A HISTORICAL APPROACH TO PHILOSOPHY OF PERSONS

(Adapted from THE MEANING OF HUMAN EXISTENCE by Buenaflor, Lionel)

THE GREEK THINKERS’ CONCEPT OF PERSON

Socrates
1. Socrates was born in 47 or 469 BCE in Athens. He gained his reputation as a thinker and a teacher, who
supported the highest ideals of education. He left the sophists in view of higher wisdom. He was
always conscious of his vocation, which he considered to be a divine mission. He forgot his domestic
duties and avoided being distracted by political interests due to his extreme interest in philosophy. But
the education that he was imparting led to general malcontent and to popular hostility. This led the
Athenian popular assembly to demand death for Socrates.
2. Socrates’ philosophy focused on the idea that to know the good is to do the good and that knowledge
is virtue. Knowledge helps the human person to distinguish the good from the bad. Consequently, in
trying to do the good, the human person attains happiness. This happiness can only be attained if a
person possesses knowledge. Knowledge leads a human person to become virtuous. Hence, if the
human person does not become virtuous, then it must be that he/she is not really wise.
3. Socrates treats evil as the result of ignorance. It is the result of man’s limitation and lack of present
knowledge. Hence, it is necessary for the human person to develop his/her knowledge and examine
his/her life. For Socrates, an unexamined life is not worth living. Only those persons who did not
possess the proper knowledge are those persons who will be lead to doing evil deeds. Hence, it is the
responsibility of every person to see to it that he/she is leading his/her actions towards goodness. For
Socrates, no person has ever indulged or committed an evil act knowingly. To avoid doing evil, one
should therefore examine one’s life.
4. In order to obtain happiness, a human person has to be virtuous. And in order to be virtuous, one
should fulfill one’s own function as a human being. Hence, we should therefore act as a human being.
Happiness can only be attained if a person possesses knowledge instead of possessing bodily pleasures
and physical adornments. It is only when one would be acting as a human person that he/she will be
able to realize the value and the fulfillment of his/her being a human person.
5. For Socrates, the soul is the capacity for intelligence and character, the conscious personality of a
human being. The activity of the soul is to know and to direct our behavior in our day-to-day living.
Inasmuch as the soul is the principle that makes us think and act, we therefore have the duty to take
proper care of our soul so as to make our soul as good as possible. Socrates believed that those who
have the proper care for their soul in mind will conduct their behaviour in accordance with their
knowledge of the true moral values.
Plato
1. Plato was born in 428/27 BCE. He came from one of the wealthiest and most politically active families
in Athens. Plato’s actual given name was apparently Aristocles, after his grandfather. Plato became a
disciple of Socrates and went on to become one of the greatest and most influential philosophers of all
time. When he was about forty years old, and after this period of travel, reflection, and writing, he
founded a school just outside Athens, which became known as the Academy. The chief aim of this
school was to pursue scientific knowledge through original research. Plato continued to write in his
ripe years, and while still active in the Academy, dies in 345/47 BCE at the age of 80.
2. The allegory of the cave is the parable, which summarizes a number of Plato’s main doctrine. According
to Plato, we have to imagine an underground cave with no light except for the fire that emits its light
over a low mid-wall to the end-wall of the cave. When figures and shapes of all sorts are moved along
the mid-wall, their shadows are reflected on the end-wall, as though it was a screen. Between the end-
wall and the mid-wall lies the group of people, who, since childhood, have been chained like prisoners
so that they continually faced the end-wall. The only thing that these chained people could see their

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 own shadows and those of the objects that moved along the mid-wall behind them. More so, the
sound they hear were only those echoes of the real sound.
3. The allegory of the cave is for Plato the situation of the human person who is living in this world of
matter. According to Plato, human beings were imprisoned in the world of opinion, i.e., in the world of
matter. Hence, they became blind to see and too deaf to hear the logos of the higher world. Inasmuch
as people are imprisoned in the world of opinion, they became too blind to see the real knowledge of
the higher world. In this case, it is also necessary for the human person to turn away from the
deceptive world of change and appetite that causes a blindness of the soul. Hence, there is a need for a
conversion, i.e., a complete turning around from the world of appearance to the world of reality.
