Beyond Good and Evil
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- This article is about Friedrich Nietzsche's philosophical treatise. For other uses see Beyond Good and Evil (disambiguation)
Beyond Good and Evil: Prelude to a Philosophy of the Future (Jenseits von Gut und Böse) is a major 19th century philosophical work by Friedrich Nietzsche.
First published in 1886 at Nietzsche's own expense, the book was not initially considered important. In it, Nietzsche denounced what he considered to be the moral vacuity of 19th century thinkers. He attacked philosophers for what he considered to be their lack of critical sense and their blind acceptance of Christian premises in their considerations of morality and values. Beyond Good and Evil is a comprehensive overview of Nietzsche's mature philosophy, written partly with the motive of giving further explanation to ideas presented in his previous work, Also Sprach Zarathustra (or Thus Spoke Zarathustra). Nietzsche's next book, On the Genealogy of Morals, is meant to serve by way of "supplementation and clarification" to Beyond Good and Evil, and so should be read in this context.
Of the three "late-period" writings of Nietzsche, Beyond Good and Evil: Prelude to a Philosophy of the Future (Jenseits von Gut und Böse: Vorspiel einer Philosophie der Zukunft, 1886) most closely resembles the aphoristic style of his middle period. Therein he identifies the qualities of genuine philosophers: imagination, self-assertion, danger, originality and the "creation of values" — all else he considers incidental. Continuing from this he contests some key pre-suppositions such as "self-consciousness" and "free-will" as used by some of the great members of the philosophic tradition. Instead of these traditional analyses, which Nietzsche paints as insufficient, he offers the will to power as an explanatory device, being part of his "perspective of life" which he regards as "beyond good and evil", denying a universal morality for all human beings. The master and slave moralities feature prominently as Nietzsche re-evaluates deeply-held humanistic beliefs, portraying even domination, appropriation and injury to the weak as not universally objectionable. A tone of moral relativism and perspectivism dominates throughout.
In Beyond Good and Evil, the one thing he keeps expressing to the reader is that this is entirely his opinion, and not a belief that everyone should hold. He encourages the reader to find faults in his work, and, most of all, to think for his or herself. He frequently uses metaphors to put across his point. He is possibly one of the easiest philosophers to read, but is most definitely one of the hardest to interpret.
One of the most important things to remember when reading Nietzsche is that, while he often criticises every philosopher at one point or another, he has respect for those who shaped modern philosophy. He says 'Let us not be ungrateful towards them ['them' being the philosophers that have come before], even though we must certainly admit that of all errors thus far, the most grievous, protracted and dangerous has been a dogmatist's error: Plato's invention of Pure Spirit and Transcendental Goodness'.
Contents |
[edit] Outline
- On the Prejudices of Philosophers
- The Free Spirit
- What Is Religious
- Epigrams and Interludes
- Natural History of Morals
- We Scholars
- Our Virtues
- Peoples and Fatherlands
- What Is Noble
- From High Mountains: Aftersong
[edit] Bibliography
- Beyond Good and Evil (ISBN 1-59986-993-4)
- Beyond Good and Evil - Translation by Marion Faber (ISBN 0-19-283263-8)
- "Beyond Good and Evil - Translation by R. J. Hollingdale" (ISBN 0-14-044923-X)
[edit] Trivia
- In the film Death Note, the main character, Yagami Light, can briefly be seen reading a copy of this book on a bench.
- In the film A Fish Called Wanda, the character Otto can be seen reading this book in at least one scene and frequently refers to it.
- In the television show Smallville, the character Lionel Luther can be seen reading this book in the 13 episode of the second season, the episode name is Suspect.
- In the film I am a Sex Addict, the main character can be seen reading this book near the beginning.
- In the film Little Miss Sunshine, the son Dwayne is seen reading this book and takes a vow of silence because of the author.
- In the film Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Mary quotes "Blessed are the forgetful: for they get the better even of their blunders."
[edit] External links
- Beyond Good and Evil, available at Project Gutenberg. — English-language edition.
- Beyond Good and Evil, available at Project Gutenberg. — German-language edition.
- Beyond Good and Evil, available freely as an English-language audiobook, at LibriVox.
- A searchable, self-referential edition of Beyond Good and Evil, with concordance
- An outline for Friedrich Nietzsche selections, Dr. Bob Zunjic, University of Rhode Island
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