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The second essay, "'Guilt,' 'Bad Conscience,' and the like" deals with guilt, bad conscience. Bad conscience came about with the transition from hunter-gatherer societies to permanent settlements. In settling down from the old nomadic ways of life a form of judicial system or laws rose up to enslave the animalistic natural tendencies of early man. Prehistoric people were more free spirited, less mediocre, they lacked depth. They allowed themselves to be governed by their instincts, and their will to power was turned outward toward conquest and survival. They had no interest in themselves and made no effort to control or understand their being.
With the formation of fixed communities, the barbarians lost the freedom to harm others, to roam free, to obey their instincts. Unable to direct their will to power out ward, they turned it inward and aimed to overcome and conquer themselves. In so doing, they discovered an inner life. This inner life led to the development of slave morality and bad conscience which throughout history is continually reshaped by conditions of guilt and punishment.
Nietzsche doesn’t want the reader to convert back to prehistoric ways but rather use our ability to look back at history and overcome bad conscience.
Nietzsche traces the origins of guilt and punishment, showing that originally they were not based on any sense of moral transgression. Rather, guilt meant that a debt was owed and punishment was simply a way of securing repayment.
“The main moral concept ‘guilt’ descends from the very material concept of ‘debts’”. (Nietzsche 39)
Punishment is not directly caused because a person is being held responsible for past transgressions, instead it is dealt out due to anger over the wrong that’s b...
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...therefore, the opposite of the way Christendom made use of its God”. (Nietzsche 65)
So it’s in this aspect that the Greek gods served to justify man by taking on the guilt were as, God in Christianity takes on the punishment or Christian’s mortal sin.
Nietzsche identifies bad conscience as our tendency to see ourselves as sinners and determines its origin in the need that came with the development of society to inhibit our animal instincts for aggression and cruelty and to turn them inward upon ourselves. This thriving need that guilt places on the individual leads to the rise of religion, social law and in Nietzsche’s mind God’s favorites the philosopher.
Works Cited
Hegel, George Wilhelm Friedrich. Phenomenology of Spirit. Ed. A. V. Miller. Verlag Hamburg: Oxford University Press, 1952.
Nietzsche, Friedrich. On the Genealogy of Morality. 1887. 35-67.
He uses guilt to make his audience feel sorry for those who are unfortunate enough to find themselves in a debtors’ prison. In lines 45 to 54, he describes how one’s life would be lived out in a debtors’ prison. He does not speak fondly of this prison which shows that he thinks they are a waste. He also writes of how debtors are treated, “A debtor is dragged to prison… caverns of oblivion,” lines 8 to 11. The way he talks about how debtors are seen in society gives off a condescending tone. He speaks of it as if he doesn’t
Setting: Without the setting taking place after post-war Holocaust in Germany, the theme of guilt would most likely not have been possible since the characters feelings of guilt come from, in a sense, the Nazis and the Holocaust.
Guilt is the inevitable consequence that comes along after committing a crime and is a feeling that can paralyze and tear one’s soul away. However, it is evident that an individual’s feelings of guilt are linked to what they believe is right or wrong. In Robertson Davies Fifth Business, guilt is a principal theme in the novel and its effects have a major toll on the lives and mental state of many characters. Throughout the novel, it is apparent that the values and morals instilled within childhood shape an individual’s personality, as exhibited by the different ways the characters within the novel respond when faced with feelings of guilt. The literary elements Davies utilizes in the passage, from pages fifteen to sixteen, introduce the theme of guilt and display the contrast in how
On Evil, Guilt, and Power by Friedrich Nietzsche is one mind blowing story!! I have to say every sentence within the story has multiple meanings. I am extremely excited and terrified to analyze this story. First, because I like to go in depth in the meaning of the sentence and as I stated in my previous journal; I like to look at the back story, character mind set, and different points of view. In this story my opinions are endless. (I am going to have to walk away from this story multiple times before I go insane.) When reading the story in truth is not like a story; but more like the rambling of a politician, religious leader, or anyone trying to be an authority figure. I came across a few meanings for “master morality” and “slave morality”.
Everybody alive has experienced the feeling of guilt, or at least will at some point. Usually, this feeling is quite healthy for our consciousness, helping us distinguish between what is right and wrong by our own moral principles and values. However, guilt holds quite a power to really disturb the mind. This theme of the relationship between guilt and sanity is common throughout literature, and patterns to how this is expressed through texts are very evident. Four texts which I will discuss this theme through is Macbeth by William Shakespeare, Frankenstein by Mary Shelley, The Tell-Tale Heart by Edgar Allan Poe, and The Animals’ version of Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood.
Nietzsche describes the creditor/debtor relation as a manifestation of guilt present within the individual, which in turn makes them feel like they owe something to another. Because of this relationship, the individual to whom the guilt is directed assumes the position of the creditor; this is how the relationship between the creditor and debtor begins. The creditor requires the debtor to suffer in some way partially for his or her own satisfaction partially as a repayment of the guilt. Although this is not, in Nietzsche's opinion, the origin plan it is however its current use . Thus the inclusion of the principle of equalization of suffering is introduced. In order to equalize the debt that the debtor owes and partially as a manifestation of power on the part of the creditor, the creditor punishes the debtor to equalize the balance. Having analyzed this, Nietzsche clearly defines this relationship of suffering between creditor/debtor to be the major component in justice, which is purposed to bring about moral righteousness.
