What Is Nietzsche's Argument Against Good Evil

Friedrich Nietzsche was a German philosopher who wrote a book called On the Genealogy of Morals. This book is comprised of three different essays, and the first essay is titled “’Good and Evil,’ ‘Good and Bad.’” Rather than going straight into what Nietzsche talks about in his first essay, it would be better to start off by breaking down the title of his book. The Oxford English Dictionary defines genealogy as “an account of one’s descent from an ancestor or ancestors, by enumeration of the intermediate persons.” From this definition, we can see that genealogy and history are closely related, and that history is going to play a big part in Nietzsche’s writings. In his first essay, Nietzsche discusses his theory of the origin of morality.

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).

“As soon as a religion comes to dominate it has as its opponents all those who would have been its first disciples.” Nietzsche was one of the first modern philosophers to rebel against rationalism and when World War I came about, the revolution against religion truly became a legitimate statement. Friedrich Nietzsche strongly believed that many of those that practiced religion were led to the acceptance of slave morality. Religion had always played a fundamental role in society as it sets strict boundaries and standards of what is morally correct and incorrect. However, Nietzsche claims that, “Human nature is always driven by “ ‘the will to power’ ”, but religion will tell one otherwise, saying that one should forbid their bad desires. In Nietzsche’s

Ever since the inception of his writings, Nietzsche has been pointed to and predominately described as an atheist, however within the work, Beyond Good and Evil, it is revealed otherwise. Nietzsche considers several different roles for religion in past, present, and future polities. The roles that religion play within Nietzsche’s vision of a future creation and establishment of world-affirming values is dependent upon the class of the individual. It is found in the various sections of The religious character within Beyond Good and Evil, that religion can be utilized by different classes of people for different world affirmations. The high ranking officials are able to use religion as a tool to relate and control their subjects, while the middle

According to Nietzsche’s assertions in the first two essays of On the Genealogy of Morals, human beings suffer because they have lost the ability to enjoy life to its fullest extent. A significant shift in morals occurred from the time of the ancient Greeks and Romans, who carried out good deeds with a surplus of energy simply because they could afford to do so, to the predominantly Judeo-Christian era of self-repression. This transition demonstrates a decline in our ability to make sense of our lives and understand our true human purpose. Nietzsche suggests that we have become out of touch with the truth – we are no longer present in our lives. He urges us to recognize the social constraints to which we sometimes unknowingly submit

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

In the following section, Nietzsche explains that the reassessment of values effected by the Jews was occurring and that they were not noticeable. One of their achievements was the development of the religious teachings Christianity. He states that the Christian love violated the Jewish hatred and that the representation of Jesus and his crucifixion was the persuasion of the moral code. The embodiment and crucifixion of Jesus showed that annulment of the moral code, was once “good” became “evil” and what

The foreground of Nietzsche’s criticisms of Christianity comprises repudiating not only ecstasy but also suffering, manifested through suppressing bodily impulses and instinctive drives and focusing on an afterlife rather than the current moment. In general, it is likely Nietzsche would react more positively to the Christian ideals embedded in many medieval texts than he does in the early 20th century. Ben Morgan reveals

Nietzsche expresses his views about society which has neglected their religious norms. The world who had been depended on the rule of God which gave meaning to their lives are now been forgotten. The Death of God is not only because of their unawareness about their religion but it is the feeling of their own strengths which creates expectations for achieving power of becoming successful. God is not people’s inspiration anymore to follow the rules which creates difference between right and wrong. They implement and change the rules by their own will. The idea of God has secured their thinking about the world. It has been given reasons to every immoral behaviour to justify their needs. Nietzsche sees the Death of a God as both a great danger

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,’

In this term paper I would like to discuss a brief history of Nietzsche’s life, how he developed his criticisms, a brief examination of some of his criticisms and misconceptions that are held by the

Firstly, through a historical narrative, Nietzsche postulated two value systems, ‘master morality’ and ‘slave morality’, in which the former materialized earlier than the latter. The ‘master morality’ generates the value judgment ‘good’, associated with social status of the ‘noble, aristocratic, and powerful’ (Nietzsche 1887) and the value judgment ‘bad’ by negation of ‘good’, referring to the ‘simple, plebeian, low common man’. This is done with “no derogatory implication, but simply in contrast to the nobility” (Nietzsche 1887). Here, the notion of ‘good’ is independent while the notion of ‘bad’ is derivative; that is, one is ‘bad’ if one lacks the relevant properties of ‘goodness’ that comes from the original definition. On the other hand, according to Nietzsche, ‘slave morality’, fueled by ressentiment of the weak, first came into being by defining the strong as ‘evil’, which generates the positive concept of ‘good’ merely as its reaction, in which the weak repackage its own defects as a set of virtues. “Only those who suffer are good, only the poor, the powerless, the lowly are good; the suffering, the deprived, the sick, the ugly, are the only pious people, the only ones saved, salvation is for them alone.” The distinction between the two is clear in the Genealogy: while ‘master morality’ is centered upon independence of activity, the ‘slave morality’ in contrast is built around the notion of passivity. Meanwhile, in the second essay, Nietzsche illustrated concepts of guilt, bad conscience, and the invention of gods. His major argument lies in contractual relations of debt being the origin of guilt, which explained punishment as an equivalent compensation of the unpaid debt by creditor’s infliction of pain towards the debtor. This was extended further with his propositions that the actual origin of gods is in fear, rooting from an escalated

Friedrich Nietzsche devoted his life to the study of philosophy and ethics. In particular to topics regarding Christianity and Atheism. A majority of his writings are against Christianity and The Antichrist is no different. The following paper will look into what Nietzsche wrote in The Antichrist and explore the ethical principles that he proposes and dismisses in this writing.

Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche is a German philosopher. He was a nineteen-century’s philosopher and he challenged the Christianity and morality. He was born in the town of Rochen, near Leipzig on October 15, 1844. He was the son and grandson of a minister. When he was four years old his father passed away and after six months later, his younger brother suddenly passed away. After that incident Nietzsche, his sister and mother moved to the place where his two aunts were living. He was an intelligent student and his teachers were inspired by his work at school. In fact, his teacher Friedrich Wilhelm Ritschl wrote a letter in his reference the Nietzsche was so promising that “He will simply be able to do anything he wants to do”. (R.Lanier Anderson, Nietzsche’s Life and works). In 1970, he volunteered as a nurse’s assistant (Nietzsche vii). He was a philosopher, poet psychologist. However, “he did not develop a theory of history” (Carl E. Pletsch). Pletsch also said in his article, he was one of the most complex thinkers. He had given his effort in philosophy lecture, in psychology and in his education, such as history. He was one of the most powerful thinkers in the world. He started illness from his early period of time. He was enthusiastic on his health problems since his childhood. He tried to find explanations for those health problems and described them exhaustively. Nietzsche His poor

Nietzsche, as his title of the book “Genealogy of Morality” shows, denies the abrupt beginning or origin of morality. Just like human beings, he believes that morality evolves through history. The world, especially the West, is largely based on the Christian norms and values, and philosophers, starting from Plato to Kant, strived to find morality beyond the reality. They created and perceived another world where God exists and placed morality on the same board. Morality is an edict comes from God and therefore, universal, unquestionable and sustains. Nietzsche critiques this conception of morality. Instead, he sees morality as a gradual process. He does not understand why the one with perpetuity only deserves value and questions the necessity