Genealogy of Morals - Revision history

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2025-05-01T19:32:12Z

Preface

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	==Preface==		==From Preface==

	In the Preface, Nietzsche makes clear the aim of the book: it is to answer the question quoted below. "Under what conditions did man construct the value judgments ''good'' and ''evil''? And what is their intrinsic worth?" In this book Nietzsche questions the widely-held notions of good and evil, and pulls apart notions of "good". At the center of the book is the following thesis, also from the preface:		In the Preface, Nietzsche makes clear the aim of the book: it is to answer the question quoted below. "Under what conditions did man construct the value judgments ''good'' and ''evil''? And what is their intrinsic worth?" In this book Nietzsche questions the widely-held notions of good and evil, and pulls apart notions of "good". At the center of the book is the following thesis, also from the preface:

Unknown user: /* Second Essay: Guilt, Bad Conscience, and the Like */

2025-05-01T19:31:48Z

Second Essay: Guilt, Bad Conscience, and the Like

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	==Second Essay: Guilt, Bad Conscience, and the Like==		==Second Essay: Guilt, Bad Conscience, and the Like==

	'''~~Overall~~ Argument:''' This essay investigates the origins of guilt, conscience, responsibility, and punishment. Nietzsche argues that the "bad conscience" — the feeling of guilt and self-reproach — arose from the internalization of humanity's aggressive instincts when forced into society.		'''Argument:''' This essay investigates the origins of guilt, conscience, responsibility, and punishment. Nietzsche argues that the "bad conscience" — the feeling of guilt and self-reproach — arose from the internalization of humanity's aggressive instincts when forced into society.

	'''Sections 1-5:''' Nietzsche explores how the capacity to make promises — a prerequisite for social order and responsibility — was cultivated. He argues it wasn't a natural development but was "bred" into humans through harsh, painful methods (a "mnemotechnics" of pain) to create memory and reliability. Punishment served as a tool to instill this memory.		'''Sections 1-5:''' Nietzsche explores how the capacity to make promises — a prerequisite for social order and responsibility — was cultivated. He argues it wasn't a natural development but was "bred" into humans through harsh, painful methods (a "mnemotechnics" of pain) to create memory and reliability. Punishment served as a tool to instill this memory.
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	'''Sections 19-25:''' Nietzsche connects the concept of guilt (Schuld) to the concept of debt (Schulden). The relationship between individuals and the community, and later between humanity and its ancestors or gods, is framed as a debtor-creditor relationship. He argues that the development of monotheism, especially Christianity with its concept of original sin and debt to God, intensified this feeling of guilt and indebtedness to an extreme, making the debt unpayable and maximizing the power of the bad conscience and the priests who administer it.		'''Sections 19-25:''' Nietzsche connects the concept of guilt (Schuld) to the concept of debt (Schulden). The relationship between individuals and the community, and later between humanity and its ancestors or gods, is framed as a debtor-creditor relationship. He argues that the development of monotheism, especially Christianity with its concept of original sin and debt to God, intensified this feeling of guilt and indebtedness to an extreme, making the debt unpayable and maximizing the power of the bad conscience and the priests who administer it.

			==Third Essay: What is the Meaning of Ascetic Ideals==

			'''Argument:''' This essay examines the meaning and pervasive influence of the "ascetic ideal"—the valuation of self-denial, chastity, poverty, humility, and the suppression of sensual life—across different human types: artists, philosophers, priests, and scientists. Nietzsche seeks to understand why this seemingly life-denying ideal has held such power.

			'''Sections 1-7:''' Nietzsche begins by questioning what the ascetic ideal means for artists (using Wagner as an example) and philosophers (using Schopenhauer). He suggests that for artists, it's often superficial or borrowed. For philosophers, ascetic practices (simplicity, detachment) often serve as favorable conditions for contemplation and intellectual independence—a means to their specific expression of the Will to Power (the drive for knowledge and mastery).

			'''Sections 8-22:''' This is the core of the essay. Nietzsche argues that the priest is the primary agent and embodiment of the ascetic ideal. The priest uses this ideal to minister to the "sick herd" — the majority of humanity suffering from physiological decline, ressentiment, and the bad conscience described in the previous essays. The ascetic ideal gives their suffering meaning: it interprets suffering as punishment, a test, or a path to salvation. It redirects ressentiment harmlessly (e.g., towards petty acts of "charity" or self-mortification) and provides a framework that allows the suffering masses to endure life rather than succumb to suicidal nihilism. The ascetic ideal, wielded by the priest, preserves life, but only by making it "sicker," organizing the sick, and furthering a life-denying perspective. It is the priest's primary tool of power.

