Analysis Of Nietzsche's Genealogy Of Morality

Nietzsche’s Genealogy of Morality reflects upon and questions the progression of human morality. An excerpt from the “Preface” of Genealogy of Morality on page 393, suggests that the value placed on what is considered “good” or “bad” is susceptible to evolution; there are no absolute truths in a meaning, only a will to power. Nietzsche’s philosophy is often saturated with dismantling assumptions, absolutions, and arbitrations. In this sense, when people confine their morality to assumptions and absolutions they conform to one power, one perspective, one will that wishes to dominate. This philosophy is communicated by imploring what Nietzsche says about the creation of truth in On Truth and Lies in a Non-Moral Sense and the concepts of good

According to Nietzsche, what was meant by being good fell directly upon the noble, the rich, and the privileged, “The judgment ‘good’ does not emanate from those to whom goodness is shown! Instead it has been ‘the good’ themselves, meaning the noble, the mighty, the high-placed and the high-minded, who saw and judged themselves and their actions as good” (Nietzsche 2:396). And what was meant by being bad oriented upon the commoners, the poor, and the undesirable. When determining good, bad, pure, and impure, it opens a door for the people living “undesirable” lives to subsume “ressentiment”—or resentment. Resentment is built from hate and aggression towards the poor man’s opposition, the noble man. In the face of hardships, the noble man believes he lives a generally happy life he thus lives presently, rid of anxieties; the noble man hardly sulks in disparities, but he also hardly learns from them. The poor man is forced to fester in his misfortune which also forced him to grow smarter than his counterpart; he cannot evade from present realities. Subsequently, what the noble man calls “good” is what the poor man deems “evil”. Such concepts fall into what Nietzsche considers the “Slave Morality” and the “Master Morality”. In a basic sense, the concept of the Slave Morality in relation to the

On page 393, Nietzsche begins the excerpt by exposing humans of their sheep mentality, “People have taken the value of these ‘values’ as given, as factual, as beyond all questioning.” Humanity—in context of a biblical, religious environment—has been plagued with blindly following morals written for the masses without question. This is akin to what is said about truth and lies in A Non-Moral Sense, “They are deeply immersed in illusions and in dream images; their eyes merely glide over the surface of things and see ‘forms.’ Their senses nowhere lead to truth; on the contrary, they are content to receive stimuli” (Nietzsche 1:115). There is a power struggle in humanity. People vie for dominance and for the chance to determine truth in order to feel superior. And if the inferior questions these truths and bestowed morals, they believe they will be punished. To recommence, “up till now, nobody has had the remotest doubt or hesitation in placing higher value on ‘the good man’ than on ‘the evil’, higher value in the sense of advancement, benefit and prosperity for man in general… What if the opposite were true? … So that morality itself was the danger of dangers?” (Nietzsche 3:393). For example, what may be considered good is having plenty