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Master–Slave Morality

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21–30 of 67 posts

Re: Master–Slave Morality

#21
Classroom morality: the behaviors that make the teacher's day easier and get good grades.

Playground morality: the behaviors that make a kid popular and respected by the other children.

...

This Nietzsche is interesting and it hit me like a slap in the face when I first encountered it, but the most fleshed out and vivid form of this type of thinking is Ribbonfarm Gervaise Principle articles.

Re: Master–Slave Morality

#25

The SEP[1] is probably a better reference than Wikipedia for most philosophical topics, especially for individuals like Nietzsche (who, for various reasons, tends to find himself in the intersection of vaguely reactionary thinkers and people who want to read philosophy without seriously engaging with the rest of the canon). In particular, this Wikipedia article gives the incorrect impression that Nietzsche is especia…

I've only read a bit of the SEP but more websites like that would be amazing. Well structured, clear and easy to read.

Re: Master–Slave Morality

#26

Reminded of this quote from Cannery Row: "It has always seemed strange to me, the things we admire in men, kindness and generosity, openness, honesty, understanding and feeling are the concomitants of failure in our system. And those traits we detest, sharpness, greed, acquisitiveness, meanness, egotism and self-interest are the traits of success. And while men admire the quality of the first they love the produce of…

I think the biggest issue is that for the system to succeed, most participants need to display the first list of traits. But for any individual within the system, personal success may be easier to obtain by displaying the second set (though that is not necessarily true, in my experience).

It's like the person in the sportscar weaving through traffic on the highway. He can only do it because everyone else drives carefully and predictably. He gets to his destination faster, and thinks he is a much better driver than everyone else, but if everyone drove like him the traffic "system" would fall apart. The master mindset is sacrificing the well working system for personal gain. If you want to go fast go alone. If you want to go far go together. What's not good for the hive is not good for the bee.

Re: Master–Slave Morality

#27
post #21

Classroom morality: the behaviors that make the teacher's day easier and get good grades. Playground morality: the behaviors that make a kid popular and respected by the other children. ... This Nietzsche is interesting and it hit me like a slap in the face when I first encountered it, but the most fleshed out and vivid form of this type of thinking is Ribbonfarm Gervaise Principle articles.

The Premium Mediocre Life of Maya Millennial (https://www.ribbonfarm.com/2017/08/17/the-premium-mediocre-l...) was a favourite from Ribbonfarm.

Re: Master–Slave Morality

#28
An example why German philosophy of late 19th century is considered deranged by many... Cherry picking some facts, dissecting them in detail, reassembling them in some convincing fashion, pretending conclusions are true without any proof of causality and then just observing how that philosophy spreads like wildfire among people that want to look trendy, contributing to two world wars later.

Re: Master–Slave Morality

#29

The SEP[1] is probably a better reference than Wikipedia for most philosophical topics, especially for individuals like Nietzsche (who, for various reasons, tends to find himself in the intersection of vaguely reactionary thinkers and people who want to read philosophy without seriously engaging with the rest of the canon). In particular, this Wikipedia article gives the incorrect impression that Nietzsche is especia…

> Nietzsche's moral cynicism is universal and the MS divide is meant to be descriptive, not prescriptive or constructive.

Could you elaborate? Nietzsche's usage of slave morality seems pejorative to me, and I wouldn't characterise Nietzsche's stance as an universal moral cynicism; his method does not aim at an universal conclusion.

Funny enough, this illustrates well why it is difficult to find good reads on Nietzsche, it is not easy to summarise his positions briefly and without equivocation.

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