Nietzsche's Problem With Socrates

To try everything Brilliant has to offer—free—for a full 30 days, visit https://brilliant.org/Weltgeist/ . You’ll also get 20% off an annual premium subscription.Support us on Patreon, get access to exclusive videos:▶ https://www.patreon.com/WeltgeistYTOUR ANALYSES: ▶ Beyond Good and Evil: https://youtu.be/WIHXZUltfqk▶ The Antichrist: https://youtu.be/qej1Z8Qzq_c▶ Genealogy of Morals: https://youtu.be/6PUx4cOfFcI▶ Twilight of the Idols: https://youtu.be/YpVr_NEvWYA▶ The Will to Power: https://youtu.be/He6ZC7ZFBt8▶ Daybreak: https://youtu.be/cOL2z7nuXdA▶ The Joyful Science: https://youtu.be/U0fTBOJ-C_IIn Twilight of the Idols, Nietzsche opens up the chapter "The Problem of Socrates" with a bold statement: he calls him ugly. By itself that's not really a controversial statement: Socrates's unsightly physique is well-attested in ancient sources, and Socrates himself (with a dint of his trademark irony) even agrees with detractors who insult his looks. (His bulging crab-like eyes, for example, allow him to take a broader view of the world than those with normal, forward-facing eyes can... he says to his friend Crito.) What's so provocative about Nietzsche's statement is not the statement itself but rather that he uses it as an argument against Socrates. Isn't that the classic example of an ad hominem attack? You're ugly therefore you're wrong? But Nietzsche goes deeper into it and uses the ugliness of Socrates as a springboard to critique ancient Greek culture - how Socrates and the Socrates Revolution was a symptom of decadence, of the ancient pre-Socratic Greeks losing their noble tastes, allowing themselves to be seduced by reason, allowing Socrates to convince them that from now on, they needed good reasons, solid arguments, for their way of life. The happy instinct of the powerful, that needs no justification beyond itself, now stood in need of a justification: good reasons were required for your beliefs.And the Greeks had Socrates to thank for that.For Nietzsche, this is not a sign of philosophical enlightenment, but a sign of decay, of decadence, of a loss of strength; of weakness.Moreover, with Socrates, the way was paved for Plato, and his world-changing distinction between appearance and reality. The Greeks used to judge books by their covers, and Plato changed that. Now, there is this rotten, fallen, imperfect material world juxtaposed with a perfect World of Forms. For the pre-Socratic Greeks, this idea was not as forceful as it is today: appearance WAS reality. And only ugly Socrates, who could not compete with the strong, healthy, noble Greeks on physical terms, had to invent a kind of mental challenge: the tyranny of reason, and the prelude to the World of Forms where reason would reign supreme over all the rest. Mind over body, reason over instinct, idea over reality.This video was sponsored by Brilliant.