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On the Genealogy of Morals / Ecce Homo

Friedrich Nietzsche,

Walter Kaufmann (translator),

R.J. Hollingdale (Translator)

4.16 · Rating details · 14,030 ratings · 234 reviews

The Genealogy of Morals consists of three essays exploring morality and its origins where Nietzsche makes ample use of his training as a philologist. These works contain Nietzsche's most thorough and clear expression of his psychological philosophy. This edition includes Ecce Homo, Nietzsche's review of his life and works, with the exception of The Antichrist. These two bo ...more

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Paperback, 367 pages

Published April 28th 2010 by Vintage Bookx (first published 1887)

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Dec 07, 2011 T.J. Beitelman rated it it was amazing

Make no mistake: Nietzsche was a nut. Bertrand Russell famously dismissed him as a megalomaniac, and maybe that’s true. People blame the Nazis on him, they say he was a misogynist, and on and on. I don’t really know about all that, one way or another (though the Nazi thing is demonstrably false — Nietzsche consistently rails against all things German, especially what he considered the Germanic tendency toward mindless group-think. He was also vehemently opposed to anti-Semitism. Maybe a Nazi or Make no mistake: Nietzsche was a nut. Bertrand Russell famously dismissed him as a megalomaniac, and maybe that’s true. People blame the Nazis on him, they say he was a misogynist, and on and on. I don’t really know about all that, one way or another (though the Nazi thing is demonstrably false — Nietzsche consistently rails against all things German, especially what he considered the Germanic tendency toward mindless group-think. He was also vehemently opposed to anti-Semitism. Maybe a Nazi or two misconstrued and/or appropriated his ideas, but it’s very likely he would’ve ended up in Dauchau had he been around).

At any rate, there’s no question the guy cracked up and spent the last few years of his life as a catatonic and drooling shade of himself, being looked after by a sister he hated and mocked when he’d had his wits about him. If that aint a cautionary tale re: the risks of spending your life thinking heady thoughts, what is? (Good thing me and the Anonymous Sister are on good terms…)

Still. Just cuz you’re crazy don’t mean you aint onto something. (Which is pretty much a direct quote from ol’ Freddie himself. You know. In translation.)

On the Genealogy of Morals has stuck in my craw for a few reasons: 1) a madcap, brilliant professor-type introduced me to it. He was great because he was the type of madcap, brilliant professor who could work the alchemical magic of turning an inscrutable text into a sacred one but — and I witnessed this — you put him in a grocery store and tell him to find the vanilla extract and he quickly comes to his wit’s end. Something about that strikes me as being exactly the way it should be; 2) it’s about the roots of asceticism and how asceticism is and always will be rooted in hedonism, how Yes! and No! do their necessary little dance. (This is a dance I must admit I know at least a little too well.); 3) Also: how there’s a difference between Yes! vs. No! and Right vs. Wrong. Not just a difference but a sequence: Yes! comes first. Then comes No! Then come the qualifiers.

This is the important thing, though: Nietzsche is, first and foremost, an artist. A poet, in fact. (“Nut” / “Poet;” “Tomato” / “Tomahto.”) His background as a philologist is not a tangent to who and what he was. You can’t expect science or fact or consistency from him. He is interested in bigger things than just that. His language is beautiful and his metaphorical leaps are exhilarating. That’s where his Truth resides.

The good thing about Nietzsche is you can pick him up, open to any page, and read a few sentences to chew on for several hours, days, or years. You don’t even have to understand him. Just be with him as if he was your crazy uncle.

Everyone needs a crazy uncle.

In fact, Nietzsche might say that everyone needs to be a crazy uncle. Or at any rate this: if you’re a crazy uncle, aint no use pretending otherwise.

