MacIntyre’s criticism of Nietzsche is simple and elegant. If the evolved human being rises above other people to arrive at a place where he can ‘create’ values, he removes himself from the human relationships within which values emerge, and therefore can know nothing about value. MacIntyre quotes Nietzsche, from The Will To Power:
[A great man] wants no ‘sympathetic’ heart, but servants, tools; in his intercourse with men he is always intent on making something out of them. He is incommunicable: he finds it tasteless to be familiar; and when one thinks he is, he usually is not. When not speaking to himself, he wears a mask. He rather lies than tells the truth: it requires more spirit and will. There is a solitude within him that is inaccessible to praise and blame, his own justice that is beyond appeal. (962)
MacIntyre goes on to say that because "great man" removes himself from the relationships involved in learning and engaging in the practices, he is condemned to "moral solipsism". We can easily see that any severe isolation from society leads to pathology, and the "practices" need have nothing to do with it. We have psychiatric diagnoses for this standpoint: schizoid personality disorder and delusional disorder, grandiose type, and a moment’s reflection is enough to reveal that a life this solitary would be one of misery. In fact, we can see now that this is the source of Raskolnikov’s misery: by committing murder, he cuts himself off from the possibility of any further relatedness to his friends and family. The murder is the final plank in a wall which he had begun building in his isolation with his theories. And it literally takes years before he is able to let Sonya communicate with him again.
It is interesting to note that lying is a key component of the behavior which establishes this isolation. In lying, the ubermensch dons a mask; his true self is concealed, and he therefore steps out of true relatedness, which requires revealing oneself to others. So here is a thing that happens when you tell a lie: you isolate yourself.
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