Morality: An analysis of master morality and slave morality and the link between morality, ethics and gender. The analysis is based on Nietzsche’s distinction of the types of morality, Daly’s gynecology and its significance to morality and ethics, and Simone de Beauvoir’s work on existential ethics and the accountability of male and female genders to morality.
Explain the Nietzsche’s distinction between master morality and slave morality. Explain the significance of the death of god? What does Nietzsche mean by the transformation of all values? To whom is he speaking?
Master morality and slave morality form the two primary types of moralities. According to the great German philosopher Nietzsche, the master morality if defined by the yeah saying attitude and notion that good and bad values identify the hierarchy formed by people. The master morality is based on people and not actions as defined by the Nietzsche. In this type of morality, the master sets the values that affect the nobles. In master morality, the focus of the people is not what is good and great, but people are guided by concerns of what is useful. In this morality, the nobles are only concerned on the on the people who are in the same class as defined by wealth, power and ability. Whatever happens to people below their class in not so much of their concern (Nietzsche 1909-1903).
The nobles have a specific attachment to experience in which they define themselves as the origin of values or decisions on what is good and what is bad. The master morality nobles do not require the opinion of other on if they are good or not. They are self-affirmed that values are good are therefore are justified to celebrate their greatness and power. Another characteristic of the master morality is that the nobles have a revere of themselves a devotion to greatness. Their friendless are defined by familiarity. They also despise any weakness sign amongst themselves while forming enemies as a means of venting feelings of envy and aggression and arrogance. They are more worried on the qualities that define their status in their equals and disregard those who are below them in class through evoking fear as a way of maintaining a respectful distance.
On the other hand, slave morality is entirely different in values and norms to the master morality. According to Nietzsche, slave morality cannot support itself. It vies the noble man in the master theory as evil rather than bad. The morality also defines that the noble as lacking goodness in the mater morality. Slave morality is characterized by encouraging patience and humility. The main role of the morality is relieving suffering and eliminating oppression. The morality is centered on lack of self-interest, happiness and equality for all in morality. The theory has no relevance to the past traditions but it is influenced by good actions and good people (Nietzsche 1909-1903).
The death of god is significant in Nietzsche because it ushers in the modern era as defined by Galileo Galilei and Isaac Newton. People have the opportunity to discuss modern science and certainty. Initially, ‘life was associated with gods by ancient culture and the world regarded as closed and finite. Religion and life were interrelated and God acted as the guider and intervener in life. The transformation of all lives as implied by Nietzsche refers to the revaluation of values. This leads to new values emerging or are created. For instance, European countries have all held on the values of existence of a Christian God who provides guidance of values and norms. With transformation of values, the Christianity religion is losing its influence with new ideas emerging. Nietzsche is speaking to everyone who holds in the teachings and doctrines of the old values and beliefs.
What is the meaning of Daly’s term gynecology? What is its moral significance? What meaning does Daly give to the terms” Mataethics” and Metapatriarchal. How do they relate to Daly’s critique of ethics and Mataethics?
Gynecology focuses on the Metaethics of radical feminism. Daly criticizes the Catholic Church for its ethics and principles against the female gender. Daly focuses behold Christianity in several ways in a male-dominated society. The gyn and ecology is an illustration of the true, self-women dominance that for long has been subdued by the patriarch systems in the society. Daly was a strong feminist advocate and the realization of that the words used by men against the female gender since the beginning of religion are false. According to Daly, it is impossible to separate masculinity from God. It, therefore, leaves out the role of women. Gynecology is also significant in helping in analyzing Christianity choice of words that are discriminative against the female gender. Whereas it only recognizes the name God, it fails to recognize goddesses that represent the women being an image. Gynecology is about the complex interrelationships in the surrounding environment. These interrelationships are formed by the organisms that interact with it (Daly, 1990).
Metapatriarchal refers to the process of encountering unknown issues through the conversion of what was unknown previously to what is known into the present. Daly focuses on what she perceives was the hidden value of feminism over the decades of male dominated values that the society possessed. Through Metapatriarchal, the women can be free from the unknown things that bound them to the past. For instances, women were considered as witches and millions of them were massacred under such beliefs. The gyn ecology is significance as it provides a way of wrenching backs the power of the words. It explains the male control over women where for instance, where most gynecologists are male yet the diseases and problems mainly affect women.
