Nietzsche's Critique of Morality and Ethical Theories

Nietzsche's Critique of European Morality

N1 Nietzsche proposes a new perspective against European morality, which he strongly criticizes. He bases this on the denial of instincts and life, stating that Judeo-Christian morality has prevailed throughout the culture for twenty centuries.

In contrast, the philosopher proposes the affirmation of life, with special emphasis on the will to power, to give a yes to eternal life without excluding anything. Therefore, his current is positivism.

However, to reaffirm his vitalism, Nietzsche sharply criticized Christian morality. He does this through the genealogical method, applying the concepts of good and bad, looking for their origins in his work The Genealogy of Morals (1887).

According to the German philosopher, the Jews began a transvaluation of values that continued into Christianity. He explains:

At first, the powerful and superior are affirmed as good because they are strong and determined. The wicked are the weak, the slave, the person whom he calls the morality of the herd.

However, the weak, changing concepts, consider the actions of the powerful as bad. Thus, the powerful become the bad, and the good becomes the weak who suffer the wicked. This is why they start to awaken a feeling of hatred, first towards themselves, as they are repressed because they are unable to be superior, and then towards the powerful. This creates the illusion that in another life they will not repress these impulses, where they can release them, where their weakness becomes their strength, and they yield their will to an alleged God. This God guides the canons of their life to get to paradise, and people become unwillingly submissive to this religion.

He says, therefore, that religion is the fruit of hatred and is linked to feeling. It seems that the more you suffer, the greater your reward will be.

Furthermore, he is a strong critic of religion because it is nihilistic. It rejects the Dionysian values, those of enjoyment, to develop a moral aponisea based on reason, rejecting the Dionysian, the enjoyment of the corporal.

Alternately sarcastic, in his book Thus Spoke Zarathustra (1885), he tells of Zarathustra, a prophet who proclaimed the necessity of a new era, the demise of the camel and the lion, and the beginning of the era of the superman.

Ethical Theories and Moral Foundations

M1 When we talk about the moral foundation, we talk about ethics. This will tell us what is right and wrong. In support of an ethical theory, there are three modes or views.

Divine Command Theory

The first approach is based on a divine appeal, involving the existence of God. This God has revealed himself and told us what is right and wrong. (Divine).

So, what is good is what God likes, and what is not good is bad. Man lives according to the will of God. But in this approach, there is a problem. Being grounded in a higher power, rather than proclaiming a moral for all men, in practice, it seems to require compliance from its believers.

Rational Ethics

The following is based on reason, i.e., the rational. This does not appeal to a God or higher being, but to rationality. His greatest example is Kant, of the eighteenth-century Enlightenment. He defended the categorical imperative. Among his works are three major criticisms. We emphasize the "Critique of Practical Reason." It tries to answer the question of what to do. This displays the formal ethics and the categorical imperative. This ethic can be summarized as: a behavior is ethical if it is sustainable from a universal point of view. That is, lying is not sustainable, if we all did it, it would lead to absolute distrust.

Utilitarianism

Finally, we find the utility-based approach. This helps in bringing happiness to the greatest number of people. Mill, in general, agrees with the rational theory of Kant, but the problem with this is the dogmatism of the rule, as Kant admits no exceptions. Mill argues that if the exception undertaken brings more happiness, it is ethically correct.