What motivated the ‘slave revolt’ in morality and does Nietzsche have good reasons to regard it as problematic?

2,431 words

January 25th 2024

1. Introduction

In this essay I will be discussing Nietzsche’s concept of the “Slave Revolt” from his work: On the Genealogy of Morality(GM). Specifically, I will be answering the questions: “What motivated the ‘slave revolt’ in morality and does Nietzsche have good reasons to regard it as problematic?”. To do so, I will first explain what Nietzsche meant by the slave revolt itself anddiscuss his other concept of Ressentiment and the role it playedin the slave revolt. Following this, I will illustrate some of the issues with other interpretations of these concepts that I believe fall short. Specifically, with the help of B. Reginster, I will point out some of the incorrect assumptions in the arguments fromBittner in his 1994 work. Through doing so, I will propose my own interpretation of the slave revolt through the lens of memetics and game theory, which I think complement and flesh out Nietzsche’s argument.

This will culminate in the answering of the above posed questions as: The slave revolt was a historical shift motivated by memetic principles and spread through game theory-esque social algorithms. This process, being analogous to ressentiment as described by Nietzsche in passages from GM, goes on toalleviate some of the potential contradictions when it comes to the ascetic ideal, which Leiter, Clark, and others have attempted to reconcile in various ways. (Clark, 2017) (Leiter, 2015a)Furthermore, if one accepts Nietzsche’s three descriptive theses about human agency as well as the doctrine of types (Leiter, 2015b), I believe it can be asserted that the slave revolt is in fact problematic and can be described as a “mind virus” in the memetic sense. 

2. Slave Revolt & Ressentiment

Nietzsche, in GM, is attempting to discover the origins of so-called “slave moralities” by researching their common source through genealogical excavation. The sentiment these slave moralities have in common is their veneration of ascetic virtues such as chastity, poverty, and humility. Nietzsche takes issue with these acetic virtues for several reasons which we will touch on later in the essay. Suffice it to say, Nietzsche’s goal is to provide a naturalistic explanation for the origins of this type of morality as doing so would call into question their divine nature, creating a dilemma for those who adhere to them. This is due not only to the fact that adherents believe in this divine nature, but also because they would abhor an explanation which paints the origins as stemming from a resentful, spiteful, or impotent energy, as the slave revolt is wont to do. 

GM Essay I section 10 tells the story of how slave morality was born of ressentiment. “The beginning of the slaves’ revolt in morality occurs when ressentiment itself turns creative and gives birth to values: the ressentiment of those beings who, denied the proper response of action, compensate for it only with imaginary revenge.” (Nietzsche, (2017 [1887]) It goes on to discuss how,prior to this, morality was simply “good” and “bad”, born of thenobles, and based on power and usefulness. Through man’s social domestication the concepts good and bad became good and evil. The slaves, as well as the priests, lacked the power of the nobles but the slaves generally accepted their plight. The priests did not and their ressentiment at their impotence grew and turned inward. In doing so they began to preach a new morality where the cause of life’s difficulties was no longer external, but internal, the self. Within this new morality, acetic virtues were considered good and if misfortune were to befall one, it would be blamed on a personal failing to live up to these virtues. By doing this the priests gained power over their flock and both priest and slave alike gained a purpose for their suffering and were also able to feel superior to those with more physical power since they gained god’s favor due to their virtueand would thus be rewarded in the Hinterwelt (afterlife) byenjoying watching those who were more powerful in life’s suffering. The slave revolt, then, is the name for this overturning of the morals of the nobles by the priests, in a way that venerated and benefitted the slaves and all those with less objective power. It happened due to ressentiment, this being the force which compelled the priests to create this new morality.

3. Sour Grapes

There is a potential issue with this description of events aspointed out by R. Bittner (2014). He states that the slave revolt could not have happened as described since it only works as a way to feel superior if you believe it, and if the priests created it they would know it wasn’t really true. He illustrates this by using Aesop’s fable of the fox and the grapes where a fox is unable to reach the grapes he wishes to eat, and so therefore says to himself “I bet they are sour anyway” to console himself. This “sour grapes” reasoning, as far as power is concerned, would not work, Bittner argues, because they cannot “know something and believe the opposite”. “[T]o say both that he knows that the grapes are ripe and that he thinks they are not does not make sense” (Bittner, 2014). 