Du sollst werden, der du bist: You must become what you are. ...more

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Aug 21, 2008 Joshua Nomen-Mutatio rated it it was amazing

Shelves: history, philosophy, religion, cultural-and-or-political, nietzsche, ethics-and-or-metaethics, essays

Here Nietzsche returns to the form of the essay after several complete works largely composed aphoristically. The second essay in the polemic On the Geneology of Morals is excellent and my personal favorite of the three essays that comprise this work. He discusses the historical tossings and turnings that have led to weird inversions of moral standards throughout the ages. The ways in which many eggs are often broken to make various omelettes and how the omelettes often turn out much differently ...more

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Aug 04, 2011 Kirstian rated it it was amazing

One of the few books that absolutely changed my life, and filled in as something not unlike a spiritual guide (between a time-gap following my denouncing formal religion, then not knowing how to proceed with philosophy as a "spiritual endeavor," which is how many "Eastern" philosophers define spirituality, by the way...)...

Although any of Nietzsche's works might fit this bill (most would recommend Zarathustra), for some reason--probably due to my innate interest in the etymological significance ...more

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Aug 12, 2007 Jacob rated it really liked it

This book made me sputtering mad when I read it in college. In retrospect, I'm just grateful that it was easy to read.

Also, did you know that there's a brand of bread called Ecce Panis? Thus Baked Zarathustra! Try it with Hummus, All Too Hummus and The Dill to Power. The latter tends to rankle purists, though. ...more

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Aug 22, 2007 GD rated it it was amazing

A dude thinking harder than any dude before him ever thought, this book will make you break your head open on the floor.

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Oct 07, 2008 Mr. rated it it was amazing

Nietzsche's complex sequel to Beyond Good and Evil is a remarkable achievement of philosophy, philology, and history. It laid the groundwork for such 20th century thinkers as Foucault and Deleuze, though they would never reach Nietzsche's complexity and moral sophistication. In the preface to the book, Nietzsche proposes the project of investigating the origins of morality on the grounds that human beings are unknown to themselves. He is ultimately concerned with the development of moral prejudi Nietzsche's complex sequel to Beyond Good and Evil is a remarkable achievement of philosophy, philology, and history. It laid the groundwork for such 20th century thinkers as Foucault and Deleuze, though they would never reach Nietzsche's complexity and moral sophistication. In the preface to the book, Nietzsche proposes the project of investigating the origins of morality on the grounds that human beings are unknown to themselves. He is ultimately concerned with the development of moral prejudices, and the value of morality itself. He criticizes mankind in its acceptance of moral principles, and writes: "we need a critique of moral values, the value of these values themselves must first be called in question-and for that there is needed a knowledge of the conditions and circumstances in which they grew, under which they evolved and changed" (456).
Nietzsche begins the essay (Good and Evil, Good and Bad), with a philological examination of the words and roots of the words related to good and evil, and a delimitation of their evolution. He makes a connection between the creations of words and places them within the historical context of rulers and nobility. Linguistically, Nietzsche has discovered that the `good' is linked with nobility. He writes: "everywhere `noble,' `aristocratic' in the social sense, is the basic concept from which `good' in the sense of `with aristocratic soul,' `noble,'" (464). Alternatively, words associated with the `bad' invariably were linked with the `plain,' `simple,' and `low.' In this way, morality as a human construction is an extension of power, wealth, and civilization. The origin of evil is intertwined with priestly aristocracies.
Nietzsche moves into a discussion of a shift in the history of morality, in which the morality of the priestly aristocracy is superceded by Jewish morality. For Nietzsche, the Jews inverted the morality of nobility and established a system which places value on the lower order of mankind. He indicates that the Jews believed "the wretched alone are the good; the poor, impotent, lowly alone are the good; the suffering, deprived, sick, ugly alone are pious, alone are blessed by God" (470). Nietzsche describes this turn as `the slave revolt' of morality. He describes the triumph of Judeo-Christian morality over the previous system of values, and indicates that this turn is a triumph for the herd instinct, and for ressentiment. He writes: "The slave revolt in morality begins when ressentiment itself becomes creative and gives birth to values: the ressentiment of natures that are denied the true reaction, that of deeds, and compensate themselves with an imaginary revenge" (472). Noble morality develops as an affirmation of itself, while slave morality always says No to what is external to it. For Nietzsche, the need to constantly turn outward to an external `other' and place judgment on it is the essence of ressentiment.
In the proceeding section of the treatise, Nietzsche discusses civilization's taming of man the animal. Here he writes: "Supposing that what is at any rate believed to be the `truth' really is true, and the meaning of all culture is the reduction of the beast of prey `man' to a tame and civilized animal, a domestic animal, then one would undoubtedly have to regard all those instincts of reaction and ressentiment through whose aid the noble races and their ideal were finally confounded and overthrown as the actual instruments of culture" (478). Nietzsche insists that Europe's taming of man is a tremendous danger, for we are made to be weary of our own being. For Nietzsche, this weariness and fear of man has compelled us to lose our love for him, to turn our backs on our instincts, to reject affirmation. ...more

