Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgements
- Abbreviations and note on translations used in the text
- Introduction
- I The project of re-evaluation and the turn to genealogy
- II On the Genealogy of Morality
- 4 Reading the Genealogy
- 5 The first essay: “‘Good and Evil’, ‘Good and Bad’”
- 6 The second essay: “‘Guilt’, ‘Bad Conscience’, and Related Matters”
- 7 The third essay: “What is the Meaning of Ascetic Ideals?”
- 8 Debating the Genealogy
- Conclusion
- An annotated guide to further reading
- Notes
- Bibliography
- Index
4 - Reading the Genealogy
from II - On the Genealogy of Morality
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgements
- Abbreviations and note on translations used in the text
- Introduction
- I The project of re-evaluation and the turn to genealogy
- II On the Genealogy of Morality
- 4 Reading the Genealogy
- 5 The first essay: “‘Good and Evil’, ‘Good and Bad’”
- 6 The second essay: “‘Guilt’, ‘Bad Conscience’, and Related Matters”
- 7 The third essay: “What is the Meaning of Ascetic Ideals?”
- 8 Debating the Genealogy
- Conclusion
- An annotated guide to further reading
- Notes
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
On the Genealogy of Morality is composed of a preface in which Nietzsche recounts his path to this project and three essays that take up different aspects of “morality”. Mathias Risse has helpfully drawn attention to a postcard from Nietzsche to Franz Overbeck in which Nietzsche offers some elucidation with respect to the structure of this work:
Nietzsche says that, “for the sake of clarity, it was necessary artificially to isolate the different roots of that complex structure that is called morality. Each of these three treatises expresses a single primum mobile; a fourth and fifth are missing, as is even the most essential (‘the herd instinct’) – for the time being, the latter had to be ignored, as too comprehensive, and the same holds for the ultimate summation of all those different elements and thus a final account of morality.” Nietzsche also points out that each treatise makes a contribution to the genesis of Christianity and rejects an explanation of Christianity in terms of only one psychological category. The topics of the treatises are “good” and “evil” (first treatise), the “bad conscience” (second), and the “ascetic ideal” (third). The postcard suggests that Nietzsche discusses these topics separately because a joint treatment is too complicated, but that in reality, these ideas are inextricably intertwined, both with each other and with others that Nietzsche omits. Therefore, the three treatises should be regarded as parts of a unified theory and critique of morality.
(Risse 2001: 55)- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Nietzsche's Genealogy of Morality , pp. 67 - 74Publisher: Acumen PublishingPrint publication year: 2007