Nietzsche's Noble Morality

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

of his writing and take the stance that we must have a noble morality to be happy and successful.
Before I talk about his preference to the noble morality we must look at the two moralities, slave and noble. To start talking about morality we must look at what good means. Nietzsche starts by looking at what society deems good and that is an action that is not self-serving or “unegoistic” as Nietzsche says. Then he looks at language and where good in other languages derives from, and what he finds is as such, “ There I found that all of them lead to the same transformation of ideas---that everywhere ‘noble’ and ‘aristocratic’ in a social sense is the fundamental idea out of which ‘good’…develops” (1,4) In this statement Nietzsche is saying the definition of what good is, in an historical context, was developed by those who are “good” or “noble.” He then looks at the word “bad” in German and how it is identical to words such as “plain” and “simple.” I believe what he is saying is the noble morality was more than likely responsible for creating language. This is an assumption I believe most can agree upon. Then what he is showing is that there has always been a distinction between good and bad for the nobles’ morality, a distinction that was made not by looking at the slave morality, but instead, looking at their own morality and deeming that good. This is what Nietzsche loves about the noble morality.
The biggest reason I believe he sides with the noble morality and he does not side with the slave morality is that he believes slave morality was developed on the premise of hatred This hatred of the noble class occurs when the slaves look at themselves in pity, and have surrounded to the idea that they have no way to escape the world they are in. Instead, of blaming oneself and trying to become better in the situation the slave morality says to blame the evil aka the nobles. This why in section 10 of essay one Nietzsche states, “While all noble morality grows out of a triumphant affirmation of one’s own self, slave morality from the start says “No” to what is “outside,” “other,” to “a not itself.”(1,10) Here he is affirming what I said before that he sides with noble morality because unlike slave morality it does not put blame on others, but instead focuses on one’s own triumph. For Nietzsche if the slave is focusing on others to blame, he will consistently be looking at ways to get back at them, and the outcome will be his mind is in a constant state of denial of his own life and the present. He will never be able to truly see his own triumphs and victories like the noble morality is capable of. Instead, he focuses on how the noble man has wronged him and does not look at the necessity of the noble morality.
Nietzsche puts it in perfect context the necessity of both the noble morality and the slave morality when he discusses the birds of prey and the lamb.

He first shows the spite and anger of the lamb when he states, “‘these predatory birds are evil, and whoever is least like a predatory bird, especially anyone who is like its opposite, a lamb— shouldn’t that animal be good?’”(1,13) Here he shows again the resentment of the slave morality by the lambs looking at the bird of prey as evil and anything less is good, especially if they are a lamb. Again, this shows that the lambs find themselves hating the birds of prey and that is how they define good or evil. For the bird of prey they see the lambs in a different light: “We are not at all annoyed with these good lambs. We even love them. Nothing is tastier than a tender lamb.” (1,13) Nietzsche is effectively showing that the birds of prey realize they need the lambs. They need those slaves to do the work so that they might continue to be nobles. The nobles understand the usefulness of the lamb. If those lamb where to have the noble morality, they would consider the nobles as leaders who keep everything in line. For with out the birds of prey, the world would be overpopulated with lambs, and we would not have enough land and resources for all those

lambs.
The lamb and the slave both do not realize that looking at the noble or bird of prey in resentment is all in vein. Why? The noble man and bird of prey do not think or devise plans to take down the slave. Instead they have a short memory and move on from the hatred. This means the slaves do all this hating only to have the other side be content with the way things happen to be. This is evident in Nietzsche writings when he talks about the advantages the nobles have in the fact they do not scheme and think of ways to torment the slaves, but rather the says, “Such a man with a single shrug simply throws off himself the many worms which eat into other men.” (1,10) This demonstrates the ability of the noble morality to do away with the jealousy and resentment and if an individual can shrug off those demons then Nietzsche says, “Only here is possible—provided that it is at all possible on earth—the real ‘love for one’s enemy.’”(1,10) Here he demonstrates that only the noble morality can love his enemy and therefore not be obsessed with his enemies’ actions, but rather focus on his own actions.
While I believe there is no question that Nietzsche sides with noble morality.

There are points in his essays where he shows that slave has forged a very unique set of skills such as cleverness, and that nobles do not posses this creativity that the slaves might have, but in the my opinion those skills, such as cleverness do not do away with the consistent obsession and passion with the noble that has completely derailed the ability of a person who has the slave morality to be able to see life in the present. Instead the slave focuses on hatred and jealousy. When really they should spend their time on bettering themselves, learning to grow with in their constraints. They should be considering the origin of what good is based on what they do, and not what the world is doing. In conclusion Nietzsche and I both side with the noble morality, and that a person should be focusing on their betterment and not on those who are doing better than them. For that will help a person grow and reach his

potential.