Nietzsche: 'On the Genealogy of Morality' and Other Writings: Revised Student Edition (Cambridge Texts in the History of Political Thought) [STUDENT EDITION] (Paperback)

by Friedrich Nietzsche (Author), Keith Ansell-Pearson (Editor), Carol Diethe (Translator)
Key Phrases: moral genealogists, ascetic priest, ascetic ideal, Richard Wagner, Christian God, Don Quixote (more...)

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Product Description
Friedrich Nietzsche is one of the most influential thinkers of the past 150 years and On the Genealogy of Morality (1887) is his most important work on ethics and politics. A polemical contribution to moral and political theory, it offers a critique of moral values and traces the historical evolution of concepts such as guilt, conscience, responsibility, law and justice. This is a revised and updated edition of one of the most successful volumes to appear in Cambridge Texts in the History of Political Thought. Keith Ansell-Pearson has modified his introduction to Nietzsche's classic text, and Carol Diethe has incorporated a number of changes to the translation itself, reflecting the considerable advances in our understanding of Nietzsche in the twelve years since this edition first appeared. In this new guise the Cambridge Texts edition of Nietzsche's Genealogy should continue to enjoy widespread adoption, at both undergraduate and graduate level.

Language Notes
Text: English (translation)
Original Language: German --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 242 pages
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press; 2 edition (October 30, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 052169163X
• ISBN-13: 978-0521691635
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.5 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #137,362 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Before Good and Evil, November 11, 2006

By	benjamin (USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Nietzsche: 'On the Genealogy of Morality' (Cambridge Texts in the History of Political Thought) (Paperback)

"We are unknown to ourselves" (3) writes Friedrich Nietzsche, beginning his work On the Genealogy of Morality with a sweeping statement not just about the human condition, but about the state of Europe at the end of the 19th century. "We have never looked for ourselves" he continues, "so how are we ever supposed to find ourselves?" (ibid.) Nietzsche's famous - or, infamous - belief that Judaism, through Christianity, has bequeathed to the world a "slave morality" that has held the West captive is what this book is about.

"[A]ll religions are, at their most fundamental, systems of cruelty" (41) - and they are ultimately perpetuated by priests whose own state of inferiority once upon a time led to a great revolt in the world such that the priests came out on top and the powerful were castigated. One can, in many ways, see the old Protestant polemic against Catholicism now turned against not just Protestantisms, but against all religion in general. In many ways Nietzsche's attack on asceticism is like Martin Luther's, only without any positing of salvation from Christ. Instead, salvation comes from the anti-Christ, who is also an anti-nihilist, that frees people to enact their own "will to power" - an aesthetic creating that pays no attention to distictions between good and evil.

Nietzsche seeks what he terms "the revaluation of all values", particularly in the realm of moral judgment; the aesthetic will to power exists to return us "to the innocent conscience of the wild beast" (25) for "no cruelty, no feast" (46). By claiming that our current conceptions of "good" are ultimately due to the ressentiment of religious persons thousands of years ago, he is able to claim that our current understanding of "good" is really actually the opposite of what it purports to be. Aesthetics of the Nietzschean sort is "beyond good and evil" and therefore far closer to the old morality of nobility that once reigned supreme in the West before the revolt of the priests. In short, "what if God himself turned out to be our oldest lie?" (119)

This is not just an attack on religion, however, for Nietzsche sees the "ascetic ideals" of religion as being identical to those of philosophers: "the unconditional will to truth is faith in the ascetic ideal itself, evin if, as an unconscious imperative, - make no mistake about it, - it is the faith in a metaphysical value, a value as such of truth as vouched for and confirmed by that ideal alone" (119). Even our faith in science is based upon the old idea that truth really exists - that it is "out there" to be discovered - which means, ironically, that in their claims of the existence of truth religion and science are actually far closer together than they often like to think of themselves as being.

What Nietzsche lacks in clear argument and justified evidence he attempts to make up in rhetorically rich polemics, delivering a text that will sway many, even if they don't know why. Perhaps, then, it is no surprise that, as the back of the book states, he "is one of the most influential thinkers of the past 150 years". Regardless of what one makes of him - and intellectual historians such as Steven Aschheim have noted that there have been a bewildering number of interpretations of Nietzsche since he went insane in 1890 - he is, because of his influence (whether on the Nazis or on radical French intellectual in the 1960s or the doyens of intellectual posers) worth reading. This is not his most literary work by any stretch of the imagination - one should read Thus Spoke Zarathustra for an example of Nietzsche's literary genius - or his most pointed and polemical - Twilight of the Idols and The Anti-Christ, which often come together in a single volume, are Nietzsche short, fast, and hard. Genealogy of Morality, however, represents an important step in the development of his own thought, and therefore in much intellectual history since. If that is one's interest, then Nietzsche's Genealogy is worth reading.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars About This Edition, January 9, 2009

By	S. Han - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I wish Cambridge UP would reissue this excellent work of Nietzsche in "Cambridge Texts in the History of Philosophy" series. All other major works of Nietzsche (nine books in all) were issued in this series. This edition of "Cambridge Texts in the History of Political Thought" differs not only in color but also in size from "History of Philosophy" series, which makes the Cambridge edition of "The Complete Works of Nietzsche" (an exceptional achievement) a bit incomplete.

1 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Hard work but worth it., December 11, 2004

By	wanderer - See all my reviews

This review is from: Nietzsche: 'On the Genealogy of Morality' (Cambridge Texts in the History of Political Thought) (Paperback)

Firstly I am going to say i am no expert in philosophy or Nietzsche, so if you are it's time to scroll up to the above review (far more detailed). What I will try and do is tell you why you should read this book if you are new to the subject. Friedrich Nietzsche is one of the finest minds to have considered the problems of philosophy and this text gives an insight into his thought. Far more importantly it causes one to reconsider their attitudes and justify many assumptions that were unthinkingly held. The real beauty of this book is that the aphoristic structure and polemical, quasi metaphorical style provide huge space for individual response to the text, you will learn a lot about yourself reading this text as well as a lot about politics, morality and even epistemology and metaphysics. In short read and enjoy although it might be a good idea to get a commentary or introduction to Nietzsches' thought otherwise you may get a little lost.