Construction of law, morality, and religion

In my work, I would like to study the construction of law, morality, and religion as they were presented in the philosophical systems of Marx and Nietzsche. Both, Marx and Nietzsche, are among the most influential German philosophers. A lot of fundamental concepts of their works are different, but there are views on most things are similar. They both were interested in the mechanisms of power, the way people obtain and hold it and both determined religion, morality and laws as the part of these mechanisms. At he same time they had fundamentally different vision of the structure and moving powers of culture, religion and ethics and these differences discover differences, which separate their works. Marx was interested in social mechanisms of power and Nietzsche studied individual reactions.
In my work I would like to center on the attitude to the control of law, religion and moral expressed by these two philosophers. Both Marx and Nietzsche expressed negative attitude to moral and religion. Marx’s theory of ruling ideas supports the thesis that these ideas present the interests of the ruling class. These ideas get the name of ruling ideas and present the fundamental moral, political, ethical and economic ideas profitable for the ruling class. In his Communist Manifesto Marx states that “Law, morality, religion are to [the proletariat] so many bourgeois prejudices, behind which lurk in ambush just as many bourgeois interests” (Marx). By these words he means that law, morality and religion become only the strongest weapon people use to rule and manipulate weaker people. Marx rejects the higher moral values regarding them only as an instrument in the hands of bourgeoisie. All ideas expressed by Karl Marx should be regarded in the context of his theory of society and as an integral part of this theory. Unlike Nietzsche, Marx didn’t criticize religious set of beliefs, as he was more interested in the social aspect of religion and its role in the society. “Thus the criticism of heaven turns into the criticism of earth, the criticism of religion into the criticism of law and the criticism of theology into the criticism of politics” (Marx) and he uses supportive arguments to prove his belief that religion is a product of human origin, created in order to manipulate people. “Man makes religion, religion doesn’t make man. Religion is the self-consciousness and self-esteem of man who has either not yet found himself or has already lost himself again.” (Marx).
According to Marx religions religion doesn’t reflect true state of events and possesses no divine origin. Being a human product, religion doesn’t reflect the consciousness of the waste majority of people but set of manipulative techniques used by the ruling class in order to distract the attention of poor from their miserable situation and justify unfairness. Religion serves as opium, which poisons the minds of people creating illusory ideals and happiness. Marx saw true liberation in destroying the hobbles created by religion. Though, it’s worth to mention that Marx didn’t believe that religion was created by the bourgeoisie but was the historical result of the centuries of exploitation. In the beginning, religion wasn’t the product of capitalism but was wisely used by the ruling class for its sake.
Marx’s attitude to moral and ethics was identical to his attitude to religion. He regarded morals of one of the instruments of ruling class to control the rest of the population. “The individuals composing the ruling class possess among other things consciousness, and therefore think.” (Marx). Marx saw the way out in the dependence of the working class in the development of consciousness. Conscious group of people stops being the object of manipulation and ruling class isn’t able to control it with the help of law, morality, and religion. Nietzsche is most known for his radical statement “god is dead” and this phrase the best way reflects his attitude to morals, religions, social traditions and foundations. In his works he challenged the foundations of traditional morality and Christian religion. He started his philosophical search from reevaluation of all foundations of the modern society and destroying them by persuasive arguments. “The whole realm of morality and religion belongs under the concept of imaginary causes.” (Nietzsche) he states in his work.
Same as Marx, Nietzsche rejected social laws, morals and religion but he saw absolutely different mechanisms to be the essence of these phenomena. Nietzsche’s views on religions and morals get the best realization in his works call Genealogy of Morals and Beyond Good and Evil. In Beyond Good and Evil he explores the ethical mechanisms, which regulate people behavior and their origins. He didn’t believe the nature to be morally neutral and distinguished two types of morality: herd morality and master morality. Herd morality he attributed to Christianity, criticizing both – this type of morality and religion, based on the consciousness of slaves. He correlates the appearance of the terms good and bad to the terms of Roman empire when everything connected with warriors, cruelty and active action was appraised as “bad” by suppressed slaves and everything intrinsic was regarded as “good” by the same slaves. Such moral system gave week and suppressed a kind of compensation in their miserable situation and gave them mechanisms to control strong and successful members of the society. Nietzsche states that generations of people live directed by the ethical judgments created by the generation of slaves and using such moral principles we only distance ourselves from true liberation and fortify the continuousness of the slaves. The type of morality described above reflects so called herd morality, which dominates in the society for centuries, despite slavery is a tragic fact from the human history.
