HOMEWORK ASSIGNMENT 8

Read one way, the Grand Inquisitor supports religious institutions and its various doctrines for attaining
salvation. Read another way itʼs an indictment against the institutionalization of faith itself. Read a third
way it may be a warning about all institutionalization in the form of the various social and political
ideologies that underlie every society with its promises.

The Grand Inquisitor

1. Read pp. 4-6. What is the Inquisitorʼs indictment against Jesus and his view of man?

2. The three temptations pp. 6-16: List and discuss each. Include a brief summary of the Inquisitorʼs
counter arguments to Jesusʼ rejection of each temptation. Why according to the Inquisitor did Jesus
miss his opportunity with mankind by rejecting each? What kind of creature, according to the
Inquisitor, is mankind, and what does man want? Why is the freedom of faith an impossible burden on
humankind and the 3 powers alone (p. 11) able to soothe conscience?

3. Summary pp. 16-22. What is the utopian image the Inquisitor offers, and at what cost? Does he, who
has ʻtaken their sins upon himselfʼ, love mankind more than Jesus who only saves the few and the
elect p. 15? What is the significance of the kiss?

Notes From The Underground

4. Ch. 1: Read the comments in the handout from chapter one. What is the difference between having
character and being characterless? Why does he torment the man with the clanking sword?

5. Ch. 2: Why is consciousness an illness? How is it different from being a insect? Distinguish ordinary
human consciousness attributed to direct persons and men of action from acute consciousness?

6. Ch. 3: Define the stone wall (p. 8). Why does the normal man of action find it morally soothing, while
the acutely conscious man (mouse) rebels against it? How does this difference impact their reaction to
being insulted (p. 7)?

7. Ch. 4: How is the reaction to the toothache analogous to the human condition in 19th century
European Civilization?

8. Ch. 5-6: Why do direct persons and men of action act? How is this related to having a foundation and
the substitution of a secondary cause for a primary one? Why would things be different for him if he
were a sluggard (lazy person)?

9. Ch. 7: What is he criticizing at the beginning of this chapter (see notes)? What is the difference
between normal advantage (p. 14) and a personʼs most advantageous advantage (p. 17)?

10. Ch. 8: What is the conflict between reason and desire at the beginning this chapter? How is it
resolved in the middle of p. 19? What is the one case where one may consciously choose what is
injurious to himself and stupid? What does it preserve (p. 19-20)? How is this connected to proving
we are not a piano key or organ stop (p.21)?

11. Ch. 9: What is manʼs passionate love of destruction about and how it is linked to his love of attaining
without having attained? How are suffering and consciousness connected, and why do they result in
rejection of the Palace of Crystal (p. 23-24)?

12. Ch. 10-11: On pp. 24-25 the UM seems to be distinguishing Two Crystal Palaces. One he fears,
describe both.
 HOMEWORK ASSIGNMENT 8

NIETZSCHE

13. Aphorisms & Joyful Wisdom: pp. 1042-1044: Read the 9 aphorisms. What is Nietzsche saying
about the meaning of life, truth, right and wrong, interpretation, perspectivism? In The Madman and
the Death of God, how does Nietzsche account for Godʼs death? What does he see as its immediate
implications for us?

14. Beyond Good & Evil: pp. 1044-1050: How has Higher or Aristocratic Civilization historically arisen
pp. 1044-1045? How is the phrase will to power used to describe what Nietzsche sees as the
fundamental fact of all history (pp. 1045-1046)? On page 1046 he describes historically how moral
values and the distinction between good and bad originated with the ruling classes, explain? How
was this distinction inverted by the slave classes inventing a new form of valuation good & evil in their
drive for power (pp. 1048-1049)

15. Twilight of the Idols: Problem of Socrates: pp. 1052-1055: Why does Nietzsche say “Greek
philosophy from Plato onward is the outcome of a pathological condition?

16. Reason in Philosophy: pp. 1055-1057: Read paragraphs 1-4. Summarize Nietzscheʼs critique of the
way philosophy has traditionally favored Being over Becoming. Why is Being the source of our
greatest confusions? Read paragraphs 5-6. What are the errors resulting from our belief in reason
and language?

17. Morality as the Enemy of Nature: pp. 1057-1060: Read paragraphs 1-6. In what sense has the
history of morality led to a denial rather than an affirmation of life?

18. Four Great Errors: pp. 1060-1063 Examine paragraph 3. List the 3 facts of inner consciousness,
and how they came to exist? Read paragraph 7. What is the error of free-will, and what does our
deliverance from it imply?

19. The Anti-Christ: pp. 1063-1069: Read paragraph 6. How have the highest values led to the
corruption of the species? Read paragraph 7. List the characteristics of pity. Read paragraph 15.
Summarize his criticism of Christian morality and religion.