Master morality

Master-Slave Morality is the theme of some of Friedrich Nietzsche's works, in particular the first essay of On the Genealogy of Morals. Nietzsche argued that there were two fundamental types of morality: 'master morality' and 'slave morality'. Master morality fits actions into a scale of 'good' or 'bad' whereas slave morality fits actions into a scale of 'good' or 'evil'. What Nietzsche understands by 'morality' deviates from common understanding of this term. Fundamental morality, for Nietzsche, imbibes and delineates a whole world-view; it is formative of a particular culture at its very root. This means that its language, codes and practises, its narratives and institutions - basically the very structures of intelligibility that underpin Western culture as such - are informed by the struggle between these two types of evaluation.

Master morality
Nietzsche defined master morality as the morality of the strong-willed. For these men the 'good' is the noble, strong and powerful, while the 'bad' is the weak, cowardly, timid and petty. Master morality begins in the 'noble man' with a spontaneous idea of the 'good', then the idea of 'bad' develops in opposition to it. (On the Genealogy of Morals, First Essay, Section 11) He said: "The noble type of man experiences itself as determining values; it does not need approval; it judges, 'what is harmful to me is harmful in itself'; it knows itself to be that which first accords honor to things; it is value-creating." (Beyond Good and Evil)

Slave morality
Slave morality begins in those people who are weak, uncertain of themselves, oppressed and abused. The essence of slave morality is utility: the good is what is most useful for the community as a whole. Since the powerful are few in number compared to the masses of the weak, the weak gain power vis-a-vis the strong by treating those qualities that are valued by the powerful as "evil," and those qualities that enable sufferers to endure their lot as "good." Thus patience, humility, pity, submissiveness to authority, and the like are considered good.

Relations between both
Slave morality begins in a ressentiment that turns creative and gives birth to values. (Ressentiment was a term coined by Nietzsche to describe the feeling of the weak, unhealthy and ugly towards those who have fared better in life.) Nietzsche was careful to point out that it was the slaves who needed to be intelligent and cunning to achieve their "revolt" and that they did so with the help of a "priestly caste" within the master class. In the "Genealogy of Morals" he wrote "Human history would be a much too stupid affair were it not for the intelligence introduced by the powerless". The slave regards the virtues of beauty, power, strength and wealth as 'evil' in an act of revenge against those who have them in abundance. (On the Genealogy of Morals, First Essay, Section 10) Slave morality is therefore a reactionary morality because 'good' does not spring creatively from the individual but develops as a negation of the values of the powerful. The noble person conceives of goodness first and determines what is 'bad' as an afterthought, while the slave conceives of 'evil' first and fashions his own conception of 'good' in opposition to this.

On society
One of the main themes in Nietzsche's work is that ancient Greek and Roman societies were grounded in master morality, and that this morality disappeared as the slave morality of Christianity spread through ancient Rome. Indeed he goes so far as to say that the essential struggle between cultures has always been between the Roman type and the Judean type. Furthermore there is no doubt who had, by Nietzsche's day, won this struggle. As he put it; "consider before whom one bows today in Rome as before the epitome of all the highest values...before Jesus of Nazareth, the fisherman Peter, the carpet-maker Paul, and the mother of the aforementioned Jesus, Mary" (sect.16 "On the Genealogy of Morals"). Nietzsche was concerned with the state of European culture during his lifetime and therefore focused much of his analysis on the history of master and slave morality within Europe. He claimed that the nascent democratical and socialistic movements were engendered by much the same motivations as had impelled the first Christians in their revolt against Rome. These were the (often unconscious) motives of resentment and "priestly vindictivness". Such movements were, to Nietzsche, inspired by "the most intelligent revenge" of the downtrodden masses. By Nietzsche's time however movements such as socialism were in fact both secular and naturalistic in outlook. As such the covert use by such movements of concepts like "ethical truths" and "moral facts" was totally incongrous (in Nietzsche' view) with their outlook taken as a whole. It was not surprising that Nietzsche wrote witheringly of both the first Christians and the (secular) modern moralist as he viewed them both as having the same underlying slave morality and therefore as psychologically dishonest. Occasional references also suggest that he meant the terms "master" and "slave" to be applied both to other (non-European, non-ancient) societies and to struggles on-going within individual persons.

Obscure duality
However, as with so many ideas in Nietzsche's work, there is no material manifestation of this idea, no hard and fast difference between that which is created by the master morality and that created by the slave. While Nietzsche stated repeatedly that the master morality was necessary for the advancement of humanities' highest peaks (through superhuman - übermenschliche - deeds), he gave examples of where some advances were made through the use of the tenets of the slave morality. The second essay of On the Genealogy of Morals is an indication of this insight, as well as his longstanding fascination with Jesus, although he does criticise him. Jesus, for Nietzsche, was a psychological genius and best viewed as a political leader of an oppressed people. Jesus' death was (like the deaths of so many other such leaders like Socrates) a well disguised suicide. Genuine mastery for Nietzsche was the creation of values from an affirmation of oneself.