On the Genealogy of Morality
Friedrich Nietzsche
Nietzsche wrote it in under a month as a follow-up to Beyond Good and Evil, tracing how the values of the strong were inverted by those they dominated. The second essay, on guilt as an outgrowth of debt, is his most sustained piece of straight argument. This edition is the Clark and Swensen translation for Hackett, which renders the title as Morality rather than Morals.
Why you should read this
This is a polemical continuation of Nietzsche's earlier critique of moral philosophy, tracing the historical origins of concepts like guilt and conscience rather than treating them as fixed, ahistorical categories. Read this for Nietzsche's genealogical method, which asks where a moral concept came from instead of whether it is true.
- Field
- Philosophy
- Form
- Non-fiction
- Published
- 1887
- Themes
- EthicsPhilosophy
