Nietzche's Master and Slave Morality

In Of the Genealogy of Morality, Nietzsche sought to provide context for what he saw as the central value system of the society in which he lived: slave-morality. Nietzsche saw morality as reflective of the conditions in which its proponents were brought up. He saw the roots of slave morality in oppression and slavery, and posits that it grew as a reaction to the morality of the masters of the time. What follows is a simplified account of Nietzsche’s master-slave dichotomy, and what he saw as the dire consequences for human progress should the pervasiveness of slave morality be allowed to remain at the expense of the master. I will argue that although religion and slave morality may have had significant influence in Nietzsche’s day, his fears about the stagnation of mankind through its adherence to slave morality are exaggerated and largely unfounded. I will also briefly discuss the applicability of slave-master morality to contemporary life.
Nietzsche’s account of master and slave morality springs from a time of actual master-slave relationships. Master morality is found in those who have the power to create their own values to live by, without the need for approval from others. In Nietzsche’s own words, the master “honours everything he sees in himself.” They understand themselves as having an integral function in the universe, as resembling a kind of god, and therefore see goodness in those attributes which they find in themselves, and goodness in the values they themselves create. They see no reason to refer to others or seek another’s approval. Nietzsche’s idea of the Master comes from nobility, and so the central tenet of master morality is nobility; that those attributes found in a noble person are those that can be considered good. In master morality, a person is considered good if s/he is autonomous, strong-willed, brave, powerful, proud, able and happy in themselves. They see badness as a lack of that which is good-that is, a lack of the noble