In “Beyond Good and Evil”, Nietzsche reveals the two primary forms of morality, this would be the master morality and slave morality. In the lecture we discussed Nietzche’s fatalism he believed that events people are fated, so each individual is fated to either have a master or slave type morality. The master morality is the morality of the people, who are strong willed people. The ‘good’ is the strong, powerful and the noble, whereas the ‘evil’ is the cowardly, powerless and meek. The essence of the master morality is dignity, bravery, honesty and sense of self-worth. That is to say that it takes the good and the bad are equivalent to nobility and shame. Master morality is the essentially the affirming morality. The Master morality affirms life, it is the here and now, and it is like nature and instincts. …show more content…
The virtues are kindness, sympathy and humanity these are the most useful characteristics for supporting the burden of the existence, slave morality views independence as evil. Nietzsche believed we should allow those being capable of affirming masters to do so while those who are unable to affirm to the master morality are bound to be slaves, this was brought up in the lecture on
According to Nietzsche, the right and wrong (good and bad, good and EVIL) are just a type of the concept. Nietzsche explains that from the beginning in his first argument that the “good” did not originate among those to whom goodness was shown. It explains that the trait of “good” was really a trait as we know it today, it was actually people who were good themselves, which is Aristocratic who are powerful, high minded and high class people who controls the class below them and also politics in some cases. This was the concept that defined what right and wrongs were because it cleared things out that good was really a trait but the people who were powerful and high class in society, unlike bad which was completely opposite. But over the time
In his book, Genealogy of Morals, Nietzsche examines the origins of Good and Evil. He postures that these two concepts are derived from language, rather than essential morality. He argues that people label things as good or evil based upon their personal feelings and position of privilege. Douglas Smith translated this edition of Genealogy of Morals into English, but he also included explanations of some of Nietzsche’s key concepts. According to Smith, “A central concept in Nietzsche’s argument, ressentiment is the essence of slave morality, a purely reactive mode of feeling which simply negates the active and spontaneous affirmation of values on the part of the nobility” (142). Ressentiment stems from the oppressed party’s jealousy. The oppressed do not accept that it is bad that they do not have the luxuries and rights that the nobility posses. Instead, the oppressed use ressentiment, flip the moral spectrum, and declare that those luxuries are evil.
It does not find its root and origin in objective circumstances; it originates from a place of suppression, of seeking freedom, and most significantly, of ressentiment. Herein the idea Nietzsche proposes is that the slaves are responsive against their noble masters because they are weak and impotent, leading to the festering of hatred and resentment. This means that values culminating from the revolt would be inaccurate in representing the true meaning of “good” or “evil”, because they were formed through the tainted lens of the slaves of ressentiment. They would portray the slaves, the weak, and the powerless as “good” and favourable, while casting the nobles, the masters, and the upperclassmen in an “evil” and malicious light. This inverts the original notion that the nobles are the definition of “good”. Nietzsche expounds this situation by clarifying that the nobles become “blond beast[s]” (Nietzsche, page 128) when out of their familiar circumstances, insinuating that they turn into a barbaric state where they seek victory over those who are inferior to them. In turn, displays of brutality will be expressed, as a by-product of this barbarism and therefore, fulfilling the morality of the nobles as “evil”. Nietzsche also expresses that this form of morality may not always be beneficial; it cages the
Masters and slaves are constantly discussed throughout Nietzsche’s work, but the connection between them is discussed best in his book On the Genealogy of Morality. The first of the three essays outlines two alternate structures for the creation of values, which is credited to masters and the other to slaves.
Quite possibly the most poignant and eye-opening relationship of the entire play of Hamlet and his mother, becomes sabotaged by Hamlet internalizing Catholic driven dogma. People often resort to using religion as a moral compass to give their lives structure and personal guidance. Friedrich Nietzsche, a prominent figure associated with the existential movement states in his book, Beyond Good and Evil, that “Perhaps one the most solemn concepts which have occasioned the most strife and suffering, the concepts ‘God’ and ‘sin’, will one day seem to us of no more importance than a child’s toy and a child’s troubles” (82). Clearly, Nietzsche actively rejects the concept of committing sins, which is the binding force in most religions. To begin,
This paper is a comparative study between Nietzsche’s Beyond Good and Evil and Martin Luther King Jr’s Letter from Birmingham Jail. Detailing their views regarding ethical and unethical law.
There is only a strong man in his eyes that the society has progressed from. In Beyond Good and Evil, Nietzsche says that to keep our society, only powerful people should join together because respecting the weak causes the powerful to become weak, and will result in a weak society. In order to live, the strong crushes the weak to stay dominant because in history the strong are the ones that always win. One of Nietzsche moralities was slave, which was the term that identified the weak individuals. In Nietzsche eyes, people with power exploit the weak, and if the strong honors the weak then the strong will get weaker and destroy the society. Friedrich supported the master morality, stating that dominating people defines good in a person, and that you are masters of other people. He only helped others to better himself, not because he has sympathy on the weak. Nietzsche is just making claims and giving no proof. He assumes the strong makes a better society. He wanted us to look to the past and see the strong always win, and we should not look at the future, at things that will destroy society. Nietzsche believed, only show respect to the strong. He contradicts himself saying there are no standards but creates standards by saying, strong should get their way. He has no logic, just
A comparable theme from both Nietzsche and Murdoch is that humans derive their beliefs about human nature from morality. Nietzsche believes morality is living out passions, rather than suppressing them as religion does. Nietzsche denies religious moral values and believes that each individual’s conscience has natural passion to determine what is immoral or moral. Nietzsche believes that as human beings get morality from nature. Nietzsche believes that there are people with a strong morality, who can carry out their passions in life, and there are those who do not have strong inner morals who cannot control their passions in life. Those who cannot control their passions suffer because their passion overpowers them. The greatest of moralities are “those that accommodate nature, the weakest are those that deny it” (Nietzche 535).