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Oct 06, 2013 Kenna Day rated it really liked it

Shelves: philosophy, german-lit, critical-theory, non-fiction, religious

Nietzsche is like a long lost friend to me. I read Zarathustra in high school and I remember connecting so deeply to his dissatisfaction with religion. Granted, I grew out of my flaming violent antitheism. But Nietzsche takes me back.

My favorite part regards slave morality in essay 1 of On the Genealogy of Morals. He talks about the structure of noble morality, in which strength and power and wealth-all aspects of nobility-are "good." And all else is bad. Slave morality is simply a reaction to ...more

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May 09, 2008 Erin rated it it was amazing

Shelves: other-philosophy, existentialism

Amazing! This guy really knows what he is talking about.

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Dec 26, 2020 Wiom biom added it

Second essay: Guilt, Bad Conscience, and Related Matters

I won't try to summarise a thesis for the essay because quite frankly there are quite a few ideas put across and I probably did not understand everything.

Some noteworthy points:

1. We should not venture to understand the origin of something (its causa fiendi) by its current purpose
"The 'purpose in law,' however, is the very last idea we should use in the history of the emergence of law. It is much rather the case that for all forms of histo Second essay: Guilt, Bad Conscience, and Related Matters

I won't try to summarise a thesis for the essay because quite frankly there are quite a few ideas put across and I probably did not understand everything.

Some noteworthy points:

1. We should not venture to understand the origin of something (its causa fiendi) by its current purpose
"The 'purpose in law,' however, is the very last idea we should use in the history of the emergence of law. It is much rather the case that for all forms of history there is no more important principle that the one which we reach with such difficulty but which we also really should reach, namely that what causes a particular thing to arise and the final utility of that thing, its actual use and arrangement in a system of purposes, are separate absolutely, that something existing, which has somehow come to its present state, will again and again be interpreted by the higher powers over it from a new perspective, appropriated in a new way, reorganized for and redirected to new uses, that all events in the organic world involve overpowering, acquiring mastery and that, in turn, all overpowering and acquiring mastery involve a re-interpretation, a readjustment, in which the 'sense' and 'purpose' up to then must necessarily be obscured or entirely erased."
- which reminded me of Rousseau's writing in the Origins of Inequality with regard to the emergence of the State, the state of society, the state of nature; perhaps the Lockean Social Contract theory makes the most sense for us today but that's probably insufficient in explaining the very origin of the state

2. His repudiation of the social contract
"I used the word 'State'—it is self-evident who is meant by that term—some pack of blond predatory animals, a race of conquerors and masters, which, organized for war and with the power to organize, without thinking about it, sets its terrifying paws on a subordinate population which may perhaps be vast in numbers but is still without any shape, is still wandering about. That's surely the way the "State" begins on earth. I believe that that fantasy has been done away with which sees the beginning of the state in some "contract." The man who can command, who is naturally a "master," who comes forward with violence in his actions and gestures—what has a man like that to do with making contracts! We cannot negotiate with such beings. They come like fate, without cause, reason, consideration, or pretext. They are present as lightning is present, too fearsome, too sudden, too convincing, too 'different' even to become hated. Their work is the instinctive creation of forms, the imposition of forms. They are the most involuntary and unconscious artists in existence. Where they appear something new is soon present, a living power structure, something in which the parts and functions are demarcated and coordinated, in which there is, in general, no place for anything which does not first derive its "meaning" from its relationship to the totality."

