Slave Morality was more than just a lack of individuality for Nietzsche, it was an indication and denial of the human condition. By following a church, or any other form of leadership, one is succumbing to the ‘herd mentality’ and also allocating for classes, or divisions of power, to arise; as is a natural response in a human society. A line from the text emphasizing this is, “and at the bottom of her heart no mother doubts that in her child she has borne a piece of property, no father disputes his right to subject it to his concepts and values… unhesitatingly see in every new human being an opportunity for a new possession”. (Nietzsche 117-118) Humans will naturally gravitate towards the best self-preservation and positions of leadership …show more content…
As for those who do not achieve a position of strength, they become part of the herd. For them the opportunity to escape becomes nearly unfathomable, according to Nietzsche, “he who is only a measly tame domestic animal and knows only the needs of a domestic animal… has no reason to wonder, let alone to sorrow”. (Nietzsche 80) By Nietzsche’s understanding people will fall to the aimlessness of the following denying their individuality but fulfilling the prophecy of the mediocre acquisition of humanity whilst sacrificing the very ability of a strength of will all humans possess. This is the very basis of slave morality in relation to the Christian faith, “The Christian faith is from the beginning sacrifice: sacrifice of all freedom, all pride, all self-confidence of spirit, at the same time enslavement and self-mockery, self-mutilation.” (Nietzsche 75) Next, it proves beneficial to examine the opposite of someone entrenched in carrying a slave morality; someone who follows, as Nietzsche states, a master morality. Having a master morality means …show more content…
Interestingly, despite Nietzsche’s uncertainty of a self existing he does promote selfishness as a component involved in becoming master minded. This appearance of contradiction further supports his quest for going ‘beyond good and evil’. He chose not to reject the possibility of a self existing because both truth and untruth have worth according to his philosophy and there is much knowledge that we lack, “here and there we grasp that fact and laugh at how it is precisely the best knowledge that wants most to hold us in this simplified, altogether artificial, fabricated, falsified world, how it is willy-nilly in love with error because, as a living being, it is – in love with life!” (Nietzsche 55) To say that because something is uncertain or stereotypically a negative attribute are both actions that go against Nietzsche’s overall philosophy and categorize those articles into being definable as good or evil. Therefore, Nietzsche unabashedly defends selfishness as being a positive characteristic due to it not only being a means to acquire the power he thinks is required to create a master morality, but also because he questions whether the honored characteristics are always being considered worthy for the right reasons. He proposes the following, “Lofty spiritual independence, the will to stand alone, great intelligence even are felt to be dangerous; everything that raises the individual above the herd and makes his
According to him, the noble individuals who praise themselves and their actions, egoistic or egoistic, as good are defined as ‘good’. For Nietzsche, it is the feeling of superiority, powerfulness over the low class from where the concept of good originates. In contrast to the original morality, Nietzsche marks the modern morality as a product of Jewish radical reevaluation of values. Spilt off between the knights and the priests led to reevaluation; as per him, priests make the evilest enemy. Although physically weak, priests are more intelligent and have more say over the knights, and can do anything when it comes to power, virtue, revenge, pride. Comparing the Jews with the priest, Nietzsche marks the radical reevaluation when the Jews rejected the aristocratic definition of good and divided modern morality from the original
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.
Nietzsche thought nobility was to see one’s self as the center and origin of value. He believed that people in power force common people into bidding their will, and those in charge are separated based on good or bad measures of their value. The rulers, or people in charge have master morality, the people who do their bidding have slave morality. Slave morality is how common people make their lives more bearable by using Christian ethics such as kindness and sympathy.
The first-rate admirable people follow a master morality emphasizing power, strength, egoism, and freedom. While slave morality focuses on weakness, submission, love, and sympathy. For Nietzsche, the Will to Power is the distinguished as the dominant principle of biological function, without the Will to Power abusing the weaknesses of everyone being equal, with that society cannot and will not develop. The Will to Power is also defined as the Will to Life.
However, Nietzsche debunks Edward’s idea of sin, claiming it as a contrivance used to invoke fear in the believers of Christianity and to denote ruling power to the Priest (Nietzsche, Sec. 49). Nietzsche proceeds to deride the value system of Christianity, spelling out what he sees through the will to power as definitions for happiness, good, and bad (Nietzsche, Sec. 2). For Nietzsche, happiness is the feeling bolstered by power: “that a resistanc...
Nietzsche's master-slave morality describes the way in which moral norms shifted through the through eras, from pre-scocratic times to the modern age founded upon Christian and Jewish beliefs. During pre-socratic times, value was dominated and enacted by the master class, who saw themselves and what they did as good. Value was defined along their terms of good- what was good for the master class was itself good. This notion of value was designed along the lines of nobility and purity, which included traits such as courage, beauty, strong-will and happiness. The master-class said yes to existence, and their values affirmed their belief system, which, due to their position of control, created their disposition as elite and influenced the norms for morality at their time. Since the master-class viewed themselves as good, they distinguished themselves from the weaker individuals, those not in power, as bad. The weaker individuals, in pre-socratic times known as plebeians, according to the master-class, were weaker for various reasons. Be it due to their unhappiness, victimization to unfortunate circumstances, weak-will or a lack of courage, pride, or a combination of any of these despicable or non virtuous values. According to the master-class, adherence to these weak values initiated a form of fear within the plebeian, which created a lack of self worth and a lack of freedom or self-consciousness, deemed as slavery.
