Master Morality vs. Slave Morality: Neiztche

Nietzsche is widely known as a critic of religion. In fact, he talks in depth about morality in regards to religion in his essays about the genealogy of morals. But the problem is not within religion itself or within morals. The problem is involved in the combination of the two to create society’s understanding of morality through a very religious lens. In fact, Nietzsche has criticism for almost any set of morals constructed by a group of individuals and meant to be applied to society as a whole. True morality, according to Nietzsche, requires a separation from these group dynamic views of morality- or at least a sincere look into where they originated and why they persist- and a movement towards a more introverted, and intrinsically personalized understanding of what morals mean in spite of the fact that “the normative force to which every member of society is exposed, in the form of obligations, codes of behavior, and other moral rules and guidelines, is disproportionally high” (Korfmacher 6).

Friedrich Nietzsche was a philosopher in the 1800’s. His work has since influenced, impacted, and brought forth new questions for many philosophers to follow. One of Nietzsche’s famous writings Beyond Good and Evil expresses his views on society and the two different classes it holds, slave and master. He expresses his belief that the two are in warfare with one another, the strong (master) fighting for the will to power, while the weak (slave) tries to pull the master down to their level using clandestine forms of revenge. Nietzsche believed the slave morality was one that included humility, obedience, and submission, and was the destructive choice and attribute of Christianity, while the master morality was full of arrogance and pride

He hypothesized that this gradual turning away from God would be such a gradual process that people would not realize that it was even happening until the idea had almost been exterminated (Frame 45). Nietzsche then proposed that there are no absolutes or standards for us to live by and therefore, God could not be real since he would have created those very standards into being (Lawhead 454).Because of this, Nietzsche said, people would never be able to take full responsibility for themselves and still leave room for God (Frame 49). Instead, he favored the idea that the true origin of morals could be found in the human flaw to desire a state of being viewed as powerful (Lawhead 456). Although he denied God’s existed and felt that morals came from a thirst for power, Nietzsche was quoted as saying that Jesus came “not to ‘redeem men’ but to show how one must live (Lawhead 455).”

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

Attempting to explain morality Nietzsche appeals to social structure and psychology. He argues that humans naturally exploit each other, and of the many ways this occurs aristocratic castes are the most relevant. Aristocratic societies create a dichotomy in which those deemed noble rule over the commoners. From this dichotomy, good and evil arise.

Nietzsche and Aristotle were two of the most significant philosopher of not only their time but their works has lasted throughout the centuries to influence even some today’s greatest minds. Their works however could not be any separated, Aristotle is a prominent figure in ancient Greek philosophy, making contributions to logic, metaphysics, mathematics, physics, biology, botany, ethics, politics, agriculture, medicine, dance and theatre. He was a student of great thinkers such as Plato and Socrates. He believes that ethics is a process to finding the final end or the highest good. He states that although there are many “ends” in life those are usually only means to further ends, our ambitions and wants must have some final purpose. Aristotle believes that this highest end is that of Happiness. He introduces the concept moral virtue which is the ability to properly control desires to follow bad actions, and is the focus of morality. Centered on the core of Aristotle 's account of moral virtue is his doctrine of the mean. According to this doctrine, moral virtues are character traits which are at in-between more extreme character traits. While Nietzsche a German philosopher, essayist, and cultural critic. He believes that "Good" is originally designated only the right of those individuals with social and political power to live their lives by sheer force of will. But a "priestly" caste, motivated by their resentment of their natural superiors, generated a corrupt

There are many different types of moral theory. One, the divine command theory, states that the moral code by which we should abide comes down to us from the ten commandments of God. There is also Kant's view that reason dictates the commandments of morality. The moral law, according to Kant, is derivable from our own rational faculties and, not surprisingly, God's ten commandments can be found along with other maxims in our rationality. However, Nietzsche ascribed to neither of these views. Born in 1844, Nietzsche was influenced by Darwin and philosophers such as Schopenhauer. His moral theory mirrored more that of Hume's in sticking to the tenants of naturalism than it resembled deontological theories such as Kant's. The 18th century