3. That punishment further alienates criminals from societal norms
"In general, punishment makes people hard and cold. It concentrates. It sharpens the feeling of estrangement and strengthens powers of resistance. If it comes about that punishment shatters a man's energy and brings on a wretched prostration and self-abasement, such a consequence is surely even less pleasant than the ordinary results of punishment—characteristically a dry and gloomy seriousness."

4. The origin of religions/gods
"If we think this crude logic through to its conclusion, then the ancestors of the most powerful tribes must, because of the fantasy of increasing fear, finally have grown into something immense and have been pushed into the darkness of a divine mystery, something beyond the powers of imagination, so the ancestor is necessarily transfigured into a god. Here perhaps lies even the origin of the gods, thus an origin out of fear!"
"...that stroke of genius of Christianity—God's sacrifice of himself for the guilt of human beings, God paying himself back with himself, God as the only one who can redeem man from what for human beings has become impossible to redeem—the creditor sacrifices himself for the debtor, out of love (can people believe that?), out of love for his debtor!"
"In this way, the [Greek] gods then served to justify men to a certain extent, even in bad things. They served as the origin of evil—at that time the gods took upon themselves, not punishment, but, what is nobler, the guilt."

5. The repression of human nature has resulted in what we call "bad conscience"
"We modern men, we are the inheritors of the vivisection of the conscience and the self-inflicted animal torture of the past millennia. That's what we have had the most practice doing, that is perhaps our artistry—in any case it is something we have refined to spoil our taste. For too long man has looked at his natural inclinations with an 'evil eye,' so that finally in him they have become twinned with 'bad conscience.'" ...more

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May 21, 2018 Aung Sett Kyaw Min rated it really liked it

Nietzsche is truly a psychologist of the first rank. In this treatise, he ingeniously transforms the 'what' of morality into the 'who' of morality. Who are perpetrators of the value of value itself? And what can be said about their physiological condition? As always, Nietzsche's language of physiology
is a joy to read and digest...

(1)

'Good' was a self-descriptive valuation of warriors who were possessed of healthy, vigorous and physical constitution, and an active capacity to forgive and forget ...more

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Apr 10, 2008 Taylor rated it really liked it

Far more mature than his furious work in 'Beyond Good and Evil', and really something to behold if you are willing to looking past the book's primary misgivings that arrive in the form of archaic thought. He rambles off the deep end in his meditations on the dangers of mixing not only race, but class in the next inevitably more mingled generations. These sentiments, however dated and faintly racist they may be, shouldn't take away from his general interest, that of the mechanisms of constraint i ...more

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Jun 12, 2018 Julian rated it it was amazing

Shelves: ur-txts-of-capitalism-schizophrenia, philosophy, in-my-library

Of all Nietzsche's texts, the Genealogy is the most useful for students of theory and captures Nietzsche at his most systemic--interrogating the concepts of master and salve morality, ressentiment, asceticism, debt, schadenfreude, etc.,-- a contrast to the polemical aphorisms that contain only segments of a larger conceptual framework to be found in BGE and the Antichrist.

