Ressentiment

For the slaves, however, justice is deferred and eventually won through everlasting life; imaginary. This is why the deep and fermenting emotion is referred to as “ressentiment”, essentially the English resentment. Nietzsche doesn’t find a slave morality in society better than master morality, however. Contemporary society is neither fearful nor admirable, but dull and bland. Society today neither fears humanity yet has…

Morality is one of the most controversial subjects to understand because there is no clear right or wrong answer. It can be one way for somebody and completely different for someone else living in the same area. A majority of people chose their morality based off society or how other people tell them it should be. These people never question why things are considered morally good and evil, rather they unquestionably accepted the values of what’s good and evil dominant in their society. Sigmund…

Are we at debt with a supreme Being? What is the nature of man’s guilt, given the rupture caused to an original divine order? Can a just God lend forgiveness and thus offer reconciliation to his fallen creation? All these fundamental questions and more have been thoroughly explored by philosophers of all ages. Two thinkers in particular who have sought to provide answers to these inquiries are Friedrich Nietzsche and Saint Anselm. In their respective works, On the Genealogy of Morals and Cur…

There are many competing notions regarding what it means to be human. As humans, we strive to get the most of this life, thus to live “the good life”. The question arises, what type of life brings us the greatest meaning? Many philosophers and thinkers have tried to answer this, and have composed strikingly different conceptions. Some of the most notable thinkers are Friedrich Nietzsche and Thomas Hobbes. Both try to provide the most accurate representation of the human being. Through…

Given the spiritual dilemma first highlighted in Europe as thinkers gradually discovered that their newfound embrace of faith in reason could not be easily reconciled with faith in organized religion, Friedrich Nietzsche’s post-Enlightenment philosophy should not have come as much of a surprise to any of his contemporaries. In his Parable of the Madman, he frankly portends the immutable result of a communal belief in a Christian God that has been permeated by rationalism and science: “God is…

Blythe McGregor September 19, 2017 Kierkegaard/Nietzsche Exam 1. Kierkegaard gives several examples and variations on despair in Sickness Unto Death. All of these variations describe despair as a state in which one is failing to be the best human that one can be. They are falling short of their full potential. This full potential, according to Kierkegaard, can only be achieved if one establishes a relationship between the self and God. For this reason, only spiritual beings, humans not animals,…

Ernest Van Den Haag begins his article asking if the death penalty deters more than life in prison. Haag says that even though life in prison is unpleasant, it is still very different from taking the life of a person. He says that 99% of people on the death row would rather be in life sentence (Pg,392 right column). I think anyone would prefer to stay alive, but isn’t a life sentence just like the end of a persons life? They will be confined to a cell for the rest of their life. Haag also talks…