From Douglass’s narrative, we can conclude that slavery brings out the worst in slave owners. Although one human should not treat another in such tortuous ways, slave owners’ actions towards their slaves deemed socially acceptable among their community. Keeping other human beings as property presumed natural. Slave owners retained wealth from this economic opportunity, resulting in the most valuable possession of all—power. Eventually, the authority they possessed over other human beings led to their abuse of power. Their addiction to dominate diminished all traces of their morality, and unfortunately, transformed them into tyrants. Moreover, the curse of slavery created immoral beings out of even the most virtuous men and women.
While critical of the attitude found in the ressentiment of slave morality, Nietzsche’s includes it as an important factor contributing to the bad conscience of man. Even though Nietzsche dislikes the negative results of bad conscience – man’s suppression of his instincts, hate for himself, and stagnation of his will -- Nietzsche does value it for the promise it holds. Nietzsche foresees a time coming when man conquers his inner battle and regains his “instinct of freedom.” In anticipation of that day’s eventual arrival, Nietzsche views the development of bad conscience as a necessary step in man’s transformation into the “sovereign individual.”
In Nietzsche’s Genealogy of Morals, he discusses morality and divides this concept into two parts: “master morality” and “slave morality.” To briefly summarize, master morality, which was usually followed by the nobility, or ruling class, emphasized individuality and being strong willed – essentially promoting the creation one’s own set of values. In contrast, slave morality stemmed from oppression by, and resentment towards, the ruling classes onto the lower. The idea of “herd mentality” may be related to “slave morality.” Slave morality and being a part of the “herd” promote the idea of conforming humanity into calculable human beings, which in turn serve to oppress the masses.
Douglass continues to describe the severity of the manipulation of Christianity. Slave owners use generations of slavery and mental control to convert slaves to the belief God sanctions and supports slavery. They teach that, “ man may properly be a slave; that the relation of master and slave is ordained by God” (Douglass 13). In order to justify their own wrongdoings, slaveowners convert the slaves themselves to Christianity, either by force or gentle coercion over generations. The slaves are therefore under the impression that slavery is a necessary evil. With no other source of information other than their slave owners, and no other supernatural explanation for the horrors they face other than the ones provided by Christianity, generations of slaves cannot escape from under the canopy of Christianity. Christianity molded so deeply to the ideals of slavery that it becomes a postmark of America and a shield of steel for American slave owners. Douglass exposes the blatant misuse of the religion. By using Christianity as a vessel of exploitation, they forever modify the connotations of Christianity to that of tyrannical rule and
Christianity is that slave revolt. The problem for Nietzsche is the New Testament - the introduction of Jesus. He thinks that linking the Old Testament with the New Testament is very cheeky. They are two different books with complete different ideas and so should not be linked together. The Old Testament is full of power - Nietzsche likes that.
The system of justice that Nietzsche employs although somewhat cynical has a substantial amount of merit as a form of justice, which is present in our society. This is demonstrated through the depiction of the creditor/debtor relationship that exists in our democratic societies, and the equalization process that occurs, and furthermore that Nietzsche is correct to assess justice as such a principle. The issue is most obvious in the penal system; however it is also prevalent in personal day-to-day relationships as well as political structures.
Nietzsche was a man who questioned the morality of his time. He dug deep in to what good really meant, and if there was a difference between bad and evil. He sought to look at the world by stepping back and looking at it with out the predisposition of what morality was/is. He looked at what he called slave and noble morality. He looked passed what was on the surface, and gave us many things to digest and discuss. In this paper I will discuss how Nietzsche’s writing can be seen as favoritism towards the noble morality by touching on how he believes the noble morality and slave morality came about, then I will talk about his “birds of prey and lambs” example which shows his fondness of the bird of prey, and I will end with my interpretation
Hard labor, and deprivation of both physical and spiritual necessities, defined slavery in the south. Frederick Douglass struggled throughout his youth to keep himself amply fed and, in optimum physical condition. He struggled throughout his life, searching for some rational belief. Through his potentially lifelong struggle of slavery, he was forced to use his reasoning to overcome internal as well as external obstacles. Separated from his family and loved ones, Frederick Douglass was deprived of past cultural and religious beliefs. He also had the burden of watching his masters use religion as justification for the treacherous conditions of slavery. The ambiguous picture that he received about religion developed a question of God's benevolence. If my master has God's approval for all of his wrongdoing, how can religion be developed through good will? If God condones such appalling behavior, how can I follow such lead? Despite the hardships entailed, Frederick Douglass was surprisingly able to use his cognitive thought to effectively search for his worldly niche. He began to accumulate his own thoughts, values, goals and opinions and he began his journey towa...
Nietzsche’s central message is “the basic drive of all living things is not a struggle to survive, but a struggle for power …” (p.530). Meaning that organisms don’t just struggle for basic necessities, but for power and domain over others. Once they gather and complete their basic necessities, they subsequently focus on achieving their desire for power. When the organism then achieves this power he voluntarily uses it to compete, annihilate the competition, expand their territory, and reproduce. “If organisms were struggling merely to survive, then once food and security have been attained the struggle would cease and organisms would go into stasis” (p.350-5351). This quotation shows Nietzsche’s demonstration about humans’ urge for power, and why it motivates human behaviors. There fore as humans are not just satisfied whit having the basic amenities they sometimes have to risk all just to obtaining more power. Nietzsche’s point can clearly be classified as existentialist, because it talks about how man is after power that he can use with free will to determine his own development. Humans chase power for the sole purpose of using it with free will, and by doing so they construct their own future. The quotation “w...