The Morality Meme: Nietzsche and A Serious Man
- Title
- The Morality Meme: Nietzsche and A Serious Man
- Author
- Peter David Mathews
- Keywords
- Nietzsche; Coen Brothers; A Serious Man; Morality; Jewishness
- Issue Date
- 2014-06
- Publisher
- PETER LANG GMBH, EUROPAISCHER VERLAG WISSENSCHAFTEN, ESCHBORNER LANDSTRASSE 42-50, FRANKFURT AM MAIN, D-60489, GERMANY
- Citation
- CULTURA-INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF PHILOSOPHY OF CULTURE AND AXIOLOGY ,권: 11,호: 1,페이지: 63-81
- 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.
- URI
- http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/plg/cultura/2014/00000011/00000001/art00004#http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11754/56676
- ISBN
- 978-3-631-65486-6; 978-3-653-04760-8
- ISSN
- 1584-1057; 2065-5002
- DOI
- 10.5840/cultura20141114
- Appears in Collections:
- COLLEGE OF HUMANITIES[S](인문과학대학) > ETC
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