Metaethics and Metapatriarchal revolves around studying new and emerging theories on feminism from a male dominated society. According to Daly, Mataethics and Metapatriarchal give rise to new words like goddess that are feminist and lacked in the male defined previous word that was backed by Christianity values. Daly traces these words as reemerging from the ancient Greek where they were washed by Christianity influence that has since dominated into the modern society. In addition, Christianity only adopted words that were male centered leaving out that equally applied to women. Mataethics and Metapatriarchal seeks to recreate these words to create an impact to the women of the modern society it (Daly, 1990).
Daly relates the Mataethics and the Metapatriarchal with women ethics in a number of ways. He notes by women refusing to be hooked by Metapatriarchal systems are comparable to orchid bird according to the Greek mythology. These women enjoy the taste of freedom through which she can understand her true self as opposed to those chained in the chains of Mataethics and Metapatriarchal systems in the male dominated society.
What are the main characteristics of a specifically existential ethic? For Simone de Beauvoir what tensions are involved in asking the question; what is a woman? Are both men and women morally accountable for women’s existence as the other? Why must one will one’s own freedom and why is this an ethical act.
Simone de Beauvoir highlights various tensions that arise when defining a woman based on biological orientations or the feminine factors that can be identified externally.
Ethics and morality go hand in hand and define the concepts of what is good, bad, right and left among others. Ethics define the standards and expectations in which the society lives with. The existential ethic deals one identifying the self-meaning of life and personal responsibility. In existentialism, one is forced to be responsible through the necessary laid down laws and regulations.
According to Simone de Beauvoir, human existence is defined by the ambiguity of a person’s creativity and ethically understanding and living with each other. Beauvoir also develops an argument of the existence of a woman. Cultural myths and facts also create tension while defining who is a woman. Defining a woman also differs from the perspective of the society. Although there is a perception of the women being lesser in the society, behavior compares these with the Jews and black Americans. There existence in the present countries poor regions are not reals, they rare however created by the interested oppressors. In a similar case, women are regarded as inferior. This is a notion created by the male dominance in the society. Men have been subordinated by women where both require each other for survival. They should therefore be regarded as equal as their independence is related.
Women and men are both morally responsible for existence of each other. Women require men for their existence and men require women too. Woman is also not a minority like other minorities including the Jews and a black American neither have they been segregated in any way. There is therefore no justification of referring to women as the minor and subjecting them to subordination.
Simone de Beauvoir argues that feminist has been created by men from civilization and is not an aspect of biological or intellectuality reasons. Men, in defining masculinity, have created a society where they have positioned themselves as the formulators of gender roles and they assign women the sexuality roles they have designated as feminine. These roles are not naturally designed or biological, they are taught to women by the society (Dowson, n.d)
Achieving gender parity for men and women in the society has proven to be a long process that has to be recreated through civilization as the women roles were also created by civilization. For instance, the modern woman can take up jobs where traditionally men have been the only ones allowed to take such jobs. As people are accepting women equal in the society, the civilization id taking part to equalize these roles to achieve an equal parity. Ethics are also playing a significant role as people are learning to respect the others irrespective of their gender (O’Flynn, 2009).
Allowing women to take part in work positions that were initially meant for men is an act of ethics. The roles that men were initially assigned like military and business practices are being shared equally across all genders. The traditional roles of women like laundry and house chores are also attracting active participation form men. Granting everyone an equal opportunity irrespective of the gender is part of ethics. The civilized society relies on both men and women to drive it forward in an equal capacity and contribution of both genders.
References
Daly, M. (1990). Gyn/ecology: The metaethics of radical feminism. Beacon Press.
Dowson, L. M.(n.d) Women and Men, Morality and Ethics.
Nietzsche F.(1909-1903)beyond good and evil: slave morality and master morality
O’Flynn, P. (2009). The Creation of Meaning: Simone de Beauvoir’s Existentialist Ethics. Minerva-An Internet Journal of Philosophy, 13, 67-84.