4. The function of education is to lead people out of the cave into the world of light. Inasmuch as it is
necessary for the entire soul to turn away from the deceptive world of matter, there is therefore a
need for a conversion, i.e., a complete turning around from the world of appearance to the world of
reality. Education will therefore help a human person to turn his/her gaze towards the direction that
he/she ought to turn to and fix his/her eyes on the unchanging real world.
5. Plato believed that the human person is composed of a body and a soul. The body of the human
person is subject to change and impermanence. Inasmuch as the human person has the capacity to
known the unchanging and permanent, part of him/her should therefore be permanents as well since
whatever knows the permanent must itself be permanent in some way and whatever knows essences
must itself somehow be essence. And because the human person is capable of knowing the permanent
and the essences of things, then part of him/her should also be permanent. This part of the human
person that helps him/her to know the permanent is his/her soul. Plato believed that the soul
therefore should not just part of the human person. Rather, it is the whole of the human person. Plato
held that the real man is his soul, which for the meantime imprisoned in the body in order for this soul
to be purified.
6. Plato considered the soul to be composed of three distinct faculties, three levels of knowledge and
desire. These three levels are:
a. The sensation, the lowest level of the soul, which is ordered to the cloudy reflections of the
ideal forms in sensible things;
b. The opinion, the second level of the soul that is in itself not free from error but is sufficient
for ordinary practical matters such as the hypothetical sciences and the government of
communal life; and
c. The mind or intellect, the immortal part of the soul, which gives human person the capacity
for truth and wisdom.
7. Unhappiness and the general disorder of the human soul are the results of man’s confusing
appearance in reality. In this case, reason should take control over the irrational part of the self. Only
knowledge can produce virtue because it is ignorance or false knowledge that has produced evil.
Contemplation is the way by which the human person will be able to remember the perfect knowledge
of all things. When the human person has already recalled the truth, he/she will therefore be led to
knowing and appreciating the good by living it and leading a good life. Hence, he will find himself being
led towards the real world, the world of forms, where the real happiness lies. In the human society,
happiness could be obtained when said society will function according to how it should function and
every individual member of the society will function according to their individual nature. It is only then
that everyone will be just to everyone. When this happens, then a good and just society will be
obtained.
Aristotle
1. Aristotle was born in 384 BCE in Stagira, a Greek colony of Thrace in Northern Greece. At the age of 17,
Aristotle went to Athens to study under Plato and remained at the Academy for nearly twenty years
until Plato’s death in 348/7 BCE. At the Academy, Aristotle had the reputation of being the reader and
the mind of the school. He was profoundly influenced by Plato’s thought and personality even though

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 eventually he was to break away from Plato’s philosophy in order to formulate his own version of
certain philosophical problems. At the age of 49, he founded his own philosophical school in the
garden dedicated to Apollo Lyceios; hence, he named his school Lyceum. Like Socrates, Aristotle was
also charged of impiety. Because of this, he left Athens so that according to him, the Athenians would
not be able to sin twice against philosophy. He fled to Chalcis, where he died in 322 BCE of a digestive
disease of long standing.
2. Aristotle believed that a thing undergoes change only insofar as the nature of such thing permits it to
be such. This change is due to the principle of actuality and the principle of potentiality. The principle of
actuality is the perfection of a being, while the principle of potentiality is the capacity of a being to
attain another perfection. In a physical thing, Aristotle calls this principle form, which signifies the act;
and matter, which signifies the potency or the capacity of the matter to obtain another act. This
teaching is called the hylomorphic doctrine. Aristotle believed that matter has its actuality in a being
precisely because it is determined by form, as the actualizing principle, to be a particular individual.
3. Like Plato, Aristotle believed that a human being is composed of a body and a soul. But unlike Plato,
Aristotle believed that the soul and the body are not separate entities in a human person, but
correlative constituents of one being. The soul forms the entelechy, the definitive form, of the body.
