The Philosophies Of Friedrich Nietzsche: Master-Slave Morality

A central idea in the philosophies of Friedrich Nietzsche is the idea of the master-slave morality. The master morality, the morality of the nobility, covers courage and strong will. In this mindset, one only interprets morality, classical virtues, the good and bad, but not the evil. Conversely, the slave morality accepts humility and the herd mentality, viewing morals as good and evil, vilifying the master. In his works, Nietzsche argues that the fatal issue with society today is the prevailing slave morality. Instead of focusing on the good or bad consequences of actions, the slave morality focuses on good and evil, so-called Christian virtues that Nietzsche vehemently disagrees with.
Before examining the slave morality, one must come to
This morality is born out of ressentiment, open hostility towards the master that the slave views as the cause of their suffering. Due to this, the slave morality construes the values of the master to be evil, setting up their opposite morality as all that is good and virtuous. As such, the slave does not seek to become the master, rather seeking to turn the masters into slaves as well. In the eyes of Nietzsche, the ideas of the slave morality, such as pity and humility, were brought upon by Christianity and democracy. To Nietzsche, the master morality suffered defeat due to the spread of Christianity throughout the
Due to this catastrophic event, the slave no longer has a purpose to latch on to, leading to mass nihilism, the new “will to nothingness” soon overcomes the will to power. Consequently, the unwilling last man prevails in society, a person who is imprisoned by the Apollonian, order that separates the man from his nature, unable to achieve anything beyond the act of living itself. In reaction to this, Nietzsche argues that man must continue the eternally recurring struggle between the master and slave morality, and the master must win. This victory, as well as the emergence of the overman, would stop this eternal recurrence, hoping that man does not repeat the same mistakes over and over. The new master morality, no longer bound by the rigidity of the Apollonian, intense order, would connect itself deeply with the Dionysian, the passion of humanity in its natural state. This balance allows the creator to unite with nature, bringing the arrival of the