Question

I guess that Master morality, in Nietzsche's view, arises from the "noble and powerful". It's a morality that values strength, courage, power, and freedom. It's a 'yes-saying' attitude that affirms life and the self. It's about being proactive, shaping the world according to one's will.

On the other hand, Nietzsche saw slave morality as a reaction to master morality. It emerged among the weak and oppressed, those who lacked the power to impose their will. Instead of valuing power and strength, slave morality values things like humility, empathy, and kindness. It's a 'no-saying' attitude, a kind of resentment against life's hardships and those who seem to thrive in spite of them.

Now, Nietzsche wasn't advocating for everyone to become 'masters' in the crude sense. He saw the dangers of unchecked power and the potential for tyranny. But he was deeply concerned about the risk of becoming too entrenched in a slave morality mindset, of becoming resentful of life and its challenges, of failing to affirm one's own existence and potential.

Answer 1

Nietzsche distinguishes between noble (masters) and base (slaves) souls, with the noble soul valuing strength and growth, while the base soul seeks consolation from others. Nietzsche's ethical principle of the noble's will to power represents a avant-garde reversal of traditional ethical thought.

Step-by-step explanation:

Nietzsche distinguishes between noble (masters) and base (slaves) souls. The concept of a noble soul originates from Nietzsche's admiration of ancient Greek culture. The ancient Greeks were an animated people who paradoxically welcomed the inevitability of death, facing the ordeals and hardships of life, whilst celebrating its magnificence. The noble soul or master, according to Nietzsche, is a replica of the ancient Greek. He grows comfortably amidst the suffering and toils of human pain as he confronts life. This confrontation is natural and only drives him to grow and acquire more. He may have to exploit the base soul for his own good, but this maltreatment of another being only supplements his pride and his will to power. In this sense, affliction provides the master with the prospect of extensive growth, and does not hinder his path to power.

On the contrary, the base spirit or slave trembles in the face of affliction. He does not challenge the hardships of life, but rather seeks to assuage the pain which he finds intolerable. Such a being seeks out consolation from others out of his apprehension and despicability. He considers sympathy, benevolence, and equality to be the essential attributes of goodness because they falsely detract from the injustice and agony of life. The slaves are inferior to the master in that they do not anticipate growing in a torturous, pain-inflicted world. Nietzsche considers this base soul to represent the greater part of humanity today. Thus, his ethical principle of the noble's will to power over the base epitomizes a complete avant-garde reversal of the nature of bad and good in traditional ethical thought.

Conversely, sympathy, generosity, and equality are all qualities that one associates with good moral character, not with contemptibility as Nietzsche does. The noble spirit that Nietzsche speaks of would not embrace these traditional ethical traits. To manipulate characters of fragility and frailty, to indulge in one's supremacy, and to pamper one's self with praise, are preferably what Nietzsche considers to be the intrinsic and admirable traits of the good. Traditional ethicists revile these characteristics and see them as they may prompt the decaying of civilization. Nevertheless, Nietzsche merely suggests that it is instinctive of humans to inflict their will to power. Analogously, the Darwinist Theory of Evolution verifies such a claim as it is the survival of the fittest that determines what species endures and what species ceases to exist. The fittest in accordance to Nietzsche's ethical principles are those who strive to dominate over inferior beings.