The Application of Nietzsche's Principles to Society - Essay Example

?The Application of Nietzsche's Principles to Society Introduction In life, I have come across several people most of who are religious and base their morality on belief in God. For religious societies, the morality of any action should be determined using religious books such as Bible and Quran. Additionally, most religious persons believe that punishment is crucial in molding the human behavior and its absence would mean lack of good morals. The issue of morality has a long history and is crucial in that it distinguishes humans from animals. However, the interpretation of morality changes with time such that different people living at different times under different circumstances have differing meaning of what is good, bad, or evil. Nietzsche's "evolution of morality" points out that morality has been defined differently in different period of history and that different people living at different periods in history have influenced the current meaning of morality. This paper argues that the current meaning of morality has been shaped by traditional views of justice or theories of justice that are shaped and molded by human nature. By this, I mean that if human beings we able to put their natural tendencies aside, then morality and justice, including all the theory and the modern justice system could be unnecessary. If everybody were able to "transcend" to a certain level, then we would not need the justice system, as everybody would behave accordingly. History of the Concept of Morality Basically, morality is the manner in which humans resolve their issues or problems following explicit rules or a set of codes of behavior. The issue of the connection between evolution and morality has been under discussion for a long time particularly after Darwin’s “Origin of Species” in which he argued that natural selection acts for the sole benefit of each being. This meant that the humans would design moral codes for the sole purpose of benefiting themselves hence increasing their survival chances (Nietzsche Web). Darwin’s work, “The Descent of Man,” which posited that the human moral sense had an evolutionally justification triggered more discussion on the issue of the human moral sense. According to Aristotle, childhood nurture plays the major part in the advancement of moral character. Evolution of morality is the view that human morals have undergone progressive modifications through history. However, Nietzsche developed numerous concepts regarding morality particularly if evolution, which I will make use of in this paper (Nietzsche Web; Leiter 35-44; Gayon Web). Nietzsche and the Concept of Morality Nietzsche felt that previous genealogies had failed to expound on the evolution of human morals. Nietzsche criticized the genealogists who had written works showing correlation between origin of morality and the concepts of morality. He felt that there is no direct correlation between origin of something and its usage. According to Nietzsche, there are two types of morality, which he referred to as the master and the slavery morality. The master morality is the kind of morality that dominates and does not require approval and is responsible of determining the human values. It is this kind of morality that leads to creation on human classes since morals are developed due to the need for humans to propagate themselves (Nietzsche Web; Solomon 22-30). On the other hand, slave morality is “essentially a morality of utility” and originates from resentment. The slave morality arose when the slaves were discontented with the kind of treatment they received from their masters. At some point, they stated considering the actions of their masters to be evil. This contributed to the development of the concept of good and evil, which still forms part of today’s concept of morality (Nietzsche Web). The slave and master morality find its roots in the historic slavery in which the masters thought they were not causing any harm to the slaves but instead thought they were making them stronger by making them work excessively hard. In ancient civilizations, the aristocrats were considered good while features such as meekness that were considered evil characterized the slaves. It was due to the way the aristocrats treated the slaves that made slaves develop hatred towards their masters. The slaves eventually began considering their masters actions as evil leading to the inversion of the moral concept such that aspects like being poor were considered good in the moral concept particularly amongst Christians (Nietzsche 15-24). Morality and Guilt An act such as condemning depicts pursuit of self-interest of the person doing it at the expense of the welfares of person being condemned. Evolution of morality is characterized by urge of human to impose rule on each other. Rules are mainly based on the self-imposed definitions of right and evil and leads to societal condemnation and a feeling of guilt amongst persons who fails to fulfill such rules. It is in the attempt to develop standard morals that cruelty and guilt evolves since each individual wants his or her action to be considered right by all. Nietzsche argues that feeling of guilt is based on human pessimism. This is clearly spelt when he states that “in that period when human beings had not yet become ashamed of their cruelty, life on earth