Nietzsche's Ethics: Master, Slave, and the Übermensch

Nietzsche's Ethics: A Foundation of Values

Friedrich Nietzsche's philosophy presents a radical re-evaluation of traditional morality, identifying two fundamental types of valuation of life:

Master Morality

• Embodies a profoundly positive attitude towards life.
• Characterizes the active, creative individual who lives independently.
• Finds happiness within themselves, embracing life as it is and living with intensity.

Slave Morality

• Stems from a negative attitude towards life, viewing it as tragic and finite.
• Gives rise to a passive, weak, and cowardly disposition.
• Converts its own shortcomings into virtues, presenting them as achievements of freedom.

In this 'game' of defending certain values, the slave casts the master as 'evil' and themselves as 'good.' This is a distortion, as the slave's 'virtues' are often born of their inability to demonstrate true strength. Nietzsche portrays the history of Western culture as a triumph of the weak, where slave morality has become a universal morality.

Christianity, Nihilism, and the Übermensch

Nietzsche argues that in Christianity, the image of a crucified God instills guilt as a universal feeling that defines human existence. He identifies this as a form of nihilism, where death appears as liberation from the burden of existence.

However, the "death of God" paves the way for a profound affirmation of life's values, a radical transformation of values, and the emergence of the Übermensch (Superman/Overman). The Übermensch is envisioned as a free, open, and vitalistic being. Their arrival is symbolized through three metamorphoses of the spirit:

Metamorphoses of the Spirit

• The Camel: A pack animal symbolizing humanity burdened by laws, duties, and traditional morality.
• The Lion: Represents the courage to break free from traditional values, to say "no" to old authorities, and to assert one's own will.
• The Child: Embodies pure innocence, freedom, and a playful spirit that creates new values without guilt or resentment. The child's perspective aligns with the moral sense of eternal recurrence.

The Challenge of Eternal Recurrence

Nietzsche offers an unprecedented ethical challenge: the use of the idea of eternal recurrence as a categorical imperative. He asks us to imagine what kind of conduct we would embrace so fully that we would desire its constant repetition.

This concept, intertwined with the "will to power," suggests a profound amor fati – a love of one's destiny and life in its entirety, embracing every moment as if it were to recur eternally. Such an attitude of power and happiness would be meaningless in a linear conception of time.