The Slave Revolt In Morality

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The slave revolt in morality that Friedrich Nietzsche discuses reveals how a transvaluation of values comes about. The slave revolt in morality also helps reveal some of the contradicting and questionable things about the two great Christian Commandments. In addition to these beliefs that Nietzsche has, he also has a response to Descartes claim “I think therefore I am”. Descartes believes we are thinking things, but Nietzsche seems to believe otherwise. The “slave revolt in morality” according to Friedrich Nietzsche is as follows: There once was an agrarian community in which farmers lived in peace until one day a group of warriors from the north came and took over their community. The blond beasts turned the farmers into slaves and lived …show more content…

The two great Christian Commandments are as follows: one must love God with their whole heat, soul, mind, and strength and one must love their neighbor as they love themselves. These two great commandments seem contradictory for many reasons. Firstly, if God is the Great Hero that the slaves fantasize about in their story than God is the most powerful being and therefore more powerful than the blond beasts. However, how are the slaves supposed to love God with their whole heart, soul, mind, and strength when they created the transvaluation of values that made the possession of power to be considered evil? Everyone is supposed to value the humble, weak, self-denying, sacrificial, and meek and regard the powerful as evil. Yet, the slaves’ savoir, God, is the most powerful being. This makes following the first great commandment very impractical. If God is telling us to avoid power, but telling us to love him, the most powerful being, at the same time how could this make sense? God has the values of what is considered ‘good’ due to the success of the slave revolt that is, as long as God is the Great Hero that the slaves spoke of in their stories. If God does consider good to be those who are humble, weak, self-denying, sacrificial, and meek and he is powerful then is God evil? Is God telling us to love a being with our …show more content…

The slaves invented a God on their side and essentially gave power to themselves, which they claim to think of as evil. The slaves actually wanted to be the masters because they were envious of their rich, satisfied, and powerful lives; the slaves sought what they shouldn’t have, they desired what they considered to be evil. The slaves felt ressentiment towards their masters and wanted to be masters so they could get revenge and treat them they way that they were being treated. So, the second great commandments says that one should love their neighbor as they love themselves, but what if your neighbor is ‘evil’ like the masters? Is one supposed to hate the masters like the slaves did? Or are they supposed to secretly strive to be their neighbors like the slaves did as well? This makes the second great commandment very problematic. It appears that this commandment is conditional, and one is really only supposed to love their neighbor if their neighbor is good and doesn’t fall into the path of evil things. Or perhaps this commandment is contradictory, and one is supposed to love their neighbor and strive to be them whether or not they are considered evil. If the first is true, does this mean that God is telling us to hate those that aren’t ‘good’ under his values? If this were so, God would be telling us to hate him as well, which doesn’t

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