Book Description
Represents Nietzsche's attempt to sum up his philosophy. In nine parts the book is designed to give the reader a comprehensive idea of Nietzche's thought and style. With an inclusive index of subjects and persons.
Customer Reviews:
A living thing seeks above all to discharge its strength--life itself is will to power.......2007-05-01
This was required reading for a graduate course in the Humanities.
Friedrich Nietzsche's concept of a "will to power" is central to his philosophical beliefs, and a recurring theme in his book "Beyond Good and Evil." When Nietzsche was a budding philosopher, he admired and was influenced by the writings of another philosopher, Arthur Schopenhauer. However, Schopenhauer, like most scientists and philosophers of his day, attributed the "will to live" as the highest motivational life force in nature. Nietzsche observed that the "will to live" was not life affirming enough and that humankind needed a higher power. Therefore, Nietzsche theorized that living beings were not just motivated by a survival instinct to live. He understood that beings had a higher need, which he called the "will to power." One can easily interpret Nietzsche's "will to power" as a method by which people strive to grow and nurture their creative energies, and interact with the world. Nietzsche thinks that "will to power" was coupled with humankind's innate nature and passion to create. Nietzsche thinks that this "will to power" was the true driving force of humankind. "A living thing seeks above all to discharge its strength--life itself is will to power, self-preservation is only one of the indirect and most frequent results" (Nietzsche Aphorism 13). The "will to power" causes humans to dominate and impose their will on others. Thus for Nietzsche, humankind's "will to power" meant that life and will is the exploitation of others, and it has been since the beginning of time, immemorial (Nietzsche Aphorism 258). In fact, Nietzsche believed that one could take his concept of the "will to power" one-step further, and use it to explain the motivations of whole societies, and nation states, as well as the individual (Nietzsche aphorism 257, 259).
Nietzsche tends to be very passionate and absolutist in his aphorisms. He wrote so much that one could find plenty of instances in his works where he has contradicted himself. Nietzsche's concept of "will to power" is a philosophic thought, which led to many interpretations. To assume that Nietzsche thought that the primary instincts of the human being came down to violence and little else, amounts to a gross underestimation of Nietzsche's views of humankind. However, most of his writings on the concept of a "will to power," if interpreted as being violent, have to be understood more in vain with what he saw as the constant struggle of overcoming one's individual weaknesses (Nietzsche aphorism 22, 260). Nietzsche envisioned his "will to power" more along the lines of applying one's will in self-overcoming. Nietzsche's writings about violence are usually meant as violence against giving in to the herd or slave morality. The herd, as Nietzsche names it, is the vast majority of humans who throughout history have obeyed and followed the status quo. The herd has stymied human development with their slave morality (Nietzsche aphorism 198, 199). The slave morality invented the dichotomy of good and evil. "Moral judgments and condemnations constitute the favorite revenge of the spiritually limited against those less limited" (Nietzsche aphorism 219). The herd morality causes people to sublimate their creative drive. Thus, Nietzsche is imploring the few noble humans--the few geniuses to struggle against following the herd morality. Nietzsche wants the noble people to invent their own morality and values to live their lives by, and to fulfill their own "will to power" and not indulge in an effort to attract others to their values (Nietzsche aphorism 199, 201, 260).
Recommended reading for anyone interested in philosophy, history, and psychology.
Beyond Good & Evil: Prelude to a Philosophy of the Future.......2007-03-11
If you are in high school or college, you must read this. Friedrich Nietzsche is / was a man of deep thoughts, odd thoughts and yet they are as fitting today as they were them..... READ THIS, you will understand history of some things much better.
A Systematic Follow-Up to Zarathustra.......2007-02-16
If you were a little confused or put off by the poetic/fictional delivery in Zarathustra, this is the book for you. It sets out to say practically the same thing, but in a more literal sense.
To understand Nietzsche, I suggest starting with this and Zarathustra.
