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Master- and Slave-Morality

Page history last edited by Angelia Dela Cruz 15 years, 1 month ago

Friedrich Nietzsche: Master- and Slave-Morality

 

 

Quote: 

 

“The noble type of man regards himself as a determiner of values; he does not require to be approved of; he passes the judgement: “What is injurious to me is injurious to itself”; he knows that it is he himself only who confers honour on things; he is a creator of values. He honours whatever he recognises in himself: such morality is self-glorification.” 

 

 

What I Expect To Learn: 

 

            On this topic, I would love to know the concept of Master- and Slave-Morality and understand it well. I also want to know Friedrich Nietzsche’s stand in the said topic and also I want to know what about what he thinks is a good and healthy society. 

 

 

Chapter Review: 

 

         The main points of Nietzsche’s discussion is his view of a healthy society, the slave- and master-morality, he view on injury, violence and exploitation, a creator of values or a noble man and the will to power.

  

          According to Nietzsche’s discussion, a healthy society is a society where kingship and commonwealth is disregarded. He said that a healthy society must be regarded as a the significance and highest justification which would mean that there has to be people who, with a good conscience, would make a sacrifice, be submissive and lessen their value as person. In other words they are the imperfect men, slaves and instruments. This leads to the concept of slave- and master-morality.

  

Master-morality refers to the superior and dominant people. They are the ones who have the strength, power, egoism and freedom. This description reminds me of the Nazis and the Japanese who conquered our country years back. They were powerful people who proved their strength by harming other people and threatening others. They considered themselves as superior people with power, strength, freedom and egoism. On the other hand, Slave-morality calls for weakness, submission, sympathy and love. They are the so-called slaves to the powerful. The people who remind me of this description are the Jews during the Nazis time, Filipinos during the Japanese occupation and the slaves of Egypt in the Bible.

  

Nietzsche views injury, violence and exploitation as a means of survival. For him, these three are ways to show power and strength. One must cause harm, violence and exploitation in order to show their strength and power. For him, if you do not show “power and strength” by causing violence, injury and exploitation, you are then, not considered a strong person instead, you’re weak and a slave.

  

He also discussed what a creator of values is or what a noble man is. This is in relation to the quote I have chosen and typed above. A creator of values disregards the rules of the society and the rules of God. A creator of values is his own judge which means that for him, the he is doing something right if he think he is doing something right regardless of whether he harms another person or not. Then, he also discussed the concept of will to power. This means, a person’s will to survive by being strong. Will to power means doing whatever it takes to survive, through power and strength, no matter if they harm someone or not.

  

In my opinion, Friedrich Nietzsche’s ideas are really chaotic and extremely scary. If this is the case, there would be no peace and order which is necessary for what I would consider a healthy and good society. If we lived in a world where his ideas apply or at least during the time of the Nazis, the Japanese and other similar and dominant people, there would be a lot of war and a lot of people dying. It’s just a really really scary thought.

 

 

What I Learned:

  

            I learned at the end of Friedrich Nietzsche’s discussion the difference of slave-morality and master-morality. I have also learned Friedrich Nietzsche’s view in life which is that we have to be strong in order to survive. Moreover, I have also learned of Nietzsche’s stand on injury, violence and exploitation. Another thing I learned is what a creator of values and the concept of will to power.

 

 

Integrative Questions:

  

1.    What is slave-morality?

2.    What is master-morality?

3.    What does a noble man regard himself?

4.    What is a healthy society?

5.    What does a creator of values mean?

 

 

Review Questions 

1.    How does Nietzsche characterize a good and healthy society?

  

For Nietzsche, a good and healthy society disregards itself as a kingship or a commonwealth. He said that a healthy society should be regarded as the significance and highest justification which would mean that there would be people who, with a good conscience submit and sacrifice to become imperfect men, slaves and instruments which define the whole concept of master-morality and slave-morality. 

 

2.    What is Nietzsche’s view of injury, violence, and exploitation?

  

Nietzsche thinks that injury, violence and exploitation are part of one’s life. One must cause injury, violence and exploitation in order to survive. His view is that for a person to be strong he must cause the three mentioned above or else, he will be a weak person. Nietzsche’s point is that one must be strong in order to survive and being strong mean being a source of injury, violence and exploitation or else you are considered weak. 

 

3.    Distinguish between master-morality and slave-morality.

  

Nietzsche said that master-morality emphasizes power, strength, egoism and freedom while slave-morality emphasizes on weakness, submission, sympathy and love. 

 

4.    Explain the Will to Power.

  

Will to power is a person’s drive toward domination and exploitation of the inferior. As superior person follows the idea of master-morality while the latter follows the slave-morality. This means that a superior person would exercise his power towards the weak and would fight regardless of it being wrong or right.

 

 

Discussion Questions 

1.    Some people view Nietzsche’s writings as harmful and even dangerous. For example, some have charged Nietzsche with inspiring Nazism. Are these charges justified or not? Why or why not?

  

Thinking about what the Nazis are, I would agree that Nietzsche’s writing is indeed inspiring Nazism. This is because the Nazis thought that they were superior to others. They practice their power and show their strength by harming and killing the weak. They show that they are strong as a means of survival. These actions of the Nazis are very similar to what Nietzsche’s concept of master- and slave-morality which states that in order to survive, one must show power and strength and be dominant than others.

 

2.    What does it mean to be “a creator of values”?

  

A creator of values is a so-called noble man. He thinks highly of himself and for him, what is right and what is wrong is based on what is right and wrong for him regardless of what he thinks is right would harm other people or not.

 

 

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