Locke's Influence On Nietzche

7 Pages 1683 Words

e, “Creatures of Habit”, comes to mind. According to Nietzsche, Man has become “calculable, regular, and necessary” (Genealogy, Second Essay, Section 1), which, he says, is the basis for Man’s right to make promises. Man’s awareness of this right is the logical basis of responsibility. Since humans make promises to other humans, there has to be some sort of universality to this right. This means that every person who makes a promise has to feel somewhat responsible for keeping it.
Over time, Nietzsche says, in a period of “prehistoric labor” he calls the “morality of mores”, people created their own desire for order. (Genealogy, Second Essay, Section 2) When humans became “sovereign individuals” (Genealogy, Second Essay, Section 2), that is, having their own will and the right to make promises, they convinced themselves of their superiority over other creatures and nature. People looked at other beings and either “honored or despised” them based upon whether or not they were able to carry out promises. In doing so, they developed a sense of pride about the “awareness of the extraordinary privilege of respons...