Enjoyable.......2007-01-12
Nietzsche looks at life and characterizes it without blinking. Not that his philosophy is particularily USEFUL; essentially, you have to come up with your own. He has no answers, poses no real questions, and simply posits that the man of the future will make his own answers to the questions that he finds.
Some parts of this are actually funny, such as his characterizations of the nations. Nobody comes off completely flattered, but the English get it worst!
My favorite part is probably the thoughtfully collected section of aphorisms. Nietzsche was a master of these, knew it, and served them up like some sumptuous dessert in the middle of a formal meal.
Needs a second reading... or second writing.......2006-12-26
I read this piece of work about 6 years ago. Maybe I rushed the process and read it like a novel - its not. 'Beyond...' is the summary of a trouble minded genius in what should be considered his most accessible form; unfortunately "accessible Nietzsche" may still be too much for 99.99 percent of the world.
Nietzsche is often adopted by young nihilistic men to help them find an explanation of the crazy world around them. To be honest I believe John Locke would be a better first step in to philosophy and a good counter to some of Nietzsche's ideas. In fact he shows signs of objectivism (a-la Ayn Rand) with statements such as "As long as you still experience the stars as something 'above you' you lack the eye of knowledge." Maybe this is out of context but I'm sure Ayn would have said the same thing. Funny, Ayn would probably hate such a comparison as she despised Fred's dogmatic or formulaic views of how man should be. For this Fred is equally a hypocrite for his criticism of the Catholic Church.
What I consider to be a fault of the English edition is the translator and his preface, he writes as though he is a member of some sort of Nietzsche Cult. Should a translator really tell the reader that what he is reading is "brilliant, unforgettable?" [p xv] I would honestly love to hear from an objective German on this point.
All said, Nietzsche IS required reading for anyone who sees value in developing some sort of intelligence... for that I guess I should do a second reading ;)
Book Description
"Beyond Good and Evil" is Nietzsche at his best. In the book the philosopher attempts to systematically sum up his philosophy through a collection of 296 aphorisms grouped into nine different chapters based on their common theme. For the reader who has yet to discover Nietzsche in this translation by Helen Zimmern will be found a fabulous introduction. For those who have already discovered Nietzsche here you will find the opportunity to understand the whole of Nietzsche's philosophy.
Customer Reviews:
A living thing seeks above all to discharge its strength--life itself is will to power.......2007-05-01
This was required reading for a graduate course in the Humanities.
Friedrich Nietzsche's concept of a "will to power" is central to his philosophical beliefs, and a recurring theme in his book "Beyond Good and Evil." When Nietzsche was a budding philosopher, he admired and was influenced by the writings of another philosopher, Arthur Schopenhauer. However, Schopenhauer, like most scientists and philosophers of his day, attributed the "will to live" as the highest motivational life force in nature. Nietzsche observed that the "will to live" was not life affirming enough and that humankind needed a higher power. Therefore, Nietzsche theorized that living beings were not just motivated by a survival instinct to live. He understood that beings had a higher need, which he called the "will to power." One can easily interpret Nietzsche's "will to power" as a method by which people strive to grow and nurture their creative energies, and interact with the world. Nietzsche thinks that "will to power" was coupled with humankind's innate nature and passion to create. Nietzsche thinks that this "will to power" was the true driving force of humankind. "A living thing seeks above all to discharge its strength--life itself is will to power, self-preservation is only one of the indirect and most frequent results" (Nietzsche Aphorism 13). The "will to power" causes humans to dominate and impose their will on others. Thus for Nietzsche, humankind's "will to power" meant that life and will is the exploitation of others, and it has been since the beginning of time, immemorial (Nietzsche Aphorism 258). In fact, Nietzsche believed that one could take his concept of the "will to power" one-step further, and use it to explain the motivations of whole societies, and nation states, as well as the individual (Nietzsche aphorism 257, 259).
