“Carefree, mocking, violent -- thus wisdom wants us: she is a woman, she always loves only a warrior.”

Thus Spoke Zarathustra

Nietzsche

• Genealogy--> Perspectivism--> No Inherent Meaning --> Different Conceptions of Good/Bad --> The Possibility: Virtue can be a Vice (and vice versa)

Genealogy

• Genealogy: we’re looking for the ancestry of morality; how did it come into being; what are its origins

Genealogy --> Perspectivism

Method of genealogy shows how the term good has evolved

Continuity to the meaning of moral concepts is an illusion

Inherent Meaning?

Example: Punishment

a celebration of one’s power, an act of cruelty, an act of revenge, righting a wrong (justice), a sexual act, a learning tool

Contradictory Meaning

• Can virtue then be a vice? And vice a virtue?

Two Types of MoralityMaster Morality Slave Morality

Archetype: healthy, strong warrior Archetype: weak, sick ascetic

Moral values at first applied to men, and only derivatively and later applied to actions

Master MoralityBonus=good=“the warrior”

We Truthful Ones

He determines his own values and doesn’t need the approval of others

Slave MoralityChristian

Traditional ideals of good stem from revenge, resentment, hatred, impotence, and cowardice

Unhealthy morality that makes natural inclinations evil

Ressentiment

• Morality created from a sense of inferiority, frustration, resentment

“God is Dead”

Death of God-->

• Value does not pre-exist (or pre-date man)

• Man is a creator of values

Meaning as Will

• Meaning: a will giving an interpretation

• Meaning Change: different wills dominating at different times

Absolutes & The Loss of Freedom

To believe in Absolutes is to accept only one interpretation and to be dominated by one will

Freedom lies in exploring different interpretations and coming to one’s own interpretation

What does no Absolutes mean?

• Truth?

• Virtue?

One Truth: One Constant:The Will

• One Virtue: a will free of domination & ressentiment, a will free to choose

Value of Morality

• Present morality born out of ressentiment and hatred of that which is strong/healthy

• Is morality then healthy?

Will to Power=Will to Life

[Anything which] is a living and not a dying body... will have to be an incarnate will to power, it will strive to grow, spread, seize, become predominant -- not from any morality or immorality but because it is living and because life simply is will to power...'Exploitation'... belongs to the essence of what lives, as a basic organic function; it is a consequence of the will to power, which is after all the will to life.

Beyond Good and Evil

Chaos Gives Birth to a Dancing Star

Christianity & Democracy: moralities for the “weak herd”

“Natural Aristocracy”: celebrates life on earth. A heroic man of merit has the courage to “live dangerously” and thus rise above the masses, developing his natural capacity for the creative use of passion.