Summary
Zarathustra shares what he learned traveling the world: every culture has its own definition of good and bad, and they often directly contradict each other. What one society calls virtuous, another calls shameful. The Greeks valued competitive excellence and standing out from the crowd. Other peoples prized loyalty to family above all else, or keeping promises even when it cost them dearly. Zarathustra realizes that humans created all these moral systems themselves—they weren't handed down from heaven or discovered like natural laws. Values exist because people made them up to help their societies survive and thrive. This is both liberating and terrifying: if we created our moral codes, we can change them. But it also means there's no universal referee telling us what's right and wrong. Different groups of 'loving ones' throughout history have created tables of values that worked for their time and place. The real power isn't in following these rules, but in understanding that someone had to create them in the first place. Zarathustra sees this as humanity's greatest challenge: we've had a thousand different goals for a thousand different peoples, but we still lack one unifying purpose. Without that shared direction, do we even have a coherent humanity? The chapter ends with this haunting question, suggesting that our moral confusion reflects a deeper crisis of human identity and purpose.
Coming Up in Chapter 16
Zarathustra turns his attention to a more personal moral failing: the way we use love of our neighbors to avoid dealing with our own problems. He's about to challenge one of our most cherished beliefs about caring for others.
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An excerpt from the original text.(~500 words)
Many lands saw Zarathustra, and many peoples: thus he discovered the good and bad of many peoples. No greater power did Zarathustra find on earth than good and bad. No people could live without first valuing; if a people will maintain itself, however, it must not value as its neighbour valueth. Much that passed for good with one people was regarded with scorn and contempt by another: thus I found it. Much found I here called bad, which was there decked with purple honours. Never did the one neighbour understand the other: ever did his soul marvel at his neighbour’s delusion and wickedness. A table of excellencies hangeth over every people. Lo! it is the table of their triumphs; lo! it is the voice of their Will to Power. It is laudable, what they think hard; what is indispensable and hard they call good; and what relieveth in the direst distress, the unique and hardest of all,—they extol as holy. Whatever maketh them rule and conquer and shine, to the dismay and envy of their neighbours, they regard as the high and foremost thing, the test and the meaning of all else. Verily, my brother, if thou knewest but a people’s need, its land, its sky, and its neighbour, then wouldst thou divine the law of its surmountings, and why it climbeth up that ladder to its hope. “Always shalt thou be the foremost and prominent above others: no one shall thy jealous soul love, except a friend”—that made the soul of a Greek thrill: thereby went he his way to greatness. “To speak truth, and be skilful with bow and arrow”—so seemed it alike pleasing and hard to the people from whom cometh my name—the name which is alike pleasing and hard to me. “To honour father and mother, and from the root of the soul to do their will”—this table of surmounting hung another people over them, and became powerful and permanent thereby. “To have fidelity, and for the sake of fidelity to risk honour and blood, even in evil and dangerous courses”—teaching itself so, another people mastered itself, and thus mastering itself, became pregnant and heavy with great hopes. Verily, men have given unto themselves all their good and bad. Verily, they took it not, they found it not, it came not unto them as a voice from heaven. Values did man only assign to things in order to maintain himself—he created only the significance of things, a human significance! Therefore, calleth he himself “man,” that is, the valuator. Valuing is creating: hear it, ye creating ones! Valuation itself is the treasure and jewel of the valued things. Through valuation only is there value; and without valuation the nut of existence would be hollow. Hear it, ye creating ones! Change of values—that is, change of the creating ones. Always doth he destroy who hath to be a creator. Creating ones were first of all peoples, and only in late times individuals; verily, the individual himself is still...
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Intelligence Amplifier™ Analysis
The Road of Moral Relativism
Groups create moral rules for survival, then forget they made them up, treating human inventions as eternal truths.
Why This Matters
Connect literature to life
This chapter teaches you to recognize that every group's 'obvious' moral rules are actually survival strategies they invented and then forgot were inventions.
Practice This Today
This week, notice when someone gets heated defending their values and ask yourself: what problem does this belief solve for their group or situation?
Now let's explore the literary elements.
Terms to Know
Table of Values
Nietzsche's metaphor for the moral code that each culture creates and lives by. Like a menu of what's considered good, bad, honorable, and shameful in that society. These aren't universal truths but human-made rules that help groups survive and thrive.
Modern Usage:
We see this in how different companies have different 'core values' posted in their break rooms, or how different families have completely different rules about money, relationships, and success.
Will to Power
Nietzsche's idea that the basic drive behind all human behavior is the desire to grow, expand, and assert oneself. Not just wanting power over others, but the urge to become stronger, more capable, more influential in whatever way matters to you.
Modern Usage:
This shows up in everything from someone working overtime for a promotion to a parent pushing their kid to excel in sports to feel proud of their family's reputation.
Cultural Relativism
The idea that moral judgments depend entirely on which culture you're looking from. What's right in one place can be completely wrong in another, with no universal standard to judge by.
Modern Usage:
We see this in debates about work-life balance versus grinding for success, or how different generations have totally different ideas about dating, money, and respect.
Moral Nihilism
The unsettling realization that if humans made up all moral rules, then maybe there are no absolute rights and wrongs at all. This can feel liberating or terrifying, depending on how you handle uncertainty.
