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Single Idea 14810

[filed under theme 22. Metaethics / A. Ethics Foundations / 2. Source of Ethics / f. Übermensch ]

Full Idea

In the soul of the original ruling clans and castes, the man who has the power to requite goodness with goodness, evil with evil, and really does practice requital by being grateful and vengeful, is called 'good'.

Gist of Idea

Originally it was the rulers who requited good for good and evil for evil who were called 'good'

Source

Friedrich Nietzsche (Human, All Too Human [1878], 045)

Book Ref

Nietzsche,Friedrich: 'Human, All Too Human', ed/tr. Faber,Marion [Penguin 1994], p.47

A Reaction

The idea that evil should indeed repay evil was very much a feature of goodness until the philosophers came in on the act. In those days no one else had any power, so they had no scope for goodness.

Related Ideas

Idea 5142 Oxen, horses and children cannot be happy, because they cannot perform fine deeds [Aristotle]

Idea 101 Slaves can't be happy, because they lack freedom [Aristotle]

The 18 ideas with the same theme [moral visionaries as the source of ethical systems]:

4115 Plato found that he could only enforce rational moral justification by creating an authoritarian society [Williams,B on Plato]
5234 For the great-souled man it is sometimes better to be dead [Aristotle]
23358 Every species produces exceptional beings, and we must just accept their nature [Epictetus]
20138 Christianity is at war with the higher type of man, and excommunicates his basic instincts [Nietzsche]
23440 Nietzsche's judgement of actions by psychology instead of outcome was poisonous [Foot on Nietzsche]
2883 Noble people see themselves as the determiners of values [Nietzsche]
23208 Caesar and Napoleon point to the future, when they pursue their task regardless of human sacrifice [Nietzsche]
23193 Napoleon was very focused, and rightly ignored compassion [Nietzsche]
20141 Higher human beings see and hear far more than others, and do it more thoughtfully [Nietzsche]
4408 The concept of 'good' was created by aristocrats to describe their own actions [Nietzsche]
23716 A strong rounded person soon forgets enemies, misfortunes, and even misdeeds [Nietzsche]
14810 Originally it was the rulers who requited good for good and evil for evil who were called 'good' [Nietzsche]
20136 There is an extended logic to a great man's life, achieved by a sustained will [Nietzsche]
20358 The highest man can endure and control the greatest combination of powerful drives [Nietzsche]
20369 The highest man directs the values of the highest natures over millenia [Nietzsche]
8041 The superman is a monstrous oddity, not a serious idea [MacIntyre on Nietzsche]
20135 Nietzsche's higher type of man is much more important than the idealised 'superman' [Nietzsche, by Leiter]
18293 The noble man wants new virtues; the good man preserves what is old [Nietzsche]