The Depths Symbol Analysis

Nietzsche believes that human ideas and behavior are motivated not just by our conscious beliefs but also by inner, often unconscious psychological drives and inherited or imparted characteristics, which he illustrates by invoking the symbol of the depths. To Nietzsche, the human psyche—or indeed human nature—extends far deeper than just its conscious expression. Correspondingly, a psychological study of humankind worthy of the name is one which does not content itself with staying on the surface, but instead deliberately descends to the depths of human consciousness. Through his use of this symbol, Nietzsche ironically inverts the typical formulation of the search for truth: rather than ascending upward to a lofty ideal, the philosophers of the future must descend into the depths, look within themselves, and confront the darker side of their own nature in order to reach truth. Much of past philosophy, however, has contented itself with remaining on the surface due to its own moral prejudices. Nietzsche also frequently compares the depths of the soul to a primeval forest or wilderness, emphasizing the animality of humankind and just how much of our being is not governed by reason but by instincts and drives: by the will to power. This places Nietzsche’s philosophy sharply at odds with Enlightenment humanism, which believes that humans are rational beings, as opposed to animals which obey only their own instincts. Religion, too, is to Nietzsche an unconscious expression of drives found in the depths of a person’s own being, often driven much more by fear than by love. The ideas that Nietzsche expresses through this symbol would prove greatly influential in 20th-century philosophy and psychology, both of which took up similar theories of unconscious and subconscious motives and decision making.