On the Genealogy of Morals explores issues at the very core of human nature in three powerful essays. Here Nietzsche dissects the basic concepts of 'good', 'bad' and 'evil', going on to examine humankind's transformation from barbarous creatures into civilized beings who can feel remorse, regret, pity and compassion but, in the process, destroying instinct and freedom. Nietzsche asks why the virtues of poverty, humility and chastity have become so central to religion, even when they deny vitality and life itself. Daring to expose uncomfortable truths, this brilliant and provocative polemic provides startling insights into our complex psychology.
Translated by Michael A. Scarpitti with an introduction and notes by Robert C. Holub
About the Author
Friedrich Nietzsche was a philosopher born in Prussia in 1844. After the death of his father, a Lutheran minister, Nietzsche was raised from the age of five by his mother in a household of women. In 1869 he was appointed Professor of Classical Philology at the University of Basel, where he taught until 1879 when poor health forced him to retire. He never recovered from a nervous breakdown in 1889 and died eleven years later. Known for saying that “god is dead,” Nietzsche propounded his metaphysical construct of the superiority of the disciplined individual (superman) living in the present over traditional values derived from Christianity and its emphasis on heavenly rewards. His ideas were appropriated by the Fascists, who turned his theories into social realities that he had never intended.
Michael A. Scarpitti is an independent scholar of philosophy.
Robert C. Holub is a professor of German at Ohio State University.
