All wrong as a viable moral theory. It gained a bit of popularity in the "evolutionary ethics" crowd (i.e. those that might think The Selfish Gene is a profound piece of work), but no one really takes it seriously when compared to utilitarianism, deontology, virtue ethics, etc.
Nietzsche's position that "morals" are simply the "herd instinct in the individual", that is, simply the social instinct combined with the norms and customs that have built up in a culture over time due to its particular history and development. He does not assign a value to morals from this anthropological position - indeed his ultimate task was to devise a new system of valuation that would let us do this. It's hard to see how any other position could possibly be valid. Nietzsche was not entirely original here, but he was completely devastating.
There is nothing profound about utilitarianism. It's simply abstract thinkers asking "what do we value most of all, and what are the logical means of maximizing it." There's nothing particularly profound about deontologists either, except, as Nietzsche would have said, they're less decadent and more intellectually honest - right is defined by their moral intuition (which, according to N, is simply decided by the above) or God, or whatever, and that's the end of the story. Both of these, along with virtue ethics, already assume they know what good and bad, and everything falls from that based on the particular method (assumption: hurting people is bad; deontologists: hurting people is bad, don't do it, because that's the rule utilitarians: hurting people is bad unless by so doing you decrease the net amount of hurt people.) Nietzsche's question is much more fundamental. He is establishing the nature of morality, pursuing a history of moral development (which he agrees may not be accurate and certainly not anywhere near complete), asks a few questions about the consequences of different moral systems, etc.
I think you're confusing the people who found "The Selfish Gene" enlightening with eugenicists. My guess is there's almost zero overlap between those two groups.
dvt|4 years ago
All wrong as a viable moral theory. It gained a bit of popularity in the "evolutionary ethics" crowd (i.e. those that might think The Selfish Gene is a profound piece of work), but no one really takes it seriously when compared to utilitarianism, deontology, virtue ethics, etc.
Amezarak|4 years ago
Nietzsche's position that "morals" are simply the "herd instinct in the individual", that is, simply the social instinct combined with the norms and customs that have built up in a culture over time due to its particular history and development. He does not assign a value to morals from this anthropological position - indeed his ultimate task was to devise a new system of valuation that would let us do this. It's hard to see how any other position could possibly be valid. Nietzsche was not entirely original here, but he was completely devastating.
There is nothing profound about utilitarianism. It's simply abstract thinkers asking "what do we value most of all, and what are the logical means of maximizing it." There's nothing particularly profound about deontologists either, except, as Nietzsche would have said, they're less decadent and more intellectually honest - right is defined by their moral intuition (which, according to N, is simply decided by the above) or God, or whatever, and that's the end of the story. Both of these, along with virtue ethics, already assume they know what good and bad, and everything falls from that based on the particular method (assumption: hurting people is bad; deontologists: hurting people is bad, don't do it, because that's the rule utilitarians: hurting people is bad unless by so doing you decrease the net amount of hurt people.) Nietzsche's question is much more fundamental. He is establishing the nature of morality, pursuing a history of moral development (which he agrees may not be accurate and certainly not anywhere near complete), asks a few questions about the consequences of different moral systems, etc.
maroonblazer|4 years ago