Nietzsche tends to be very passionate and absolutist in his aphorisms. He wrote so much that one could find plenty of instances in his works where he has contradicted himself. Nietzsche's concept of "will to power" is a philosophic thought, which led to many interpretations. To assume that Nietzsche thought that the primary instincts of the human being came down to violence and little else, amounts to a gross underestimation of Nietzsche's views of humankind. However, most of his writings on the concept of a "will to power," if interpreted as being violent, have to be understood more in vain with what he saw as the constant struggle of overcoming one's individual weaknesses (Nietzsche aphorism 22, 260). Nietzsche envisioned his "will to power" more along the lines of applying one's will in self-overcoming. Nietzsche's writings about violence are usually meant as violence against giving in to the herd or slave morality. The herd, as Nietzsche names it, is the vast majority of humans who throughout history have obeyed and followed the status quo. The herd has stymied human development with their slave morality (Nietzsche aphorism 198, 199). The slave morality invented the dichotomy of good and evil. "Moral judgments and condemnations constitute the favorite revenge of the spiritually limited against those less limited" (Nietzsche aphorism 219). The herd morality causes people to sublimate their creative drive. Thus, Nietzsche is imploring the few noble humans--the few geniuses to struggle against following the herd morality. Nietzsche wants the noble people to invent their own morality and values to live their lives by, and to fulfill their own "will to power" and not indulge in an effort to attract others to their values (Nietzsche aphorism 199, 201, 260).
Recommended reading for anyone interested in philosophy, history, and psychology.
Aphorisms alone are worth the price.......2006-07-03
I think that the entire book is fascinating, but the one part that I read over and over is the aphorisms section. The entries are, at once, deceptively simple, sometimes offensive, always provocative, and ultimately mind-blowing. Similar in tone to the aphorisms in "Twilight of the Idols", but somehow more incisive and memorable.
Good if you seek knowledge of self.......2006-01-03
This book was good and very helpful to me. If you are looking to free your mind especially from organized religion it is very helpful. Nietzche to me was a prophet; he told the truth as it is with no fear. Dont beleive what they say about him; he is a good man; and seeks to help you empower yourself. He has long passed away now, but his works still apply to today; and his works are truely artistic. Be very patient reading this book, the truth of it sort of comes not the way you want it to. The truths in this book are scattered, so read it all the way through. I highly recommend this book for free spirited individuals.
Very good.......2005-10-07
This book contains some great theological and philosophical ideas. I reccomend this book for anyone curios about philosophy
Book Description
`Reason, seriousness, mastery over the emotions, the whole murky affair which goes by the name of thought, all the privileges and showpieces of man: what a high price has been paid for them! How much blood and horror is at the bottom of all "good things!"' On the Genealogy of Morals (1887) is a book about the history of ethics and about interpretation. Nietzsche rewrites the former as a history of cruelty, exposing the central values of the Judaeo-Christian and liberal traditions - compassion, equality, justice - as the product of a brutal process of conditioning designed to domesticate the animal vitality of earlier cultures. The result is a book which raises profoundly disquieting issues about the violence of both ethics and interpretation. Nietzsche questions moral certainties by showing that religion and science have no claim to absolute truth, before turning on his own arguments in order to call their very presuppositions into question. The Genealogy is the most sustained of Nietzsche's later works and offers one of the fullest expressions of his characteristic concerns. This edition places his ideas within the cultural context of his own time and stresses the relevance of his work for a contemporary audience.
Customer Reviews:
Astonishing Philosophy.......2007-05-07
Nietzsche's complex sequel to Beyond Good and Evil is a remarkable achievement of philosophy, philology, and history. It laid the groundwork for such 20th century thinkers as Foucault and Deleuze, though they would never reach Nietzsche's complexity and moral sophistication. In the preface to the book, Nietzsche proposes the project of investigating the origins of morality on the grounds that human beings are unknown to themselves. He is ultimately concerned with the development of moral prejudices, and the value of morality itself. He criticizes mankind in its acceptance of moral principles, and writes: "we need a critique of moral values, the value of these values themselves must first be called in question-and for that there is needed a knowledge of the conditions and circumstances in which they grew, under which they evolved and changed" (456).
