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Comparing Nietzsche's Beyond Good And Evil

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In the first essay of On the Genealogy of Morals (GM), Friedrich Nietzsche resumes his work on a theme he had already addressed in his previous book, Beyond Good and Evil, which is about concepts of ‘good’, ‘bad’ and ‘evil’. In this essay that he titled ‘Good and Evil’, ‘Good and Bad’, Nietzsche analyses the relations of strife between what he considers to be the three social classes that constitute a society, that is to say the masters, the priests and the slaves. It is clear that the masters are strong while the slaves are weak, however it is more complex to place the priests, that one could argue are ‘weak nobles’ while others see them as ‘strong slaves’. This essay argues that Nietzsche’s essay offers a very interesting explanation for …show more content…

The slave resents because he is suffering of the master’s contempt towards him. Ressentiment is defined as a feeling of “bitter indignation at having been treated unfairly” , which is exactly how the weak feel when they are subjected to the good will of the strong. As a result, the priest and the slave have found a way to accomplish their - so far- ‘imaginary’ revenge , establishing their morality and force on masters. This revenge does not consist in brutally defeating master morality and rather occurs in a passive-aggressive way. It consists in fact in defining the slave’s most hated enemy not merely as ‘bad’ but as ‘evil’, so by following the logic that the slave is what the master is not, the slave becomes ‘good’ . As ressentiment is a creative form of expression of the hatred and jealousy that the weak has for the strong, and of the slave’s desire to take revenge on the master morality, one can argue that such feeling is at the origin of the creation of ‘responsible evil’ concept and of the new ‘Christian’ morality, values and virtues that followed. Finally, Nietzsche explains that masters have ‘active forces’, meaning that they are able to assert themselves and to take action, whereas the slaves have ‘reactive forces’ , so they do not – and cannot - act by themselves, and are thus doomed to respond and react to the master morality. With the creation of ‘responsible evil’ and the rising slave morality, the active forces of the master are turned into reactive forces similar to the slave’s , so the master is dragged down at the slave’s

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636 Words | 3 Pages

Some had to cross their limits and turn into monsters to escape and intimidate their masters. “Ben”, a conspirator in Gabriel Prosser’s Rebellion, shared how the messages that were conveyed through the Bible encouraged him to fight in the rebellion and against slavery. While this rebellion wasn’t as successful, many others were such as the slave revolt that was led by Nat Turner in 1829. This revolt expressed the many emotions that were oppressed in the bodies of the slaves such as fear. However, one emotion that was expressed freely was courage and braveness which encouraged them to fight back and make an effort to gain their rightfully owned

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Auld’s misinterpretation of the passage emphasizes slave owners use of religion to reinforce their power over their slaves. Christianity rationalized the concept of buying and selling human beings, and that God approved this too. In addition, Douglass used religion as a way to fuel his abolition movement. Under Master Hugh’s, Douglass began to learn how to read and write. Once

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523 Words | 3 Pages

In George Whitefield’s article towards Southern Slaveholders, Whitefield expresses his terror towards the unhuman treatment of slaves by their Christian owners. Whitefield believes that as Christians, these slaveholders have the duty to care for their workers just as God calls upon them to do or else they will face the consequences for their sin. In this article, Whitefield’s purpose is to inform Christians of their sin in hope that they will change their treatment towards slaves. Whitefield article allows readers to view that his statements were meant to change the way slaves were treated by slave owners nonetheless he understands that buying slaves is sinful but legal. George goes on to compare the brutal treatment of slaves to the fair treatment of domestic animals by their owners.

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In Douglass’s youth, after having changed many hands of Colonel Lloyd’s heirs, he finally landed in the treacherous possession of the late colonel’s son-in-law, Master Thomas Auld. After living few months with him, Douglass understood Auld’s true colors of lacking proper slaveholding skills and authority, as well as every other “noble” element of character any human is expected with. Soon, Douglass narrates his master’s incorporation into a Methodist church where “he found religious sanction” for his crimes (47). The kind of “cover-up” religion provides to promote the dehumanizing effects of slavery is ultimately horrifying and revolting. The white supremacists not only cause harm on their slaves, but also themselves, by convincing themselves of following a religion that doesn’t promote violence, whilst the opposite is occurs.

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Douglass who grew up under the hand of many different Christian overseers and masters, shared that, “religious slaveholders [were] the worst.” When Douglass was abiding with Mr. Thomas Auld (Mr. Auld’s brother), He described him as a man, “incapable of managing his slaves either by force, fear, or fraud,” until his religious conversion. Mr. Thomas Auld was converted at a Methodist camp-meeting, and Douglass expressed, “I indulged in a faint hope that his conversion would lead him to emancipate his slaves, and that, if it did not do this, it would, at any rate, make him more kind and humane.” Douglass was let down in both respects, and he said, “If it had any effect on his character, it made him more cruel and hateful in all his ways… after his conversion, he found religious sanction and support for his slaveholding cruelty.” One of his master’s justifications involved reciting religious passages and quotes from the Bible while whipping his slaves.

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Douglass explains that the slaves do not say anything bad about their slaveholders. Furthermore, there are fights between slaves who disagree which of their masters is better. Through their masters’ attempts to promote slavery, the slaves have been taught to think that “the greatness of their masters [is] transferrable to themselves”(31). The disloyalty was brought about by not being able to talk bad about their masters. Douglass also discloses that slaves “suppress the truth rather than take the consequences of telling it,” in the pursuit of self preservation, which can cause them to betray their fellow slaves (30).

