Jung on Nietsche's Zarathustra : what lies beyond good and evil?

Abstract

Summary: This work aims at establishing Jung's importance as a Nietzsche commentator. Although Jung's work is generally unacknowledged by the mainstream of Nietzsche scholarship, a number of philosophers have joined him in recognizing the relevance of Iranian religious lore to Nietzsche; the visionary nature of Nietzsche's experiences of Zarathustra; and the link between these experiences and his criticism of ethics. Jung sees Nietzsche as something of a kindred spirit, "and refers to that philosopher again and again throughout his writings. In his seminar on Nietzsche's Also sprach Zarathustra, Jung analyzes that work much as he would a patient's dream. While this approach allows Jung to project his own views onto Nietzsche, it also succeeds in restoring essential aspects of Nietzsche's thought which other, less foolhardy commentators fail to capture. Nietzsche and Jung both speak of going "beyond good and evil" (jenseits von Gut und Bose) as an integral part of their respective conceptions of human fulfillment. The notion that we ought to try to transcend the distinction between good and evil, rather than obstinately cling to the good, potentially constitutes an immense, fundamental challenge to our ordinary beliefs about ethics. At the same time, Jung's elaboration of this into a more general form of nonduality suggests a solution to that most basic problem of ethics--which Nietzsche raised most forcefully--namely that of how ethical standards might be justified without falling prey to such basic obstacles as the "is/ought" problem.