On the Genealogy of Morals Themes

On the Genealogy of Morals Themes

Our sense of "Good" was constructed.

Nietzsche gives a thorough but speculative account of how he believes our complex moral codes evolved over time. He explains different dynamics when occasionally in human history, the victor of a competition becomes the victim of mutiny. The group decides that there ought to be certain types of abstract restrictions on human behavior to make the game more "fair." In Nietzsche's argument, nature is that which dictates the rules, rendering man's judgment nothing but selfish wish fulfillment.

Today's "Evil" is closer to nature's "Good."

What Nietzsche might view as "true Good" would be something aligned with nature's views of good and evil. For instance, in business, say, underhanded tricks and dealings are regarded as 'evil' or 'wrong,' but in nature such tricks are rewarded and passed along to future generations. So therefore, if we are animals, nature seems to have sided with the victor, not the victim. The view that "Good" is that which defends the defenseless is to Nietzsche, nothing more than a bad joke.

Ascetic ideals aren't true ideals.

Asceticism is the religious process of restricting one's access to pleasure and reward, as a sacrifice in the pursuit of a goal. Nietzsche uses the term to mean any selfless attempts to attain some sort of virtuous ideal, not necessarily moral—for example, he comments that the same need for ideal exists in the arts, in philosophy, in religious and in nature itself—but still, Nietzsche explains that in his estimation, ascetic ideals are nothing more than a human's wrong belief in some kind of divinity made manifest in their discipline.

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