On the Genealogy of Morals

by Friedrich Nietzsche

Paperback, 1997

Status

Available

Call number

170

Collection

Publication

Oxford University Press (1997), Edition: New Ed, Paperback, 208 pages

Description

The great philosopher's major work on ethics, along with Ecce Homo, Nietzche's remarkable review of his life and works. On the Genealogy of Morals (1887) shows him using philsophy, psychology, and classical philology in an effort to give new direction to an ancient discipline. The work consists of three essays.  The first contrasts master morality and slave morality and indicates how the term "good" has widely different meanings in each.  The second inquiry deals with guilt and the bad conscience; the third with ascetic ideals--not only in religion but also in the academy.      Ecce Homo, written in 1898 and first published posthumously in 1908, is Nietzsche's review of his life and works.  It contains chapters on all the books he himself published. His interpretations are as fascinating as they are invaluable.  Nothing Nietzsche wrote is more stunning stylistically or as a human document.     Walter Kaufmann's masterful translations are faithful of the word and spirit of Nietzsche, and his running footnote commentaries on both books are more comprehensive than those in his other Nietzsche translations because these tow works have been so widely misunderstood.… (more)

User reviews

LibraryThing member Miro
This is the dangerous stuff that lurks behind any weak democracy. Nietzsche lays things out very clearly while deciding for the "Overman" route, so 5 stars are for his analysis not his conclusion.

To suppress desire is to be weakened by guilt or bad conscience (subject of the second essay). As he
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puts it,"- I mean the morbid softening and moralization through which the animal "man" finally learns to be ashamed of all his instincts. On his way to becoming an "angel" man has evolved that queasy stomach and coated tongue through which not only the joy and innocence of the animal but life itself has become repugnant to him-."
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LibraryThing member jwhenderson
"A reader is doubly guilty of bad manners against the author when he praises the second book at the expense of the first ( or vice versa ) and then asks the author to be grateful for that.
The worst readers. --- The worst readers are those who proceed like plundering soldiers: they pick up a few
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things they can use, soil and confuse the rest, and blaspheme the whole.
Value of honest books. --- Honest books make the reader honest, at least by luring into the open his hatred and aversion which his sly prudence otherwise knows how to conceal best. But against a book one lets oneself go, even if one is very reserved toward people." Nietzsche said it best with these remarks and more.
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Language

Original language

German

Original publication date

1887 (On the Genealogy of Morals)
1888 (Ecce Homo)

Physical description

367 p.; 7.2 inches

ISBN

0192831372 / 9780192831378

Local notes

Subtitle: a polemic by way of clarification and supplement to my last book "Beyond Good and Evil"

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