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Nietzsche On The Genealogy Of Morality

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In his book On the Genealogy of Morals, Nietzsche traces the relationship between people and society, and reflects on the origins of certain morals and ideologies valued by a community, and why they remain valuable to a society over a long length of time (Nietzsche). In section 12 of his second essay, Nietzsche states that, “No matter how perfectly you have understood the usefulness of any organ (or legal institution, social custom, political usage, art form, or religious rite) you have not yet thereby grasped how it emerged” (Nietzsche). Through this statement, he is arguing that it is important to examine how a custom emerged and whether or not it remains relevant, and this is a sentiment that remains true of contemporary political and legal …show more content…

A custom can act to fulfill a purpose entirely different from that which it was intended to serve and by questioning the ideals that have been passed down, we can accurately assess the significance of certain values. Morality is a system of interpretation and implementation whereby something’s function may have become entirely removed from its purpose. According to Nietzsche, nothing has inherent value, everything is given value and purpose by people and in relation to something else (Nietzsche). As an ideology is used to the advantage of emerging authority figures and assigned a new function, its previous purpose and history become insignificant to its modern relations (Nietzsche). Nietzsche suggests that through a transvaluation values, we can redetermine what is import to us as a society, and what has become irrelevant (Nietzsche). As he believes in the importance of the power of the strong over the weak, Nietzsche is also arguing that society needs to reevaluate the values that have been established on weak grounds which benefit the weak at the expense of the strong (Nietzsche). Being that nihilism is ultimately the absence of values, Nietzsche is not advocating for the complete elimination of values, he is rather asserting that current values be scrutinized so that a new social moral code may be put into place

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