ABSTRACT
Nietzsche distinguishes between two perspectives one can take when one attempts to practice virtue: that of a member of society, and that of a private person (Privat). Nietzsche is developing one of the persistent themes of the early aphoristic works: the evolution of moral ideas. For him, moral ideas are human inventions and, because the perspective of the member of society is overwhelmingly biased against ideas that are incompatible with weak utilitarianism, no such idea could come into existence "within society." When society passes from the aristocratic form of organization to the democratic one, it subjects everyone to the rule of society itself. No one is insulated any longer by politically institutionalized privilege. The ideas by which society exercises this control have the further effect of discouraging the highest sorts of excellence of character. Nietzsche's preferred form of social organization, which is aristocracy differs from monarchy in that it places a number of people in this position.
