The Domination of Instinct over Consciousness in Nietzsche's Critique of Modern Subjectivism

This article tries to examine modern humanism and the position of the concept of the subject from Nietzsche's critical point of view, considering the importance and position of instinct compared to consciousness. Man as the subject and subject of knowledge has a privileged position in modern metaphysics, and basically, modernity has an inseparable link with the subject and consciousness. Nietzsche's criticism of the subjective concept of modern man and the revival of the elemental instinct in the drawing of the human face is considered a fundamental criticism of modernity. In this research, firstly, the relationship between instinct and consciousness is examined in the theoretical foundations, focusing on the thought of Rousseau and Schopenhauer, and then the relationship between instinct and moral values, as well as the desire for truth in Nietzsche's view, is investigated. Nietzsche believes that the reduction of man to consciousness (the knowing subject) requires ignoring other dimensions of human existence, such as physical, instinctive, emotional, and historical dimensions, and as a result, he considers the image of modern man as a subject to be an incomplete form of man, which, despite the cognitive and moral centrality in modern metaphysics, has ignored important aspects of human being and natural dimensions that can lead to his prosperity. This article finally deals with the place of body and instinct as natural dimensions of human existence and their priority over mind and subjective consciousness in Nietzsche's anthropology.