On Friedrich Nietzsches Philosophy - Report Example

To understand the development of his concept of morality, one must first look into why he was nihilistic to declare that God died because he was killed by men. Nietzsche believed that the age of nihilism was coming due to Western civilization and thought being too focused on the ideology of the Christian church. Thus, it has veered away from what it was to actually live and how it failed to represent the virtues of life, favoring a morality that was for the meek, humble, and lowly. It created a morality of the herd.

This brings us to how Nietzsche came up with the two different types of moralities.  Due to the teachings of the church’s religion during his time, Nietzsche saw that morality existed and was divided into two. This was between Master Morality and Slave Morality. In the master morality, Nietzsche held that the good was meant to be what is noble in the sense of with a soul of high quality, and evil meant to be the soul of weak or poor character. In Nietzsche’s opinion, the master morality is the model of what he calls the ubermensch, which is the German term for the “over-man” or the superman.

By contrast, the slave morality originates with the lowest elements of society; specifically the abused, the oppressed, the slaves, and all those who are uncertain of themselves who believe that good is the symbol for all those qualities that alleviate the existence of sufferers, such as sympathy, the kind helping hand, the warm heart, patience, diligence, humility, and friendliness Nietzsche also claimed that the morality of his time espoused a slave morality instead of master morality. Master morality weighs actions on a scale of good or bad consequences, unlike slave morality which weighs actions on a scale of good or evil intentions.

Master morality springs actively from the 'nobleman', and slave morality develops reactively within the weak man. Master morality is also strongly individualistic while slave morality is communal or ‘herd-like’. Christian morality is where Nietzsche criticizes morality for being a slave morality, a morality for those who have a herd-mentality. Nietzsche believed that history has had a crucial struggle between the cultures of master and slave morality. A good example of Nietzsche with regard to such conflict is the Pagan and the Christian culture.

Nietzsche denounces the success of slave morality in Western civilization. Nietzsche declared that the Christian cultural movement of his time was in effect a slave-morality and was weak. Nietzsche was appalled that the culture of weakness overcame that of strength. This antipathy is what Nietzsche defines as priestly vindictiveness in which the jealousy of the weak seeks to enslave the strong. Nietzsche viewed the Judeo-Christian culture as the same power which wanted to make all individuals equal as part of the slave morality.

To counter this, Nietzsche believed that the ubermensch is meant to represent the individual with the notion and values of “this-worldliness” in light of the master morality as contrasting to the Christian religion’s “other-worldliness” ethics that represented the slave morality. Christian religion’s turning from this world is prompted by dissatisfaction with life that causes one to create another world in which those who made one unhappy in this life are suffering.

The master morality is not driven into other worlds or ideals. It has what Nietzsche calls the will to power for which an individual, specifically the ubermensch, develops to face the realities of the world. The will to power is supposed to be the main driving force in man, whether it is an achievement or goal. It is the prime motivating or driving force of an individual. The will to power is what drives the ubermensch to become better than everyone else and to be motivated and empowered by nobody and nothing but himself.

With this, Nietzsche says that because of the will to power, the ubermensch is “beyond good and evil.” To be beyond good and evil means the ubermensch is beyond the traditional norms of morality, even going beyond the master morality. Nietzsche believes that slave morality is based on resentment. Slave morality only exists if there are hostile external factors to be resentful towards, in contrast to the master morality that is open with the individual self and live in a “noble” character.

 The resentful nature of slave morality makes men live a lifestyle of regression instead of progression. These individuals of slave morality are on the middle and none will reach a higher plane of existence as long as they carry on a mediocre of existence. To Nietzsche, the solution is not in the slave morality, and neither completely in the master morality, but in a self-focused lifestyle in which life satisfies and affirms what Nietzsche holds as the will to power.