Nietzsche begins the essay (Good and Evil, Good and Bad), with a philological examination of the words and roots of the words related to good and evil, and a delimitation of their evolution. He makes a connection between the creations of words and places them within the historical context of rulers and nobility. Linguistically, Nietzsche has discovered that the `good' is linked with nobility. He writes: "everywhere `noble,' `aristocratic' in the social sense, is the basic concept from which `good' in the sense of `with aristocratic soul,' `noble,'" (464). Alternatively, words associated with the `bad' invariably were linked with the `plain,' `simple,' and `low.' In this way, morality as a human construction is an extension of power, wealth, and civilization. The origin of evil is intertwined with priestly aristocracies.
Nietzsche moves into a discussion of a shift in the history of morality, in which the morality of the priestly aristocracy is superceded by Jewish morality. For Nietzsche, the Jews inverted the morality of nobility and established a system which places value on the lower order of mankind. He indicates that the Jews believed "the wretched alone are the good; the poor, impotent, lowly alone are the good; the suffering, deprived, sick, ugly alone are pious, alone are blessed by God" (470). Nietzsche describes this turn as `the slave revolt' of morality. He describes the triumph of Judeo-Christian morality over the previous system of values, and indicates that this turn is a triumph for the herd instinct, and for ressentiment. He writes: "The slave revolt in morality begins when ressentiment itself becomes creative and gives birth to values: the ressentiment of natures that are denied the true reaction, that of deeds, and compensate themselves with an imaginary revenge" (472). Noble morality develops as an affirmation of itself, while slave morality always says No to what is external to it. For Nietzsche, the need to constantly turn outward to an external `other' and place judgment on it is the essence of ressentiment.
In the proceeding section of the treatise, Nietzsche discusses civilization's taming of man the animal. Here he writes: "Supposing that what is at any rate believed to be the `truth' really is true, and the meaning of all culture is the reduction of the beast of prey `man' to a tame and civilized animal, a domestic animal, then one would undoubtedly have to regard all those instincts of reaction and ressentiment through whose aid the noble races and their ideal were finally confounded and overthrown as the actual instruments of culture" (478). Nietzsche insists that Europe's taming of man is a tremendous danger, for we are made to be weary of our own being. For Nietzsche, this weariness and fear of man has compelled us to lose our love for him, to turn our backs on our instincts, to reject affirmation.
Great gift!.......2007-02-17
I gave this to my coworker and he couldn't stop talking about how great it was!
On the Genealogy of Morals and Ecce Homo........2006-07-21
_On the Genealogy of Morals and Ecce Homo_ consists of translations by Walter Kaufman and R. J. Hollingdale of the works _On the Genealogy of Morals, A Polemic_ (_Zur Genealogie der Moral, Eine Streitschrift_), first published in 1887, and _Ecce Homo_, written in 1888, by the tormented German thinker Friedrich Nietzsche. _On the Genealogy of Morals_ was Nietzsche's eighth book and consists of three essays which reveal his opposition to Christian morality. _Ecce Homo_ was an autobiographical work which consists of several chapters detailing Nietzsche's philosophy. Nietzsche's philosophical viewpoint may be described as that of aristocratic radicalism, in which he sets up an opposition between the morality of the masters and what he terms "slave morality". It is this "slave morality" motivated by a spirit of ressentiment that Nietzsche seeks to overcome by a return to the morality of the masters. Nietzsche is firmly opposed to the Judeo-Christian tradition, which he views as the culmination of slave morality. Indeed, according to Nietzsche the slaves sought to revolt against their masters by supplanting the morality of the masters with their own which glorifies the weak, meek, and sickly. Instead, Nietzsche advocates a revaluation of all values with a return to the morality of the masters, who are proud, strong, and heroic.
