Product Description
General Books publication date: 2009 Original publication date: 1897 Original Publisher: Macmillan Subjects: Ethics Philosophy / General Philosophy / Ethics… More >>
A Genealogy of Morals
Product Description
General Books publication date: 2009 Original publication date: 1897 Original Publisher: Macmillan Subjects: Ethics Philosophy / General Philosophy / Ethics… More >>
A Genealogy of Morals
This is a REAL HIGHLIGHT out of the last “creative period” of Nietzsche, dating from about one and a half year before he fell in that cruel mental illness (NOT syphillis, as is told in the streets…), that lead him to his death: HE WROTE THIS BOOK IN ONE BREATHE, WITHOUT INTERRUPTION, IN 3 WEEKS: FROM JULY 10th UNTIL JULY 30th OF 1887 !!! In his “Genealogy” we find back some basic concepts, principles of ethics as there are “GOOD AND EVIL”, “GUILT AND CONSCIENCE” and “THE ASCETIC IDEAL”. These subjects stay central anywhere in the book. But the author DOES NOT AT ALL “TREAT” these notions conform to their normal usage in the philosophy of morality. He is NOT INTERESTED IN WHAT THEY (the morals) MEAN, or in THEIR VALUE in whatever kind of morality, NOR in their NORMATIVE VALUE OR MERIT. Instead he is in search of their “BIRTH”, their “ORIGIN” and in how they “FUNCTION” in an organised society.
Again, it is NOT IMPORTANT to Nietzsche what is the VALUE of this or that action. WHAT IS REALLY OF IMPORTANCE HERE IS THE VALUE/MERIT OF THIS OR THAT VALUE ITSELF. As he wrote (and said so many times): “WE NEED A CRITICISM OF MORAL VALUES: FIRST OF ALL, THE VALUE OF THESE VALUES MUST BE QUESTIONED.” As to him there doesn’t exist anything like a linear, progressive development of morality: the latter is the RESULT of the eternal combat between “masters and slaves”, between “those who govern and those that are being reigned over”. Each of these “GROUPS” tries – ALWAYS AND EVERYWHERE – to acquire as much power as possible versus the other.
MORALITY (“MORALS”) IS THE MOST IMPORTANT INSTRUMENT – IF NOT BY EXCELLENCE – IN THIS FIGHT, THIS COMBAT, WHICH IS THE RESULT OF THE DRIFT, THE PASSION OF EACH MAN OR GROUP: THE WILL FOR POWER.
This MASTERPIECE from the giant German philosopher DOES NOT READ like a novel. BUT THE BOOK IS SO IMPORTANT FOR THE THOUGHTS, THIS HIGHEST-LEVEL THINKING of this genius concerning morals which he describes, even DISSECTS here. “Not an easy read” DOES NOT MEAN that it can’t and/or shouldn’t be read! ON THE CONTRARY: THANKS TO THE ENORMOUS LITERARY TALENT OF NIETZSCHE, THE THEMES AND THOUGHTS THAT TOUCH, AFFECT ALL OF US EVERY DAY, THIS WORK “NEEDS” OUR ATTENTION (and vice versa).
TO EVERY READER WHO KNOWS THE IMPORTANCE OF INTROSPECTION, AND WHO WANTS TO KNOW MORE ABOUT THE ORIGIN OF “OUR MORALS”, I RECOMMEND THIS “GENEALOGY” (OH YES, HE CHOSE THE RIGHT WORDS…) OUT OF MY HEART AND REASON. NONE OF YOU WILL EVER REGRET HAVING READ THIS SO “MATURE” MASTERPIECE, WHICH TOUCHES ALL OF OUR BEINGS AND SOULS. Rating: 5 / 5
Nietzsche, like no other philosopher that I have read, has changed the way that I see the world. This is a book to read if you want to learn something about yourself. Nietzsche may have gone insane and had delusions that he was God, but he revolutionised modern thought. There is a special place in hell for German philosophers, but it’s a place that’s worth visiting. Rating: 5 / 5
What Socrates tried to build troughout his whole life, Nietzsche almost destroyed in couple of books. Said like this, it seems simplistic enough, but it is far from that. To understand Nietzsche, one has to reach much deeper than Nietzsche’s words suggest. One has to know Schoppenhauer, has to now french philosophers, contractualist, and most of all one has to know greek philosophy. And greek culture. The place where it all began. At least for the westerners. Nietzsche was also great admirer and critic of Indian, Vedanta tradition, so to understand Nietzsche one will eventualy have to travel even to those horisons, which are in itself something completely different.
Why am I saying all of this?
Because it is often proven that it is too easy to misread Nietzsche, calling him an emerging point from which Nacism rose, and putting him, with Plato in a place where inventors of fascist state sleep their eternal sleep.
One has to be careful when reading Nietzsche. It is too easy to insert meaning which are not present in the text. And in that manner, it is easy to create philosophy totaly alien from its author.
If one wants to travel deep inside the Nietzsches core, one should start his journey with this book. It seems to be the most grateful for begginners. Not to mention that it is excellent for trying different approach to history of morals, approach that is in a way revolutionary if we were not customed to it nowadays. But in time of Nietzsches life, this sounded outrageous.
It may stand as constant reminder, if some of you forgot that, how radical criticism is not looked upon with kindness.
