On the Genealogy of Morality
Place on List:
IV. Special Area: Literary
Social Criticism
4. Secondary Readings
Friedrich
Nietzsche. On
the Genealogy of Morality.
Key Terms (tags): slave morality,
master and slave, resentment, george eliot, philosophy,
Supporting References:
- "Nietzsche, Friedrich Wilhelm." The Concise Oxford Companion to English Literature. Eds. Drabble, Margaret, Jenny Stringer, and Daniel Hahn. : Oxford University Press, 2007. Oxford Reference. 2007. Date Accessed 22 Aug. 2013
The following
focuses on the author and not the text.
“Nietzsche, Friedrich Wilhelm (1844–1900), German philosopher and
poet. His first work, Die Geburt der Tragödie (The
Birth of Tragedy, 1872), was of revolutionary importance,
challenging the accepted tradition of classical scholarship; it
argued against the ‘Apollonian’ views associated with Winckelmann
in favour of a ‘Dionysiac’ interpretation which allowed for
pessimism and passion as central features of Greek literature. His
most important works were Also sprach Zarathustra (Thus
Spake Zarathustra, 1883–92), Jenseits von Gut und Böse
(Beyond Good and Evil, 1886), and Der Wille zur Macht
(The Will to Power) (published posthumously from fragments).
His basic ideas are the affirmation of the Superman, the rejection of
Christian morality as the morality of the slave, the doctrine of
power, and the ‘revision of all values’. D. H. Lawrence's
works show the influence of Nietzsche's thought. A version of
Nietzsche's ‘Übermensch’ (from Also sprach Zarathustra)
appears in Shaw's Man
and Superman.”
- "Nietzsche, Friedrich Wilhelm." The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Politics. : Oxford University Press, 2009. Oxford Reference. 2009. Date Accessed 3 Sep. 2013
Nietzsche,
Friedrich Wilhelm (1844–1900) A nineteenth‐century German
philosopher and philologist, Friedrich Nietzsche was a radical critic
of the Western moral and philosophical tradition and rejected both
liberalism and socialism in favour of a radical elitism. His
philosophical work is characterized by what he called a ‘revaluation
of values’, a willingness to question and analyse the value of our
most fundamental moral and philosophical beliefs, such as the
existence of objective truth or the moral equality of all
individuals. Indicative of his distinctive writing style and use of
aphorisms, the often‐cited passage in The Gay Science in
which the madman declares that ‘God is dead’ conveys his
rejection not only of the foundations of Christianity but of the
metaphysical assumptions of the Western philosophical tradition more
widely; in effect, we live in a disenchanted world in which we can no
longer appeal to the conventional theological or philosophical
presuppositions to justify many of our ethical and political beliefs.
In On The Genealogy of Morality,
Nietzsche criticized Christianity as being a ‘slave morality’, a
way for the weak, powerless, and oppressed (the slaves) to control
the strong and the powerful (the masters) by positing that they will
suffer revenge at the hands of God in the after‐life for their
supposed injustices in this world. Christianity is therefore based,
Nietzsche believed, on the ressentiment (resentment) that the
weak feel towards the powerful and the desire to control them by
creating an imagined system of revenge. However, this slave morality
is a disaster for humanity because it tames these masters, whom
Nietzsche considered paragons of the life‐affirming virtues of
strength and self‐assertion, and in doing so leads to the
mediocrity of mankind.
Nietzsche's criticism of Christianity
fed into his rejection of liberalism and socialism, the two dominant
political ideologies of his time, on the basis that they both wrongly
assumed that all individuals are morally equal and deserve to be
treated as such. On the contrary, Nietzsche believed that there are
some individuals of higher moral worth than all others; these are the
Übermensch (higher men). The Übermensch are great
individuals who are able to raise themselves above the constraints of
the slave morality of Christianity and the prevailing moral norms
intended to restrain them, and fashion both themselves and the world
around them as acts of artistic creativity. The masses, Nietzsche
thought, could legitimately be used by the Übermensch in
order to further these creative projects, thus denying the Kantian
categorical imperative that all individuals should be treated as ends
in themselves rather as means to an end they do not choose. Nietzsche
therefore preferred an aristocratic social and political order in
which the masses were ruled by the Übermensch.
Nietzsche's influence is considerable.
Though his work made little impact during his own lifetime, his
philosophy has been a major source of inspiration for existentialism
and post‐modernism, and continues to represent one of the most
radical and compelling criticisms of both liberal and social theory.
Infamously, his philosophy, and in particular the idea of ‘will to
power’, were used by the Nazis as a justification for National
Socialism, though it is now commonly believed
that this was based on a perversion of his thought.
- Schacht, Richard. "Nietzsche, Friedrich Wilhelm." The Oxford Companion to Philosophy. : Oxford University Press, 2005. Oxford Reference. 2005. Date Accessed 3 Sep. 2013
- Schacht, Richard. "slave morality." The Oxford Companion to Philosophy. : Oxford University Press, 2005. Oxford Reference. 2005. Date Accessed 3 Sep. 2013
- Solomon, Robert C. "master and slave." The Oxford Companion to Philosophy. : Oxford University Press, 2005. Oxford Reference. 2005. Date Accessed 3 Sep. 2013
- "Nietzsche, Friedrich." Oxford Reader's Companion to George Eliot. Ed. Rignall, John. : Oxford University Press, 2001. Oxford Reference. 2011. Date Accessed 3 Sep. 2013
- a
Comments