Chesterton vs Kant, Freud, Nietzsche

Eu encontrei, não sei como,  estes vídeos que mostram o pensamento de Chesterton (gênio da esperança humana) contra o pensamento dos líderes da desesperança moderna: Kant, Freud e Nietzsche. 

Estes vídeos parecem que unem passagens de textos de Chesterton com textos preparados para contrapor ao pensamento daqueles autores. Fiquei de início receoso em dividir esses vídeos, pois eles não colocavam as fontes de textos de Chesterton. Mas o argumento é bem sólido em termos do pensamento de Chesterton e para confirmar isso, além dos vídeos, vou colocar em seguida frases de Chesterton sobre esses três pensadores da desesperança humana.

Os vídeos estão em espanhol, facilitam o entendimento. Mas seria bom que fossem traduzidos para o português.

Chesterton sobre Kant:

• On Kant’s Idealism and Reality (from Orthodoxy, 1908): “The modern philosopher had told me again and again that I was in the right place, and I had still felt depressed even in acquiescing. I had been in a sort of nightmare in which I felt that everything was wrong, even when it was right. It was Kant who first made it fashionable to say that the mind creates the universe.” Context: Chesterton critiques Kant’s notion that the mind shapes reality (the Copernican turn in Critique of Pure Reason), arguing it leads to a subjective detachment from objective truth, which he found philosophically disorienting.
• On Kant’s Abstract Reasoning (from The Everlasting Man, 1925): “The philosophers like Kant, who make the mind the measure of all things, end by making the mind a thing that measures nothing.” Context: Chesterton takes aim at Kant’s transcendental idealism, suggesting that by prioritizing the mind’s categories over external reality, Kantian philosophy risks rendering the mind impotent in grasping truth.
• On Kant and Common Sense (from Heretics, 1905): “Kant may tell us that the world is but a shadow-show of the mind’s making, but the man who buys a cabbage in the market knows better.” Context: Chesterton uses his earthy humor to contrast Kant’s complex epistemology with the practical certainty of everyday experience, a recurring theme in his defense of common sense against abstract systems.
• On Kant’s Influence on Modern Thought (from The Catholic Church and Conversion, 1926): “The Kantian fog has clouded many a modern mind, making men think they doubt when they only dream.” Context: Chesterton criticizes Kant’s influence on skepticism and idealism, which he believes fosters intellectual confusion rather than clarity, distancing people from reality.

Chesterton sobre Freud

• On Freud’s Reductionism (from The Everlasting Man, 1925): “The new psychologists, like Freud, tell us we are driven by dark forces below the mind, as if man were but a walking dream, stirred by animal instincts. But man is not a beast who dreams; he is a soul who wonders.” Context: Chesterton rejects Freud’s focus on the subconscious and primal drives, arguing that human consciousness and wonder transcend such mechanistic views.
• On Psychoanalysis and Common Sense (from The Outline of Sanity, 1926): “Freud would have us believe that every man’s soul is a cellar full of repressed lusts and fears, but I’d sooner trust the man who knows he’s got a soul worth saving than the one who thinks he’s only a bundle of complexes.” Context: Chesterton critiques Freud’s psychoanalytic model for reducing human behavior to unconscious impulses, contrasting it with his view of humans as rational and spiritual beings.
• On Freud’s Sexual Theories (from The Thing: Why I Am a Catholic, 1929): “The Freudian notion that all human motives boil down to sex is like saying all music boils down to a drumbeat—it’s loud, it’s simple, and it’s wrong.” Context: Chesterton mocks Freud’s emphasis on sexuality as the root of human motivation, using his typical vivid analogies to highlight its oversimplification.
• On the Dangers of Freudian Analysis (from All Things Considered, 1908, in a broader critique of modern psychology): “The new science of the mind, with its Freuds and its fads, would have us rummage through our souls as if they were attics, finding only dust and shadows when what we need is light.” Context: Chesterton expresses skepticism about psychoanalysis, suggesting it distracts from moral and spiritual clarity by overanalyzing the subconscious.

Chesterton sobre Nietszche

• On Nietzsche’s Übermensch (from Orthodoxy, 1908): “Nietzsche would have us worship the Superman, a creature who strides above the common herd. But I’d rather trust the common man who stumbles and laughs than the hero who sneers and conquers.” Context: Chesterton criticizes Nietzsche’s ideal of the Übermensch as an elitist fantasy that dismisses the value of ordinary people, contrasting it with his own celebration of democratic and Christian humility.
• On Nietzsche’s Rejection of Morality (from Heretics, 1905): “Nietzsche calls Christian morality a slave morality, but it takes a braver soul to love one’s neighbor than to dream of trampling him underfoot in the name of power.” Context: Chesterton defends Christian ethics against Nietzsche’s claim that they weaken humanity, arguing that love and sacrifice require greater strength than Nietzsche’s will to power.
• On Nietzsche’s Philosophy of Power (from The Everlasting Man, 1925): “The Nietzschean creed, with its will to power, is like a man shouting that he’s free because he’s broken all his chains—only to find he’s chained himself to his own pride.” Context: Chesterton critiques Nietzsche’s emphasis on power as a false liberation, suggesting it leads to spiritual isolation rather than true freedom.
• On Nietzsche’s Influence and Madness (from All Things Considered, 1908): “Nietzsche’s gospel of strength ends in a scream, not a song. He preached the triumph of the will, but his own will broke under the weight of his own ideas.” Context: Chesterton alludes to Nietzsche’s mental collapse, using it to argue that his philosophy, while seductive, is ultimately unsustainable and destructive.