Summary Of On The Genealogy Of Morality By Nietzche

In his collection of essays On the Genealogy of Morality, Nietzsche distinguishes between the moral systems of good/bad and good/evil and describes their origins, as well as problems that arise with the origins of good/evil in order to analyze two different moral systems and their implications. Nietzsche first distinguishes between the two moral systems of good/bad and good/evil in order to draw a contrast. Good/bad is defined as those with power and those without power: the good, like the warrior caste, have the power while the bad, like the poor, do not have the power. This is a binary way of viewing morality where good is the exact opposite of bad. The binary of good/bad does not implicate anyone for their status but is instead based in …show more content…
First, it neglects to acknowledge the outliers of the binary, in that there can be good that is associated with the masters and bad that is associated with the slave. The last three issues arise when Nietzsche provides the examples of the lambs and the birds of prey. In this story, the lambs are good, the slaves, and the birds of prey are evil, the masters. Nietzsche makes three claims within this story: it is only the fault of language that we separate the bird of prey from its natural action and because of this failing the lambs fault the birds of prey for killing them, despite it being the bird's natural instinct. Additionally, the binary of good/evil is born of resentment and that can implicate others that are not evil. Nietzsche claims that through language we dissociate actions from subjects, thus making the action appear as an afterthought. Nietzsche describes this as “taking the latter for an action… separates strength from expression of strength.” The consequence of attaching “bad” actions to people, or similar people, has allowed the idea of good to be born of resentment. This cloud one's judgement on the true definition of good and evil, as association becomes one’s only basis for good/bad. Nietzsche most directly describes the failure of moral judgements. If someone only has one reference point for what is good and one reference point for what is bad, there is a whole spectrum in the middle that can be lost or miscterogorized. Often humans develop ideas of what is good and bad, and if something does not fit their definition of good it is automatically bad, and vice versa. This can cause failings in moral judgements as humans are unable to collectively identify one person as evil. The dissociation of actions from subjects too affects the slaves as it blames the slaves for their weakness, rather than acknowledging weakness as their natural