For Plato, the soul and the body are two separate entities. Hence, Plato could speak of the pre-
existence of the soul and the immortality of the individual soul. Aristotle, however, tied the soul and
the body so closely together that with the death of the body, the soul will also die with it. Inasmuch as
Plato believed that the soul has pre-existence, he could describe learning as the process of recollection.
On the other hand, Aristotle believed that the human mind is a tabula rasa or a blank sheet.
4. According to Aristotle, the end or function of the human person must have something to do with his or
her specific activity. For hum, the end or function of the human person could only be the immanent
activity of reason brought to its fullest extent, namely, the moral virtue within the framework of the
communal life of the polis and the act of contemplation.
5. For Aristotle, a morally virtuous act consists of a measure activity, following the rule of the just middle
or the metoses, i.e., “neither deficient not excessive.” According to Aristotle, anything done or indulged
excessively, or done inadequately would go out of bounds that would become unreasonable and
improper to the nature of the human being.
6. Aristotle held that a morally virtuous act is a rationally measured activity following the rule of the just
middle, motivated by the right intention, and proceeding from a permanent disposition acquired
through habitual action. In order for the human person to be sure that his or her action is done in
permanent disposition, it should be done in the act of contemplation. Whenever an action is
performed based on contemplation, such action is said to be coming from phronesis or the practical
wisdom, which provides the insight to the truth about the intrinsic worth and excellence and beauty or
goodness or the kalon of the action to be done.
7. Phronesis is the practical intellect that properly decides to act. It takes the appropriate means in the
situation in view of the intended goal and takes command in one’s desires and passion. It is the proper
activity and virtue of the practical intellect by which the human person, as the source of action, is the
union of desire and thought.
THE MEDIEVAL THINKERS AND THEIR CONCEPT OF A PERSON
Saint Augustine of Hippo
1. Aurelius Augustinus was born on Novermber 13, 354 CE at Tagaste in Numdia. As a child, he was
schooled in Latin literature and at the age of 16, went to Carthage to study rhetoric. During his years as
a student, he deviated completely from his Christian faith. After reading Cicero’s Hortensius, he
became enthusiastic about philosophy. Because he could not obtain answer from the Christian belief,
he turned to the Manicheans and then to the Skeptics. But with the help of St. Ambrose, he again
developed a greater appreciation to Christianity, which he later on connected with the philosophy of
Plato. He considered the philosophy of Plato as an expression of Christianity. In 396, he became the

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 bishop of Hippo. Later on, he involved himself in fighting against the opponents of the Church. At the
age of 75, Augustine died in the posture of reciting the Penitential Psalms during that time when the
Vandals were besieging Hippo.
2. Manichaeism is a Gnostic religion of late antiquity, founded and spread by the Persian Mani (216-277
CE). This group was on the belief that there are two basic principles in the universe, the principle of
light or goodness, and the principle of darkness or evil, which is metaphysically grounded in co-eternal
and independent cosmic powers of Light and Darkness.
3. Skepticism is the philosophy, which was on the belief that we ought to doubt everything, and no truth
can be comprehended by human beings. It is a manner of doubting as to whether it is possible for a
human being to attain perfect certainty of knowledge.
4. Augustine believes that God, as dictated by the aid of the light of Divine Revelation, is the living person
God, the Creator of all things, and the Supreme Ruler of the universe. God is Absolute Spirit, the
Absolute Will, the Absolute Intelligence, the Absolute Freedom, the Absolute Good, and the Absolute
Holiness, who cannot will evil and has no beginning and no end. Augustine asserts that God created
everything ex nihilo, i.e., out of nothing. For Augustine, God created the world out of love and the
human person is part of this creation. Augustine believes that God is love.
5. Augustine considered the human person as the Imago Dei as he/she bears the image of God.
Augustine also held that the human person’s crowning glory resides in his/her being an imago Dei. God
created the human person in His own image and likeness. Hence, there is the relationship between the
human person and God because the human person is produced by the original as an expression of
itself.
