ABSTRACT
In Beyond Good and Evil, Friedrich Nietzsche addresses what he saw as the spiritual and cultural decline of Europe in general and Germany in particular. Nietzsche judged that the overall direction of European culture was dictated by the Judeo-Christian morality that predominated at that time. Once the apparent uniqueness and absoluteness of Christian ethics is convincingly undermined, it becomes possible to compare and contrast the different moral codes that have existed throughout history and in different parts of the world. Nietzsche was keen to elevate himself above the parochial and nationalistic outlook of contemporary Germany and, as one sensitive to nuances of meaning, he often preferred to choose words from other languages if they served his purpose better than German. Nietzsche concludes that all moralities fall into one of two basic types: "a master morality and a slavemorality".