_On the Genealogy of Morals_ consists of a preface followed by three essays and an appendix which consists of aphorisms from his various writings. The preface notes the slave rebellion in morality, in which a morality of pity came to replace the morality of the masters. Nietzsche references the work of Schopenhauer, his great teacher, who he believes has made possible a new Buddhism for Europeans - nihilism. The first essay of this book is entitled ""Good and Evil", "Good and Bad"" and it details Nietzsche's opposition to Judeo-Christianity and Christian morality as well as Platonic philosophy. Nietzsche argues that the Jews, a slave people, began a great revolt in morality which resulted in the inversion of moral values in which what previously had been called "good" and "noble" came to be replaced by the lowly, weak, and sickly. Nietzsche argues that with Jesus of Nazareth, the Jewish slave revolt was accomplished in which Europe became under the sway of a Jew. Nietzsche contrasts this with the "blond German beast", the primitive Aryan tribesman, and his morality of the conquerer. Nietzsche quotes extensively from the church fathers, including Tertullian, regarding the "kingdom of God" and offers in opposition to the sign on the entrance of Dante's hell, "I too was created by eternal love", the sign "I too was created by eternal hate", instead. Nietzsche offers the opposition "Rome against Judea, Judea against Rome". In addition, Nietzsche shows how the Jews have come to conquer Rome through the slave revolt in which today in Rome they bow before three Jews and a Jewess (Jesus, Peter, Paul, and Mary). Nietzsche claims that the Renaissance represented a return to the classical idea; however with the Reformation motivated largely by ressentiment and the French Revolution the slave revolt was made complete. The second essay in this book is entitled ""Guilt", "Bad Conscience" and the Like". This essay focuses on the meaning of guilt and ressentiment showing the cruelty of punishment and torture. Nietzsche shows himself to be a primitive psychologist in his understanding of "bad conscience" and "guilt" and his theories were an important precursor to modern day psychoanalysis. The third essay of this book is entitled "What is the Meaning of Ascetic Ideals?". Here, Nietzsche focuses on Richard Wagner with whom he had a complicated relationship. Nietzsche also expresses his disgust with the German anti-Semites of the time (though only with a certain type of anti-Semite, the kind who still retained adherence to the Christian tradition). This essay ends with the following line: "man would rather will nothingness than not will", an expression of Nietzsche's nihilism. This book concludes with an appendix, "Seventy-Five Aphorisms in Five Volumes", containing various aphorisms from Nietzsche's writings.
_Ecce Homo_ was Nietzsche's last work and was not published during his lifetime. The book is subtitled "How One Becomes What One Is". _Ecce Homo_ contains a preface and three chapters, followed by discussions of several of Nietzsche's books, and then a final chapter. The chapters attempt to show Nietzsche's philosophical progression as he began his career as a philologist, the influence of Wagner on his early life, his subsequent break with Wagner, and his later writings. Nietzsche also includes commentary on his own writings, particularly his _Zarathustra_ and shows the opposition between the Dionysian and the Appolinian. Nietzsche entitles his chapters brazenly: "Why I Am So Wise", "Why I Am So Clever", "Why I Write Such Good Books", followed by his discussion of his individual works, and then "Why I Am Destiny". It has been suggested that Nietzsche may have been experiencing the early symptoms of his mental decline at this point and his complete mental collapse was to occur soon thereafter (rumored to be the result of syphilis, though probably wrongly). Nietzsche claims that he is wise because of his aesthetic sensitivities. He claims that he is clever because he can choose the right nutrition, climate, residence, and recreation for himself. He claims to write such good books because they open up a series of new, delicate, and noble experiences. And, he claims to be destiny because his anti-moral truths serve as intellectual dynamite which can topple the sickness inherent in Western culture. Indeed, Nietzsche writes, "I am no man, I am dynamite." Nietzsche opposes Dionysus to "the Crucified", as his new god of life's exuberance to overcome the god of the heavenly otherworld. Nietzsche claims that he wants no believers and that he fears that he will be worshipped and pronounced holy in the future. He wants to assure that his publishers will prevent his book from doing "mischief". Nietzsche ends with the pronouncement that he is the great immoralist and that Dionysus has come to supercede "the Crucified".
