Slave morality

The slave morality is a philosophical term after Friedrich Nietzsche , which represents the counterpart to the master morality . Both moral systems are defined in: Beyond Good and Evil , What Is Noble, Section No. 260:

"Assuming that the raped, oppressed, suffering, unfree, self-uncertain and weary moralize: what will be the similarity of their moral appreciation? ... The view of the slave is unfavorable to the virtues of the powerful: he has skepticism and mistrust. .. against all "good" that is honored there - he would like to persuade himself that happiness itself is not real there. Conversely, the properties are drawn out and doused with light, which serve to make life easier for those who suffer: here comes The pity, the agreeable helpful hand, the warm heart, the patience, the hard work, the humility, the kindness to honor ... The slave morality is essentially the moral of utility. "

The basic contrast for slave morality is "good" and "bad":

"According to the slave morality, the" bad "person arouses fear; according to the master's morality, it is precisely the" good "who arouses and wants to arouse fear, while the" bad "person is perceived as the contemptible."

"Good" is the harmless person:

"... he is good-natured, easy to cheat, a little stupid perhaps, un bonhomme . Wherever slave morality comes to the fore , language shows a tendency to bring the words" good "and" stupid "together."

Nietzsche sees the psychological cause of this type of morality in resentment ( On the Genealogy of Morals , "Good and Evil", "Good and Bad", Section No. 10):

"The slave revolt in morality begins with the resentment itself becoming creative and giving birth to values: the resentment of those beings who are denied the actual reaction, the deed, who can only be harmed by an imaginary vengeance. While all noble morality out of a triumphant saying yes to oneself, slave morality says no from the outset to an "outside", to an "other", to a "not-self": and this no is their creative act. ... In order to arise, slave morality always first needs an opposing and external world; physiologically speaking, it needs external stimuli in order to act at all - its action is fundamentally a reaction. "

For Nietzsche, the origin can be found in Jewish culture.

"Human history would be too stupid a thing without the spirit that came into it from the powerless - let us immediately take the greatest example. Everything on earth against" the noble, "" the mighty, "" the lords "," The rulers "is not worth mentioning in comparison with what the Jews have done against them; the Jews, that priestly people who ultimately only apprehend their enemies and overpowerers through a radical revaluation of theirs Values, that is, knew how to create satisfaction through an act of the most spiritual vengeance ... We know who inherited this Jewish revaluation ... that the slave revolt began with the Jews in morality : that revolt that had a two-thousand-year history behind him and who only moved out of our sight today because he - was victorious ... "

(On the Genealogy of Morals, "Good and Bad," "Good and Bad," Section No. 7)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Beyond Good and Evil, What Is Noble, Section No. 260
2. ↑ On the Genealogy of Morals, "Good and Evil," "Good and Bad," Section No. 10
3. ↑ On the Genealogy of Morals, "Good and Evil," "Good and Bad," Section No. 7

literature

• Karl Brose: slave morality. Nietzsche's social philosophy. Bouvier Verlag, Bonn 1990.
• Stephan Günzel: Art. Herrenmoral - Sklavenmoral , in: H. Ottmann (Ed.): Nietzsche-Handbuch . Metzler, Stuttgart-Weimar 2000, 253-255.
• JB Müller: Art. Lord's morality . In: HWPh , Vol. 3 (1974), 1078 f.
• P. Probst: Art. Resentment , 2. [with F. Nietzsche]. In: HWPh, Vol. 8, 922 ff.
• KH Miskotte: Art. Master morality . In: The religion in past and present , 3rd ed., Vol. 3, 272 f.

Web links

• Konstadinos Maras: Critique of Reason and Metaphysics with Adorno and Nietzsche , Diss. Tübingen (with Günter Figal ) 2002, 72–79 and passim.
• Soon-Young Choi: Friedrich Nietzsche's Moralkritik , Diss. Philosophical Faculty I, Humboldt-Univ., Berlin 2002, 15ff and passim.
• Samuel Lang: What the left can learn from Nietzsche Das Lamm , September 19, 2018