Analysis of Genealogy of Morals Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

Analysis of Genealogy of Morals - Essay Example Instead of understanding as being inherent or natural, he argues, they are the instruments of the privileged few to preserve the status quo and keep themselves in power. In Nietzsche’s point of view, this directly undervalues them. I argue that he perceives this notion of good and evil as philosophically worthless and, moreover, something to be removed from human society. We, as well, just like Nietzsche should begin searching for the origin of the words. The argument of Nietzsche is founded on linguistics; he explores the words in several languages, and terms resembling them. He explores initially the German ‘schlecht’ which means bad. He examines parallel words such as ‘schlicht,’ ‘schlechtweg,’ and ‘schlechterdings.’ These three words are deviations of the word simple, guiding Nietzsche to the assumption that the words are connected; that to a certain extent the meaning of ‘schlecht’ was modified, and this modification stands for the ideals of the German society of that period, that the plebeians, average citizens were, blatantly, bad. Likewise, Nietzsche specifies Latin, mentioning particularly malus which means ‘bad’ and melas which means ‘black’ (Leiter 2002, 41). Nietzsche afterwards mentions the structure of the upper and lower classes of Rome. In Roman traditions, he emphasizes, those with black hair were customarily recognized as lower class, whereas the upper class are those with light and blonde hair. He draws the same thought s in Greek and Celtic traditions, generally making the argument that the terms for good and bad varied basically from classiest concepts in which the privileged few had such power they could even exploit the language to function in their own interest and motive (Leiter 2002). However, there is dissimilarity in the words, certainly the thoughts, being made use of now and those that were presented initially. Good and bad are not synonymous as