To fully appreciate Ecco Homo, as with TSZ, it should be read last, because it's essentially a commentary on his own oeuvre ...more

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Nov 03, 2009 Jill rated it it was ok

Shelves: personal-pursuits-in-education

Interesting. While I don't agree with most of what Nietzsche posits, I appreciate the read to hear his perspective. Marx speaks with a greater darkness than Nietzsche, so the crazy hammering of the soul when evil is taught wasn't present for me here. I completely disagree with his ideas about the "ascetic priest," they sound closer to Korihor's philosophy (and what a sad end he came to - hmmm, very similar to Nietzsche's), because they're all recycled stories from the same author, the devil. Oh ...more

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Nov 22, 2008 Althea Lazzaro rated it really liked it

From the section "Why I am so Wise":

"What is it, fundamentally, that allows us to recognize who has turned out well? That well-turned-out person pleases our senses, that he is carved from wood that is hard, delicate, and at the same time smells good. He has a taste only for what is good for him; his pleasure, his delight cease where the measure of what is good for him is transgressed. He guesses what remedies avail against what is harmful; he exploits bad accidents to his advantage; what does n ...more

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Jun 04, 2010 Alexandre Couto de Andrade rated it it was ok

NIetzsche does not know what he is talking about.

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Nov 12, 2018 Med Redha rated it really liked it

Shelves: nietzsche, philosophie, les-inoubliables

"The Genealogy of Morals" is articulated in three dissertations: "the good and the bad", "the resentment" and "the ascetic ideals". It seems that this essay is one of the most accessible Nietzsche...difficult for me to compare, since this is the first book of the author that I read, but I must admit that I had to hang on at times, I am not a philosopher by training (but are not we all a little by nature, finally?).

Nevertheless, this reading turns out to be very interesting and at first very rema "The Genealogy of Morals" is articulated in three dissertations: "the good and the bad", "the resentment" and "the ascetic ideals". It seems that this essay is one of the most accessible Nietzsche...difficult for me to compare, since this is the first book of the author that I read, but I must admit that I had to hang on at times, I am not a philosopher by training (but are not we all a little by nature, finally?).

Nevertheless, this reading turns out to be very interesting and at first very remarkable for the style...Mr Nietzsche knew, without any doubt, how to handle the words. I will not engage in a long criticism (impure reason) but some points of the argument tickle me, when others convince me.

I understand the distinction between the morality of slaves (a morality of resentment towards the masters) and that of the "masters". For all that, the author never raises the question of the legitimacy of the dominant / dominated relationship (nor therefore of its perpetuation) for the simple reason that it is inept for him: the lambs can not blame the birds of prey for being what they are. There are therefore strong and weak "by nature" and Nietzsche opposes "the false slogan" of the morality of resentment (the privilege of the majority) to that of the aristocracy, "frightening and enchanting", but without further development (at the end of the first dissertation). He also presents Napoleon as the last man to have incarnated this aristocratic ideal, a synthesis of inhuman and superhuman.

As far as religion is concerned, Nietzsche prunes the Christian morality, which by "the morality of morals" shapes a society that emphasizes adaptation to contingencies instead of valorizing the will to power, that is to say activity, conquering forces, aggressive, innovative. The Nietzschean man (the superman to come) is instinctive and does not intend to excuse it while morality seeks to force him to do so and to give up the pleasure of suffering. Indeed, for Nietzsche it is not the suffering that poses a problem but rather its lack of meaning and that is why men created the gods that engendered "the priestly aristocracy" who imagined this horror that is the peach. Basically, if you suffer it's your fault man. But do not worry, if you are a good Christian you can go to heaven after...

A logic, we can easily imagine, that does not favor the aristocracy warrior, the "masters", those who "can promise Because, confident of their abilities, they will keep their promise. One can feel the parallels with Freud (notably "Malaise in Civilization"): the morality of morals recalls the superego and the instincts the impulses, except that Nietzsche does not see the positive aspects of the first, nor the tyrannical potential of the latter. In fact, the Nietzschean man is a little neo-liberal before the hour, a guy who wants the right uninhibited, without the moral of holy water.

