Development of Morality According to Nietzsche - Essay Example

Development of Morality According to Nietzsche German philosopher Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche (1844-1900) can be best remembered through his exhaustive and dedicated effort to criticize the institution of religion, particularly that of Christianity. His famous line ‘God is dead’ perfectly sums up his philosophy and world view. However, Nietzsche was also responsible for generating much confusion and debate on the aspect of morality and ethics among scholars and even laypeople. His extremely puzzling standpoints of what is ‘good’ and ‘evil’ earned him the reputation of an esoteric moralist (Hollingdale 162).

Moralitat or Morality for Nietzsche is the state of ‘higher’ consciousness for humankind where false conceptions about it are vanished. According to him, it is a wrong morality if people would think that the things they do are good for them, instead it should be done to transform other people and society as a whole (Mencken 65). Hence, it can be understood that Nietzsche’s moral philosophy is intended for a broader scope rather than for a personal-level of inculcation. An anti-Realist, Nietzsche objected the commonly-held view that morality is derived from the authority of religion and the statements of powerful people.

He conjectured for a Morality in the Pejorative Sense (“MPS”) that encompasses his radical rationalization of the subject. The development of morality in people, consistent with Nietzsche’s writings, is fundamentally dependent on the voluntary application of ‘good’ thoughts and values. Happiness, Altruism, Equality and Compassion are extremely important virtues in the Nietzschean morality, while worldliness, selfishness and cruelty are abhorred (Mencken 35-38). The moralist elucidated his moral viewpoint via his three theses on human agency.

First, Nietzsche argued that human beings possess a certain power that enables them to make free and autonomous choice (Free Will). This is encapsulated in majority of his works, specifically on his notion of er Wille zur Macht or ‘will to power.’ Secondly, he believed that the individual person is adequately transparent on his actions and motives (Transparency of Self), which is somehow related to his construct of Ubermensch. While thirdly, he purported that people should follow only one moral code for the welfare of society’s entirety and not just for the benefit of the privileged members (Moral Uniformity) (Deleuze 48-52).

In addition, Nietzsche warned for a regression of morals in society when free will is insufficient among people in their performance of responsible actions, if motives are not well evaluated, and if people do not agree on the interpretation and application of moral codes (Deleuze 60). His books entitled The Gay Science (2001), Thus Spoke Zarathustra (2005), Beyond Good and Evil (1966) and On the Genealogy of Morality (1994) speaks volumes of the natural proclivities of the human species to transgress their own ethics, he thus aptly deemed ‘positively intrinsic values.

’ In essence, a better appreciation of Nietzsche’s unusual moral doctrine can be pulled through by examining closely his very popular, yet often mistaken, idea of ‘people creating themselves’ (Mencken 72). Hence, it should be considered that morality is not a question of who makes the laws or codes, but a question of how these laws and codes are applied successfully to renew a seemingly evil-oriented world. Works Cited Deleuze, Gilles. Nietzsche and Philosophy. London: Continuum International, 2006.

Print Hollingdale, R. J. Nietzsche: The Man and His Philosophy. Cambridge, CB: Cambridge UP, 2001. Print Mencken, Henry L. The Philosophy of Friedrich Nietzsche. Radford, VA: Wilder, 2008. Print Nietzsche, Friedrich Wilhelm. Beyond Good and Evil. Trans. Walter Kaufmann. New York: Random House, 1966. Print. Nietzsche, Friedrich Wilhelm. Gay Science. Ed. Bernard Williams. UK: Cambridge University Press, 2001. Print. Nietzsche, Friedrich Wilhelm. On the Genealogy of Morality. Ed. Keith Ansell-Pearson.

Cambridge, CB: Cambridge UP, 1994. Print. Nietzsche, Friedrich Wilhelm. Thus Spoke Zarathustra. Trans. Graham Parkes. New York: Oxford University Press, 2005. Print.