: Sklavenmoral), the rise of which he strongly associated with the rapid decline of the ruling classes of the Western Roman Empire. The next conceptual system he deals with is that of Immanuel Kant, namely Kant's universal moral imperative and his metaphysics, which is based on Kant's explication of the original synthetic unity of apperception. Nietzsche then discussed the emergence of positivism, which he criticized in equal measure, firstly, on the grounds that it is an expansion and continuation of the sensualistic tendencies of the 18th century in the 19th century and, secondly, that it is inherently and completely oblivious to man's pathological need for a comprehensive and thorough explanation of the world. Finally, he devoted himself to explaining the meaning behind the rise of decadence and the collapse of established values in Europe at the end of the 19th century. In the final step, he characterized the rise of his own approach to philosophy in the history of metaphysics as the »pinnacle of humanity« and the consequent continuation of this vision of his was later brought forth in other works, most notably in his Thus Spake Zarathustra.
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