Exegesis and Critique of Nietzsche’s Conception of Guilt In The Second

Exegesis and Critique of Nietzsches Conception of Guilt In The Second analyse of On the Genealogy of MoralityIn the Second Essay of On the Genealogy of ethical motive (titled Guilt, Bad Conscience, and the exchangeable), Nietzsche formulates an interesting conception of the source and function of guilt feelings and bad conscience. Nietzsches discussion of this topic is quite a sophisticated and includes sub-arguments for the ancient equivalence of the concepts of debt and guilt and the domain of an instinctive gratification in roughshodty in hu soldiery beings, as well as a hypothesis concerning the origin of civilization, a critique of Christianity, and a likeness of Christianity to ancient Greek religion. In this essay, I will attempt to concentrate these arguments to their essential points. Near the beginning of the Second Essay Guilt, Bad Conscience, and the Like of On the Genealogy of Morals Nietzsche asserts that forgetting is absolutely necessary for all the nobler fu nctions and functionaries (2.1) and thus far the present to be possible. Furthermore, according to Nietzsche, memory, which inhibits the above functions, is not merely an inability to forget, but an active will not to forget (2.2).Primeval man acquired the faculty of memory, according to Nietzsche, in response to his sudden enslavement at the hands of a master race (2.17). These masters set as their task the imposition of a few general rules of civilized existence (otherwise known as the morality of mores) upon their subjects, who had been slaves of momentary affect and desire (2.3) originally their enslavement. This project, according to Nietzsche, necessitated the searing of these basic rules into the minds of the populace by means of immensely cruel acts and resulted in t... ...no way implies that Nietzsche is presenting the ideas of the Genealogy in bad faith he certainly believes that they have some truth to them-but perhaps not to the finish that they are definitive. Thus , it is possible that Nietzsche, in writing his polemic, has other goals than the mere square(a) elucidation of a philosophical system. If this view is adopted, many of Nietzsches motif notions and unsupported assertions become easier to stomach. Of course, such a softening of the impact of Nietzsches claims may destroy the fundamental mind-opening project that lies at the heart of the book, since the coke of encountering such views is clearly essential to that project. Works CitedNietzsche, Friedrich On the Genealogy of Morals contained in Nietzsche Basic Writings Of Nietzsche translated and edited Walter Kaufman. New York The Modern Library, 1992.