Ryan Harter
Essay I “We are unknown to ourselves...We have never looked at ourselves," says Nietzsche in the prologue to On the Genealogy of Morals. In order to understand ourselves, we need to examine at our values--how we acquired them, and the legitimacy, or value, of that original acquisition. Nietzsche thinks that we can find the foundations of our moral beliefs if we can develop an accurate genealogy. There's a history of ideas about what's good and what isn't good, and by tracking that history--presumably--we can learn something about ourselves--our situation. A lot of these Enlightenment stories are really positive. They're really optimistic. The history of enlightenment is kind of all about people shedding off various kinds of …show more content…
He begins the essay by invoking “English psychologists,” or, put differently, those thinkers who attempt to explain human morality through such mechanisms as principles of association. Nietzsche believes that we need a critique of our moral values. This inquiry and evaluation into the value, or realistic benefit, of our values themselves requires that Nietzsche provide some sort of actual history, or genealogy, of morality. Nietzsche's genealogical approach differs from that of (the "English Psychologists") (whose 'hypothetical' account he considers …show more content…
"Ressentiment" is Nietzsche's special or technical term for the resentful, spiteful morality of the slave. He argues that the resentful measure themselves always against others, especially against the nobles. They are reactive, and because they are impotent they harbor festering hatreds. Nobles instead, he claims, are so full of life and purpose that they don't have time to measure themselves against others. What is deemed good was not created with usefulness in mind. It was determined by those in high positions, who saw and judged their own actions as
Essay I “We are unknown to ourselves...We have never looked at ourselves," says Nietzsche in the prologue to On the Genealogy of Morals. In order to understand ourselves, we need to examine at our values--how we acquired them, and the legitimacy, or value, of that original acquisition. Nietzsche thinks that we can find the foundations of our moral beliefs if we can develop an accurate genealogy. There's a history of ideas about what's good and what isn't good, and by tracking that history--presumably--we can learn something about ourselves--our situation. A lot of these Enlightenment stories are really positive. They're really optimistic. The history of enlightenment is kind of all about people shedding off various kinds of …show more content…
He begins the essay by invoking “English psychologists,” or, put differently, those thinkers who attempt to explain human morality through such mechanisms as principles of association. Nietzsche believes that we need a critique of our moral values. This inquiry and evaluation into the value, or realistic benefit, of our values themselves requires that Nietzsche provide some sort of actual history, or genealogy, of morality. Nietzsche's genealogical approach differs from that of (the "English Psychologists") (whose 'hypothetical' account he considers …show more content…
"Ressentiment" is Nietzsche's special or technical term for the resentful, spiteful morality of the slave. He argues that the resentful measure themselves always against others, especially against the nobles. They are reactive, and because they are impotent they harbor festering hatreds. Nobles instead, he claims, are so full of life and purpose that they don't have time to measure themselves against others. What is deemed good was not created with usefulness in mind. It was determined by those in high positions, who saw and judged their own actions as