When I first began reading the works of Friedrich Nietzsche, I was confronted with a question. Was Nietzsche at best, an amoralist and at worst, a nihilist? It seemed to me as though he had absolutely no code of ethics. As I read more and gained a deeper understanding of his ideals I found that he was not so much anti-moral as he was against the value of a certain type of morality. Nietzsche believed that in life there were two types of moralities that humans embraced; that of the master, or noble, and that of the slave, and where we stood in regard to these would determine our values and our notion of good and bad. Nietzsche says, “Moral value distinctions have emerged either from among a masterful kind, pleasantly aware of how it differed …show more content…
He says, “I am trying to grasp the idiosyncrasy that is the source of that Socratic equation: reason = virtue = happiness, the most bizarre equation that there is, and one which in particular has all the instincts of the older Hellenes against it” (Twilight 14). He accused Socrates of “making a tyrant out of reason”, using rationale in much the same way as the Christians were using their brand of morality, in a clandestine attempt to subvert the power of the noble society and to turn people away from their true instincts. In The Apology Socrates is quoted as saying, “I leave you now, condemned to death by you, but they are condemned by truth to wickedness and injustice” (Trial and Death 40). This kind of moral reversal was a point of contention for Nietzsche as he believed it to be in line with slave morality. He claims that before the rise of Socrates, “dialectical manners were rejected in good society. They were taken to be bad manners, they were a compromising exposure” (Twilight 14). Nietzsche shunned Plato’s ideal of two separate compartments, one of the body and one of the soul, and that the soul was immortal and should be held in a higher regard. In addition, he rejected Plato’s emphasis on the afterlife and what he called “Plato’s invention of pure spirit and of transcendental goodness” (Beyond 3). Despite his criticisms, Nietzsche actually had a great deal of respect and admiration for both of these great philosophers. They were all seeking a type of elevated self-improvement over the common men of their era. Socrates and Plato sought to achieve this through rationale, wisdom and a concern for matters of the soul, and Nietzsche through intuition, the affirmation of life and and the concept of will