Final Philosophy Paper.

The end of an Era.

Nietzsche and morals, the two are thoroughly intertwined in philosophical concepts, and regardless of whether or not you agree with Mr. Friedrich, he will undoubtedly make you think.
Nietzsche isn’t critical of morality as a whole; in fact he’s welcoming to the concept of a higher morality, which would in turn entertain the lives of higher men, so to speak. He criticizes morality, but he does so fairly, he never favors a single ideology or religion, he is consistent across the board. His perspective on morality focuses on a duality, something he calls “master-slave morality”, where both master and slave morality are two differing sets of values. Slave morality focuses more on kindness and sympathy, whereas master morality focuses more on pride and strength. The core difference being that the “master” set of values was more for the strong willed than it’s “slave” counterpart, in fact he goes so far to say that slave morality is simple a re-valuation of what the master values, which yet again stresses that “intention” aspect of slave morality, whereas master morality focuses more on the consequences of our actions. There’s such a beauty in Nietzsche’s simplicity on the duality of the moralities (and my inadvertent poetry skills), and he reinforces his perceptions with connotations of the two value systems, where slave is viewed, well, as a slave, as a dependent, and where master is viewed as noble and self-empowered. And it’s this assertion where we really see the two moralities start to separate; Nietzsche draws a sharp divider in between slave and master with his perspective on how they regulate themselves. Slave craves external approval, and has a scale that takes into account the entire population, which Nietzsche views as a waste of time, and somewhat hypocritical, since their own values are dependent on the “masters”, given they’re the strong-willed and noble men that imposed these values on the plentiful weak.
His perception of a strong vs. weak population is prevalent in many of his philosophical discussions, especially the ascetic ideal, and the ascetic life. Ascetic is defined as “ a lifestyle characterized by abstinence from various worldly pleasures, often with the aim of pursuing religious and spiritual goals.” The ascetic life is one where you deny all that is real, you rewind the entire tape of one’s life, and take the path towards something much more fulfilling and meaningful, simply put, it’s lie turned against itself. It’s essentially trying to master life itself, while possessing the will to stop willing, a paradox like no other, which Nietzsche, oddly enough, appreciates. He wont hesitate to point out the hypocrisy, and the contradictions that are so very evident, but he expresses gratitude for it’s differing perspective, and allowing us all to see our own lives from a differing point of view. The core of the ascetic life is to approach objectivity, (in the same way that humans approach perfection, while it can seemingly never be attained, simply trying to approach it can cause many to reach their full potential), and Nietzsche argues that the only way we can even approach objectivity is to get as many possible perspectives on whatever it is that we’re attempting to be objective towards. Now, while he’s grateful for the perspective, that doesn’t stop him from allowing the life of asceticism to be subject to criticism, calling it a “sickness”, and since much of the world is weak, and therefore sick, it’s no wonder we see ascetic ideals in existence.
And now we get into what I believe to be the most interesting aspect of Nietzsche’s philosophical topics, and that’s his insight on religion. He characterizes us as being religious atheists, perhaps not by choice, but simply by result. We refer to God as a father figure, or a watchful protector, perhaps even a judge if we were looking at the old testament, but regardless, Nietzsche invalidates all of these, as God, for some reason, doesn’t seem aware of neither us nor our struggles, and has failed to respond to us in any way. Now, you can still be religious if