WESTERN
PHILOSOPHY - Nietzsche
QUESTIONS
1. Explain
Nietzsche’s two kinds of morality.
2. Explain
Nietzsche’s idea of the “Superman.”
Nietzsche believed that history exhibits two kinds of
morality: Master Morality and Slave Morality.
Master
Morality
Aristocrats. They feel they belong to a higher order of
being than other people.
They describe themselves as
“good.” They are of noble birth, have riches, are brave, truthful, and blond.
Other people are plebian,
vulgar, cowardly, untruthful, and dark-skinned. These characteristics are
“evil.”
All higher civilizations,
according to Nietzsche, arose from the barbarians, who with their will and
desire for power, have preyed upon the weaker, moral and peaceful societies.
Master morality creates
its own values and stands beyond good and evil; slave morality values kindness,
humility, and sympathy. The master transcends the mediocrity of the common
person.
This Nietzsche called
“master morality.”
“Good” and “bad” are
equivalent to “noble” and “despicable.”
Slave
Morality
These are the poor and the weak.
They
resent the power of the aristocrats.
They set up their own
contrasting system of values, a slave morality or “herd-morality.”
This morality puts a premium
on character traits like humility, sympathy, and benevolence, which benefit the
“underdogs” of life.
And “equality.” “Equality”
is a term of hatred for Nietzsche.
Nietzsche calls this system a “transvaluation of values.”
He attributes this to the Jews.
“Transvaluation” = change of
value. The weak transfigured weakness into virtue and vital strength into sin.
The
Slaves Won
The revolt of the slaves, begun by the Jews, has achieved
victory.
“Jewish hatred has triumphed
under the mask of the Christian gospel of love.” (330)
Slave morality says there is an opposition between good
and evil.
Aristocrats despised the herd as bad.
But the slaves, with greater
venom, condemned the aristocrats as not just bad but evil.
Nietzsche believed that “we must fight against the
domination of the slave morality: the way forward is to transcend the bounds of
good and evil, and introduce a second transvaluation of values. If we can do
that there will rise, as a synthesis to the thesis and antithesis of master and
slave, the Superman.” (331)
The
Superman
A healthy society does not
exist for its own sake, but exists for the sake of a higher type of person.
Nietzsche calls this the Ubermensch –
the “higher man.” The Over-man, or Super-man.
An overman (as described by Zarathustra, the
main character in Thus Spoke
Zarathustra) is the one who is willing to risk all for the sake of
enhancement of humanity.
This means that our will to
live must not be one which favors the weak. It must be “a will to power.”
“The will to power is the
secret of all life; every living thing seeks to discharge its force, to give
full scope to its ability.” (331)
“Humanity is merely a stage on the way to Superman, who
is the meaning of earth. But Superman will not be achieved by evolution, but by
an exercise of will.” (331)