Another type of morality, which is contrast to herd morality, is called master morality. According to Nietzsche this morality is realistic and reflects the real destination of all human creatures. Master morality asserts the power of successful and strong individuals, who have the right to rule the world. Nietzsche denied the morality of the nature, calling it morally neutral. “There are no moral phenomena; there are only moral interpretations.” (Nietzsche). Thus, master morality speaks of “good” and “bad” rather than “Good and Evil.” He saw master morality as the way to overcome limitations, created by the moral judgments of slave morality. Master morality for Nietzsche becomes the way to realize the potential to will-to-power and finally becoming the Overman – supreme human being. Nietzsche’s critique of religion is has an aesthetic nature. He also denies morals. Religion didn’t escape his critics either. For Nietzsche religion is only an ugly form weak people use as compensation for their weakness. The cult of weak and miserable was established for centuries and it included the denial of everything beautiful, healthy, strong and powerful, including human body. Nietzsche states that “Christianity, which despised the body, has been the greatest misfortune of humanity so far.” For him religion along with morality serve only for the justification for weak and powerless, who have no other means to express their right for living. Calling for revolt and setting up the morality of master and sweeping away religion Nietzsche deprives week of their right to live and realize themselves.
We can see that both, Marx and Nietzsche protest against social norms and regulation, morals and religions. They both ask for revolt against them but we can also see that they use controversial arguments to support their theses. Marx states that morality, laws and religion are the part of ruling ideas, which belong to ruling class. These ideas are used to help the ruling class to control the rest of the society. He focuses on the social problems in his research and sees the root of the problem in the oppression of the working class. At the same time, doubting all the foundations of the society, Nietzsche comes to the diametrically different conclusions. He distinguishes morals and religion as the compensate tools, used by weak people, poisoned by the slave psychology. In his mind they use morality and religion in order to pervert categories of good and bad and to set up equality and to control powerful and mighty people, convincing them in the wrongfulness of their positions.
So, both philosophers agree that laws, morality and religion are the tools of manipulation but they go away in the conclusions about the groups of people who use these tools. For Marx they become the objects of manipulation of the ruling class of strong suppressors and for Nietzsche they indicate the last remedy of the slaves used to compensate their weakness. Both philosophers had a lot of followers and they still are prominent figures for not only German, but also the world politics. Their teachings are definitely interesting and innovative, if we remember that they had been written in the 19th century. But I would like to focus on one fact, which unites these philosophical concepts of denial. It’s a common known fact that Nietzsche’s works were used by Hitler and Italian Fascists when forming the main dogmas of their doctrine. We also know that Marxism was the dominant teaching taken by all communist regimes of the last century. I think everybody is aware about the atrocities, murder of the millions of people both regimes performed. We can not blame philosophers, whose teachings were used by political leaders and ideologists, but we can have a dim idea about the type of society, which is based on denial of moral, ethical and religious norms and try to escape such sad mistakes in the future. Social norms and regulations can be too general and limit the freedom of an individual sometimes, but we must keep in mind that the level of individual development should be very high in order to get rid of social control and not to be directed by animal instincts.

References:
1. On the Genealogy of Morals. trans. Walter Kaufmann and R.J. Hollingdale, in On the Genealogy of Morals and Ecce Homo. New York: Random House, 1967.
2. Beyond Good and Evil. trans. Walter Kaufmann. New York: Random House, 1966.
3. K. Marx and F. Engels, On Religion (Moscow: Progress Publishers, 1975)
4. K. Marx and F. Engels, The German Ideology (Moscow: Progress Publishers, 1976 [c. 1845])
5. K. Marx and F. Engels, “Manifesto of the Communist Party” in Selected Works (Moscow: Progress Publishers, 1968 [1848]): 35-71