"Genealogy of Morals"

Paper Summary:

This paper discusses Friedrich Nietzsche's "Genealogy of Morals," which the paper suggests is one of the most important works of modern philosophy and that it stands out as a pragmatic attempt to determine the origins of morality and of moral values. The paper analyzes Nietzsche's approach and techniques in presenting his ideas and discusses the central themes of his work.

From the Paper:

"Firstly, self denial and by this the ascetic behavior is the expression of the influence of priestly teachings. It is here that he goes back to one of his previous stated ideas that there is no absolute truth, but one which can be interpreted depending on the perspective on the individual. Therefore, in the present essay, in order to support this idea, he analyses the etiological meaning of the word "good" and "bad", which, apparently, depending on different stands, pointed to different concepts. "'Noble' or 'aristocratic' in a social sense is the fundamental idea out of which "good" in the sense of 'spiritually noble,' 'aristocratic,' 'spiritually high-minded,' 'spiritually privileged' necessarily develop--a process which always runs in parallel with that other one which finally transforms 'common', 'vulgar', and 'low' into the concept 'bad." To further make his point, he presents the translated term "bad" from the German language as signifying both the actual state of "not good", but also the notion of "plain", common. "Originally these words designated the plain, common man, but without any suspicious side glance, simply in contrast to the nobility". (Nietzsche I 4) Thus, it is obvious that the different interpretations of the terms led to a subsequent evolution of those considered being "bad"."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Nietzsche, Friedrich. Genealogy of Morals. Trans. Walter Kaufmann. New York: Random House, 1989.
• "Nietzsche's Genealogy of Morals". Philosophy and Religion Department: supplementary texts. Tom Bridges. November 24, 2002. Montclair State University. 24 May 2006. <http://www.msu.org/ethics/content_ethics/texts/nietzsche/nietzsche_genealogy.html#top>

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