Moralities, Moralities

from master to slave to commoner to...

I've just been reading a commentary on Nietzsche and morality. The idea is that morality comes from mores, instinctive valuations of good and bad behavior. We tend to think today of morality as a conscious system of values — as symbolized by the Ten Commandments. But, in William Mackintire Salter’s Nietzsche, the Thinker: A Study, we are asked to remember that morality is a group thing that issues out of the human unconscious.

As a condition for life in the group, [morality] it supremely important; if it is not respected, the group structure becomes loose, the groups itself is liable to be dissolved.

On this notion, morality is an instinctive set of mores that everyone observes and practices in the group; to violate is to separate oneself from the group and be cast out. When Niettzsche writes about “herd-morality” he is talking about this instictive “thing.”

Nietzsche is also famous for his notion of “master morality” and “slave morality.” In Salter’s notion, these moralities may be understood through the meaning of words, e.g., the word “good.”

Master morality: when "good" means powerful and courageous.

Slave morality: when "good" means kind and helpful.

One of the points of Nietzsche’s famous dictum about God is Dead is that the old slave morality, that Salter says issues from the conquest of the Hebrews documented in the Old Testament that made all Jews into an “oppressed and suffering people,” — and was then picked up by the subordinate Christians of the Roman Empire — is finished.

So his whole idea of the Úbermensch is an attempt to develop a new morality for our age. It is not, of course, intended to be a fascist Superman. But what we should interpret out of Nietzsche’s later writings, I have yet to read.

But what Nietzsche could not see was:

Left morality: when "good" means pretending to be kind and helpful, but in fact dominating by force.

And that makes me think about George Eliot and her hero Adam Bede, the worthy commoner. What was “good” about Adam? A lot of things: he was a hard worker; he wasn’t afraid to stand up to The Man; he soothed his complaining mother; he tried to help the worthless Hetty Sorrel; he attracted the love of the saintly Dinah Morris. So let us say:

Commoner morality: when “good” means being kind and helpful but also standing up to The Man.

You can see what is coming next. We should also define moralities with respect to my reductive Three Peoples theory and its People of the Creative Self, of the Responsible Self, and of the Subordinate Self. In its three cases we can say:

Creative Morality: when “good” means sacrificing yourself on the border of Order and Chaos

Responsible Morality: when “good” means discharging your responsibilities with cheerful courage and optimism.

Subordinate Morality: when “good” means faithfully serving your lord.

But I would like to get a better handle on just what Nietzsche intended with his Úbermensch morality. Even if he was the “Nazis’ favorite intellectual.” Obviously, he meant something higher and better than the ordinary. But what, exactly?