I understand where you’re coming from, don’t get me wrong. I was just trying to say that valuations no matter what they are based off of have are of the realm of prejudice. They have no real place in philosophical inquiry (though they can be a product of philosophical inquiry), which is not to say they do not have a place in living. But because every value system is a prejudice for something (for life, for power, for truth, or what have you), it’s purpose is to aid in a particular type of interpretation of the world. It is not concerned with truth alone, but with a goal which is manifest in the valued object.
When people get their value systems from others you can pretty much guarentee that it is being imbued in them for some purpose (and not so they should question it). For example, Nietzsche’s valuations which give respect to the sources of power has the effect of securing power structures and relations. It’s really an ingenious way of causing individuals to affirm a situation that is not in their own interest, but it’s not really something to take seriously as philosophical inquiry (that is, inquiry backed by prejudice). The inquiry would be the other way around, that you would look at reality and then use the contents of reality to back the prejudice to use as a tool, a Platonic tool, of imbuing the population with morals that progress your cause.
The point I was making is not that Nietzsche had his head in the clouds — he did look at the world as it is, but seeing that the reality and affirming the reality are two different things. It is the process of affirmation that is the prejudice, it is like a moral imperative “Thou shalt…” (affirm reality).
If you say, the strong will crush the weak, that could refer to an actual state of affairs, a truth. If you say, the strong “should” (or are right to) you are translating a truth to a moral prejudice. I was just saying that Nietzsche’s goal to change the moral landscape was part of a political program, it was intentional, the concern was not with truth in the way that a philosophical or scientific inquiry is. Philosophy is more flexible than science because it can work with things like moral imperatives and construct them. Philosophy is like Science + Art, in a manner of speaking. Not only does it discover the nature of things but it is also an intentional action, it constructs political programs and uses the discoveries to artfully to bring about an effect. Nietzsche’s values were his art. I’m not saying they’re shyte or anything, he was a brilliant thinker but that doesn’t mean he needs to be obeyed… unless you are willing to be dominated by his ideas, or you share his political goals or prejudices, or are unable to extricate yourself from his imperatives (to think beyond them), but the underlying teaching was that philosophers (who are above even kings) do not become dominated by the values of others, they are the creators of values and use them to rope others into their political programs.