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Master morality vs slave morality
Master and slave morality analysis
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Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche, a German philosopher, believed there are two different moralities; master and slave morality. For Nietzsche, a morality is a set of value judgements. These moralities define a person not only by their actions, but how they handle these certain situations throughout their daily life. I believe Nietzsche chose these two moralities as they are strong opposites that are rational. The distinction between "master morality" and "slave morality" are easy to be misunderstand.
The first morality Nietzsche writes about is the master morality. Nietzsche defined master morality as the morality of the strong-willed. The people that fall under the category of master morality typically think of themselves as "the good,"which is defined as
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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.
The terms of Master and Slave Morality are easy to misunderstand. First of all, the assumption that there is master morality vs. slave morality already makes you believe master morality is the superior one, just by the words itself. Master morality is overall shaping slave morality. Following one another causes a misguided idea of the terms good and evil replacing the idea of “good” and “bad”. But, some would say few people disagreed with Nietzsche because no one really knew Nietzsche existed during his own time, his impact came later and his message became clear in fact
In Half Slave and Half Free: The Roots of Civil War, Bruce Levine attributes the cause of the Civil War to the incompatibility between North and South that, in Levine’s opinion, is connected to slavery. Levine claims that from the beginning when the discussion of slavery was left out of the Constitution, a wedge was created between North and South that eventually affected all aspects of life: socially, politically, religiously, and economically, with the North focusing on manufacturing that relied upon free-labor while the South’s cash crop depended upon slave labor. This division caused the two sides to be incompatible and with both sides unwilling to compromise and the interpretation of the Constitution unable to lead to a firm decision, the only foreseen end was through disunion.
Another way to define “Master Morality” and “Slave Morality” is by defining a person’s culture. A persons culture defines their upbringing which moles their behavior and opinion (that also gives them different views on good and evil). The author recognizes both “Master” and “Slave” as humans with different back stories and different view on the same issues even if they lived close together. For instance, every religion has one basic concept not to harm the other. Yet each individual that interprets the text (even if they are from the same religion) defines it differently because of their upbringing or personal background. The religion itself is similar to both “Master and Slave Morality” but the understanding of the text is different because of their own personal thoughts (because every person is unique) which creates the difference between the
When people refer to someone as moral, they often think of someone who follows the rules of their religion, culture, and society. That person should show positive character traits; for example, generosity. On the contrary, this means they do not partake in forbidden tasks that contradict what society expects out of someone moral. This relates to an interesting theory by Psychoanalyst Carl Gustav Jung, who states: ”Everyone carries a shadow, and the less it is embodied in the individual’s conscious life, the blacker and denser it is” (Jung 76). In Jung’s theory, the shadow archetype is essentially a collection of repressed urges and thoughts which oppose social teachings. If a person is not conscious about their
“A Slave no More”, is a book that examines the American slaves in the wake of the Civil War. David Blight who is the author illustrates the stories of two men; John Washington and Wallace Turnage who both served as slaves in the pre-emancipation period in America. According to Blight, Washington escaped from the town of Fredericksburg while at the age of twenty-four and was able to enter the Union army in the period of 1862 (Blight, 2007: p. 1).
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.
To begin, “On Morality'; is an essay of a woman who travels to Death Valley on an assignment arranged by The American Scholar. “I have been trying to think, because The American Scholar asked me to, in some abstract way about ‘morality,’ a word I distrust more every day….'; Her task is to generate a piece of work on morality, with which she succeeds notably. She is placed in an area where morality and stories run rampant. Several reports are about; each carried by a beer toting chitchat. More importantly, the region that she is in gains her mind; it allows her to see issues of morality as a certain mindset. The idea she provides says, as human beings, we cannot distinguish “what is ‘good’ and what is ‘evil’';. Morality has been so distorted by television and press that the definition within the human conscience is lost. This being the case, the only way to distinguish between good or bad is: all actions are sound as long as they do not hurt another person or persons. This is similar to a widely known essay called “Utilitarianism'; [Morality and the Good Life] by J.S. Mills with which he quotes “… actions are right in the proportion as they tend to promote happiness, wrong as they tend to produce the reverse of happiness.';
Nietzsche’s society depended more on the human’s strength, human nature was seen weak if someone lacks to specific strength. And so because of the society’s stresses and pressures, humans were seen as machines. There was the sense of frustration to be original and creative and that’s why Nietzsche thought that human should be led by a hero.
