Nietzsche’s On the Genealogy of Morals is considered to be one of his most important works. He is one of the most challenging figures in modern philosophy with an undercurrent arguing that Christian morality has reduced human beings to slaves of their own making. He takes the idea of the decadence of Christian morality further in ‘Beyond Good and Evil’ where he states that man must unencumber himself from all things moral and rise above such petty arguments.
The master-slave axis is the main undercurrent of these works. Nietzsche argues that man is reduced to the level of a herd by his obsession with morality since thus undermines the possibility of accomplishment. The author criticises the thinkers who form the basis of our opinions as those which have undermined the human race reducing it to absolute mediocrity.
Nietzsche’s vivid and highly active historical imagination is one of the most potent weapons in the book. He attempts to urge all of us to examine how we view morality and to actually pull the veil of this morality from in front of our eyes so that we can see the full truth of things and in this way rid ourselves from the influence of traditional morality. In a sense he is trying to show us that conventional morality has reduced us to mere slaves without any hope or future but trapped in an endless master-slave cycle which he desperately wants to rid us of.
‘On the Genealogy of Morals also deals with the incredible complexities of the human mind, something which Nietzsche is constantly at pains to point out. One of the most important quotes in the book is that ‘only something which has no history is capable of being defined’. The weakness and submission to what is viewed as good and evil also permeate the text showing us that we end up trapped in a web of our making when thinking about morality.
In Beyond Good and Evil, Nietzsche absolutely rejects the notions of rational truth and universal morality. Those who attempt to impose their own interpretations of morality on others do so simply to retain power over them. Nietsche is highly critical of Hegel who mechanized thought thus creating what he deemed to be an enervating concept of life. He is also scathing about the happenings in contemporary intellectual life which is actually extremely boring and without horizons.
Additionally in ‘Beyond Good and Evil’, Nietzsche argues that the traditional Jewish and Christian morality has ruined man by turning his own animal instincts against himself through the teaching of concepts such as guilt and sin. He adds that the priestly class has used the idea of ascetic life to come up with an explanation to humans for their suffering. He insists that religion has now been proved to be a myth so man can now retain his strength and also retain his health.
Nietzsche also asks some important questions such as why should we prefer good over evil and what is the value of morality. He argues that traditional philosophers have ended up serving traditional and conventional morality. He calls for those who think to tear down the boundaries of this conventional morality and propose thoughts which go beyond the simple classification of good and evil. So it is simply a case of rising above petty conventional philosophical thinking after all and that is what Nietzsche is all about.
Works Cited:
Beyond Good and Evil; trans. Judith Norman, Cambridge University Press, 2001, ISBN 0-521-77913-8
'On the Genealogy of Morality', trans. Maudemarie Clark and Alan J. Swensen, Hackett Publishing Company, 1998, ISBN 0-87220-283-6
