Nietzsche' Quotes on Morality

1. Discuss the emergence of guilt in light of Nietzsche's analysis in the genealogy. You are expected to trace the sequence Nietzsche presents in describing the descent towards guilt.

Ð'* Creditor and debtor relationship

"I have already let it out: in the contractual relationship between creditor and debtor, which is as old as the very conception of a Ð''legal subject' and itself refers back to the basic forms of buying, selling, bartering, trade and traffic." (p.43 2nd essay) see pg 49 for more quotes

"Through punishment of the debtor, the creditor takes part in the rights of the masters: at least he, too, shares the elevated feeling of despising and maltreating someone as an Ð''inferior' Ð'- or at least, when the actual power of punishment, of exacting punishment, is already transferred to the Ð''authorities', of seeing the debtor despised and maltreated." (p. 44-45 2nd essay)

Ð'* We are being watched and judged constantly, we watch ourselves to make sure we are acting properly

Ð'* Our absence of joy is because we feel guilt from wrong doings and if plagues us

Ð'* In ancient times, they would concede to punishment and it would be over

These Germans made a memory for themselves with dreadful methods, in order to master their basic plebeian instincts and the brutal crudeness of the same: think of old German punishments such as stoning (- even the legend drops the millstone on a guilty person's head)Ð'.....With the aid of such images and procedures, man was eventually able to retain five or six Ð''I-don't-want-to's' in his memory, in connection with which a promise has been made, in order to enjoy the advantages of society Ð'- and there you are!" (p. 42 2nd essay)

Ð'* They weren't tormented mentally

"In the same way, it was here that the uncanny and perhaps inextricable link-up between the ideas of Ð''guilt and suffering' was first crouched together." (p.45 2nd essay)

Ð'* Association with guilt and debt

"Ð'...the main moral concept Ð''Schuld' (Ð''guilt') descends from the very material concept of Ð''Schulden' (Ð''debts')? Or that punishment, as retribution, evolved quite independently of any assumption about freedom or lack freedom of the will? (p. 43 2nd essay)

Ð'* If a promise was made, you are in debt, you must pay it off one way or another

Ð'* "will to power" it feels good to inflict pain on someone because you are dominating them.

"Ð'...-the pleasure of having the right to exercise power over the powerless without a thoughtÐ'....the enjoyment of violatingÐ'...even a foretaste of higher rankÐ'...Through punishment of the debtor, the creditor takes part in the rights of the masters: at least he, too, shares the elevated feeling of despising and maltreating someone as an Ð''inferior' Ð'- or at least, when the actual power of punishment, of exacting punishment, is already transferred to the Ð''authorities', of seeing the debtor despised and maltreated." (p. 44-45 2nd essay)

"(meaning modern man, meaning us) revolts against a truly forceful realization of the degree to which cruelty is part of the festive joy of the ancientÐ'..." (p.45 2nd essay)

Ð'* Everyone wants power

"To see somebody suffer is nice, to make somebody suffer is even nicer Ð'- that is a hard proposition, but an ancient, powerful, human-all-to-human proposition to which, by the way, even the apes might subscribe:" (p.46 2nd essay)

Ð'* If I do you a favor, I have power over you which infers a debt.

Ð'* Animal or man denies its instincts.

"by means of which the animal Ð''man' is finally taught to be ashamed of all his instincts." (p.47 2nd essay)

Ð'* Nietzsche show that the words "good," "conscience," "guilt," and "justice," have changed through time.

Ð'* Man's "Free will."

"Might it not be the case that the extremely foolhardy and fateful philosophical invention, first devised for Europe, of the Ð''free will', of man's absolute freedom to do good or evil, was chiefly thought up to justify the idea that the interest of the gods in man, in man's virtue, could never be exhausted?" (p.49 2nd essay)

2. Is guilt, as described in the second essay, similar to the notion of guilt described in the third essay? Are his arguments convincing? Yes? Why? No? Why?

2nd essay quotes

"In the same way, it was here that the uncanny and perhaps inextricable link-up between the ideas of Ð''guilt and suffering' was first crouched together." (p.45 2nd essay)

"The Ð''creditor' always becomes more humane as his wealth increases; finally, the amount of his wealth determines how much injury he can sustain without suffering from it. It is not impossible to imagine society so conscious of its power that it could allow itself the noblest luxury available to it Ð'- that of letting its malefactors go unpunished." (p. 51 ch. 10 2nd essay)

"Punishment is supposed to have the value of arousing the feeling of guilt in the guilty party; in it, people look for the actual instrumentum of the mental reflex which we call Ð''bad conscience' or Ð''pang of conscience'. But by doing this, people are violating reality and psychology even as it is today:" (p. 58 ch. 14 2nd essay)

"If we just think about those centuries before the history of mankind, we can safely conclude that the evolution of a feeling of guilt was most strongly impeded through punishment." (p. 59 ch. 14 2nd essay)

"I look on bad conscience as a serious illness to which man was forced to succumb by the pressure of the most fundamental of all changes which he experienced, - that change whereby he finally found himself imprisoned within the confines of society and peace." (p.61 ch. 16 2nd essay)

"All

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