One could argue, as Reginster did in his 1997 article:Nietzsche on Ressentiment and Valuation, that this isn’t really a case of sour grapes, since in the parable the fox isn’t saying that all grapes are sour. He is only stating that the grapes he cannot reach at that moment are such. This is different from the priests who espouse that all values contrary to their new morality (power) are “sour” (evil). I think this is one possible dismissal but personally I think that Bittner is also underestimating human psychological defense mechanisms. There is much evidence to suggest that people very much can believe something contrary to evidence if it is in the best interests of their ego to do so. (Cramer, 1987) They did not even have to create the new morality themselves. Also likely is that it was in the cultural zeitgeist already, or in some fringe cultish groups, which the priests took advantage of unknowingly. Bittner even touches on this style of concept creation himself in the quote “Beliefs and valuations need not be either invented or taken over. They may have dawned on the slaves and grown on them, without ever having been set up expressly” (Bittner, 2014) With this quote, Bittner takes exception to Nietzsche’s claim that the ressentiment was creative and spawned this new morality, but really all he is arguing against is it happening as a conscious process. I believe the feeling of ressentiment could very well still be the creative force behind the unconscious seizing of a morality that serves the ego through the rules of memetic transmission and would still fill the role Nietzsche described whether conscious or unconscious. Memetics, here, being the study of how ideas often are created and subsequently propagate. And furthermore, I believe the creation of slave morality serves a purpose which, as well as being analogous with the process described by Nietzsche, can be understood through the strategies of evolutionary game theory. Doing soalso makes sense of its origins and propagation in a way that helps resolve some of the inherent contradictions between slave morality and either evolutionary pressures or the Will to Power. 

4. Game Theory and Memetics

​What are game theory and memetics and how can they help us understand Nietzsche? First, the meme. Susan Blackmore in her book: The Meme Machine defines a meme as a unit of cultural evolution which undergoes evolution via natural selection in the same way as a gene undergoes biological evolutionary selection. (Blackmore, 2000) A meme being the smallest unit of transmission, like a gene. Memes can also combine to create larger “memeplexes”, some of which can be considered “Mind Viruses”. (Brodie, 2011) In this way, memes as ideas, behaviors, styles, etc, spread from person to person and influence people’s thoughts and behaviors. Brodie defines meme viruses as “…something out in the world that infects people with memes. Those memes, in turn, influence the infected people’s behavior so that they help perpetuate and spread the virus.”(Brodie, 2011) One can consider the satanic panic of the 80s, other mass hysterias through history, fads, fake news, even internet memes themselves (which got their name from this very concept) as prominent examples. At its most extreme, this process can be thought of as a separate entity which flows through the medium of humanity. As this medium, we exert some power over the memes, insofar as memes which elicit a strong response (due to having close ties with our evolutionary drives) are more likely to be passed on, but this does not mean memes help facilitate those drives. Much in the same way we are drawn to eating sugar to an unhealthy extent, so can memes, while originally based in mental pathways designed by natural selection, work against us in unhealthy ways. Before we move onto how this ties to the slave revolt and ressentiment, let us define one more necessary component. 

​​Evolutionary game theory is a field of study whereby interactions take place between individuals with varying strategies over many generations in a computer simulation to see which can gather more resources and procreate more effectively. This allows for the evaluation of the benefits of variousadversarial and cooperative strategies. The field has shown great promise in describing and predicting human behaviors on a macro level. (Gibbons, 1997) These simulations have shown that no one strategy dominates in every situation (think rock paper scissors), but one strategy does statistically rise to the top and that is “Tit-for Tat”. (Veritasium, 2023) This is a forgiving, pro-social style strategy and could help explain how altruism evolved. There will always be those who utilize antisocial strategies to get ahead, but those people can also never become the majority for reasons illustrated through game theory.

