The Morality Meme: Nietzsche and A Serious Man

28 Pages·2014·0.76 MB·English

by  Mathews, Peter

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CULTURA
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL
OF PHILOSOPHY OF CULTURE
CULTURA AND AXIOLOGY
Founded in 2004, Cultura. International Journal of Philosophy of
2014
2014 Vol XI No 1
Culture and Axiology is a semiannual peer-reviewed journal devo- 1
ted to philosophy of culture and the study of value. It aims to pro-
mote the exploration of different values and cultural phenomena in
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OG
regional and international contexts. The editorial board encourages Y O
HL
the submission of manuscripts based on original research that are PO
OXI
judged to make a novel and important contribution to understan- LOSD A
ding the values and cultural phenomena in the contempor ary world. HIN
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ISBN 978-3-631-65486-6
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CULTURA 2014_265846_VOL_11_No1_GR_A5Br.indd.indd 1 14.05.14 17:43
A
R
U
T
L
U
C
CULTURA
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL
OF PHILOSOPHY OF CULTURE
CULTURA AND AXIOLOGY
Founded in 2004, Cultura. International Journal of Philosophy of
2014
2014 Vol XI No 1
Culture and Axiology is a semiannual peer-reviewed journal devo- 1
ted to philosophy of culture and the study of value. It aims to pro-
mote the exploration of different values and cultural phenomena in
FY
OG
regional and international contexts. The editorial board encourages Y O
HL
the submission of manuscripts based on original research that are PO
OXI
judged to make a novel and important contribution to understan- LOSD A
ding the values and cultural phenomena in the contempor ary world. HIN
A
OF PRE
U
L T
AL
NU
RC
U
O
J
L
A
N
O
TI
A
N
R
E
T
N
I
www.peterlang.com
CULTURA 2014_265846_VOL_11_No1_GR_A5Br.indd.indd 1 14.05.14 17:43
CULTURA
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF
PHILOSOPHY OF CULTURE AND AXIOLOGY
Cultura. International Journal of Philosophy of Culture and Axiology
E-ISSN (Online): 2065-5002
ISSN (Print): 1584-1057
Advisory Board
Prof. Dr. David Altman, Instituto de Ciencia Política, Universidad Catolica de Chile, Chile
Prof. Emeritus Dr. Horst Baier, University of Konstanz, Germany
Prof. Dr. David Cornberg, University Ming Chuan, Taiwan
Prof. Dr. Paul Cruysberghs, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Belgium
Prof. Dr. Nic Gianan, University of the Philippines Los Baños, Philippines
Prof. Dr. Marco Ivaldo, Department of Philosophy “A. Aliotta”, University of Naples “Federico II”, Italy
Prof. Dr. Michael Jennings, Princeton University, USA
Prof. Dr. Maximiliano E. Korstanje, University of Palermo, Argentina
Prof. Dr. Richard L. Lanigan, Southern Illinois University, USA
Prof. Dr. Christian Lazzeri, Université Paris Ouest Nanterre La Défense, France
Prof. Dr. Massimo Leone, University of Torino, Italy
Prof. Dr. Asunción López-Varela Azcárate, Complutense University, Madrid, Spain
Prof. Dr. Christian Möckel, Humboldt University of Berlin, Germany
Prof. Dr. Devendra Nath Tiwari, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi, India
Prof. Dr. José María Paz Gago, University of Coruña, Spain
Prof. Dr. Mario Perniola, University of Rome “Tor Vergata”, Italy
Prof. Dr. Traian D. Stănciulescu, Alexandru Ioan Cuza University Iassy, Romania
Prof. Dr. Steven Tötösy de Zepetnek, Purdue University & Ghent University
Editorial Board
Editor-in-Chief: Co-Editors:
Prof. dr. Nicolae Râmbu Prof. dr. Aldo Marroni
Faculty of Philosophy and Social- Dipartimento di Lettere, Arti e Scienze Sociali
Political Sciences Università degli Studi G. d’Annunzio
Alexandru Ioan Cuza University Via dei Vestini, 31, 66100 Chieti Scalo, Italy
B-dul Carol I, nr. 11, 700506 Iasi, Romania [email protected]
[email protected] PD Dr. Till Kinzel
Executive Editor: Englisches Seminar
Dr. Simona Mitroiu Technische Universität Braunschweig,
Human Sciences Research Department Bienroder Weg 80,
Alexandru Ioan Cuza University 38106 Braunschweig, Germany
Lascar Catargi, nr. 54, 700107 Iasi, Romania [email protected]
[email protected]
Editorial Assistant: Dr. Marius Sidoriuc
Designer: Aritia Poenaru
Cultura
International Journal of Philosophy
of Culture and Axiology
Vol. 11, No. 1 (2014)
Editor-in-Chief
Nicolae Râmbu
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Umschlagabbildung: © Aritia Poenaru
ISSN 2065-5002
ISBN 978-3-631-65486-6 (Print)
E-ISBN 978-3-653-04760-8 (E-Book)
DOI 10.3726/978-3-653-04760-8
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CONTENTS

Kyung Han You & Jiha Kim 7
Marcuse’s Legacy and Foucault’s Challenge: A Critical Inquiry into
the Relationship between Comedic Pleasure and the Popular Media

Pedro Blas González 23
The Economics of Being: The Struggle for Existence in Prehistory

Luka Zevnik 41
The Discussion about the Universality of Happiness and the
Promise of Neuroscience

Peter Mathews 63
The Morality Meme: Nietzsche and A Serious Man

Patrizia Torricelli 83
The Cognitive Basis of Value in Grammatical Form: A Case Study
of the Italian Verbs vedere volere and avere