Humans feel obligated to do certain things. It makes them feel good, or worthwhile. If these responsibilities are not met or to the obligator's own standards then guilt comes upon them. In The Metamorphosis, by Franz Kafka, Gregor's self-condemnation keeps him trapped. Gregor is enslaved to his family. Therefore Gregor's guilt emerges from the families' burden.
Many people have different views on the moral subject of good and evil or human nature. It is the contention of this paper that humans are born neutral, and if we are raised to be good, we will mature into good human beings. Once the element of evil is introduced into our minds, through socialization and the media, we then have the potential to do bad things. As a person grows up, they are ideally taught to be good and to do good things, but it is possible that the concept of evil can be presented to us. When this happens, we subconsciously choose whether or not to accept this evil. This where the theories of Thomas Hobbes and John Locke become interesting as both men differed in the way they believed human nature to be. Hobbes and Locke both picture a different scene when they express human nature.
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...
Human nature is a conglomerate perception which is the dominant liable expressed in the short story of “A Tell-Tale Heart”. Directly related, Edgar Allan Poe displays the ramifications of guilt and how it can consume oneself, as well as disclosing the nature of human defense mechanisms, all the while continuing on with displaying the labyrinth of passion and fears of humans which make a blind appearance throughout the story. A guilty conscience of one’s self is a pertinent facet of human nature that Edgar Allan Poe continually stresses throughout the story. The emotion that causes a person to choose right from wrong, good over bad is guilt, which consequently is one of the most ethically moral and methodically powerful emotion known to human nature. Throughout the story, Edgar Allan Poe displays the narrator to be rather complacent and pompous, however, the narrator establishes what one could define as apprehension and remorse after committing murder of an innocent man. It is to believe that the narrator will never confess but as his heightened senses blur the lines between real and ...
Where Kant’s system is based on a set of principles or duties, Nietzsche’s system is based on virtue. Nietzsche is critical of Christianity in general and its evaluation of morality. In the reevaluation of values, he shows how the characteristics of morality in Christianity are more prohibitive of living virtuously than those of Ancient Greece, which include strength, confidence, sexuality, and creativity. In Christianity, those values are pity, shame, asexuality, and humility. The set of values of Ancient Greece is considered Master Morality and the values of deontology is considered to be Slave Morality. Master morality is a step in the right direction for morality but still not the
Punishment is reserved to those who have committed a transgression, a dominant and common response to injustices upon a victim (Okimoto and Weznzel 2008 p.346). It is a sense of retribution against immoral behavior, not solely for the purpose of punishment against the offender, but
The church told them that they had original sin and that by focusing on God, Heaven, and one’s soul, the church can fix the sin inside one. This is Nietzsche’s theory called Metaphysical. The Metaphysical theory says that the church has one pay attention to their internal instead of having the followers focus on the life they live now. By focusing just on God, Heaven, and Soul, one is deemphasizing the importance of the religion itself. With the revaluation of values, Nietzsche focused on morality, more specifically, Master Morality and Slave Morality. Master Morality is when one is concerned with strength and competition, and achieving goals is an accomplishment. Slave Morality deals with concepts of good and evil with the Evil representing the Master morality. The slave morality lives within the master’s shadows and will reject what the master stands for, this morality will suffer from resentment also, both moralities can be found in the same person. In a person, the Master morality vision has gone beyond the concepts of good and evil and has looked into a deeper meaning in themselves, but the master morality is not an end
He dislikes the idea of supplying a “rational foundation for morality,” because it assumes morality itself to be one fixed entity. Instead, he recommends the preparation of a typology of morals for different contexts, because the same actions can be more or less virtuous depending on one’s situation. Nietzsche, then, would call justice a relative phenomenon that arose from the most prominent morality. Hence, any rational justification of any one morality is just an expression of the faith in the morality one follows, and isn’t backed by science. Nietzsche is also critical of the predominant moral system of his time which he calls “slave morality.” Slave morality originates from Rome, where those who didn’t have access to great comforts, or didn’t have the ability to take revenge by using force, made virtues, like poverty and forgiveness, out of these disadvantages. However, as discussed earlier, the will to power can’t be exercised by a slave who’s subservient to and controlled by his master, and this morality hence discourages the exercise of one’s will to power. The will to power in this case isn’t an intellectual concept, but a more raw and physical concept, that one can far more clearly see as being instinctual to a human being: people enjoy having the comforts money provides them, and want revenge when they’re
Punishment has been in existence since the early colonial period and has continued throughout history as a method used to deter criminals from committing criminal acts. Philosophers believe that punishment is a necessity in today’s modern society as it is a worldwide response to crime and violence. Friedrich Nietzche’s book “Punishment and Rehabilitation” reiterates that “punishment makes us into who we are; it creates in us a sense of responsibility and the ability to take and release our social obligations” (Blue, Naden, 2001). Immanuel Kant believes that if an individual commits a crime then punishment should be inflicted upon that individual for the crime committed. Cesare Beccaria, also believes that if there is a breach of the law by individuals then that individual should be punished accordingly.