​On a smaller scale, from a psychology perspective, in the book: Games People Play, Dr. Eric Berne describes various strategies people use in daily life in a variety of social situations. He calls them games, and while this approach is distinct from evolutionary game theory, it shares the same theme: humans have a wide variety of “games” or strategies that are available for their use socially. The distinction in Berne’s work is that here you are often winning in a more abstract sense as instead of resources and procreation directly, you are winning social power, credit, and attention. Here too, while statistically it is advantageous for people to cooperate, based on the individualand the situation, someone might choose another strategy that ismore self-serving or even exploitative of others.

5. Ressentiment as Game Theory and Memetics

Now to put it all together. I believe there is good reason to assert that the “creative values birthed by ressentiment” areanalogous to the natural algorithmic process of the adoption of an alternative game theory strategy which has seized upon the meme of slave morality to gain power. This could have been done either by creating the meme (which, contrary to what was asserted by Bittner, would be shielded from the ego by our psychological defense mechanisms) or by utilizing an already an existing, albeit less successful, meme. The reason it is useful to frame the process this way is that it potentially resolves apurported contradiction in GM essay III regarding the ascetic ideal. Because a meme’s main drive is to spread, it can propagate culturally even where the individual person espousing it does not continue to propagate genetically. To put simply, an ascetic priest could spread the meme of Christianity even if he himself has no children. Memes can transmit laterally, and memetic viruses can be detrimental to human flourishing. In this way, the meme of slave morality can be attractive to those feeling ressentiment as a means to gain power while also simultaneously working against their own interests in other ways. 

6. Is the Revolt Problematic?

Now to address the second part of the initial question. Does Nietzsche have good reasons to regard the slave revolt as problematic? It is difficult to answer this question without appealing to some sort of objective set of values, but within the paradigm of Nietzsche himself, one can utilize his words from Beyond Good and Evil 188: ”What is essential ‘in heaven and earth’ seems to be… that there should be obedience over a long period of time in a single direction: given that, something always develops, and had always developed, for whose sake it is worth while to live on earth; for example, virtue, art, music, dance, reason, spirituality -something transfiguring, subtle, mad, and divine.” (Nietzsche, (2023[1886]). Taking from this quote that there is something worthwhile in consistancy and purposefully fostering things like art, music, reason etc,, andcombining that with the tenets Nietzsche puts forth for why he takes issue with both the normative and descriptive aspects slave morality, can result in a coherent position on this question. Nietzsche’s issues with slave morality boil down to his (1) questioning of free will, (2) doubts regarding the transparency of self, (3) problems with universal applicability, as well as the application of his doctrine of types. (Leiter, 2015b). I believe modern research in neuroscience has corroborated the first twoas real problems, arguably casting serious doubt on free will and transparency of self. (Smith, 2008) Furthermore, the issues raised regarding universal applicability and the doctrine of types could be said to necessitate that certain people are justified in utilizing an alternative “game strategy” in order to achieve excellence in a manner in which the ascetic moral system wouldnot allow. From this perspective, the slave revolt is indeed problematic as it holds those people back who would be predisposed to excellence. 

7. Conclusion

In summation, the slave revolt could be described as being motivated by game theory social algorithms and spread through memetic principles. This process, being analogous to ressentiment as described by Nietzsche, furthermore alleviates the contradiction inherent in the ascetic ideal. Furthermore, based on Nietzsche’s stated problems with both the normative and descriptive aspects slave morality, it can be asserted that the slave revolt has in fact led to a problematic mind virus. In closing, interesting ideas are often reevaluated through new paradigms as prevailing thoughts change or science advances. Looking at Nietzsche through the lens of game theory and memetics offers new insights, bolstering his work, and continuing to support him as the visionary he was. 

Bibliography

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Nietzsche, F. (2023[1886]). Beyond Good and Evil. Gröls Verlag. 

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Smith, K. (2008) Brain makes decisions before you even know it. Nature. https://doi.org/10.1038/news.2008.751

Veritasium. (2023). What The Prisoner’s Dilemma Reveals About Life, The Universe, and Everything. YouTube.Retrieved January 5, 2024, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mScpHTIi-kM.