6. For St. Augustine, evil is not actually an existing reality. Rather, it is a deprivation of something. There
are things that we consider evil simply because they do not harmonize with other things.
Consequently, those things that harmonize with other things are considered good. Evil, or sin, is the
product of the will.
7. The human person’s desire towards the good may also lead him/her to the possibility that he/she may
choose to turn away from the good and cling instead to the goods of this earth; thereby, losing his/her
real end or purpose of existence. The human person’s desire for the earthly yearnings is what
Augustine held in his doctrine of disordered love. From this doctrine, Augustine held that the human
society could be divided between those who love God, Augustine called the Civitas Dei or the City of
God, while those who love themselves and the world, Augustine called the civitas mundi or the city of
the world. Augustine held that each human person should therefore know his/her own destiny.
Everyone should therefore make a choice as to where he/she would like to be with. Every human
person should therefore seek for God’s grace in order to be lead to his/her proper end.
St. Thomas Aquinas
1. St. Thomas Aquinas was born on 1225 at Roccasecca, near Aquino, about halfway between Rome and
Naples. His father hoped that his son would someday enjoy high ecclesiastical position; hence, at the
age of five, Thomas was already sent to a monastery. When was about fourteen, he entered the
University of Naples. During his stay in the city, he was attracted to the way of life of the Dominican
friars at a nearby monastery and decided to enter the Dominican Order in spite of the objections of his
family. Thomas entered the University of Paris where he was able to meet Albertus Magnus (Albert
the Great). St Albert considered Aristotle to be the greatest philosopher. It was for this reason that
Aquinas, being Albert’s pupil, was able to develop his love for the philosophy of Aristotle. Aquinas was
ordained a priest about 125, after which he began to teach at the University of Paris in 1252. His
reputation rose to such heights that, in 1259, he was summoned to serve as professor and advisor in
the court of the Pope. On March 7, 1274, Pope Gregory X called him to Lyons in France to participate in
a council, and while on his way there, he died at the age of 49 in Fossanova, a Cistercian abbey south of
Rome, where the guesthouse in which he died can still be seen. St. Thomas was later on canonized in
1323.

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2. For St. Thomas, conscience is the concrete particular judgement by which, in a given particular
situation, a person knows what he or she ought to do. Synderesis is a more general term, i.e., it is the
intellectual habit or disposition by which, the human person, in any given situation, it is in possession
of the fundamental principles of morality – do good and avoid evil.
3. Although God, who is the Summum Bonum, is the Creator of the world, this world contains both the
corruptible and the incorruptible entities. In this case, the happiness and pain, life and death, would
exist simultaneously with one another. St. Thomas believed that suffering and death occur not because
God will these evils as such but because of the “privations” inherent and unavoidable in creature of
different grades of goodness. St. Thomas believed that God may have the capacity of creating another
better world. However, His reason for creating a world that is not perfect is not something that He
would want us to know. What we can only know is that God created the universe because of His
goodness and should He have created another universe instead of this one, that same universe would
still be created out of the goodness of God.
4. The three natural inclinations of the human person are: (1) self-preservation; (2) just dealings with
others; and (3) propagation of species. According to St. Thomas, a rational being is under a basic
natural obligation to protect his or her life and health, in which case, putting one’s life in danger and
harming one’s self are wrong. Moreover, any act that promotes health, vigor, and vitality is considered
by nature as good. Consequently, the human person has also the inclination to give respect and to
treat the other persons with dignity. More so, the human person will also have the inclination to
propagate species. St. Thomas held that the reproductive organs are by their very nature designed to
reproduce and perpetuate the human species. Therefore, any act of intervention that will frustrate and
stifle the very purpose for which the human reproductive organs have by nature been designed as
unnatural and therefore immoral.
