GUIDE TO THE PHILOSOPHY 1938 - 1947.pdf - Rare Books at ...

630 ETHICS AND POLITICi: THE MODERNS
described. 1 Nietzsche, however, expresses them with an
he writes,
unequalled force and 'vividness. "Everything/ 9
"that elevates the individual above the herd, and is a
source of fear to the neighbour, is henceforth called ml;
the tolerant, unassuming, self-adapting, self-equalising
disposition, the mediocrity of desires, attains the moral
distinction and honour/' His account of the virtue of
truthfulness in the herd may be cited as a good example
of his general view. The herd, he points out, demands
that "thou shalt be recognizable, thou shalt express thy
inner nature by means of clear and constant signs otherwise
thou art dangerous. Thou must not remain con-
cealed; thou must not change!"
One by one Nietzsche challenges all die contentions of
utilitarian morals. The ideal of equality is, he maintains,
a myth, for human beings are not equal; the ideal of
happiness is a conception fit only for animals. The morality
of motive fares no better at his hands. It is, he concedes,
an advance- on Utilitarianism; it is better, that is to say,
to judge actions by their origins than by their conse-
quences. It is, however, false to suppose that the origin
of actions is the freewill of the agent; for freewill is a
delusion, and the conscious motive which apparently
leads to the performance of an action is omy a by-product
offerees over which the agent has no control "Morality,"
he writes, "in the sense in whidi it has been understood
hitherto, as tntaJum-morality, hasoeen a prejudice, perhaps
a prematureness or preliminariness, probably something
of the same rank as astrology and alchemy, but in any
case something which must be surmounted/'
Attack on Christian Ethics. The repudiation of
freewill and the morality of motive culminates in an attack
on Christianity and in particular on the Christian virtues.
Conscience is not the voice of God: it is a feeling of guilt
arising in the soul which has the courage to flout but not
to despise the prejudices of the herd. Humility and meek-
1 See Chapter X, pp. 373-379 for sn account of these.