was happier than it is today, now that we have our pessimists” (Nietzsche Web). Guilt results in selflessness and self-judgment, which are both resultant from the failure to meet moral standards. According to Nietzsche, the guilty conscience arose as a consequence of inconceivable extents of violence and oppression in human societies. The concept of the guilt did not arise from an intricate development of social and humane instincts, but originated from awful internalization of man's assertiveness. This means that, the guilty conscience did not emerge as an altruistic behavior but was resultant from the chronological influence of an eccentric intensification in the "will to power.” Therefore, guilt can be attributed to human natural tendencies to better themselves than others (Nietzsche 72-80). Morality in Relation to Justice and Punishment As the concepts of morality evolved, humans invented the concept of bad conscience, crime, as well as punishment. People correlate the origin of punishment with the need for justice. However, Nietzsche posits that it is almost impossible to determine the origin of punishment since punishment is often not correlated with justice. This is because it is impossible to measure the wrongfulness of an action to be in a position to determine the equivalent punishment. However, Nietzsche argues that punishment, which characterizes the justice systems, can be linked to the period when humans began establishing social relations centered on trust and promise. Failure to keep promises such paying debts resulted in invention of punishment. Nietzsche states that “Watching suffering makes people feel good; creating suffering makes them feel even better—that’s a harsh principle, but an old, powerful, and human, all-too-human major principle” (Nietzsche Web). This was while attempting to describe how punishment has evolved with the concepts of Morality, where the offended persons used punishment on the offenders. This clearly indicates that human views on justice are based on the selfish nature of humans (Nietzsche Web). Examples of different usage of punishment depicts the punishment has different meaning in addition to different applications amongst diverse groups. For example, repayment of debt, some religious ritual is examples of punishment yet they are used in different concepts and have evolved differently (Zyga Web). This means that the meaning of punishment evolves with time thus the definition and concept of punishment assumed by our ancestors is different from our own. Generally, the act of punishment is carried out by different groups and passed from generation to generation. The act may not change but its meaning changes and is thus not continuous. Nevertheless, humans have never been able to distinguish between the acts of punishing with the meaning of punishment and assume that punishment means the same thing irrespective of the time or situation in which it is applied. Just as Nietzsche argues, the concept of good and evil evolved with the desire by humans to retain their position in the world (Nietzsche 112-122). Regarding the meaning and importance of punishment, Nietzsche argues that punishment has served unalike purposes at different periods. Additionally Nietzsche discerns that different theories on human nature have many dissimilar meanings, which are determined by a will to power (Gayon Web). The applications of Nietzsche’s principles on evolution of morality in relation to society are clearly demonstrated in the three essays in his work titled “On the Genealogy of Morals”. The first essay expounds on the role of religious leaders in inverting the concept of morality. According to Nietzsche, religious concepts especially the Christian ones, are imaginary and only make the Christians adopt hostile attitudes not only toward their own behaviors but also to those of others. In the attempt of trying to justify their action and making them appear morally right in the religious concept Christians end up judging other prejudicially. Additionally, religiosity makes humans attempt to establish a single standard and universal human behavior, which is practically impossible. This is due to the fact that different religious groups have different criteria of defining and differentiating good acts from evil ones. Therefore, if human beings restrained from their religious tendencies, then the concepts of Christian justice could be unnecessary. The second essay explains how the nature of human evolved in the prehistoric period and how this affected the concept of morality. This resulted in the change of the concept of morality. The third essay describes the subsequent transformations of morality. As the concept of morality evolved, aspects such as punishment were incorporate with the aim of preserving morality (Nietzsche 122-134). Just as Nietzsche believed, the role of morality is to discipline or punish people. Therefore, humans define moral principles with the aim of benefitting themselves, which leads the need for a justice system to protect the weak in the society since the social principles are define by the dominant social class in the society. Basically, if human beings we able to abandon the natural egoistic tendency of self-sufficiency, then justice system and concepts could be unnecessary. Since it is the dominant social class that defines the societal morality, there is thus no typical morality