Abstract

This paper attempts a parallelism, through the French philosopher Gilles Deleuze’s conception of apractical philosophy, between the thoughts of Friedrich Nietzsche and Benedict deSpinoza. Inspired by Nietzsche’s image as a nomadicthinker, Deleuze presents us with a more convincing image of Spinoza: a man who is closer to LIFE.The specific aspect of the Nietzsche-Spinoza relation I want to discuss in what follows is the differencebetween “morality” and “ethics” — it will become clear that with Nietzsche and Spinoza, ethics has an“ethological” basis. It is hoped that the distinction between morality and ethics will illuminate whatDeleuze sees in both Nietzsche and Spinoza as a basic notion of philosophical thinking — a way ofthinking which is beyond good and evil, that is, beyond moralistic ontology.