A word about the supposed links between Nazism and Nietzsche: yes, he sometimes uses examples where the word race is at the party (with eugenic sights), yes he tends not to be very cool with the Jews because he sees there "The priestly people par excellence" but at the same time he does not like the anti-Semites and does not appear to me at all as nationalist, he is not always tender with the Germans...From there to say that he would have has been recovered there is only one step (that I will leave to each one the care to cross or not) which, in the end, would only accredit his ideas on the historical dynamics...

Finally Nietzsche gives philosophy the laudable goal of criticizing values and morality (to hear here a Christian morality) but without specifying for what purpose. And for good reason ! If he asks the question of the ideal it is only to recall all that it cost to humanity during the history and to refute it en bloc. On this point, it is difficult for me to conceive of a man without ideal...It may be objected that the FUTURE has given Nietzsche reason when we see what communism has given...But perhaps it is the betrayal of ideals which would be to deplore more than the ideals in themselves.

There also Friedrich has answer to everything since, this world not being (or having been) a conglomerate of "wills of power" in struggle, the ideas Since their birth, concepts, inventions, etc... are diverted from their initial goals to be "rearranged" by a superior will...So there is no simplistic cause-and-effect relationship in the historical dynamic according to Nietzsche...& since God is only a deadly fable (as much as the scientific atheism which is the flip side of the coin, since he is simply trying to make the ideal more credible), he comes to the hypothesis that he there is no truth and everything is possible...

...But does the non-definitive, non-universal character of the truth, in short, the fact that it is CONSTRUCTED, make it possible to think that everything is possible? And if, like Mathieu Potte-Bonneville, it was reduced to its essence by affirming "that there is truth only in the eclipse of the masters"?

I wanted to finish with the usual precautions, of the kind, you Nietzsche's specialists, do not start to jump on me, I am only a neophyte HUMBLE who gives you his look...But since I suddenly feel the soul of a superman I just want to say... ...more

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Dec 07, 2020 Sharad Pandian rated it it was amazing

Shelves: culture-critique, ethics, europe

There isn't a proper defense of Nietzsche necessary or possible that isn't his work itself, but there are two reasons I love his work, aptly captured in two of his aphorisms included in this text (more applicable to the Genealogy admittedly):

Philosophers' error - The philosopher supposes that the value of his philosophy lies in the whole, in the structure; but posterity finds its value in the stone which he used for building, and which is used many more times after that for building-better. Thus

...more

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Jan 30, 2020 Greg Hickey rated it really liked it

This might be my favorite volume of Nietzsche’s work. The first part, On the Genealogy of Morals demonstrates some of his most straightforward writing, with a carefully developed study of the development of what we call morality. Nietzsche balances his attacks on the Judeo-Christian morality of “the meek shall inherit the earth” with a dispassionate assessment of the necessity and beneficial side effects of this development. All told, it is an original and provocative essay from a one-of-a-kind ...more

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Jan 04, 2013 Shawn rated it it was amazing

Shelves: philosophy, essays

"I find it difficult to write a review of a philosophical work; difficult because it is initially put upon the reviewer to agree or disagree with an idea, but one must first summarize--and by doing that, one has already levied judgment." -me

I wrote that passage on the back page of my copy of this text. The page number I referenced before writing this thought is page 326, which contains the quote from Ecce Homo (1900): "I have a terrible fear that one day I will be pronounced holy: you will gues ...more

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Aug 29, 2020 Richard Lopez Salgado rated it it was amazing

On the Geneology of Morals is the most important work by Nietzsche you will ever read.

