Our procedure in this CyberSeminar will be different than that in previous ones. Instead of my writing a summary post at the end of each unit, I will write an introductory post at the beginning of each unit. I will suppose that everyone is familiar with the main themes from the readings, and in the introductory post I will highlight those main themes and pose several questions to frame our discussion. This, hopefully, will help us get more quickly to the interesting philosophical and interpretive issues and help us free up time for some focus on issues of method. Master morality praises strength, creativity, independence, assertiveness, and related traits.
Slave morality praises weakness, passivity, dependence, humility, and related traits.
The two moralities are underlain by different psychological and biological natures and express themselves in different lifestyles, modes of action, and cultures. Moral codes are part of a given psycho-biological type's life strategy of survival and increasing its power. The battle between the master and slave moral codes is of long genealogy. Historically master morality dominated first. Master morality declined and slave morality ascended.