Download Nietzsche's Critique of Modern Christian Morality: A Slave Revolt - Prof. Mf Bykova and more Study notes Introduction to Philosophy in PDF only on Docsity! Ripsi Patel PHI 310 Response Paper 2 Nietzsche talks about modern Christian morality in The Genealogy. He stresses that the modern Christian morality is the outcome of a slave revolt which led to the inversion of the dominant noble values. Through understanding Nietzsche’s outlook regarding traditional morality, master morality, and slave morality, it is possible to link those views to his criticism of Christianity. Originally, those that had a strong will did not blame others and took complete responsibility for their actions; this was considered ‘good’. Actions and choices made by a weak will were considered ‘bad’. Now, the good are the weak willed who follow the base, or society. Traditional morality arose from a rebellion which was led by the priest. The priest was angry at the noble man because he was not recognized among them; there was no wall between a priest and the crowd. Thus, traditional morality is the outcome of a slave revolt. There was an inversion of good and evil. Traditional morality is what it became, not what it originally was. Slave morality lives by the norms which are determined by society. Slave morality is weak willed, they are uncertain of themselves and because they are uncertain, they are unable to make choices. They are uncertain because they are oppressed. Slave morality begins with resentment towards what is powerful as well as with negation of everything. Master morality, however, beings with an affirmation of what are good and what is evil or bad. There are no predetermined standards in master morality. It is people of a strong will. Nietzsche rejected institutional church as well as Christianity. He was critical of traditional Christianity because of modern morality. He believed that Christianity was a distortion of reality because it dealt with a faith that was irrational. Christianity plays a big role because the priest led the crowd and instead of promoting noble values, such as good, it contradicts against what is powerful. Nietzsche puts emphasis on the idea that human nature is not predetermined, but it is created through actions. He says that values were created by the crowd and the priest but not by individuals. This leads to his belief that “God is dead” because God is promoted by institutional church. Nietzsche’s critique of the Christian religion as well as institutional churches is linked to his thesis regarding modern Christian morality. It is important to understand the inversion of the dominant noble values in which good became bad and bad became good in order to understand the slave revolt. Nietzsche used traditional morality, master morality, and slave morality in order to express his criticism of Christianity.
