Friedrich Nietzsche: Another Perspective On Reality

Friedrich Nietzsche’s on the Genealogy of Morality manages to capture what we could consider new and better human ideals, and transforms it into a reality that is not so farfetched. His problem, however, is that history as we know it has changed and people have been lead astray from their instinctual judgments as a species. Through vigorous questioning and re-questioning of his own thoughts in addition to much of history as we know it, Nietzsche has built his own foundation of an entirely different world for which people to live in; a better world in which the world revolves around each individual who is able to think by a Master Morality. Once one is able to grasp the idea of this Master Morality, they will understand that the ideals of what is good and what is bad should not actually exist, as they are not means to anything and there is no justification in labeling things as such. This along with other concepts challenges us as humans to rethink everything we have labeled as morals, and it confronts our developed tendencies to justify and question the actions of ourselves and others вЂ" arguing that there should not have to be justification or reason for anything, because it means nothing in the big picture. All that does matter is the “doing” or the “deed” itself, because there is no “good” or “bad” in and of itself.

Nietzsche makes some very complex arguments that can be simplified only in pieces. One very important truth that he makes note of in his first treatise reflects on “the good” themselves (Nietzsche, 10). Those who are good are “higher minded” and thus are able to make more sense in their reasoning to do. It is this “pathos of distance” or “pathos of nobility” that helps separate those who have a “Master Morality” with those who follow a more “common and low minded” “Slave Morality.” Keeping these concepts in mind help us to realize that to follow a Master Morality requires one to have complete trust in the truth of their instinct. If this is always followed, one will never be wrong because he/she is able to make sense of anything (or at least admit they were wrong but are now aware of the real truth). This notion of truth seems that it would be a very common trait for those who follow the Master Morality. On page 13, Nietzsche talks about those who live by this truth:

They call themselves for example “the truthfulвЂ¦Ð²Ð‚Ñœ The word coined for this, esthlos, means according to its root one who is, who possesses reality, who is real, who is true; then, with a subjective turn, the true one as the truthful one.

One can be corrupted or enlightened by this concept of understanding truth. To understand truth would to be to live by the “Master Morality” that Nietzsche presents to us. To be able to understand truth requires one to discard the illusions that we have created to define certain things such as morals, power, good, bad, evil, law, justice, etc. To understand that these things are merely illusions would be to rethink how we perceive these things; it would be to “unwill” your own will, perhaps. The entire philosophy that Nietzsche teaches requires a calmness of the mind that would allow us to hear something like an inner conscious, thus allowing us to judge and define everything the way it’s supposed to be.

Surely power is not the most relevant of topics, but it needs to be mentioned in getting across the point that power is a good measure of who is able to best grasp this concept of a Master Morality, the inner consciousness, or the instinct. The attainment of power allows us to then utilize the Master Morality to its fullest “force.” According to Nietzsche’s theory, the force of one who has power who and lives by a Slave Morality will either not last, or the power is not true in the first place. This would go along with something such as a son inheriting his father’s fortune and then losing it (although money doesn’t always mean power- it just comes along with it usually). However, since material possessions do not truly matter in life, the real power comes in how other people perceive one, and how one perceives himself. It is this position in which he who has power, also known as the creditor, has the mercy to forgive who is in debt to him вЂ" the debtor. This relationship of creditor and debtor exemplifies the notion of power in the sense that the creditor has the chance to show the debtor mercy if he or she so chooses to do so. In this, a creditor that shows mercy would be a prime example of being a man of true power because he has given the creditor another chance to regain his composure as a human being вЂ" this kind of act would show a “highness” or “nobility” among he who embraces a master morality.

In the third treatise, Nietzsche examines the ascetic life. To be an ascetic person not only is to live without any illusion of materials creating satisfaction, but it is also to have the attitude that one possesses the Master Morality. To have a complete understanding and to vigorously question that which is unknown would be to live an ascetic life. Speaking today, it would be to redefine everything you know by your own