Nietzsche’s Genealogy of Morals

Slave and Master Morality in Nietzsche 's Philosophy

In Nietzsche 's view , all that is good derives from the master whereas the bad and the mundane are what define the slave . The origin of this master morality ' logic is the notion that only the master and the superior class can define what is good as the poor and the weak do not truly produce anything or merit in society and , to a certain extent , is a drain on society 's resources . As such , goodness and merit can not be attributed to any of

beliefs or tenants of the poor /slave

Since there is such resentment on the part of the underclass towards the privileged , the poor develop their own concept of good and evil with evil deriving from the actions of the wealthy . As such , a slave morality ' develops that (in Nietzsche 's view ) is wildly inaccurate as reality is that what is good derives from the nobility and upper class

Ultimately , belief in morals is often based upon personal outlook . As such , a master or slave morality is used to justify individual beliefs or opinions as well as to justify what is good ' and what is evil In the case of the slave morality , there is a great deal of resentment present against the ruling class . This resentment , if it festers long enough , can yield to overthrow and revolution . On a baseline level however , it can generally yield an angry and agitated poorer class that now defines all that is evil in the world comes from the nobility Whether this is true or not is irrelevant , if enough individuals begin to believe it is true , then it becomes the truth for them . What become critical here will be the actions they take based on their belief that it is true , not whether or not true ' is actually true

To a great extent , Nietzsche has nothing but contempt for the slave morality . It would appear that he sees it as the misguiding musings of those who are inferior . This is not to say that Nietzsche considered the wealthy class above criticism . In some ways , Nietzsche portrays certain members of the master morality as idle and somewhat lazy . This derives from their contempt of the poor class and this contempt eventually leads to ignoring the possible problems that the slave morality feelings of resentment may cause them

In modern society , it would seem that the slave morality is the most prevalent . Part of the reason for this is the fact that religion shares the views of the slave morality . Considering the vast presence of religion in the world , the slave morality becomes quite common . In a strange irony , this allows the slave morality to finds its way into the master class and members of the master class start to associate with the virtues and ideologies of the slave class as a result

In terms of re-evaluating the concepts of morality , it would seem that Nietzsche prefers that we look inside for...