The Genealogy of Morals

""The Genealogy of Morals" stunned me with its originality. Nietzsche propounds a view that "noble" virtues of strength and pride were long ago subverted by a hateful and self-loathing "slave morality" that forms the root of the Judeo-Christian tradition:<br/><br/><blockquote>They have taken a lease of virtue absolutely for themselves, have these weaklings and wretched invalids, there is no doubt of it; “We alone are the good, the righteous,” so do they speak... as though health, fitness, strength, pride, the sensation of power, were really vicious things in themselves, for which one would have some day to do penance, bitter penance... how they thirst after being hangmen!</blockquote><br/><br/>This book - which the editor claims is Nietzche's most coherent work - tackles the evolution of our morality in three essays about slave morality, the origin and uses of guilt, and the relationship of ascetic ideals to the development of the slave morality. While shocking and controversial, I found Nietzsche's style of argumentation to be very difficult to follow. His work is very much a product of its time too - littered with anti-Semitism and chauvinism.<br/><br/>But in spite of these deficiencies, Nietzsche's book does succeed in that most difficult act - an act of completely original creation. I found his theories to be surprising, disturbing, and uncomfortable, yet difficult to refute. I'll have to do some more philosophy reading before I can decide what I think about his ideas.<br/><br/>The editor's note at the beginning helps considerably in contextualizing and understanding the structure of this short but very dense book.<br/><br/>My full review and highlights at <a href="http://books.max-nova.com/genealogy-of-morals/">http://books.max-nova.com/genealogy-of-morals/</a>"

"Outside of Nietzsche?"