Introduction

A major obstacle to reading Nietzsche as a philosopher who has something to offer substantive moral theory is his self-ascriptions as both an immoralist and an egoist. I overcome this obstacle by understanding Nietzsche’s conception of virtues of character as those of the “mature egoist.” I focus the discussion on the virtues of mature egoism (and correlative vices) as portrayed in GM, but Nietzsche’s conception of the mature egoist underlies all his central works in ethics. Indeed the core ideas of mature egoism are introduced in works other than GM.

Much has been written about the sense in which Nietzsche is an immoralist, and its compatibility with a kind of morality, albeit a revisionary one.