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Jan 21, 2018 Tyler V. rated it really liked it

There are two major works included in this volume. I read both twice. The first read was for comprehension. The second for fluidity of ideation and memorization. I think I have a decent understanding of both works, or at least as good of an understanding as anyone can achieve with the enigma that is Friedrich Nietzsche. Because there are two works here, I will review them each separately. However, my final 4/5 star rating is an amalgamation of my overall experience and take away. Translator and ...more

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Sep 04, 2015 Kevin K rated it it was amazing

Shelves: ethics, religion, philosophy

This review only applies to On the Genealogy of Morals in this volume. Echoing Nick's review, I must say this book is far superior to Beyond Good and Evil. Here we have a tightly-focused Nietzsche in peak form, planting seeds that have grown into whole bodies of thought. Most obvious is Nietzsche's foreshadowing of Freud. Apparently Freud attributed to Nietzsche "more penetrating knowledge of himself than any man who ever lived or was likely to live"; Freud's biographer and acquaintance, Ernest This review only applies to On the Genealogy of Morals in this volume. Echoing Nick's review, I must say this book is far superior to Beyond Good and Evil. Here we have a tightly-focused Nietzsche in peak form, planting seeds that have grown into whole bodies of thought. Most obvious is Nietzsche's foreshadowing of Freud. Apparently Freud attributed to Nietzsche "more penetrating knowledge of himself than any man who ever lived or was likely to live"; Freud's biographer and acquaintance, Ernest Jones, even claimed that Freud avoided reading Nietzsche due to worries about the similarity of their ideas. It was an innocent era before the 19th century, blissfully unaware of the subconscious mind. Morality was taken at face value, and there was no cold-eyed probing of its underlying/subconscious motives. Nietzsche was one of the first and most acute philosophers to expose the machinations hidden under the smooth facade. Previously my impression was that Nietzsche pioneered this style of thought, but I've learned through recent reading that Marx was earlier. The two are like bookends. Marx claims that bourgeois morality is just a cynical false-front that the bourgeoisie and upper classes use to brainwash the masses; Nietzsche, meanwhile, claims that slave morality is just a cynical false-front that the rabble use to brainwash the aristocracy and elites. I'm inclined to think they're both right! Another notable offshoot of the Genealogy of Morals is Michel Foucault's classic Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison.

Today, evolution and sociobiology are fashionable topics, and there must be a dozen books out describing how morals are a product of the evolutionary process. A good example is The Evolution of Morality by the philosopher Richard Joyce. Joyce's book is interesting but flawed for a couple of reasons. First, in order to show morality is a product of evolution, he has to make claims about events that happened millions of years ago, and there simply aren't any pertinent facts or evidence from that time. He ends up with a "just so story," as Stephen J. Gould famously put it. Joyce's fairy tales about what characteristics helped animals to survive a million years ago may be plausible, or even true, but we simply don't know what happened back then, so fairy tales they remain. The theory is closer in impulse to historical novel writing than to a genuine empirical science like biology.

The most important reason that sociobiological moral theories fail, however, is that human morality simply isn't innate or programmed in by evolution. Emotions are biological, but morality proper is a cultural phenomenon which has gone through almost kaleidoscopic transformations over the course of history. That's Nietzsche's revolutionary insight. It's true that humans have emotional responses of empathy toward others; but it's also true that humans take pleasure in inflicting pain on others (and themselves), as Nietzsche points out. Has empathy been hard-wired into us by evolution? Very unlikely considering that the Romans tortured and murdered people as public entertainment for centuries, and no one batted an eye. It was completely normal, upstanding, moral behavior at that time.

My conclusion is that Nietzsche was right on target, and today's sociobiologists are following a red herring. There's some, but not much, moral knowledge on the path they're following. The better path is the one Nietzsche opened up here: in-depth research into the historical evolution of morality as culture. Hopefully the promise of Nietzsche's work can be fulfilled in the Internet era. There's probably never been better conditions for ferreting out the strange moral histories of the world's tribes, civilizations and peoples. ...more

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Jul 04, 2017 Brandon Sitch rated it it was amazing

Shelves: philosophy, german

I’m not exactly sure how to categorize this book. It isn’t strictly a philosophical text, if you come to this after reading Kant, or Moore, or Hegel, you won’t recognize this as philosophy—and I tend to think that is more a criticism of modern philosophy than of Nietzsche—but the Genealogy is full of wisdom, originality, and beautiful writing. It also isn’t an ethical work, at least not in the usual sense, but rather a combination of a metaethical and historic approach. Nietzsche’s objective for ...more

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Feb 08, 2017 Brian rated it it was amazing

Both the Genealogy and Ecce Homo can be read in one way as Nietzsche's considered assessments of his fellow human beings, largely as cast in relief against his aristocratically alienated conception of himself. Whether or not readers will find his anthropological argument convincing likely hinges upon what conclusions they have managed to draw from their own honest self-analysis.

