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Nietzsche and Freud‖ ―A CRITICAL CONSIDERATION OF NARRATIVES CONCERNING THE EMERGENCE OF CIVILIZATION: NIETZSCHE AND FREUD‖ A THESIS SUBMITTED TO THE GRADUATE SCHOOL OF SOCIAL SCIENCES OF MIDDLE EAST TECHNICAL UNIVERSITY BY Zülfükar Emir ÖZER IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF ARTS IN THE DEPARTMENT OF PHILOSOPHY JANUARY, 2016 Approval of the Graduate School of Social Sciences Prof. Dr. Meliha AltunıĢık Director I certify that this thesis satisfies all the requirements as a thesis for the degree of Master of Arts. Prof. Dr. ġ. Halil Turan Head of Department This is to certify that we have read this thesis and that in our opinion it is fully adequate, in scope and quality, as a thesis for the degree of Master of Arts. Assoc. Prof. Dr. BarıĢ Parkan Supervisor Examining Committee Members Prof. Dr. Erdal Cengiz Prof. Dr. ġ. Halil Turan Doç. Dr. BarıĢ Parkan I hereby declare that all information in this document has been obtained and presented in accordance with academic rules and ethical conduct. I also declare that, as required by these rules and conduct, I have fully cited and referenced all material and results that are not original to this work. Name, Last name : Zülfükar Emir Özer Signature : iii ABSTRACT A CRITICAL CONSIDERATION OF NARRATIVES CONCERNING THE EMERGENCE OF CIVILIZATION: NIETZSCHE AND FREUD Özer, Zülfükar Emir M.A., Department of Philosophy Supervisor: Assoc. Prof. Dr. BarıĢ Parkan January 2016, 112 pages In this MA thesis, I will investigate understandings concerning the emergence of civilization which can be traced to ancient thought, but which is clearly taken into account by the modern thinkers, especially Hobbes and Rousseau. First, I will present Hobbes‘ and Rousseau‘s narratives concerning the development of civilization and then I will problematize their approaches by introducing Nietzsche‘s and Freud‘s understandings which inherently criticizes Hobbes‘ and Rousseau‘s accounts. Another reason why I will concentrate on these philosophers is that they all depict a hypothetical condition of the human being before civil society and try to give an account of the condition of the human being after the establishment of civil society. Then, I will attempt to offer a reading of Nietzsche‘s and Freud‘s interpretations of the emergence of civilization as a dynamic process in relation to the alterations of the human being. By focusing on the struggle, namely agon, between ‗noble‘ and ‗slave‘ forces in Nietzsche‘s understanding and by focusing on the antagonism between the death drive and the life drive in Freud‘s understanding, I will concentrate on their account of the emergence of civilization in relation to the changes in the human being which is sans telos according to both thinkers. Finally, I will discuss to what extent Freud‘s understanding significantly diverges from Nietzsche‘s thinking. Keywords: civilization, forces, agon, the death drive, the life drive. iv ÖZ UYGARLIĞIN ORTAYA ÇIKIġINA ĠLĠġKĠN ANLATILAR HAKKINDA KRĠTĠK BĠR DEĞERLENDĠRME: NIETZSCHE VE FREUD Özer, Zülfükar Emir Yüksek Lisans, Felsefe Bölümü Tez Yöneticisi: Doç. Prof. Dr. BarıĢ Parkan Ocak 2016, 112 sayfa Bu Yüksek Lisans tezinde, izlerinin antik düĢünceye kadar takip edilebilen fakat açıkça modern düĢünürler, özellikle Hobbes ve Rousseau, tarafından ele alınan uygarlığın ortaya çıkıĢı üzerine anlayıĢlar incelenecektir. Ġlk olarak Hobbes ve Rousseau‘nun uygarlığın geliĢimi üzerine anlatıları sunulacak ve sonra bu açıklamaların eleĢtirisini kendiliğinden içeren Nietzsche‘nin ve Freud‘un anlayıĢları gösterilerek sorunsallaĢtırılacaktır. Bu düĢünürlere bir arada yoğunlaĢılmasının bir baĢka sebebi de bu düĢünürlerin uygar toplum öncesi varsayımsal bir durumu betimlemeleri ve uygar toplumun ortaya çıkıĢından sonra insanın durumunun hesabını vermeye çalıĢmalarıdır. Ardından, Nietzsche‘nin ve Freud‘un uygarlığın ortaya çıkıĢının insanın değiĢimi ile ilgili olarak dinamik bir süreç olduğuna dair bir okuma önerilmeye çalıĢılacaktır. Nietzsche‘nin anlayıĢında ‗soylu‘ ve ‗köle‘ kuvvetleri arasındaki mücadeleye, yani agon‘a, Freud‘un anlayıĢında ise ölüm ve yaĢam dürtüleri arasındaki antagonizmaya yoğunlaĢılarak; onların uygarlığın ortaya çıkıĢı hakkındaki açıklamalarına, sans telos olan insanın değiĢimi bağlamında odaklanılacaktır. Son olarak Freud‘un anlayıĢının Nietzsche‘nin düĢüncesinden ne ölçüde ayrıldığı tartıĢılacaktır. Anahtar Kelimeler: Uygarlık, kuvvetler, agon, ölüm dürtüsü, yaĢam dürtüsü. v ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I would like to thank and express my sincere gratitude to my advisor Assoc. Prof. BarıĢ Parkan for her continuous help and support in all stages of this thesis. Without her support I could not have finished my thesis. I would also like to thank Prof. Dr. ġ. Halil Turan for his support not only for this thesis but also for my entire master