			'''Sections 23-27:''' Nietzsche turns to modern science. He argues that while science often sees itself as opposed to the ascetic ideal (especially its religious forms), it remains fundamentally indebted to it. Science's core value—the unconditional will to truth—is itself an ascetic ideal, a faith in the supreme value of truth without questioning the value of truth itself. Science has destroyed religious dogma but hasn't overcome the underlying ascetic foundation; it merely represents its latest, most rigorous, but still unexamined form.

			'''Section 28:''' Nietzsche concludes that the ascetic ideal has dominated ''because humanity needed a goal''; it abhors a vacuum of meaning. Faced with the potential meaninglessness of suffering and existence, humanity would rather will nothingness (via the ascetic ideal) than not will at all. The ascetic ideal, despite its problematic nature, provided an interpretation, a meaning, that saved humanity from a paralyzing nihilism. The challenge now, he implies, is to move beyond this ideal by creating new, life-affirming values.

	=Quotes=		=Quotes=

Unknown user: /* Notes */

2025-05-01T19:27:55Z

Notes

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 - Bertrand Russell, History of Western Philosophy
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 =Quotes=

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2020-06-02T20:26:06Z

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Admin: /* From the Cambridge Texts Version */

2019-04-20T09:42:18Z

From the Cambridge Texts Version

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	{{Quote\|		{{Quote\|
	It is a deeply disturbing book that retains its capacity to shock and disconcert the modern reader. Nietzsche himself was well aware of the character of the book. There are moments in the text where he reveals his own sense of alarm at what he is discovering about human origins and development, especially the perverse nature of the human animal, the being he calls "the sick animal" (GM, III, 14). Although the Genealogy is one of the darkest books ever written, it is also, paradoxically, a book full of hope and anticipation.		It is a deeply disturbing book that retains its capacity to shock and disconcert the modern reader. Nietzsche himself was well aware of the character of the book. There are moments in the text where he reveals his own sense of alarm at what he is discovering about human origins and development, especially the perverse nature of the human animal, the being he calls "the sick animal" (GM, III, 14). Although the Genealogy is one of the darkest books ever written, it is also, paradoxically, a book full of hope and anticipation.
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			Nietzsche finds that "all modern judgments about men and things" are smeared with an over-moralistic language; the characteristic featureof modern souls and modern books is to be found in their "moralistic mendaciousness" (GM, III,19).
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Admin: /* Notes */

2019-04-20T09:39:28Z

Notes

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	=Notes=		=Notes=

			==From the Cambridge Texts Version==

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			...can justifiably be regarded as one of the key texts of European intellectual modernity.
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			{{Quote\|
			It is a deeply disturbing book that retains its capacity to shock and disconcert the modern reader. Nietzsche himself was well aware of the character of the book. There are moments in the text where he reveals his own sense of alarm at what he is discovering about human origins and development, especially the perverse nature of the human animal, the being he calls "the sick animal" (GM, III, 14). Although the Genealogy is one of the darkest books ever written, it is also, paradoxically, a book full of hope and anticipation.
			}}

	==Preface==		==Preface==

Admin: /* First Essay: Good and Evil, Good and Bad */

2019-04-20T09:33:48Z

First Essay: Good and Evil, Good and Bad

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	There is nothing very odd about lambs disliking birds of prey, but this is no reason for holding it against large birds of prey that they carry off lambs. And when the lambs whisper among themselves, "These birds of prey are evil, and does not this give u a right to say that whatever is the opposite of a bird of prey must be good?" there is nothing intrinsically wrong with such an argument - though the birds of prey will look somewhat quizzically and say, "''We'' have nothing against these good lambs; in fact, we love them; nothing tastes better than a tender lamb."		There is nothing very odd about lambs disliking birds of prey, but this is no reason for holding it against large birds of prey that they carry off lambs. And when the lambs whisper among themselves, "These birds of prey are evil, and does not this give us a right to say that whatever is the opposite of a bird of prey must be good?" there is nothing intrinsically wrong with such an argument - though the birds of prey will look somewhat quizzically and say, "''We'' have nothing against these good lambs; in fact, we love them; nothing tastes better than a tender lamb."
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2019-03-26T06:47:45Z

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	PDF copy of Cambridge Press edition: http://www.inp.uw.edu.pl/mdsie/Political_Thought/GeneologyofMorals.pdf		PDF copy of Cambridge Press edition: http://www.inp.uw.edu.pl/mdsie/Political_Thought/GeneologyofMorals.pdf


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