To begin with, Nietzsche was a relentless critic of morality and questioned the concept of good and bad. Similarly, he proposed a question on whether the self is an affirmation of good or negation of evil. He establishes that good/evil and good/bad come from two distinct origins, where the two good’s radically oppose each other. For Nietzsche, this is what seems like the slave morality, which says that evil equates to what is good and the master morality that equates bad to good. Slave morality proposes that if you are evil then I am good while the master morality says if I am good, then you bad. This is essentially who the priest is. They are those who feel powerless in situations where there is physical power present. A venomous hatred is then manifested for the powerful as they are supposed to be spiritually powerful people. This also lies in ressentiment of the weak that

Nietzsche lived his life as a man critical of nearly everything in his life, provided that in influenced morality. Religion influenced people who, in his eyes, could do greater if their ideals weren’t held back by their preconceived ideas of morality. He frequently attacked philosophies that disagreed with him, claiming that they stood in the way of the benefit of mankind. His belief of abandoning preconceived notions of a code of morality is his own philosophy, Nihilism. Everything Nietzsche worked on became Nihilism. It is a shame that Nietzsche fell out of contemporary view because of the edits made by his sister that caused people to associate him with the hateful views of nazism and

This piece of work will try to find the answer to the question ‘In Nietzsche’s first essay in the Genealogy of Morals, does he give a clear idea of what good and bad truly are and what his opinion of those ideas is’. It will give a brief overview of his first essay, it will also go into greater detail of what he claims good and bad truly are, and finally look at what he is trying to prove with this argument. It will look at his background in order to see if and how that has influenced his work and opinions.

Why do we ‘punish’? Why do we feel ‘guilt’? How do we define what is ‘good’, ‘bad’ or ‘evil’? What moves us to make a judgement? In On the Genealogy of Morals, Friedrich Nietzsche makes use of three different essays (“‘Good and Evil’, ‘Good and Bad’”, “‘Guilt’, ‘Bad Conscience’, and the Like”, and “What is the Meaning of Ascetic Ideals?”) that examine similar forms of his major philosophical worry: the various origins and definitions of our different moral concepts and ideas, persistence and progressively grave effects of Christian morality. It is generally hard to evaluate Nietzsche because he displays such an authentic approach to value theory that it is easy to get lost in his vast collection of ideas. In the first essay, “‘Good and Evil’,

In Of the Genealogy of Morality, Nietzsche sought to provide context for what he saw as the central value system of the society in which he lived: slave-morality. Nietzsche saw morality as reflective of the conditions in which its proponents were brought up. He saw the roots of slave morality in oppression and slavery, and posits that it grew as a reaction to the morality of the masters of the time. What follows is a simplified account of Nietzsche’s master-slave dichotomy, and what he saw as the dire consequences for human progress should the pervasiveness of slave morality be allowed to remain at the expense of the master. I will argue that although religion and slave morality may have had significant influence in Nietzsche’s day, his

Morality is defined as the principles concerning the distinction between right and wrong or good and bad behavior. When defining morality people usually use the rules which they believe to be either right and wrong that he or she follows. However, it is much more than that. It's a combination of

As such, his perspective shows that nothing is absolute, sacred or true given that the society’s morality are not responsibilities given by God but rather an evolving arbitral code set by humanity. The only constant thing is the struggle for power and a virtue of a powerful will, freedom from resentment, hatred and a bad conscience. This clearly indicates that in his genealogy Nietzsche’s main goal is to put society’s value for morality into question. For instance, he bases his argument on the society’s morality coming out of hatred and resentment towards anything healthy, strong or powerful. Therefore, Nietzsche perceives the society’s morality as being destructive to the health of the future and success of humanity

Nietzsche begins his discussion of good and moral with an etymological assessment of the designations of “good” coined in various languages. He “found they all led back to the same conceptual transformation—that everywhere ‘noble,’