Nietzsche's Transvaluation Of Values, Explicated In "on The Genealogy Of Morals" - Ryerson Phl 661 - Essay

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Nietzsche’s Transvaluation 9
Nietzsche’s Transvaluation of Values, explicated in “On The Genealogy of Morals”
Ysabella Ross
Student ID: 500762695
PHL661: Marx, Nietzsche, and Freud
Professor Kym Maclaren
418 Jorgenson Hall
March 27, 2018
In Nietzsche’s literary work, “On The Genealogy of Morals”, he explains that there is more than one concept of what people believe to be good and how these definitions exist. For example, he reevaluates the origin of good from the English Psychologist perspective. His own perspective is that good should be seen as noble, pure, not evil, while bad should be what is common. Nietzsche’s account of morality is intriguing not only because it allows epistemology, metaphysics, morals and aesthetics to intertwine and support each other, unlike other philosophers who may choose to define each one separately. But it also allows for the brings to question the nest of the values we have in societies and whether or not we should reevaluate them.
Nietzsche chooses to reevaluate values, known as good and bad, in relation to how the English Psychologist would define them. The Psychologist says that the genealogy of good comes from unegoistic actions from the point of view of those to whom they were useful.[footnoteRef:1] This is understood as truthful because unegoistic actions are practical and useful in societies, earning praise as they work towards a desired end. In contradiction, selfishness was seen as destructive to any group or society, therefore selfishness was not considered to be the origin of good. Overtime, this sense of good is said to become forgotten for it is embedded in all cultures and activities. Nietzsche argues that this sense of the origin of good, usefulness, is not true because it depends solely on having some end aimed for. Also, is not a historical account of the origin because it has not changed overtime and we have not been given the opportunity to forget it overtime.[footnoteRef:2] Instead societies today take part in unegoistic actions because they are seen as morally good...