PHL100Y1 Lecture Notes - Ressentiment
Document Summary
[1] in the first essay of the genealogy, nietzsche lays out the basic structure he recognizes in the history of the evolution of moral concepts. Humans originally form themselves into social units that are based around honour": warrior-cultures that exalt the strong, proud, conquering hero. Think of japanese samurai, norse vikings, homeric heroes ( sackers of cities ) people nietzsche sometimes refers to as blond beasts" ( 11). In such cultures, moral words like good" are, or are derived from, words for these exceptional people, to the point where nietzsche calls this the chivalric/aristocratic mode of valuation ( 7). This is a positive notion of good", according to nietzsche, where bad" is just its absence. In 13 he has the striking image of birds of prey, exemplifying this good/bad" situation. [2] these warrior-cultures, based on honour, were succeeded by others: the purpose of civi- lization, we are told, is to breed a tame and civilized animal ( 11).
