In Beyond Good and Evil, Friedrich Nietzsche’s most famous work, he condemns the popular philosophy of his time. Morals such as kindness, humility and meekness deny that they are universal virtues. In fact, Nietzsche goes on to call a philosophy that considers such characteristics universally good “servant morality”; Nietzsche defines a moral slave as any morality made by the weak in revenge against the strong and noble, so that the characteristics of the strong and noble are considered evil. The character of the slave, according to Nietzsche, will clearly call for such characteristics as boldness, true independence of thought, and selfishness, because they are the characteristics of the oppressed, the masters of society.
The original moral philosophy, which is more noble according to Friedrich Nietzsche, is what he calls the “moral teacher”. “The teacher of morals embraces what is considered evil by most people today, such as selfishness and the will to power. The morals of the noble teachers embrace, says Nietzsche, and these nobles respect evils unlike them and these things which harm them and them only. Nietzsche then goes on to speculate that the moral slave evolved as a reaction to the moral master; the “slaves” of society needed only to take revenge on these nobler men. Nietzsche he concludes that the moral slave is indeed in his attempt to replace the morality of the originally dominant master, for now the moral slave, with all its emphasis on altruism and mediocrity, dominates popular moral philosophy.
Friedrich Nietzsche, in the end, however, does not really recommend either the moral slave or the master. He really thinks it’s time for a revaluation of all values. As the “slaves” established a new morality from the old, Nietzsche thinks it is time to create a new morality from the slave morality now established. In essence, he calls for philosophers to be created to set an example in the moral shift. Whatever populist moral philosophy emerges, Nietzsche only hopes that there is one “beyond good and evil”. –between the good and the bad of today’s independence.
Sources:
http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/nietzsche-moral-political/
http://instruct.westvalley.edu/lafave/IDEOLOGY.html
