Nietzsche On Master And Slave Morality Analysis

Improved Essays
“Friedrich Nietzsche on Master and Slave Morality,” an explication by Dr. John Armstrong, explains Friedrich Nietzsche's view on morality that argues Slave Morality is created to restrict “superior” people. To achieve such a claim, Armstrong compares and explains Master Morality and Slave Morality, and he further reveals the flaws of Slave Morality, “[the] artificial boundaries that constrain the strong from reaching their full potential” (5).
Opening his analysis, Armstrong chronicles the history of Master and Slave Morality and informs the readers about Friedrich Nietzsche and his motivation for exploring the difference between these moralities. Armstrong reveals that Nietzsche, a philologist, values Master Morality over Slave Morality since it leads to the “peak of Western civilization” (1). Yet, many religions value Slave Morality instead. Consequently, Master Morality vanishes as Slave Morality spreads and dominates Rome. This issue concerns Nietzsche, causing him to dedicate in studying about Master and Slave Morality. This background information then helps the readers to understand Nietzsche’s motivation and possibly understand his argument. Comparing and defining Master and Slave Morality, Armstrong explicitly shows Nietzsche's position on these two moralities. Master Morality values strength and “the will to
…show more content…
The majority of people are inferior, and they want to restrain superior people and their will to lead. Therefore, inferior people promote “silly ideas like equality, and urge ‘virtues’ like humanity and pity” (5). However, there is no true “equality” because some are naturally superior to others. “Equality” makes the strong become as weak as the inferior ones, therefore, limit the growth of superior

Related Documents

  • Improved Essays

    Throughout the early 1850s to early 1900s, slavery was a controversial issue that divided the nation into two parts: The North and South. Slaveowners of this time would dehumanize people of color and create them into their own properties. The novel, Celia, A Slave, by Melton McLaurin, follows the life of a fourteen year old slave named Celia who was viscously raped for several years by her master, Robert Newsom. After the death of his wife, Newsom searched for a slave that could fulfill his sexual needs. He also did know about the Missouri was going through several debates about slavery.…

    • 855 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    De La Torre’s book Doing Christian Ethics from the Margins contributes to the ever growing number of Christian voices on the margins that seeks to challenge the dominant Eurocentric culture in the United States. Although this work is largely geared towards the classroom, it is a work that challenges all people to think and act theologically and ethically from an oftentimes neglected perspective, that of the disenfranchised or those who reside on the margins. To begin, De La Torre has the reader to critically think about the environment in which students study, the classroom. He writes, “The classroom is appropriately named, for it is indeed a room of class – a room where students learn the class they belong to and the power and privilege…

    • 1240 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The story, under first impression, shows hard work is efficient enough to gain wealth. However, sober, honesty, and industrious are defined in the books section about character and morality. This affects the young male readers as it allows masculinity to define one’s work ethic, wages, and profession. By including these testaments, a reader is inclined to embody honesty and industrious qualities to become this “successful professional man” and to raise their own socioeconomic position to meet this idealized form of masculinity. However, a counterpoint to this example is found in the article “Effects of Wealth on Morals” which is included in The Contributor, a literary magazine designated for young men.…

    • 1710 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In conclusion, I will present the concise summary of what I wrote in this essay. Friedrich Nietzsche was a German specialist and philosopher that was conceived in the mid-nineteenth century. His book, Beyond Good and Evil was one of the last books he composed, during the time of 1886 to…

    • 952 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    “Learning to Read and Write”, by renown Frederick Douglass, makes an effective argument against slavery by using pathos to appeal to the reader 's emotion. The document explained from his point of view, that he was treated “perfectly” fine as a house slave before slavery came into full effect. He also expounds on the fact, once slavery was fully effective, his mistress, Mrs.Hugh, changed for the worse toward him. In the text it states,“Unders it’s influence, the tender heart became stone, and the lamblike disposition gave way to one of tiger-like fierceness.” Creating visuals using animals is the author’s way of demonstrating who his mistress was before slavery had been enforced and the person she had swiftly become after.…

    • 1007 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    I couldn’t imagine being beaten with a whip, hung for sport, or molested every night. Not too long ago, our beloved country stood red handed in the face of discrimination and the buy and purchase of human beings. Liberties that should be granted to all men were denied to others solely based on their color of skin. This shameful era in American his story has been documented by many people in many different forms, and all conclude that the life of the African in America was devastating and something must be done about it. In the book, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, author, Harriet Jacobs explains the implications of injustice to the slaves in the antebellum era in America.…