This translation of two of Nietzsche's important works includes commentary by Walter Kaufman. Some of Kaufman's commentary is useful; however Kaufman was prone to his own understanding of Nietzsche which he interjected all too often. Nevertheless, these two books stand out as important works which must be understood by those who seek to develop an understanding of the rise of nihilism in the Twentieth Century.
Two important works.......2005-10-09
This anthology of Nietzsche's writing is a marvelous work - Kaufmann's translations make the philosopher's unique style accessible and interesting to the English reader; it doesn't resort to false formality or dry academic prose as is often the case in translation of such material, but rather sets things in lively and dynamic tones, much as Nietzsche's own writing and tendency toward the dramatic was noted by his contemporaries.
Nietzsche's father was a Lutheran minister, but he died five years after Nietzsche's birth in 1844. Nietzsche was raised by his mother, grandmother and aunts; later in his life, his sister would become executor of his estate (after Nietzsche had become incapable of managing his own affairs) and reshape his philosophy and writings in her own idea - this becomes a running motif in later anthologies of Nietzsche; editors can quote and clip to fit their own agendas. In some ways, that is true of Kaufmann's text here, but in much less inappropriate ways than others, particularly Nietzsche's first editor, his sister.
Nietzsche was a star pupil from his earliest days at university in Bonn and Leipzig. His formal study was in classical philology, but his attentions turned in various directions quickly during his writing and professional life - he had an intense interest in drama and the arts, with Wagner's music and Greek drama in principal interest. His first book was devoted to these topics - 'The Birth of Tragedy'. It was not highly regarded at the time, but has since become much more appreciated as an anticipation of later developments in philosophy and aesthetics.
Nietzsche's life after this period was a very choppy one - he left the university, claiming illness, and while this developed later to be a true situation, at the time is was probably academic politics and difficulties fitting in with the establishment he was trying to break. He had a formal falling-out with Wagner, even writing later a piece entitled ' Nietzsche contra Wagner', finished just a few week prior to his going insane.
Kaufmann states in the introduction that Nietzsche's real career took off after his active life was over; under his sister's direction, many of the writings Nietzsche had managed to do and not get published, or which were published but forgotten, really took off in major directions. While his major works of Zarathustra, Ecce Homo, Will to Power and Genealogy of Morals were in various editions of disrepair (indeed, the Will to Power was never more complete than a series of notes), Nietzsche had a knack for language that made him very quotable, and his influence continued to grow well into the first half of the twentieth century, influencing art, philosophy, history, and politics in dramatic ways, if not always the ways in which Nietzsche envisioned.
For example, Nietzsche was not particularly impressed with the 'typical' German anti-semitism, which later erupted into the Nazi movement. He considered it rather bourgeois, and while he undoubted had his own issues with Jews (Nietzsche had issues with almost everyone, particularly any group, Christians included, who had a religious connection), the Nazi use of Nietzsche's work owes more to Nietzsche's sister's influence than anyone else.
Kaufmann states that 'Genealogy of Morals' is perhaps the closest in form to English-speaking philosophical discourse. This is a discussion that involves philosophy, psychology and linguistic theory, looking at morality in three different essays. The first essay explores the idea of good and evil as good and bad; Nietzsche develops the idea of master and slave morality - the slave resists the ideas of the master, and thus values things that are less likely to gain power - Nietzsche sees Christianity as an example of slave morality.
The second essay looks at the issues of conscience and guilt, and how these spawned the invention of gods. The third essay concludes the work with a look at ascetic ideas, how these relate to aesthetic ideas, and where in Nietzsche's opinion the great philosophers of the past have gone wrong.
