The Relationship between Science and the Ascetic Ideal in Nietzche's Genealogy

Abstract

In this essay I advance an interpretation of the relationship between science and the ascetic ideal in The Genealogy of Morals, that seeks to explain the enigmatic alliance Nietzsche establishes between both at the end of the third treatise of the aforementioned book. According to Nietzsche, contrary to what is believed, modern science is not really the antagonist of the ascetic ideal, but constitutes rather its latest and noblest form. In what follows, I argue that, for Nietzsche, the ascetic ideal has been the only response human beings have given to their special form of existence, which consists in being the only animals capable of independence and sovereignty. The ascetic ideal expresses a flight from the responsibility and the burden (the suffering) that is entailed by the exercise of that capacity for sovereignty. Thus, as the ultimate expression of that ideal, science too represents an evasion of independence and a declaration of war against freedom of will, that is, against autonomy.