5. According to St. Thomas, there are different moral principles that may serve as the basis for moral
action. These are: (1) the principle of double effect, which applies to situation in which a good effect
and an evil effect will result from a good cause; (2) the principle of totality, which states that an
individual may be given the right to cut off, mutilate, or remove any defective or worn-out non-
functioning part of the body if it is for the good of the whole body; (3) the principle of stewardship,
which declares that the human life comes from God and no individual is the master of his/her own
body; (4) the principle of inviolability of life, which states that life is God’s and it has only been loaned
to us; hence, it is inviolable and sacred; and (5) the principle of sexuality and procreation, which states
that sex has a two-fold purpose: unity and procreation. Hence, in order to maintain the sacredness of
sex, the principle of unity and procreation should always be considered.
6. A human person has been endowed with the six natural rights in order to obtain meaning in life:
i. The right to life;
ii. The right to private property;
iii. The right to marry;
iv. The right to physical freedom or personal liberty;
v. The right to worship; and
vi. The right to work. From these six natural rights , the human person is also given its
corresponding duties.
The duties of the human person are:
i. The duty to keep healthy and to take care of oneself;
ii. The duty to take care of one’s property and respect the property of others;
iii. The duty to support one’s family;
iv. The duty to respect private boundaries;
v. The duty of religious tolerance; and
vi. The duty to perform at one’s best.

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 THE MODERN PHILOSOPHERS AND THEIR CONCEPT OF A PERSON
John Locke
1. John Locke was born at 1632 at Wrington, Somerset near Bristol, England. He was the son of a country
attorney and heir to a Puritan background; he was trained in the virtues of hard work and the love of
simplicity. Locke took his bachelor’s degree, consisting chiefly of logic, metaphysics, and classical
languages and later on, his master’s degree in Oxford. He developed strong interest on scientific
investigations, which led him to pursue the study of medicine, and in 1674, he obtained his medical
degree and was licensed to practice. Locke was always a religious man and maintained a fondness for
theology, stressing the importance of individuality, or a liberal approach to religion, and the political
toleration of religious differences. With the help of the Earl of Shaftesbury, Locke was appointed as a
student of Christ Church and was ensured an income. Because of this, he decided to stop teaching
grammar and philosophy and devote his time reading philosophy, especially the philosophy of
Descartes, whose clarity and logic fascinated him. He devoted his time to fulfil his desires on working
out a philosophical understanding of certain problems that perplexed his generation. Later on, he
became the secretary to Shaftesbury and became involved in Protestant politics. This involvement
resulted in an exile in Holland from 1683 to 1689. Later on, when he returned to London in 1689, he
was given acknowledgements and esteem as defender of King William’s ascendancy. But for the sake
of obtaining a peaceful life that his health required of him, he accepted the invitation of Sir Francis and
Lady Masham to remain in their residence outside London. Intellectual affinity increased his friendship
with the family at Oates and he continued to live with them until his death on October 28, 1704.
2. Empiricism comes from the Greek word emperikos which refers to an experiment or trial. In our
modern context, the term is related to the direct observation or experimentation.
3. Locke believed that each person’s mind is in the beginning like a tabula rasa, or a blank sheet of paper
upon which nothing has yet been written. Locke advocated the Latin principle: Nihil in intellectu quod
prius non fuerit in sensu – nothing exists in the mind that was not first in the senses. All impressions
and knowledge that we later find in our mind come from experience. In addition to this, Locke defined
knowledge as nothing more than the perception of the connection of an agreement, or disagreement
and repugnancy of any of our ideas. Locke held that our ideas enter into our mind, they become
connected to each other in a variety of ways. Hence, the validity of our knowledge depends upon the
relationship of our ideas with each other.
4. For Locke, sensation and reflection can still be classified as simple and complex. Simple ideas constitute
the chief source of the raw materials out of which our knowledge is made. These ideas are received
passively by the mind through the senses. On the other hand, complex ideas are not received passively
but are rather put together by our minds as a compound of simple ideas. For instance, our mind will
join the simple idea of roundness, redness, and sweetness in order to form the complex idea of an
apple.
