Esther asked:

I have a question on Nietzsche and Plato. How would Plato's distinction between appearance and
reality in his cave allegory apply to the realm of morality, for example, actions humans should and
shouldn't do? and what happens practically in society if, following, Nietzsche, we cannot arrive at any
reasonable standard with reference to which we can distinguish between moral appearance and
moral reality?

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There is a similarity between Nietzsche and Plato in that both regard moral appearance as the values
of their day, and moral reality as rooted in human nature.

Socrates seeks to strip others' of their false opinions and for Plato false opinions belong to the realm
of appearance rather than knowledge. Reason is the means of acquiring moral knowledge and in the
Gorgias,Socrates argues that virtue is knowledge of what benefits the agent and justice is to do with
behaviour to others. Justice is tied to virtue because a man is worse off if he behaves unjustly to
others. Socrates claims he would rather suffer injustice than do it, and also says that the unjust man
is wretched and pitiable. He cannot claim this on the basis of appearance or beliefs about others. A
man may be unjust and yet thrive. The use of reason involves conceptual analysis in Plato's
dialogues, but to know moral reality also involves being able to recognise the truth. What Socrates is
saying is that if you are able to see with clarity you will know that it is not of benefit to yourself to
commit evil. This is because if you come to see — again with clarity — what you have done and how
another has suffered, and how this has its source in the evil within you, you cannot avoid being
pitiable. The unjust man who thrives is deceiving himself.

On Nietzsche's view rational thinking curbs the will to power. What Socrates sees in mankind is
different from that identified by Nietzsche. For Nietzsche, the remorse or guilt felt by the evil-doer is
weakness, standing in contrast to a strong creative Nietzschean vision of a powerful will which
contains no inner conflict between justice and self-interest. Nietzsche is not interested in justice as a
social concept.

I don't think that Nietzsche thought that there was no standard of reference because he identified
traditional values as false and the true value as "life-enhancement". The falsity of traditional values
such as Christianity is made apparent by what Nietzsche thought was their imminent collapse and the
focus of new values must be found within the individual. In fact, we still have traditional moral values
and their strength lies in the fact that they are internal to the individual in the sense which Socrates
describes.

Rachel Browne