Nietzsche Moving Beyond Good and Evil Essay - 1033 Words

Nietzsche: Moving Beyond Good and Evil We have grown weary of man. Nietzsche wants something better, to believe in human ability once again. Nietzsche’s weariness is based almost entirely in the culmination of ressentiment, the dissolution of Nietzsche’s concept of morality and the prevailing priestly morality. Nietzsche wants to move beyond simple concepts of good and evil, abandon the assessment of individuals through ressentiment, and restore men to their former wonderful ability. Nietzsche begins his discussion of good and moral with an etymological assessment of the designations of â€Å"good† coined in various languages. He â€Å"found they all led back to the same conceptual transformation—that everywhere ‘noble,’†¦show more content†¦While the priests were in the minority in terms of power, they were in the majority in terms of public opinion, and in gathering the majority together, they declared â€Å"the wretched alone are the good; the poor, impotent, lowly alone are the good; the suffering, deprived, sick, ugly alone are pious, alone are blessed by God, blessedness is for them alone†¦Ã¢â‚¬  (Nietzsche 912). Nietzsche describes the common belief here as nothing other than ressentiment, the concept of the mirror image of morality. For Nietzsche, â€Å"the slave revolt in morality begins when ressentiment itself becomes creative and gives birth to values: the ressentiment of natures that are denied the true reaction, that of deeds, and compensate themselves with an imaginary revenge.† (Nietzsche 913). This imaginary revenge causes the complete reversal in defining words of class. The resentful slaves and priests looked up at the nobility with anger, characterizing them as selfish, corrupted, abusive and tyrannical, among other things. Ultimately, they came to the conclusion that the nobility were the pinnacle of evil. In doing so, â€Å"he has conceived ‘the evil enemy,’ ‘the Evil One,’ and this in fact is his basic concept, from which he then evolves, as an afterthought and pendant, a ‘good one’—himself!† (Nietzsche 915). Through the venomous eye of ressentiment, the slave class has characterized the good men, those with strong moral character as evi l, and in doing so, hasShow MoreRelatedMemory in Nietzsches Beyond Good and Evil1479 Words   |  6 PagesIn Beyond Good Evil, Friedrich Nietzsche seeks to develop the idea of moral philosophy beyond basic pleasures, how they relate to the general population, and further into our own personal intricacies and how they create a set of rules that apply to most individuals. 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