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.”
The theory behind The Will to Power is incredibly well supported despite the fact that it is simply a collection of notes from Nietzsche's later years. It is a wonderful compilation of the premise behind all of his other works and the summary of their individual points. The most amazing aspect of the book and the philosophy is the incredible validity of it even now, over a hundred years after it was written. The social order of his new world needed to be addressed more, but the principles proposed stand sturdily on their own two feet confident in their own will to power.
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.
Friedrich Nietzsche is recognized for being one of the most influential German philosophers of the modern era. He is known for his works on genealogy of morality, which is a way to study values and concepts. In Genealogy of Morals, Friedrich Nietzsche mentions that values and concepts have a history because of the many different meanings that come with it. Nietzsche focused on traditional ethical theories, especially those rooted in religion. Not being a religious man, he believed that human life has no moral purpose except for the significance that human beings give it. People from different backgrounds and circumstances in history bend morality's meaning, making it cater to the norms of their society. For example, the concept of what is "good" in the ancient Greek culture meant aristocratic, noble, powerful, wealthy, pure, but not in modern era. Meaning, in the past the term “good” was not applied to a kind of act that someone did but rather applied to the kind of person and background they had. Nietzsche’s project was to help expand one’s understanding by re-examining morality through genealogy of morality; helping one to be more aware of a potential confusion in moral thinking. He feels that the current values and concepts that have been instilled into a society are a reversal of the truth, forcing him to believe that one’s moral systems had to have been created within society. In the works of genealogy of morality, Nietzsche traces out the origins of the concepts of guilt and bad conscience, which will be the main focal point, and explaining its role in Nietzsche’s project against morality. It will be argued that guilt and bad conscience goes against Nietzsche’s role against morality because it can conflict with the moral co...
Morality is a particular system of values concerning the distribution between right and wrong or good or bad behavior. Macbeth morality of an action is committing the evil deed, he deliberately thinks the treacherous nature. In Shakespeare’s Macbeth, the moral of a play is identified through personal ambition and its disastrous results. Macbeth ends up killing his loyal King believing the witches prophecy. He kills his only best friend, assuming that his best friend might have been suspicious of King Murder.
I also think that the difference between the two types of moralities mentioned in the text book by Nietzsche are that the master morality makes its personal values and stands beyond good and evil, whereas, slave morality values kind-heartedness, meekness, and compassion. The master exceeds the weakness of the ordinary individual. Dylan, I do agree with you that in the long time you find yourself with more master morality and some slave molarity as well. As for me I would say I am a mixture of the two because under slave morality I hold to the standard that are advantageous to the feeble or powerless and under master morality I create my own values out of strength. On the other hand, Co-occurrence of the two moralities is not possible because
Being neutral on this scale means that you sublimate the urges and drives that go against the values of the master morality. Instead of putting them in a box and suppressing those urges, we must sublimate and channel them in a creative and personal way. Nietzsche says that just as there is nobody or nothing that can create your own values, nothing else can tell you how to sublimate your urges; they are individually calibrated. Only a select people, whom Nietzsche calls Übermensch or master race, will actually go beyond good and evil and create their own set of values and morals. Nietzsche also believes that we will inherently strive to achieve and succeed by no other force of morality, but because of the will to power. What makes nature, nature, and what makes us who we are is based on the will to power; an innate
It is clear that the master slave relationship was generally one of fear, tension and dominion. The slave had no rights over himself and was expected to be subject to the master in all things. As with the every rule, there weress exceptions to this trend. Some masters treated their slaves with exceptional kindness and humaneness.