The Application of Nietzsche's Principles to Society Essay

The Application of Nietzsche's Principles to Society - Essay Example Nietzsche's "evolution of morality" points out that morality has been defined differently in different period of history and that different people living at different periods in history have influenced the current meaning of morality. This paper argues that the current meaning of morality has been shaped by traditional views of justice or theories of justice that are shaped and molded by human nature. By this, I mean that if human beings we able to put their natural tendencies aside, then morality and justice, including all the theory and the modern justice system could be unnecessary. If everybody were able to "transcend" to a certain level, then we would not need the justice system, as everybody would behave accordingly. History of the Concept of Morality Basically, morality is the manner in which humans resolve their issues or problems following explicit rules or a set of codes of behavior. The issue of the connection between evolution and morality has been under discussion for a long time particularly after Darwin’s â€Å"Origin of Species† in which he argued that natural selection acts for the sole benefit of each being. This meant that the humans would design moral codes for the sole purpose of benefiting themselves hence increasing their survival chances (Nietzsche Web). Darwin’s work, â€Å"The Descent of Man,† which posited that the human moral sense had an evolutionally justification triggered more discussion on the issue of the human moral sense. According to Aristotle, childhood nurture plays the major part in the advancement of moral character. Evolution of morality is the view that human morals have undergone progressive modifications through history. However, Nietzsche developed numerous concepts regarding morality particularly if evolution, which I will make use of in this paper (Nietzsche Web; Leiter 35-44; Gayon Web). Nietzsche and the Concept of Morality Nietzsche felt that previous genealogies had failed to expoun d on the evolution of human morals. Nietzsche criticized the genealogists who had written works showing correlation between origin of morality and the concepts of morality. He felt that there is no direct correlation between origin of something and its usage. According to Nietzsche, there are two types of morality, which he referred to as the master and the slavery morality. The master morality is the kind of morality that dominates and does not require approval and is responsible of determining the human values. It is this kind of morality that leads to creation on human classes since morals are developed due to the need for humans to propagate themselves (Nietzsche Web; Solomon 22-30). On the other hand, slave morality is â€Å"essentially a morality of utility† and originates from resentment. The slave morality arose when the slaves were discontented with the kind of treatment they received from their masters. At some point, they stated considering the actions of their mas ters to be evil. This contributed to the development of the concept of good and evil, which still forms part of today’s concept of morality (Nietzsche Web). The slave and master morality find its roots in the historic slavery in which the masters thought they were not causing any harm to the slaves but instead thought they were making them stronger by making them work