Cyril-Mary P. Olatunji 99
A Philosophical Comparison of John 1:1-18 and the Yoruba
Concept of ÒrÒ

Mahdi Dahmardeh, Hossein Timcheh Memar & Abbas Timcheh 113
Memar
On Ethics and Culture: A Matter of Variation or Deviation? A
study on Top Notch Series
Adrian Nita 127
Leibniz on Spontaneity as a Basic Value

Benaouda Bensaid & Fadila Grine 141
Old Age and Elderly Care: An Islamic Perspective

Georg W. Oesterdiekhoff 165
Psychological Stage Development and Societal Evolution. A
Completely New Foundation to the Interrelationship between
Psychology and Sociology

Dragos Bigu 193
The Place of Values in Scientific Knowledge
10.5840/cultura20141114
Cultura. International Journal of Philosophy of Culture and Axiology 11(1)/2014: 63–81
The Morality Meme: Nietzsche and A Serious Man
Peter Mathews
Department of English Language and Literature, Hanyang University
222 Wangsimni-ro, Seongdong-gu, Seoul 133-791, South Korea
[email protected]
Abstract. Pairing together the Coen brothers film A Serious Man (2009) with the
philosophy of Friedrich Nietzsche, this paper looks at questions about morality,
illusion, and the influence of Jewish thought on contemporary ethics. Beginning
with a reading of Nietzsche that locates his discussion of the Jews within its proper
historical context, it traces the beginnings of the “morality meme,” the notion of a
universal moral reward that, Nietzsche argues, arises during the Deuteronomist
period of Jewish history. The second part of the paper looks at how A Serious Man
also engages in an interrogation of this moralistic overcoding of the universe, with a
particular emphasis on how these questions upset Larry Gopnik’s views of both
science and religion. The essay then concludes with a look at the poisonous effects
of the “morality meme,” showing in particular how it has influenced the psychology
of anti-Semitism. Rather than a rejection of Jewishness, the paper concludes that in
A Serious Man the Coen brothers engage in a careful but loving criticism of their
own culture that requires them to distance themselves from the problematic effects
of its religious morality.
Keywords: Nietzsche, Coen Brothers, A Serious Man, Morality, Jewishness.
This essay sets out to interpret the Coen brothers film A Serious Man
(2009) through the philosophy of Friedrich Nietzsche on the premise
that their works converge in the shared task of engaging, through the
prism of Jewish identity, in a poignant interrogation of the destructive
illusions that so often plague humanity. In earlier films like Miller’s
Crossing (1990) and Barton Fink (1991), Joel and Ethan Coen have tended
to treat the topic of Jewishness from the perspective of its rejection by
American society, with the Jews in these films clear outsiders to the
society in which they operate. A Serious Man, by contrast, has a different
feel to it because, even though anti-Semitism does occasionally rear its
ugly head in the course of the story, the film’s protagonist, Larry
Gopnik, lives in a cultural context that consists predominantly of other
Jews. Given how closely the film’s setting resembles the Coens’ own
upbringing, A Serious Man can be read as an incisive interrogation by the
brothers of their own Jewish background, an unflinching critique that
seeks to address some difficult truths at the same time as maintaining an
63
Peter Mathews / The Morality Meme: Nietzsche and A Serious Man

obvious pride in their own cultural origins. The film is not a renunciation
by the Coens of their Jewishness, but rather an attempt to find a point of
reconciliation with it that does not sacrifice the intellectual honesty of
their secular outlook.
Nietzsche’s relationship to Jewish culture has a different but equally
complicated history. The taint of anti-Semitism unfairly attached to his
name by the Nazis has slowly abated over the past century, thanks to the
work begun by Georges Bataille in “Nietzsche and the Fascists” (1936)
and consolidated by his translator and biographer Walter Kaufmann in
Nietzsche: Philosopher, Psychologist, Antichrist (1950). The matter of ascertaining
his position on the Jews remains a difficult one for many readers of
Nietzsche’s work, however, due to the strong rhetoric and ambiguous
terms he employs in his texts. Nietzsche repeatedly calls Jewish thought
“sickly,” “decadent,” and “poisonous,” accusing it of harboring a deep
reserve of spite and nihilism. To many readers, these characterizations
seem consistent with the idea that Nietzsche is an anti-Semite. That view,
however, is a misreading of Nietzsche’s work, a point reiterated in such
recent scholarship as Weaver Santaniello’s book Nietzsche, God, and the
Jews (1994). Nietzsche’s real interest in the Jews is historical, tracing as he
does the roots of modern morality in On the Genealogy of Morals (1887) and
The Anti-Christ (1888) to the psychological survival techniques that
emerged during the Assyrian and Babylonian conquests of the Israelites.
This ancient period, Nietzsche argues, marks the emergence of what I
call the “morality meme,” the idea that there is a system of divine reward
and punishment that reflects humanity’s faithfulness toward God. The
shared rejection of this idea is the point at which Nietzsche and the
Coen brothers converge, for in this peculiar distortion of reality they
perceive a dishonesty that harbors illusions of the most dangerous kind.
The predicament that confronts Larry Gopnik lies less in the various
humiliations he experiences than in his dawning realization that the
moral order he assumed was inscribed, like a physical law, into the fabric
of the universe is only an illusion.

THE MORALITY MEME

While Nietzsche is only one critical window that one might use to
understand the work of the Coen brothers, such an approach is hardly
without precedent. He is an important point of reference in the essay
64