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Douglass scolds the religious slaveholders for preaching such moral values in the Bible yet lashing their savage punishments towards slaves. The slaveholders become ignorant to the “pure, peaceable, impartial Christianity of Christ” and instead of obeying the Bible, they resort to the “corrupt, slaveholding, women-whipping, cradle-plundering, partial and hypocritical Christianity of this land”(81). Unlike “Mr. Wilson, who proposed to keep a Sabbath school for...slaves… to learn to read the New Testament”, “class leaders [of the church] with many others, came upon [slaves] with sticks and other missiles, drove [them] off, and forbade [them] to meet again”(46) in fear of them learning too much and possibly rebelling. Douglass exaggerates the class leader’s armory, the missiles, in order to prove that a smaller weapon, such as a gun or a stick in this case, can only kill so many slave’s desire to learn. The hyperbole on the word, missiles, shocks readers because a missile destructs so swiftly, it could entirely wipe out a slave’s desire to learn and will scar them for life if they think about trying to act up again.

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958 Words | 4 Pages

It rekindled the few expiring embers of freedom, and revived within me a sense of my own manhood” (Douglass 43). Now Educated, he is able to understand his worth, not monetary but internal. Douglass assures, “I could see no reason why I should, at the end of each week, pour the reward of my toil into the purse of my master” (Douglass 60). Employed under Master Hugh he advocates for his worth, “I applied to Master Hugh for the privilege of hiring my time” (Douglass 61). Douglass employs slight arrogance, however, within his new mindset, allows for a different approach to Master Hugh than that of a slave; but as a

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685 Words | 3 Pages

This for the master is empowerment, and for the slave, oppressive. It is evident that there was some sort of understanding within the community of slaveholders, that a prosperous master, must be cruel. For instance, Douglass recounts a memory of Master Auld’s transformed demeanor after attending a methodist conversion camp. He states, “it made him more cruel and hateful in all his ways; for I believe him to have been a much worse man after his conversion than before. Prior to his conversion, he relied upon his own depravity to shield and sustain him in his savage barbarity; but after his conversion, he found religious sanction and support for his slaveholding cruelty” (77).

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1049 Words | 5 Pages

Here, Douglass exposes the Christian attempt to wash their hands of any guilt or wrong doing. Overall, Douglass exposes the truth behind this hypocrisy; when these slaveholders use God as a

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602 Words | 3 Pages

This would incite uprisings, gut, and turmoil. They demonstrated the crowd 's "direct of fear" in the midst of the French Revolt and fought for the continuation of the same old thing, which was pleasing riches and security for the slaveholding class and for every single free person who valued the plenitude of the slave society. Defenders of subjugation fought that servitude had existed all through history and was the trademark state of mankind. The Greeks had slaves, the Romans had slaves, and the English had enslavement until starting late. Watchmen of subjection saw that in the Book of sacred texts, Abraham had slaves.

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Secondly, Mr.Douglass uses logic to appeal to the reader about the injustice of slavery. For instance, “When Mr.Douglass ran out of food to subsist on, we did by begging and stealing, whichever came handy in the time of need, the one being considered as legitimate as the others.” Revealing how, Mr.Douglass compares himself with inadequate amounts of food to the whites because nutrients is a vital source of energy and by taking this source of energy away, slaves are treated as non-living objects. Furthermore, Mr.Douglass uses religious doctrines to appeal to the reader about the injustice of

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812 Words | 4 Pages

Also, in the same chapter, Douglass’ expresses his feelings for Mr.Freeland stating, “I will give Mr.Freeland the credit for being the best master I ever had” (Douglass 49). Douglass’ states that Mr.Freeland was not religious but he was the best master he ever had. It is ironic that non-religious slaveholders treat their slaves better than religious slaveholders. Therefore, Douglass notes the irony of religious and non-religious slaveholders: religious slaveholders being more cruel than non-religious slaveholders. Douglass perceives how slaves are treated worse than animals.

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2268 Words | 10 Pages

Evil vs good Before Clary knew about the shadow world with demons,werewolves,vampires,and shadowhunters(are people that are human but half angel) Clary lived with her mom and Luke. Luke was a werewolf that came into Clary’s life when she was little she trusted him he had deep blue sea eyes short brown hair. Clary thought her brother Jonathan Christopher Morgenstern was dead because before Clary was born there was fire and they found two skellingtons believed to be Jonathan and Valentine’s. When Clary turned 16 she saw what normal people couldn’t see like vampires,werewolves,demons.

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It claims that this religion instills guilt for the feelings and aspirations that are inherent to humanity while promoting a moral system that consistently goes against the instincts and nature of mankind. In seeking moral excellence and “the ideals of humanity,” Nietzsche asserts that mankind loses its instinctive desire to grow and become powerful and, therefore, becomes corrupt (Nietzsche 6). To simplify, corruption can be defined as straying away from innate feelings that encourage growth and yearn for power. Nietzsche uses the concept of transvaluation of values to reiterate his argument that everything that Christianity suggested is good is actually evil and vice versa. Nietzsche sees Christianity as nihilistic, stressing that the values and traditions leave people yearning for redemption that they will never be able to achieve on their own.

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