Civilization : the implications of culture in politics : some Nietzschean themes regarding civilization as juxtaposed against Platonic and Rousseauan ones

Abstract

This long essay is divided in three main parts. After debating what the term "civilization" means in anthropology, and what useful definition we might employ, we trace Plato's political philosophy in The Republic and The Laws, wherein his relevance to civilization will be accentuated, and contrasted with Nietzsche's. In the second part, it is Rousseau's conception of civilization that is traced within the Discourse on the Origin of Inequality Among Mankind, and the Marxist conception, critique and ultimately condemnation of civilization that derive from it, and conclusively contrasted with a Nietzschean conception. In the third and last part, we discuss both the Platonic-Christian and the Rousseauan-Marxist notions of civilization and how they both result in debilitating relativism. An argument follows concerning the dynamics of civilization, taking creation and belief as key features.