education. My sincere thanks also goes to Prof. Dr. Erdal Cengiz for commenting on my views and helping me understand my questions in a broader sense. I would also like to express my gratitude to TÜBĠTAK for their financial support. My colleagues, Ahmet Cüneyt Gültekin and Yasin Karaman, have all extended their support in a very special way, and I learnt a lot from them, through their personal and scholarly interactions, and their suggestions at various points of my research. Lastly, and most importantly, I am very much indebted to my love, Hazal Babur, who supported and encouraged me in every possible way. vi TABLE OF CONTENTS PLAGIARISM ................................................................................................... iii ABSTRACT ....................................................................................................... iv ÖZ ....................................................................................................................... v ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ................................................................................. vi TABLE OF CONTENTS .................................................................................. vii CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION ......................................................................................... 1 2. THE NARRATIVES OF CIVILIZATION IN THE MODERN PERIOD .... 5 2.1. HOBBES ............................................................................................ 5 2.2. ROUSSEAU ..................................................................................... 11 2.3. Concluding Remarks on Hobbes‘ and Rousseau‘s Narratives ......... 16 3. FREUD ......................................................................................................... 19 3.1. Freud‘s Theory of Drives ................................................................. 20 3.2. Human Psyche .................................................................................. 24 3.3. The Superego and Civilization ......................................................... 28 3.4. The Drive Theory and Civilization................................................... 30 3.5. Morality and Civilization ................................................................. 36 3.6. From Individual Society ................................................................... 39 3.7. The Conclusion of Freud Chapter .................................................... 41 4. NIETZSCHE ................................................................................................ 44 4.1. Nietzsche‘s Interpretation of the World ........................................... 45 4.2. The Body in Relation to the Noble and the Slave ............................ 54 4.3. Ressentiment and the Emergence of the Memory of the Will ........... 58 4.4. The Organic Origin of the Contractual Relations ............................ 64 4.4.1. The Origin of Justice .................................................................. 66 4.5. The Emergence of Bad Conscience and Guilt ................................. 68 4.6. Morality and Civilization ................................................................. 73 4.6.1. The Enclosure of the Noble........................................................ 75 4.6.2. The Augmentation of Debt/Guilt of the Human Being .............. 77 vii 4.7. A Counter Model: The Antagonism of Culture and Civilization ..... 81 4.8. ‗Truth‘ and the Emergence of Civilization ...................................... 82 4.9. The Hypertrophy of the Sense of History ........................................ 89 4.10. The Conclusion of Nietzsche Chapter .............................................. 93 5. CONCLUDING REMARKS ....................................................................... 94 BIBLIOGRAPHY ........................................................................................................ 98 APPENDICES A. Türkçe Özet/Turkish Summary ....................................................................... 101 B. Tez Fotokopi Ġzin Formu/Theses Photocopy Permission Form .................. 112 viii CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION Curiosity about the origin of the human societies, body politics - broadly civilization - lies at the heart of the religious, philosophic, political inquiries. Although a lot of thinkers focus on the emergence and development of civilization, very few have been able to change the course of the history of thought and shed light on the issues of today‘s civilization as Freud and Nietzsche did. Even though these thinkers introduce great novelties into the world of thought and our way of life, they inherited a tradition whose beginnings lie in ancient thought even though the question concerning the emergence
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