Genealogy Of Morals By Nietzsche Summary

839 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: nietzsche philosophy essay

Short Homework Assignment 3 In the second essay of Nietzsche’s, Genealogy of Morals, the values defined as powerful memory and confidence about the future of one’s sake are attributed to the concept of holding onto promises. Through Nietzsche’s commentary, he describes what he admires within these values and how they relate to a larger theme that is relevant within cultural norms. Jumping right into Nietzsche’s second essay, the topic of promises immediately takes off within the first sentence. When the typical mind thinks of promises, they assume that the individual bounded to that agreement will not forget the availability they guaranteed. Nietzsche does not follow this idea however and instead proposes the idea of forgetfulness. This idea …show more content…

He puts a strong emphasis on the value to forget what is needed but he also finds value in what is yet to be determined. He values one’s confidence in the future of one’s sake through a promise. Nietzsche makes this very interesting statement, “In order to dispose of the future in advance in this way, how much man must first have learnt to distinguish necessity from accident!” This statement talks much about the wisdom needed to predict future outcomes. Nietzsche has an admiration for this wisdom because it brings out the confidence to make the appropriate call for any situation. When thinking in this manner, it is easy to realize that promises, for the most part, rest in the future. In order to make a right decision one must know how it will affect themselves in the long run. Nietzsche argues that those who know, are confident in their promise and that is what he values. For people who have the wisdom and are confident in their decisions, can also forget what is needed to be forgotten. How interesting it is to see through Nietzsche’s eyes that promise is a test of the human mind and how powerful it is. The argument for this is strong because wisdom leading to confidence can be seen across any attributes of life. People who know what they are doing usually make confident

Show More
Related

  • Nietzsche: Moving Beyond Good and Evil

    1022 Words  | 3 Pages

    We have grown weary of man. Nietzsche wants something better, to believe in human ability once again. Nietzsche’s weariness is based almost entirely in the culmination of ressentiment, the dissolution of Nietzsche’s concept of morality and the prevailing priestly morality. Nietzsche wants to move beyond simple concepts of good and evil, abandon the assessment of individuals through ressentiment, and restore men to their former wonderful ability.

    Read More

  • Compare And Contrast Nietzsche And Martin Luther King

    560 Words  | 2 Pages

    Friedrich Nietzsche was a brilliant and outspoken man who uses ideas of what he believe in what life is about. He did not believe in what is right and wrong because if who opposed the power. Nietzsche was against Democracy because how they depend on other people to make some different or change, while Nietzsche believe they should of just pick the ones that were gifted and talent to choose what to change. Nietzsche also does not believe in Aristocracy because how they depend on an individual person to create the rules or change those benefits for him. As you see Nietzsche did not like how they depend on one person to decide instead of each person to decide for himself for their own benefits.

    Read More

  • Examining Good and Bad Conscience in Friedrich Nietzsche's Genealogy of Morals

    1631 Words  | 4 Pages

    Friedrich Nietzsche is recognized for being one of the most influential German philosophers of the modern era. He is known for his works on genealogy of morality, which is a way to study values and concepts. In Genealogy of Morals, Friedrich Nietzsche mentions that values and concepts have a history because of the many different meanings that come with it. Nietzsche focused on traditional ethical theories, especially those rooted in religion. Not being a religious man, he believed that human life has no moral purpose except for the significance that human beings give it. People from different backgrounds and circumstances in history bend morality's meaning, making it cater to the norms of their society. For example, the concept of what is "good" in the ancient Greek culture meant aristocratic, noble, powerful, wealthy, pure, but not in modern era. Meaning, in the past the term “good” was not applied to a kind of act that someone did but rather applied to the kind of person and background they had. Nietzsche’s project was to help expand one’s understanding by re-examining morality through genealogy of morality; helping one to be more aware of a potential confusion in moral thinking. He feels that the current values and concepts that have been instilled into a society are a reversal of the truth, forcing him to believe that one’s moral systems had to have been created within society. In the works of genealogy of morality, Nietzsche traces out the origins of the concepts of guilt and bad conscience, which will be the main focal point, and explaining its role in Nietzsche’s project against morality. It will be argued that guilt and bad conscience goes against Nietzsche’s role against morality because it can conflict with the moral co...