    • 1195 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In Thomas Paine’s African Slavery in America essay, he speaks on slavery in America. Paine discusses that African Americans were peaceful and the Americans came to enslave them. The Americans were “Christians”, and yet were doing inhumane things to the innocent slaves. The Americans had no permission to catch and enslave people who never injured them. Thomas Paine, born February 9th 1737 was an American journalist and inventor.…

    • 406 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Over the years, society has struggled in efforts to make equality an essential ambition. People have strived for being equal in status, privileges, and opportunities. However, these kinds of entitlements are never free of disparagers, doubters, and a number of other complications. A lack of equality leads to riots so one can be understood or it creates enmity amongst social hierarchies. An excess of equality disguises individualism and uniqueness.…

    • 968 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Friedrich Nietzsche believed that there is no truth and humans only believe what they choose to. The slave class always believes what the master class says, however there is no real truth. Canadians are told that the Indian Act is benefiting the First Nations and they believe them because the government tells Canadian citizens about tax exemptions, land treaties, reserves, and more. However, this is not the truth. First Nations people are constantly being oppressed by the government and the government is not telling Canadian citizens that it is doing so.…

    • 210 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The Land of the Free and the Home of the Slave The American Dream - a major pull factor for immigrants all around the world and a source of pride for Americans. The American Dream was the epitome of liberty, the idea that one could pursue success and happiness, under the freedom granted under the United States of America. Democracy, social mobility, and prosperity.…

    • 770 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In contrast, Nietzsche would view the concept of utility as a critical impediment to freedom, and the negation of one’s individual will and potential. Utility theory for Nietzsche, like other constructs, represents a false way of describing or achieving freedom. For Nietzsche, production of human greatness is the goal of freedom, but not for the good of all or the betterment of conditions for all humans, but rather for the enhancement of the best examples of the species. Thus, Nietzsche is not concerned with the good of all and believes this focus functions to support the essence of slave morality: what is good is defined as that which is most useful for the whole community, rather than its strongest members. The slave values themselves are what makes humans unfree because they are based on “bad conscience” turned inward, rather than against that which opposes human flourishing and affirming life.…

    • 802 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Jessie Halland IB English III Mr. Greger September 27, 2016 Righteous Indignation As the philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche believed, Christianity ingrains a mental attitude and morality for slaves that stifles the humanity (Nietzsche). This opinion draws parallels to Frederick Douglass’ memoir, The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, in which he describes - in certain harrowing detail - his time as a slave in the South United States of America. Throughout the book he follows his life as a slave when he lived with a multitude of different masters who all shaped his character and being, yet he admitted that the “religious slaveholders are the worst... [Douglass] found them the meanest and basest, the most cruel and cowardly, of all others”…

    • 898 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Fredrick Douglas was born in Talbot County, Maryland in approximately the year of 1818. He was born into slavery and later in his lifetime he gained his freedom and became an abolitionist. Douglas wrote an autobiography of his life, a book named The Narrative of The Life of Fredrick Douglas. According to Douglas, the slaveholders Christianity was oppressive for enslaved people through the white’s interpretation of the bible and their hypocrisy. The slaveholders interpreted the Bible in a way that suited them in the system of slavery.…

    • 902 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Chapter 1: The author depicts the relationships between slaves and their masters in Kentucky. Outside characters like the slave trader help the reader identify with the economic and social issues that inundate slavery and southern living. Chapter 2:. As depicted in chapter two, slaves are not permitted to marry, and some masters even prohibit their slaves from succeeding in factories to force them to “know their place.” Slaves who are treated poorly by their masters often lose their faith and struggle to find meaning in life.…

    • 1371 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    The slave morality, as Nietzsche expressed, is a useful tool for groups, which could identify their position alike subalterns under ruler’s control. Nietzsche portrayed Christianity as part of this popular morality. However, it can be applied to such minorities that continue gathering strength and organizing them to reach or gain more power aiming to reduce the master morality groups. Several examples of slave morality expression are the women’s equal rights, African Americans campaign against racism, Hispanic legalization issues and so forth. Nietzsche even used qualifiers to determine how Slave Morality works.…

    • 1599 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Great Essays