and aspects such as punishment that are used in disciplining people with the aim of instilling moral values are inferior (Zyga Web). In case of the master and slave morality, if the former is dominant, morality will be based on moral discipline. If the slave morality is prevailing, anything antagonistic to weakness and austerity is considered evil. Therefore, the rightfulness or wrongfulness of an action is not universal and depends on the principles of the superseding group. Additionally, the nature of disciplinary action will be dependent on this group meaning that moral principles and disciplinary actions in the society are ever evolving and are not standard (Leiter 22-27). Evolution of Morality Concepts Each generation is characterized by a certain set of morals and ethics, which it uses for guidance as well as for other purposes such as determining the kind punishments to give to offenders. Moral judgments arise from moral concepts and are passed from generation to generation with some modifications occurring at every generation. The concepts of morality have undergone evolution such that what is honorable today is distinguishable to its roots in these aristocratic civilizations (Leiter 9-15; Solomon 27-282). Modern conclusions of the theories of justice or rather the concept of morality sets down rules or recommends what is good and ends up criticizing and punishing those considered morally weak. Our society creates philosophies and cultural practices grounded on depraved moral principles. Yielding to the pressure by tolerating to all philosophies and ideas, results in some individuals living in way that are in contrast with their own beliefs. This intimidates the capability to find answers to any moral problems facing humans and humans end up setting the legal systems. Modern values are characterized by substantial pressure to consent to mediocrity (Solomon 275-280). Current legal system and the broader sense of justice are only necessary due to the fact that morality has evolved in a corrupted way due to human nature. For example, the notion of good can be understood or interpreted to mean prosperity and potency by one group or it can mean humility and charity by another group. This suggests that there is no standard way of defining morality. Nietzsche argues that use of language to express different concepts contributes to complication in issues such as in defining morality. He argues that language itself is incapable of articulating the reality (Nietzsche 75-82; Gayon Web). Basically, morality has undergone different modifications. Initially or during the prehistoric period, the importance of an action was determined by its results. After sometime the concept of morality was introduces and the nobleness of an action became dependent on its origin and motive. In the near future, the value of an action is determined by the unintended reason. To emphasize on the impossibility of having standard morals, Nietzsche argues that the concept of morality has evolve with time such that what the nobility had considered to be good eventually turned to what is now considered evil. Generally, the society does not seem accustomed to rely on what good and bad is, on the morality appears to stem from intrinsic knowledge (Leiter 1-5) Conclusion The moral concept has divergent meaning amid different groups. Just like the definition of good and evil changes from culture to culture of amongst different groups meaning of morality changes to suit the people involved. Therefore, contemporary perception of morality should not be so firm but should be open to accommodating the point that many diverse individuals and groups of persons in the course of history have influenced it. As the concept of morality evolved, the human nature led to injustices which resulted in the need for creation of justice system and the concept of punishment. It is somewhat agreeable, however, that self-interest and the desire for power seem to drive humans. The aspect of morality can be attributed to the nature of some humans or intellectuals who tend to separate themselves from the rest and consider them to be of less importance. This was observed among prehistoric human who classified themselves as slaves and master. The slaves resented the masters who considered their actions right. The slaves started viewing the actions of their masters as wrong which resulted in the emergence of the concept of good and evil. This concept is not stagnant, changes from group to group, and time. Morality and justice are thus unnecessary since they only arise due to human nature. Therefore if human beings we able to put their natural tendencies aside, then justice could be unnecessary. If everybody were able to "transcend" to a certain level, then the justice system would be unnecessary since everybody would act accordingly. Works Cited Gayon, Jean. Nietzsche, Darwin and the Origin of Morals. 2002. Web. 6 Aug 2012 . Leiter, Brian. The Routledge Philosophy GuideBook to Nietzsche on Morality. London: Routledge, 2003.Print. Nietzsche, Friedrich. On the Genealogy of Morals A Polemical Tract. 2009. Web. 6 Aug 2012 . Nietzsche, Friedrich. Beyond Good and Evil. New York: Arc Manor LLC, 2008. Print. Solomon, Robert. Introducing Philosophy. London: Oxford University Press, 2004. Print. Zyga, Lisa. Professor Examines The Complex Evolution Of Human Morality. 19 May 2010.Web. 6 Aug 2012 . Read More