5. Locke held that moral good and evil is only the conformity or unconformity of our willed actions to
some law. Here, Locke describes the three kinds of law: the law of opinion, the civil law, and the divine
law. The law of opinion represents the society’s opinion as to what kind of behaviour that will lead the
human person to obtain happiness. Civil law is the law that is set by the people and enforced by the
courts in order to obtain the desired happiness. Divine law is the true rule of human behaviour. This
law can be known either through our own reason or by divine revelation. Locke held that the
foundation of morality is the divine law. Hence, the law of opinion and the civil law should therefore be
made in conformity with the divine law.
6. According to John Locke, every human person will have the tendency to search for the good.
Consequently, things are considered to be good if it is in reference to pleasure. In this case, evil is to be
considered as always in reference to pain. It is for this reason that Locke’s concept of morality has
something to do with choosing or willing the good. Consequently, a human person is endowed with
reason in order for him to be able to know the responsibility of respecting the others’ life, health,

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 liberty or possessions. Locke held that each and every person should treat the others as equal and
therefore have equal rights and benefits because of his/her status as a creature of God.
Immanuel Kant
1. Immanuel Kant was born in 1724 in the small Prussian town of Konigsberg in northeast Germany. His
education began at the local Collegium Fredericianum, and in 1740, Kant entered the University of
Kongsberg where he studied classics, physics, and philosophy. He was extremely studious and
competent but showed no particular flair or originality; certainly his teachers had no idea that he
would one day be regarded as one of the most important thinkers of modern times. After finishing his
studies, Kant was not given any offer from the university. He instead supported himself over the next
ten years by hiring himself out as a private tutor in science, mathematics and philosophy. Later on, he
was hired as a lecturer with the title of Privatdozent, a lowly instructor position without any official
title. In 1770, at the age of forty-six, he was finally promoted to the position of professor of logic and
metaphysics. Although perhaps it is not readily recognizable in his works, he is reported to have been
an excellent lecturer, full of wit and good humor. His personal life was anything but illustrious. He
never married. He did not socialize, though he was known for his extreme politeness and
graciousness. What is famous of Immanuel Kant during his time was his daily routine. His neighbors
would consider him as a perfect example of German orderliness, rising each day at the same time and
performing the day's activities, wether drinking coffee, preparing class, or taking lunch, all at a fixed
hour. Indeed, his neighbors often pictured him as an old bachelor whose every activity was scheduled
with such precision that neighbors could set their watches when he stepped out of his house for his
every day walk.
2. Kant's ethical view is sometimes called deontologism. The word deontologism comes from the Greek
word deontos which means 'duty,' and logos which means 'study.' Kant's philosophy is focused on the
concept of duty or obligation. Kant held the idea that duty is 'that which ought to be done.'
3. Kant gave the two formulations of the categorical imperative. The first is "act only on that maxim by
which we can, and at the same time will, that it will become a universal law." Kant held that our
action should always be in consideration of what is acceptable to all people in all places at all times.
The second formulation of the categorical imperative is "always act so as to treat humanity, either
yourself or others, as an end and never as only a means." Kant held that every human person has the
responsibility of treating everyone as equal and as having the same dignity as one's own.
4. According to Kant there are two types of duties: the perfect duty and the imperfect duty. Perfect duty
is that which a person must always observe irrespective of time, place or circumstances. On the other
hand, imperfect duty is that which a person must observe only on some occasions. In this distinction
of perfect and imperfect duty, Kant does not mean to say that perfect duty is better than the
imperfect duty. Instead, this only means that a human person has the capability of making moral
decisions and that duty is always a priori, i.e., it is always based on reason itself.
5. Kant defined duty as that which ought to be done despite the inclination to do otherwise. In the
discussion on the categorical imperative, Kant held that each and every person will always have the
obligation of respecting the others in the same manner as one respect himself/herself. Each person
has the duty of treating the others what is due to them. Consequently, in performing an action, each
person should always perform an action based on its universablitity. In other words, it is the duty of
every person to consider his/her action as to whether this will be acceptable to the others, i.e.,
whether such action will not cause harm to others be it physical emotional, financial, social, and
spiritual. In other words, it will be the duty of every person to follow what the categorical imperative
demands.
