display all the ideas for this combination of texts
9 ideas
14818 | First morality is force, then custom, then acceptance, then instinct, then a pleasure - and finally 'virtue' [Nietzsche] |
Full Idea: Force precedes morality; for a time morality itself is force, to which others acquiesce. Later it becomes custom, and then free obedience, and finally almost instinct; then it is coupled to pleasure, like all habitual things, and is now called 'virtue'. | |
From: Friedrich Nietzsche (Human, All Too Human [1878], 099) | |
A reaction: How few philosophers delve into the history of the concepts they work with, and yet how revealing it can be. Richard Taylor was wonderful on 'duty'. You will never grasp the 'problem of free will' if you don't examine its history. |
20103 | You are mastered by your own virtues, but you must master them, and turn them into tools [Nietzsche] |
Full Idea: You had to become your own master, and also the master of your own virtues. Previously, your virtues were your master; but they must be nothing more than your tools. | |
From: Friedrich Nietzsche (Human, All Too Human [1878], 006) | |
A reaction: What on earth would Aristotle make of that? Nietzsche offers a sort of metatheory for virtues. I take this to be a form of particularism - that you live by your virtues, but occasionally you can discard a virtue if it seems right. Lie, steal... |
14817 | The 'good' man does the moral thing as if by nature, easily and gladly, after a long inheritance [Nietzsche] |
Full Idea: We call 'good' the man who does the moral thing as if by nature, after a long history of inheritance - that is, easily, and gladly, whatever it is. …He is called 'good' because he is good 'for' something. | |
From: Friedrich Nietzsche (Human, All Too Human [1878], 096) | |
A reaction: I am amazed at the brief and rather disrespectful remarks that Nietzsche makes about Aristotle's ethics, given how close this idea is to the ideal of Aristotle (though the latter who not emphasise 'inheritance'!). |
14809 | All societies of good men give a priority to gratitude [Nietzsche] |
Full Idea: Every society of good men (that is, originally, of powerful men) places gratitude among its first duties. | |
From: Friedrich Nietzsche (Human, All Too Human [1878], 044) | |
A reaction: His reason here is that gratitude is a way of displaying the power of the powerful! |
14816 | Justice (fairness) originates among roughly equal powers (as the Melian dialogues show) [Nietzsche] |
Full Idea: Justice (fairness) originates among approximately equal powers, as Thucydides (in the horrifying conversation between the Athenian and Melian envoys) rightly understood. | |
From: Friedrich Nietzsche (Human, All Too Human [1878], 092) | |
A reaction: The moral position of the powerless is a notorious problem for social contract theories of morality. They have nothing to offer in a mere contract. |
20112 | Pity consoles those who suffer, because they see that they still have the power to hurt [Nietzsche] |
Full Idea: The pity that the spectators express consoles the weak and suffering, inasmuch as they see that , despite all their weakness, they still have at least one power: the power to hurt. | |
From: Friedrich Nietzsche (Human, All Too Human [1878], 050) | |
A reaction: This pinpoints how the will to power led to the inversion of values. |
14821 | Apart from philosophers, most people rightly have a low estimate of pity [Nietzsche] |
Full Idea: Aside from a few philosophers, men have always placed pity rather low in the hierarchy of moral feelings - and rightly so. | |
From: Friedrich Nietzsche (Human, All Too Human [1878], 103) | |
A reaction: Presumably this includes Jesus among the 'philosophers'. |
14841 | Many people are better at having good friends than being a good friend [Nietzsche] |
Full Idea: In many people the gift of having good friends is much greater than the gift of being a good friend. | |
From: Friedrich Nietzsche (Human, All Too Human [1878], 368) |
14843 | Women can be friends with men, but only some physical antipathy will maintain it [Nietzsche] |
Full Idea: Women can very well enter into a friendship with a man, but to maintain it - a little physical antipathy must help out. | |
From: Friedrich Nietzsche (Human, All Too Human [1878], 390) |