Slave Morality

Abstract

“Slave morality” is a concept most closely associated with the political thought of Friedrich Nietzsche, and in its distinction between master and slave, it recalls G. W. F. Hegel's master/slave dialectic. Both examine the value of morality to give an ethical account of political agency and of freedom. The idea of a distinct “slave morality” works on the assumption that the state is always characterized by a political hierarchy, an order that distinguishes between nobles and slaves. That political distinction is then transformed into a psychological concept of rank, so that the nobles (or the masters) are able to tell and control the story of freedom, and of morality, and to oppress their slaves on the grounds that “the slaves of history are those who lack the spirit of freedom.” Such accounts of morality raise questions about possible counternarratives of freedom for the “slaves of history,” and about how to understand the agency and selfhood of those who have been systematically marginalized, dominated, and defined by others with more power.