INTRODUCTION TO A GENEALOGY OF MORALS

The Genealogy of Morals is a work of key importance for understanding Nietzsche's political thought. In this work Nietzsche rejects the approach of the natural law tradition of modern political thought (Hobbes, Locke, Rousseau, etc.), which seeks to establish the legitimacy of political rule by means of the notion of social contract. Nietzsche suspends questions of political obligation and legitimacy (why should the individual obey the state? What are the grounds of legitimate power?), in favour of a historical and psychological analysis of man's evolution as a moral animal. For Nietzsche, man is not naturally a political animal, but has undergone a process of training and cultivation through the evolution of morality and centuries of social development. The product of this process is the sovereign individual, the proud owner of conscience and a free will, who can be bound to social contracts and held responsible for his actions. The historical development of the animal ‘man’ has taken place in terms of a process of ‘moralisation’.