Nietzsche's Genealogy Of Morality

What are morals? Today we define morals as a “concerning or relating to what is right and wrong in human behavior.” Friedrich Nietzsche gave us the possible foundation of how morality came to be in his work Genealogy of Morals. In Nietzsche essay he pursues to find where morals originated from, define the differences between a “good” and “bad,” and the difference between “evil” and “bad.”

With the lack historical spirit, Nietzsche will open his essay by expressing his dissatisfaction with the English psychologists. They tried to explain where morality came from, but failed in Nietzsche’s eyes. The English psychologists proclaimed that “good” originated from “unegoistic actions were acclaimed and described as good by those towards whom they

Master morality is defined as the morality of the masters, the nobles, and the warriors. They are the ones who see themselves and their actions as “good.” Words that are considered “good” are: strength, power, health, wealth, and happiness. It is assumed that “good vs bad” is associated with the Master status. In this status, good and bad is determined by the person, not the deed. “If an important person does something, then that something is good. In contrast, if a poor person does something, then that something is bad.” An example would be, is if a celebrity takes a diet pill and lost 50 pounds from it, it must be reliable. In contrast if I took the pill and lost 50 pounds, no one would trust me because I am a

The Masters could distinguish between themselves and those who are poor. The example that he used in his essay was a bird of prey and a lamb. “These birds of prey are evil: and whoever is little of a bird of prey as possible, indeed, rather the opposite, a lamb—should he not be said to be good? We bear them no ill-will at all, these good lambs—indeed, we love them: there is nothing tastier than a tender lamb” To some this could be seen as racism but he is talking about the “masters” are looking down upon the