Providentialism
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| - | :"Nietzsche, despising Darwin as a dull grubber" --''[[Egoists: A Book of Supermen]]'' | + | '''Providentialism''' is a belief that [[God's will]] is evident in all occurrences. It can further be described as a belief that the power of God (or [[Divine Providence|Providence]]) is so complete that humans cannot equal his abilities, or fully understand his plan. Another aspect of providentialism is the belief that God's plan is beyond the control of humans, and that sometimes this may be expressed in seemingly bad things happening to good people. It may further be understood as a belief that all that occurs is for the greater good. |
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| - | [[Nietzsche]] early learned of [[Darwinism]] through [[Friedrich Albert Lange]]. | + | Providentialism was frequently featured in discussions in European circles seeking to justify [[imperialism]] in the 19th century, on the grounds that the suffering caused by European conquest was justified under the grounds of furthering God's plan and spreading [[Christianity]] to distant nations. |
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| - | He later frequently criticizes [[Darwin]] as naive and derivative of [[Hobbes]] and early English economists and without an account of life from the "inside" (and consider in this light Darwin's own introduction to the first edition of ''[[On the Origin of Species]]'') (consider also Nietzsche's critique to the effect that Darwinism, as typically understood, is trading in a new version of the [[Providential]] in ''[[Human, all too Human]]''): | + | |
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| - | <blockquote>"Wherever [[social progress|progress]] is to ensue, deviating natures are of greatest importance. Every progress of the whole must be preceded by a partial weakening. The strongest natures retain the type, the weaker ones help to advance it. Something similar also happens in the individual. There is rarely a degeneration, a truncation, or even a vice or any physical or "moral" loss without an advantage somewhere else. In a warlike and restless clan, for example, the sicklier man may have occasion to be alone, and may therefore become quieter and wiser; the one-eyed man will have one eye the stronger; the blind man may see deeper inwardly, and certainly hear better. To this extent, the famous theory of the [[survival of the fittest]] does not seem to be the only viewpoint from which to explain the progress of strengthening of a man or of a race." | + | |
| - | </blockquote> | + | |
| - | ==See also== | + | |
| - | *[[Social Darwinism]] | + | |
| - | *[[Anti-Darwinism]] | + | |
| - | *''[[Nietzsche's Anti-Darwinism]]'' by Dirk R. Johnson | + | |
| - | *See ''[[Twilight of the Idols]]'' for more of [[Nietzsche's critique of Darwin]] | + | |
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Providentialism is a belief that God's will is evident in all occurrences. It can further be described as a belief that the power of God (or Providence) is so complete that humans cannot equal his abilities, or fully understand his plan. Another aspect of providentialism is the belief that God's plan is beyond the control of humans, and that sometimes this may be expressed in seemingly bad things happening to good people. It may further be understood as a belief that all that occurs is for the greater good.
Providentialism was frequently featured in discussions in European circles seeking to justify imperialism in the 19th century, on the grounds that the suffering caused by European conquest was justified under the grounds of furthering God's plan and spreading Christianity to distant nations.
