Monday, July 1, 2013

Morality of Custom and Morality of Warfare

The career of George Washington suggests a flaw in the thesis, from Daybreak #9, that Morality begins as the "Morality of Custom".  For, his transition from leader of the revolutionary army to the first leader of the new country, illustrates that the military action that gives birth to a community can influence its settled condition.  Thus, it demonstrates that the Morality of Custom can be determined by a preceding Morality of Warfare.  A more methodical route to the same conclusion is to begin with the Will to Power, and then to derive from it a theory of 'History' as constituted by continual martial overcomings.  Whether or not Nietzsche later seemingly modified the Daybreak thesis on the basis of such a derivation, is unclear.

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