    Read More

  • Nietzsche's On Truth And Lies In A Nonmoral Sense

    706 Words  | 2 Pages

    The central point of this essay is this “truths are illusions of which we have forgotten that they are illusions.” (Pg. 146) He also goes on to say that the truth is a metaphor, using the Latin meanings of metaphor, meta (to carry with) and phora (to carry over), we can say that a metaphor is a transference between two completely different spheres. It is all about reasons, concepts, and perceptions. What we consider or believe to be the truth is simply a subject realm of experience, completely different from reality. For example, colors, if we were to believe and go by what Nietzsche is saying, colors are not absolute truths just illusions that we have created in our relative reality. So nothing is actually blue, and to take it a step further blue is not real, both perceptions are illusions that we have made

    Read More

  • Play and Theory of the Duende by Federico García Lorca

    1807 Words  | 4 Pages

    ...Hence he concluded that individuals of a society governed by capitalism risked falling into a state of nihilism bereft of meaning. Moreover, the solution he believed was that of a superhuman. A superhuman understands life’s lack of intransience and consequentially looks within for meaning. However, life’s transitory quality results in the superhuman having to constantly recreate in order to overcome the continuously new obstacles thrown at him. Correspondingly, Nietzsche ascertains the quest for satiation of one’s hedonistic insatiable desires, is the greatest strength for a superhuman. This is chiefly due to it being the underlying source for man’s insatiable desire to overcome. Coincidentally, the syntax, as noted by Ginsberg, is one of a pyramidal structure. The monotonic crescendo, symbolizes Solomon’s growing madness and its correlation with a heightened joy.

    Read More

  • On the Genealogy of Morality

    1185 Words  | 3 Pages

    While critical of the attitude found in the ressentiment of slave morality, Nietzsche’s includes it as an important factor contributing to the bad conscience of man. Even though Nietzsche dislikes the negative results of bad conscience – man’s suppression of his instincts, hate for himself, and stagnation of his will -- Nietzsche does value it for the promise it holds. Nietzsche foresees a time coming when man conquers his inner battle and regains his “instinct of freedom.” In anticipation of that day’s eventual arrival, Nietzsche views the development of bad conscience as a necessary step in man’s transformation into the “sovereign individual.”

    Read More

  • Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche

    396 Words  | 1 Pages

    Nietzsche, Friedrich (Wilhelm) (1844-1900), German philosopher, poet, and classical philologist, who was one of the most provocative and influential thinkers of the 19th century. “In addition to the influence of Greek culture, particularly the philosophies of Plato and Aristotle, Nietzsche was influenced by German philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer, by the theory of evolution, and by his friendship with German composer Richard Wagner. Nietzsche's first major work, Die Geburt der Tragödie aus dem Geiste de Musik (The Birth of Tragedy), appeared in 1872”(Morrison). His most prolific period as an author was the 1880s.”During the decade he wrote Also sprach Zarathustra (Parts I-III, 1883-1884; Part IV, 1885; translated as Thus Spoke Zarathustra); Jenseits von Gut und Böse (1886; Beyond Good and Evil); Zur Genealogie de Moral (1887; On the Genealogy of Morals); Der Antichrist (1888; The Antichrist); and Ecce Homo (completed 1888, published 1908).”(muohio.edu) Nietzsche's last major work, The Will to Power (Der Wille zur Macht), was published in 1901. According to Nietzsche, the masses (whom he termed the herd or mob) conform to tradition, whereas his ideal overman is secure, independent, and highly individualistic.” The overman feels deeply, but his passions are rationally controlled. Concentrating on the real world, rather than on the rewards of the next world promised by religion, the overman affirms life, including the suffering and pain that accompany human existence. Nietzsche's overman is a creator of values, a creator of a "master morality" that reflects the strength and independence of one who is liberated from all values, except those that he deems valid”(muohio.edu).