Nietzsche was concerned with a genealogical project to determine the birth of values through an assessment of the historical. He was able to conclude morality as phenomena that has “become” and was not always evident, as it is motivated “by the drive for preservation” and “the intention to achieve pleasure and avoid displeasure” as he states in the chapter Deconstruction of Metaphysics in his book Nietzsche and
While Nietzsche’s standpoint of the master morality can be viewed in the lifestyle of people today, it is not a morality that need be accepted or strived for as a sense of power or accomplishment in life. The Bible teaches that as we lose our live for Jesus we will find it (Matthew 10:39). Submitting to God is not an act of weakness, rather an honor and gain as we lose ourselves in Him and find our true selves. The Bible says that we were made in God’s image and likeness, and we were given dominion over the earth (Genesis 1:26). Nietzsche’s master morality appears to be just that, an attempt to gain dominion. Since Nietzsche did not believe in God, which is the way to salvation and eternal life (Romans 10:9), it is safe to assume that he was serving the god of this world and his ways, which have always been to try to copy or be like God (Isaiah 14:13-14). Nietzsche had knowledge about God but decided to turn away from him. Because of this, Romans 1:28 -29 shows that he, among other things would be arrogant, boastful heartless, and invent ways of doing evil, which to me is exactly what his whole master-slave morality portrays. Had Nietzsche just turned from his wicked ways and submitted to the One and only true God, he would have found the peace, love, and true authority with out death.
In Nietzsche’s aphorisms 90-95 and 146-162 he attacks what he believes to be the fundamental basis of the “slave” morality prevalent in the Judeo-Christian tradition as well as other religions and societies. From the beginning, he distinguishes the two different types of moralities he believes to exist: the “master morality”, created by rulers of societies, and the “slave” morality, created by the lowest people in societies. The former stresses virtues of the strong and noble while looking down upon the weak and cowardly. This type of morality, however, is not as widespread as the “slave morality” that has been adopted by so many religions. Nietzsche looks through the psychology and logic of
Friedrich Nietzsche was born in Friedrich, Germany in 1844, later died in 1900. Nietzsche literature and history philosophy was considered to be worst sophist. All moral philosophers have been soporific, misleading. In other words, do not believe in just anything a “God” tell you because there is no God. Nietzsche was a moral theorist as new moral theorist many try to adopt moral theory and add science aspects. But not consider idea of conscience in same way as former moral theorist have in the past. Being a moral theorist in regards to actually raises doubt that there is such thing as morality. There are two known moralities, Master and Slave morality. These moralities came based on what Nietzsche said, “to be a human is to be a beast, and tube a superior beast, a person must be able to attack, control, happiness, exploit the weak. All societies have a class and within the class, known as ruling caste. The ruling caste originated from barbarian caste in state of nature. Where violence and power is wanted greatly. The hire you are in the caste you are considered to have more power, or in Nietzsche case you have more knowledge. Having more knowledge is the only way a person can reach true happiness. Nietzsche created these steps to Astuteness moral castration. The steps consist of making virtue the goal, set up standards for the virtue, opponents are ungodly, suffering
Man’s development of “bad conscience” is a complicated process that sees its beginnings in slave morality’s doubling of the doer and the deed. According to Nietzsche, the slave (the weaker man) had developed ressentiment towards the noble (the stronger man), labeling the noble as evil and blaming him for slave’s suffering (20-22). The slave separated the noble (the doer) from his instinctive actions (the deeds) and claimed the noble possessed “free will;” the slave believed “the strong are free to be weak” (26). The slave set up the ideal of his own weak and passive instincts being “good” and the strong and active instincts of the nobles being “evil” (26-27). As stated by JHarden, when defining his weakness as good, “the slave turned [his] natural condition of suffering at the hands of others into a condition which should be desired” (JHarden). As religions developed, and the slave morality became dominant, this ideal of good and evil prevailed and forced man to become conscious of his instincts as separate from himself, something he could control.
We have grown weary of man. Nietzsche wants something better, to believe in human ability once again. Nietzsche’s weariness is based almost entirely in the culmination of ressentiment, the dissolution of Nietzsche’s concept of morality and the prevailing priestly morality. Nietzsche wants to move beyond simple concepts of good and evil, abandon the assessment of individuals through ressentiment, and restore men to their former wonderful ability.
In Beyond Good and Evil, Nietzsche discusses how he is not a believer in democracy. The principles of democracy were put together by levelers, or people that believe in democracy. These principles lead to equality that restrains life to one universal truth and Nietzsche did not agree with this idea at all. He believed that these principles caused people to form into one large herd. In this herd, people follow one another with no will to power, which results in the downfall of individual rights and instincts. This makes the herd the definition of morality in society, which Nietzsche disagrees with. But he brings up the idea of neighbor love. Neighbor love is the idea that we are all in one herd so we are all equal which creates us to all