These are just few words which doesen’t explain a thing in fact, but if you are at least interested in history (or geneaology) of morals, and conceptual problems which rise from it, you should definitely read this book. Rating: 5 / 5
This is an excellent philosophical and philological tract that explores several fundemental characteristics of society and morality. I recommend this to everyone. Rating: 5 / 5
I read On the Genealogy of Morals for a graduate seminar on ethics, and in particular his writings regarding the virtue of courage. I found Walter Kaufmann’s translation the best of several I looked at. Often regarded in philosophical circles as the first “postmodern” philosopher, Nietzsche is very critical to all of modernity’s philosophical attempts to create a scientific or rationally based approach to ethics. Nietzsche’s On the Genealogy of Morals is in part a refutation of Kant’s ethical theory, arguing that Kantian ethics as well as other modern ethical theories were more interested in defining ethical values and not concerned with questioning their usefulness or whether they were derived from what Nietzsche believed were irrational psychological forces feeding people’s illusions. Another purpose of the Genealogy is to examine the history of how morals were created in Western culture. Nietzsche’s extensive philological studies of ancient Greek literature led him to argue that there needed to be a historical and psychological approach to understanding how ethical values came into existence. Thus, one of Nietzsche’s goals in his Genealogy is to provide a critique of ethical values, such as courage, and to examine, “…the conditions and circumstances in which they grew, under which they evolved and changed.” (456, GM I, 6). Another important aspect of Nietzsche’s Genealogy is found in Nietzsche’s ethical notions finding common ground with Aristotelian virtue ethics. Only Aristotelian virtue ethics can fit well with Nietzsche’s moral ethics. Thus, I find that an interesting outcome of Nietzsche’s examination of Greek culture leads him down a path back to the first evolutionary stage of the virtue of courage in particular, and to the classical Greek inception of virtue ethics in general. Nietzsche enthusiastically followed this path and reintroduced the world to the critical need for the classical Greek interpretation of the virtue of courage to help shape the “postmodern” world.
Nietzsche recognized in ancient Greek poetry that heroes are not content with just living, but are compelled to perform courageous acts even at the peril of their own lives. In fact, for Greek heroes, gaining fame and glory at the expense of often suffering a courageous death seemed to be their raison d’être. Nietzsche recognizes this phenomenon in Greek poetry, which alerts him to the notion that the ancient and classical Greek citizens accepted the idea that part of the nature of life was that it could be tragic, dark, and foreboding; however, the Greeks who were noble of character did not despair. This notion was readily accepted by Aristotle but not by Plato, who thought that Greek tragedy taught the citizenry the wrong lessons about life. They knew that to be virtuous was to engage in a constant agon or [contest] to overcome the pitfalls of life. This literary fact causes Nietzsche to understand that like the ancient Greeks, the best of contemporary society, such as philosophers and artists whom he calls the “masters,” have to rely on their virtues, such as courage, to constantly struggle to overcome life’s limits. Nietzsche’s observation of Greek culture leads him to define a theory of master and slave morality, which lays the foundation for his notion of returning to the classical Greek virtue of courage.
Nietzsche understands master morality as the ideals of virtuous characteristics epitomized by the best of Greek aristocracy. On the other hand, slave morality according to Nietzsche, grew out of the Judeo-Christian ethic supporting love and justice over power. Master morality acknowledges “good” and “bad” in the world; while slave morality acknowledges “good” and “evil.” Nietzsche recognized the masters as “active” people, and whatever helps them achieve greatness is good. Thus, Nietzsche defines the good and bad characteristics in master morality in the following way. Character traits such as courage, conquest, aggression, and command that engender the feelings of power in people are deemed `good,’ while traits of weaker people such as cowardice, passivity, humility, and dependence are deemed `bad.’ Furthermore, Nietzsche argues that within the master and slave morality what is good can only be good for the master, because the slave morality is essentially based on a number of opposing ideals from the master morality. Therefore, an important argument for Nietzsche is, that according to slave morality, anything that opposes, destroys, or conquers is evil and should be eliminated from human relations. Nietzsche argues that slave morality espouses humility, selflessness, and kindness as ruling traits for all people as a condition of self-perseverance against master morality. These are all character traits central to Judeo-Christian morality, and are diametrically opposed to the aggressive character traits of the master morality, which were central to the power of the Roman Empire when Christianity was conceived. Against the backdrop of master and slave morality, Nietzsche examines the classical Greek cardinal virtues, and he specifically looks into the virtue of courage, which is so central to master morality.
When Nietzsche contemplates the future of virtues, he laments the lack of courage displayed by people in modern society. Nietzsche sounds a clarion call for artists to once again courageously take their place as masters of society. Nietzsche sees courage as something which is good for the people who have it, in that it enables them to win contests which they would lose without it. In addition, Nietzsche recognizes that in order for people to act courageously, they also need to overcome their emotions of fear. “But there is something in me that I call courage; that has so far slain my every discouragement.” Once again, Nietzsche is using Aristotle’s virtue ethic model of practical reasoning to show that a person with noble intentions, or in Nietzsche’s parlance, a master can will themselves to overcome their fears. After examining Nietzsche’s extensive writings on the history of ethics, I find that his description of courage fits well within the classical Greek model of the virtue of courage.
Nietzsche’s philosophical project pertaining to the virtue of courage is centered on the idea that those who were the masters in Greek society actually desired to face and conquer dangerous situations. In essence, Nietzsche demilitarized the Greek emphasis on battlefield courage and applied it to the people he thought could be the masters of society of his time and into the future–artists and philosophers. The power Nietzsche yearns for is the power of creative activity. Creativity is the “will to power” that this much maligned philosopher was truly advocating. Rating: 5 / 5