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Global Humanities and Social
and Social
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Week
Week88Class
Class15
15
Week 6 Class 11
William
William
Shakespeare
Friedrich Nietzsche
Shakespeare
The
TheTempest
The Genealogy of Morals
Tempest

Matthew McDonald
Thao Thi Thu Nguyen
 Announcements
• Study Skills Centre: How to use quotes in an Essay
- Wednesday Classroom 501, 2:00-3:00pm
- Thursday Classroom 501, 2:00-3:00pm

• Assessment 4: Essay Questions: To be posted by end of week

• Essay Outline: Grades & Comments released at the end of week

 The Genealogy of Morals: Slave Morality
Group Activity: Each group will be given a topic to focus on and worksheet to write your
answers:
Topic 1: Education Topic 3: Family
Topic 2: Sex, Love & Marriage Topic 4: Women
Thursday: Question 1: Go through the main Confucian ethics on the Slides on your topic
(Education, Family & Sex, Love & Marriage, Women) and discuss which ones continue to
influence morality in Vietnam today? Base your answers on your personal experiences as well
as your observations of your family and friends.
Thursday: Question 2: Are Confucian Ethics a ‘slave’ or ‘master’ morality? Or are they
something in-between?
Tuesday Question 3: Although Nietzsche condemned Christian morality, he was also intrigued
by it, and believed it had many virtues. What are the positive moral aspects of Confucius?
 Master Morality Slave Morality
Wealth Poverty
Assertive Passive
Glory/Fame Modesty
Fight/Resistance/Defiance Obedience
Curiosity/Critical Thinking Blind Faith/Acceptance
Sex No Sex (Virginity = Purity)
Sex (Connection Enjoyment, Pleasure) Sex (producing children)
Strength Humble, Humility
Revenge Turn the Other Cheek (Forgiveness)

Test Nietzsche’s philosophy in Asian context (Vietnam) with Confucian ethics

*https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SYc-XMU5uqc
Binary Opposites
• Binary Opposition, system of language or
thought, opposites are set against each
other, gives false impression of reality
- categorising world into simple categories
- world is much more complex, chaotic,
ambiguous
“binaries entail a social and violent hierarchy,
where one side dominates The Other”
Gandhi, L. (2019). Postcolonial theory: A critical introduction (2nd ed).
Columbia University Press.
Master Morality Slave Morality
Colonizer Colonized
White Black
Civilized Primitive
Advanced Retrograde
Good Evil
Beautiful Ugly
Human Bestial
Teacher Pupil
Doctor Patient
Human Life Natural Environment
Nietzsche: Truth and Power
Truth and Power
• “All things are subject to interpretation whichever interpretation
prevails at a given time is a function of power and not truth”
• Human beings create ‘truths’ for themselves that are useful and
help them to survive as a species. ‘Knowledge’ and ‘Truth’ are
only effective instruments, not universal laws. They are concepts
that human beings invent. But they can never be ‘objective’
because they always serve some human interest or purpose
 Week 6 Thursday
Read:
• Fukuzawa Yukichi An Outline of a Theory
Civilization Chapter 3 "The Essence of
Civilization"
• Kotoko Shusu Monster of the Twentieth
Century Chapter 4 "On Imperialism"
Write:
• Weekly response posting (due in Canvas on
Monday 31 Oct 11:59 pm)