Modern Usage:
This hits people when they realize their parents' advice doesn't work in today's economy, or when they see successful people breaking all the rules they were taught to follow.
Value Creation
Nietzsche's concept that humans don't discover moral truths but actively create them based on what helps their group survive and flourish. Values are tools we make, not laws we find.
Modern Usage:
We see this when new movements create their own definitions of success, like influencers redefining fame or entrepreneurs rejecting traditional career paths.
Übermensch (Overman)
Nietzsche's vision of humans who can create their own values instead of just following inherited ones. Not superhuman, but someone who takes responsibility for deciding what matters in their own life.
Modern Usage:
This is like people who build their own definition of a good life instead of chasing what their parents or society expects them to want.
Characters in This Chapter
Zarathustra
Philosophical wanderer and teacher
In this chapter, he's like an anthropologist reporting back from his travels. He's observed how different cultures create completely different moral systems and is trying to make sense of what this means for humanity as a whole.
Modern Equivalent:
The friend who's lived in different cities and keeps pointing out how weird your hometown's unspoken rules actually are
The Greeks
Historical example of value creators
Zarathustra uses them to show how one culture's highest ideal was individual excellence and competitive achievement. Their moral system celebrated standing out and being better than others.
Modern Equivalent:
That hyper-competitive coworker who sees everything as a chance to prove they're the best
The Loving Ones
Generic term for past moral legislators
These represent all the groups throughout history who created moral codes for their people. Zarathustra sees them as the real power players because they shaped how entire civilizations thought about right and wrong.
Modern Equivalent:
The influencers and thought leaders who actually change how people think about success, relationships, and what matters in life
Key Quotes & Analysis
"A table of excellencies hangeth over every people. Lo! it is the table of their triumphs; lo! it is the voice of their Will to Power."
Context: He's explaining how every culture creates its own definition of what's admirable and worth striving for
This reveals that moral systems aren't about abstract right and wrong, but about what helps a group feel powerful and successful. Each culture's values reflect what they think will make them thrive and dominate.
In Today's Words:
Every group has its own scoreboard for what counts as winning in life, and those scoreboards tell you what that group thinks will make them successful.
"Much that passed for good with one people was regarded with scorn and contempt by another: thus I found it."
Context: He's describing what shocked him most during his travels around the world
This observation shatters the comfortable assumption that there are universal moral truths everyone agrees on. It forces us to confront that our deepest beliefs might just be local customs.
In Today's Words:
What one group thinks makes you a good person, another group thinks makes you a loser.
"A thousand goals have there been hitherto, for a thousand peoples have there been. Only the fetter for the thousand necks is still lacking; lacking is the one goal."
Context: He's reflecting on humanity's lack of a unified purpose despite having many different cultural values
This points to Zarathustra's deeper concern: without some shared human purpose, we're just a collection of competing tribes with incompatible values. The question is whether we can create unity without destroying diversity.
In Today's Words:
Every group has figured out what they're trying to accomplish, but nobody's figured out what we're all supposed to be doing together as human beings.
Thematic Threads
Identity
In This Chapter
Zarathustra questions whether humanity has a coherent identity without shared values
Development
Evolved from individual identity crisis to species-wide identity confusion
In Your Life:
You might struggle with who you are when your personal values conflict with your family's or workplace's expectations
Social Expectations
In This Chapter
Different societies create completely contradictory expectations for what counts as good behavior
Development
Expanded from personal social pressure to recognition that all social expectations are human creations
In Your Life:
You might feel torn between different groups' expectations—your family wants loyalty, your job rewards individual achievement
Personal Growth
In This Chapter
Understanding that values are human creations opens possibility for conscious choice about which ones to follow
Development
Shifted from rejecting false values to recognizing the power to create new ones
In Your Life:
You might realize you can choose which family traditions to keep and which workplace cultures to embrace
Class
In This Chapter
Different social classes develop different moral systems based on their survival needs
Development
Introduced here as explanation for why different groups have conflicting values
In Your Life:
You might notice that working-class values like loyalty clash with middle-class values like individual advancement
You now have the context. Time to form your own thoughts.
Discussion Questions
- 1
What did Zarathustra discover about how different cultures define good and bad behavior?
analysis • surface - 2
Why do you think societies forget that they created their own moral rules?
analysis • medium - 3
Where do you see conflicts between different value systems in your workplace, family, or community?
application • medium - 4
How would you handle a situation where your personal values clash with your workplace culture?
application • deep - 5
What does this chapter suggest about finding common ground with people who have completely different values?
reflection • deep
Critical Thinking Exercise
Map Your Value Conflicts
Think of a recent disagreement you had with someone at work, in your family, or in your community. Write down what each person valued in that situation. Instead of judging who was right or wrong, try to identify what survival need or life experience might have shaped each person's values. What problem was each value system trying to solve?
Consider:
- •Consider what generation, background, or job role might have shaped their values
- •Look for practical reasons why their values might make sense for their situation
- •Think about whether there's a way both value systems could coexist
Journaling Prompt
Write about a time when you changed your mind about what was important. What caused that shift, and how did it affect your relationships with others who still held your old values?
Coming Up Next...
Chapter 16: The Problem with People-Pleasing
As the story unfolds, you'll explore helping others can sometimes be a way of avoiding yourself, while uncovering to tell the difference between genuine care and emotional dependency. These lessons connect the classic to contemporary challenges we all face.