In reference to this particular volume of the two works presented here, the editorial introductions and footnotes provi ...more

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Jul 25, 2011 Nick rated it really liked it

Shelves: philosophy, psychology, 1890s, heresy, 1880s, liberty

Genealogy of morals: After reading "Beyond Good and Evil" this was shockingly clear and lucid. The idea of a pre-christian morality glorifying accomplishment, conflict, strength, etc. being "revolted" against and replaced with a morality of subservience/asceticism is compelling. However, I'd really like to know if his verifiable claims have stove up to the test of time. He makes a lot of linguistic/historical implications about aryans and hebrews which lack citations. Of all the Nietzsche books ...more

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Mar 15, 2010 Todd rated it liked it

Shelves: philosophy

This is a really deep read for anyone. While a lot of people are critical of Nietzsche's works, he still is a unique writer who has delved into the darkness of mankind's soul and found that there is a lot of evil in there.

The second part of this book deals with Nietzsche own life and self-interpretations on what he's wrote as a sort of overall view at the end of his life/career. Nietzsche while he's listed as a philosopher had rather unique insight into the world of psychology. He will always b ...more

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May 14, 2016 Agostinho Paulo rated it it was amazing

In this stylistic polemical masterpiece, propelled from states of highly gifted normality, rupture and genius, swiftly ascending evermore upwards into icy and grotesque spheres of fatal rarified insight and isolation, this work can be dizzying for the labyrinthine nature of its undertaking.

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Apr 23, 2020 Isak rated it it was amazing

Shelves: favorites, philosophy

Man f*ck those armchair philosophers

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Feb 27, 2020 M.a. rated it really liked it

This is a review of the Genealogy of Morals only.
In this book, Nietzsche debates the values of "good" and "bad", the value of morals as we know it and spins a theory about how these values originated.
Nietzsche claims that man was just like the other animals in the animal kingdom. Among men, there were lions and there were sheep. He calls the lion-types "nobles", "aristocrats", masters" and the sheep-types "commoners" and "slaves".
Of course the masters were happy and content and because they were ...more

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Aug 04, 2018 David rated it it was amazing

Shelves: read-2018, life-syllabus

[Review only of On the Genealogy of Morals. Kaufmann translation is not listed on its own on Goodreads, so putting my review here. Actually read it as part of the Basic Writings of Nietzsche collection, which is highly recommended.]

My year of finally catching up to Nietzsche probably ends here, with this wonderful work. Honestly, why did I wait so long? It's almost as if Nietzsche has been saddled with a grim and (wildly unfair) Nazi aura just to keep people from reading his playful and funny an ...more

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About Friedrich Nietzsche

Friedrich Nietzsche

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Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche was a German philosopher of the late 19th century who challenged the foundations of Christianity and traditional morality. He was interested in the enhancement of individual and cultural health, and believed in life, creativity, power, and the realities of the world we live in, rather than those situated in a world beyond. Central to his philosophy is the idea of “life- ...more

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“My formula for greatness in a human being is amor fati: that one wants nothing to be different, not forward, not backward, not in all eternity. Not merely bear what is necessary, still less conceal it—all idealism is mendaciousness in the face of what is necessary—but love it” — 102 likes

“To see others suffer does one good, to make others suffer even more: this is a hard saying but an ancient, mighty, human, all-too-human principle [....] Without cruelty there is no festival.” — 62 likes

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