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Genealogy Of Morals By Nietzsche

Decent Essays

Section 14 in Essay 2 of Nietzsche’s “Genealogy of Morals”, contains rich insight, mainly about punishment. Punishment is suppose to be the way to awaken the feeling of guilt in someone that has done some wrong. However, punishment does not succeed in instilling bad conscience, or the sense of guilt, on the guilty person. When someone is punished, they do not receive a feeling of guilt. It can lead to two opposite things; either they are are able to become stronger and tougher and take the punishment, or they have their vitality destroyed and become dehumanized. Nietzsche suggests that when the person who is guilty sees the person that he wronged cast these acts of punishment on him out of pleasure, he is blinded by the awful things that …show more content…

This is also known as the “creditor and debtor” relationship and is thought to be the origin of traditional justice. This passage as soon I read it really got me engaged. I felt like this was one of the sections I was able to truly relate to, and apply to my own life. Immediately I began to think about some of the stories my parents have shared about how my parents were punished when they were children. Now back in the 1960’s when they were kids, it was okay for their parents to smack them. It was just normal in society back then. They both agreed that, “The physical discipline they received did not make them feel guilty about what they did. Instead, it made them scared to do it again.” This goes along with what Nietzsche said. My parents stopped talking back and fighting with their siblings because they were scared of how their parents would punish them, they did not stop because they felt bad about it. Their vitality was broken down. I completely agree with it too. When I was a child I got it way easier than my parents did. When I got punished I was told to go in my room and not able to have any electronics. They would always tell me, “Think about what you did.” This was a method of theirs that truly was effective. As the time went by I would continuously think about how much trouble I caused my parents no matter how little the cause of my

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