Perhaps this later explains the second work in this collection, Ecce Homo. In this book (first published posthumously), Nietzsche analyses his own work piece by piece, as well as gives an overall assessment of his life. Nietzsche's insights into his own writings in hindsight is fascinating to behold. For example, his idea of his work in the first piece of this collection, the Genealogy, is as follows:
'Regarding expression, intention, and the art of suprise, the three inquiries which constitute this Genealogy are perhaps uncannier than anything else written so far. Dionysus is, as is known, also the god of darkness.'
Nietzsce is not easy reading, and this work is not the best for casual reading or the first-time reader of Nietzsche. However, for those who have already made some headway into understanding him, this is a good collection, for Kaufmann is one of the better translators and commentators. Kaufmann's notes here are especially valuable.
An Essay on Nietzsche.......2005-06-07
To the eyes of a general reader, Nietzsche's intense energy might be overwhelming, and his theories intimidating. That blonde beast which seems ready to bite into any flesh without the pangs of conscious inevitably conjures up images of a ferocious maniac who would wreck the world, bringing with it infinite sufferings to the grocery-store-citizens and the corn-field-peasants. In fact, this weak peasant who plows his land and prays before his god and whom Nietzsche despises seems like a much more amiable character to the general reader. Certainly, this peasant will not have the will-to-power to reshape the world, but he will be more or less the relative peace of normal life.
Nietzsche, however, can not be so easily dismissed, and if one believes in the above description of the strong against the weak, he is missing the essence of Genealogy. In fact, Nietzsche's blonde beasts are not renegades against the world, instead, they are the masters of the world who recognize the inherent conditions of their environment; this grasp of reality gives them command over promise and forgetfulness, and allow them to set the directions of the world with whatever values they see fit. They are indeed strong, but they are not lawless monsters to be feared. The true renegades against this world are the people who follow the slave morality-they can not succeed in the world because they refuse to conform to the conditions of reality. Under the general rubric of empowerment established by Nietzsche, Weber follows in Politics as Vocation with a concrete example of self-empower in the role of the politician, and Plato also uses Nietzsche's methods in his search to understand the nature of man and society.
The Genealogy of morals is in fact a genealogy of human weakness and suffering. This suffering arises because the conditions of civil life require activities that are in contradiction to the traditional life of the independent savages. This suffering consequently results in "bad consciousness", from which arises a belief within the weakling that he is inherently sinful and bad. Nietzsche writes,
"I regard the bad conscience as the serious illness that man was bound to contract under the stress which occurred when he found himself finally enclosed within the walls of society and of peace." (N, p84)
Nietzsche does not offer an outcast view on this point, and it is easy to imagine the decrease in freedom and increase in pain that men experienced when they turned from hunter and gathers to agriculturalists. When Ghengis Khan marched his horsemen into the lands of the Han or the Muscovites, the Mongolians horsemen despised the conquered natives for their pathetic existence as farmers who had to work all year long doing monotonous work but only to be disappointed by draught or flood.
The agricultural life is only one aspect of the constraint of life of civil man. Living in the state, the man is often deprived of land and is confronted by civil forces thousands of times greater. To lessen his pain, the provincial agriculturalist turns toward the hopes of religion and such, giving rise to the slave Morality which Nietzsche passionately accuses. Nietzsche writes,
"We stand before a discord that wants to be discordant, that enjoys itself in this suffering and even grows more self-confident and triumphant the more its own presupposition, its physiological capacity for life, decreases." (p118)
The situation which propelled the suffering people to turn toward "bad consciousness" is precisely the situation of the man with toothache. One should find a dentist and fill cavities when he has toothache; but those who are too lazy to find a doctor, or refuse to eat less candies will continue to suffer until it is too late and their teeth have already rotten away. But during and at the end of this process, in order to justify one's existence despite his sickness, the sick man tells others that the pain in his mouth is actually a great joy to have and teeth are bad anyway. Despite this effort to manipulate psychology, the man can not escape facts of his body, which is that without teeth he can not chew.