THE CONTEMPORARY PHILOSOPHERS AND THEIR CONCEPT OF PERSON
Friedrich Nietzsche
1. Nietzsche had a strong belief that the Greek culture is the model of all cultures. This Greek culture has
two elements that made this culture the model of all cultures: the Apollonian and the Dionysian

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 culture. The Apollonian, after the god Apollo, was the formal element of culture, which gives
measure, restraint, form, and individuality to life, supplying the opportunity to share in the ideal
world. The Dionysian was the element of enthusiasm, after the god Dionysius (the Roman god
Bacchus). This culture was the unplanned, uncharted insertion into the stream of life without concern
about where it might lead. It is the acceptance of dark and shadow as well as the joy, which is the
blind affirmation of existence. Nietzsche held that when either of these two elements gain
ascendancy and override the other, the imbalance spells the doom of culture and the life of the entire
philosophy.
2. Nietzsche's philosophy is basically one of value theory - a philosophy calling for a revaluation of all
values (Sahakian, 229). He believed that in order to have a good society, there is a need for a new
system of values. Nietzsche rejected the traditional concept that sympathy and humility is the proper
foundation for moral values. Instead, he upheld that every human being has the inherent tendency to
aspire for the will to power, regardless of one's race or culture. Hence, the basis of morality is the will
to power. His opinion therefore is that when one adheres to humility and patience, he/she will
therefore become a feeble loser who is motivated mainly by resentment. For Nietzsche, goodness is
nothing but the expression of the will to power and all other motives are not morally sound. For this
reason, the truly free man for Nietzsche is the Superman for whom nothing is forbidden except that
which obstructs the will to power. Nevertheless, although goodness is connected with the will to
power, Nietzsche believe that this superman should not be a tyrant because this will be too
Dionysian. In this case, the passion of the superman should instead be controlled and his animal
nature should be harmonized with his intellect, thereby giving style to his behavior. In Nietzsche's
view, inasmuch as goodness is the expression of the will to power, real progress and real goodness
can therefore be achieved by means of the cultivation of the superior race of human beings and not
by raising weak and emancipating masses. To Nietzsche, the mark of a society is its power to exploit
the weaker members for the benefit and the interest of the strong and powerful few.
3. Nietzsche believed that morality has to be divided into two kinds: the Herren Moral or the master
morality, and the Herden Moral or the slave morality. The former stress independence, self-
approbation, and the action that flows out of strength or power. The master morality of aristocratic
races of men (such as the Romans) in freedom and held others in subjection. The latter, however,
bespeaks of herd mentality, i.e., a behavior which is unsure of itself, or an action that is borne out of
resentments. Slave morality puts great emphasis on the virtues of humility and patience, which
according to Nietzsche, destroys the society and prevents the growth and development of the
community. Nietzsche believed that this negative morality must be reevaluated and replaced by life-
affirming values of the master morality. He pointed out that human beings should describe to the
master morality and value courage, self-reliance, high-mindedness, candor and creative leadership.
Nietzsche upheld the idea that the greatest virtue would be ruthlessness, exploitation, and mastery
over others, especially the weak. Exploitation therefore is the consequence of the will to power,
which is actually the will to life. Nietzsche made the proclamation that "God is dead." By this remark,
he did not mean that God existed before and now no longer does. What he really meant was that all
people with an ounce of intelligence would now perceive that there is no intelligent plan to the
universal or rational order in it. According to Nietzsche, belief in God destroys the humanity and
denies them their freedom. In this case, only atheism can encourage the human person to return to
his/her inner strength in order to search for the true moral values. Nietzsche believed that the human
person's nourishment comes from this world. Hence, people should not be thinking of the life beyond
this world. Instead, we have to remain faithful to the earth. We should not believe those who speak
of other-worldly hopes because they only give us false hope. Christianity should be considered a
religion of pity because it has a very depressing effect.