A Great Height Symbol Analysis

Closely connected to the symbol of the depths is Nietzsche’s chosen expression of the “noble” behavior that must characterize the philosophy of the future: looking down at the world as if from a great height. Nietzsche believes that nobility is determined by its master morality, which identifies itself and its goals with “good”; rather than opposing “good” to “evil,” however, this noble attitude considers people, ideas, and practices which are not noble to be merely “contemptible,” or beneath it. In this sense, the symbol of a great height is not merely a way of describing what is noble, but the key to understanding it. The philosophers of the future, if they are to break free of the prejudiced morality of the past and the flawed philosophy it produced, must strive for nobility themselves. To Nietzsche this does not mean rejecting the world and becoming a hermit but living with a degree of distance from society—and, critically, from the herd man—that can be more or less literal depending on the particular form that nobility takes in a “great” individual. Certain leaders, such as Frederick the Great, Leonardo da Vinci, and the younger Napoleon, are to Nietzsche all nobles who command from great heights but are still very much men of the world. It is this self-conscious distance from the crowd, however, that allows for the creation of values, which to Nietzsche is the very goal of philosophy.