尼采的道德谱系

Nietzsche's Genealogy of Morality

尼采根据他的“意志”的基本哲学思想 ,使经验的“道德谱系学”得到升华 ,进入哲学的层面。尼采的“道德谱系学”一方面否定康德由“实践理性”悬设的绝对“善良意志” ,揭示了“善—恶”的历史内容 ;另一方面强调“意志”作为价值的“创造者” ,其本身就拥有“评判权” ,而无待“上帝—神”的“最终审判”。在这种意志哲学的基础上 ,尼采区分了“强者”与“弱者”两种不能转化、不能沟通的“意志” ,它们具有不同的“道德谱系”。尼采无情地鞭笞了欧洲“奴隶—弱者意志”的泛滥 ,揭示这种意志在“谱系”上之低下。本文努力从哲学理论的层面 ,阐述尼采“道德谱系学”的内容实质 ,并试图指出这个学说在理论上存在的问题。

Taking a position to oppose the idealism of Kantian 'Absolute Good Will', Nietzsche considered the idealism from Plato to the present as the weakness of the European main stream of morality. So his point was to draw the problem back to earth. In this sense, the Genealogy of Morality should be considered as the important basis of all moral theories. Nevertheless, in the field of the Genealogy of Morality, Nietzsche reconstructed the empirical system promoted by English writers, and put it on his basic philosophy of Will. It is the Will, as the Creator of moral values, that provides the only criteria of good and evil. That means there is no need of the God as the highest Judge. People do things according to their own Will, and make moral judgment of those things by their own Will. There are two kinds of Will, one being the Will of Power, while the other being the Will without Power, that is, as Nietzsche put it, the Strong Will and the Weak Will. Unfortunately, in Nietzsche's mind, the European morality had been on the decline, degrading into the weak-slave Will which would take human life as a redemption of their Original Sin, hoping to get the salvation in the God Kingdom. In this sense, the so-called Genealogy means the different Family Origins of the two Wills. The Weak Will has a low class origin, while the Strong Will high. So we can conclude that since Nietzsche's theory of moral genealogy is based on his theory of Will, to understand the latter will be the pre-condition of understanding the former. This is the suggestion made by this article.