Friedrich Nietzsche och dygden mod : En kontextualisering av Nietzsches syn på mod

Abstract Sebastian Porsefalk: Friedrich Nietzsche och dygden mod, En kontextualisering av Nietzsches syn på mod. Uppsala universitet: Inst. För idé- och lärdomshistoria, C-uppsats, vårterminen, 2025. The philosophy of Friedrich Nietzsche has been extensively studied, including the study of his virtue ethics, yet the specific virtue of courage has remained largely overlooked. This thesis investigates Nietzsche’s philosophy regarding the virtue of courage. With a Quentin Skinner inspired theory of contextualization, the study seeks to explore how he illustrates his examples of courage. This study investigates Nietzsche’s concept of courage, including how he describes it, what it entails, and how it relates to ancient virtue ethics. Nietzsche argues that courage is a prerequsite for values like curiosity, cheerfulness, and thruthfulness, and that it is essential for truly appreciating life through his call to live dangerously. The tension between Nietzsche’s apparent aristocratic elitism and subversive individualism illuminates the complexity of his obvious critique of Christianity and its influence on the politics of his contemporary Europe along with the ambivalent relation to the social order. Friedrich Nietzsche is a complex and multifaceted character and this study has shed light upon the virtue of courage as an essential part of his philosophy by examining the contexts he refers to. Displaying in what regard he writes about the future of Europe and what kind of people are needed to be able to rescue it from its perceived moral decline. Keywords: Virtue, courage, conservatism, individualism, aristocratic elitism, conceptual history, contextual history, moralphilosophy.