    Read More

  • Perspectivism and Truth in Nietzsche’s Philosophy: A Critical Look at the Apparent Contradiction

    2457 Words  | 5 Pages

    ...’s lack of a direct response to this apparent contradiction ensures that this matter will continue to be hotly debated well into the future. For this seemingly simple contradiction of positing truths when one has denied all absolute truths, Nietzsche gives a very complex and personal answer.

    Read More

  • A True War Story: Nietzsche And O Brien

    1256 Words  | 3 Pages

    Nietzsche believes that the way intellect works is to deceive people. They naturally play that role in order to keep a secret or to restrict sharing information with another person. In other words he means people lie in order to not share the agreed upon lie. He says, “…individuals so far wants to maintain himself against other individuals, he will under

    Read More

  • Hollocaust Survivor: Night by Ellie Wiesel

    678 Words  | 2 Pages

    Elie Wiesel’s speech, Hope Despair and Memory gave in 1986 mainly focused on the great importance of remembering past memories that people tend to want to forget. The speech was very successful in persuading the audience to believe in the importance that memory serves us through the great use of pathos throughout the speech, especially the pathos that always comes from any sort of holocaust recollection. Elie uses such sentences as, “a young man struggles to readjust to life. His mother, his father, his small sister are gone. He is alone. On the verge of despair.”(Abrams, 1997) He helps to arise a strong sense of sympathy from the injustices that had plagued this time in history. This use of pathos makes it an effective use of it for it underlines the audience’s attention towards Elie Wiesel and makes them closer to his emotions an...

    Read More

  • Portrayal of Female Social Cliques in 'Mean Girls'

    632 Words  | 2 Pages

    Nietzsche believed we create the self through our experiences and our actions, and in order to be a complete self, we must accept everything we have done. I agree with him in this sense. Although it is easy to learn from the mistakes of others, there is no greater lesson than learning from our own mistakes. He also believed there is much more to the self than we know about. This is another example about how we learn about ourselves through our experiences and actions.

    Read More

  • Nietzsche Peaceful Society Analysis

    1454 Words  | 3 Pages

    “That which does not kill us makes us stronger”. (Nietzsche, 1888) The saying comes from the “Maxims and Arrows” section of Nietzsche’s book, Twilight of the Idols. I don’t always believe in every quote from a philosopher. I don’t believe in this quote by Nietzsche, because I think hardships’ effects are different for everyone. Yes, in various cases people come out stronger, but there are always those who come out weaker. Although I appreciate the uplifting motivational quote, I do not agree it much like how I wont agree with many other quotes in my philosophy. I have a devotion to share my philosophy covering the independence of “free will” to the imperfection of purpose.

    Read More

  • Nietzsche’s Argument of Justice: The Debtor/Creditor Relationship

    1310 Words  | 3 Pages

    Nietzsche’s view can be expressed specifically in the penal system of today. The creditor/debtor relationship exists to a large extent in criminal behavior and its co...

    Read More

  • Nietzsche’s Take On Religion

    654 Words  | 2 Pages

    Nietzsche attacks religion for its stance against of healthy instinctive values and the intolerance and complacency that religion breeds.(Nietzsche 52) Nietzsche believed that the Christen morality prevented us from reaching our full potential as human beings(Janaway). Nietzsche most classical explanation for how this repressing of healthy values, such as passion and ambition occurred is the slave revolt. In this theory he states that the priestly classes of the ancient world invented an evaluative system for the downtrodden, according to which what their masters considered virtues, such as pride and strength are evil(Milgram 93). A result of this is this pervasive feeling of self guilt when our natural instincts provoke such feelings from within us, which has a negative impact on our mental health (Janaway).

    Read More

  • Nietzsche's Theme Of Inequality

    526 Words  | 2 Pages

    Persistent throughout Nietzsche’s works is the theme of necessary inequality. In the second part of Thus Spoke Zarathustra he offers an account of those who resist inequality.

    Read More

More about Genealogy Of Morals By Nietzsche Summary

Open Document