The agriculturalists were forced into a new situation in which they suffered, and the solution was to turn to the morality of the weak. The morality of the weak, in fact, has become so prevalent that many feel it is the only way to live life despite the self-negation and hate inherent in it. As he points out this problem, Nietzsche does not offer a solution explicitly; rather than prescribing, Nietzsche describes an alternative way of life of the truthful and the noble-an alternative way to resolve the problems of civil life. These men do not suffer the pains of the weak, and the reader, desiring for relief from his corrupted existence, must feel a natural inclination toward the "nobler" way of life.
Just before the weak gets ready to embark on a new life, however, they might be shocked back by Nietzsche vigorous depiction of the strong which makes them intimidating and unruly. But in fact, despite their strong "physicality", the strong are not anti-social monsters, but people who are the most willing to conform to the conditions of civil life. To understand their nature, we must delve into their qualities of strength, memory and forgetfulness. Nietzsche writes,
"The knightly-aristocratic value judgments presupposed a powerful physically, a flourishing, abundant, even overflowing health, together with that which serves to preserve it: war, adventure, hunting, dancing, war games, and in general all that involves vigorous, free, joyful activity." (p33)
This passage must not be taken to mean that one must be a Napoleon to be strong, or one who has the right blood pressure and cholesterol level will be strong, or that those who are naturally smaller have no chances in salvation. Real physical health could indeed be beneficial, but the physicality here implies a physicality of the mind-It is the experiences from war and adventure which strengthen one's understanding of the world and of himself that Nietzsche cares about, not the acts of war or adventure themselves. The man of physicality is a man who knows his environment and who can take advantages of its situation to fulfill his ends,
Nietzsche elucidates the specific quality of the strong when he describes their ability to forget and to remember. On forgetting, Nietzsche writes, forgetting offers
"a little quietness, a little tabula rasa of the consciousness, to make room for new things, above all for the nobler functions and functionaries..." (p58)
This forgetfulness at the core is an understanding over the situations of the world, it is about forgetting the senseless worries which only make man impotent. The weakling, after a disaster, will simply dwell upon the horrors of the disaster without understanding the natural causes. He will sink into a world of doubts and superstition, and as Nietzsche writes, he will think that he has done things intrinsically evil against his gods or ancestors. The strong person, on the other hand, has gained a knowledge of the world, and knows that there is no gods behind the clouds. Hence, they might worry, but they will not feel bitter or gain a "bad conscious" against themselves because of the rain. Eradicating worries-this is the essence of forgetfulness. Worry is passion-consuming, and only when the man is independent from can he have the mental capacity left over to gain a greater understanding of the world-he has more time to experience the reality of this world through adventure, through wars.
The ability to make promises arises naturally from the lack of worry; the scientists who knows how clouds form can "promise" their coming. This promise could be for any ends which the active desire of the strong man wills. As Nietzsche writes, memory of the strong is "an active desire not to rid oneself, a desire for the continuance of something desired once, a real memory of the will." (p58)
Nietzsche also describes the memory of the slave morality and its relation to punishment, but this is a different memory than the strong man's memory. Nietzsche writes that the ascetic people's memory is "unforgettable, `fixed,' with the aim of hypnotizing the entire nervous and intellectual system with these `fixed ideas'" (p61) The strong memory is proactive, for it is "an active desire", the weak memory is reactive, for it is about "hypnotizing" the mind. One is used to help the will all its directions, while the wills in only one direction-the abyss into suffering.
This individual who possesses the control over past and future, memory and promises, is the "emancipated individual". This person is liberated "from morality of customs". This emancipation is not accomplished through killing the innocents or running naked, but through the ability to set "measure of value" (p60) based on reality. Nietzsche writes, "...this mastery over himself also necessarily gives him mastery over circumstances, over nature, and over all more short-willed and unreliable creatures." Nietzsche is calling people to become "masters" over circumstances, not to destroy circumstances. The swordsman who is a master over his sword does not use his hands to fight, but is a master precisely because he uses the sword and knows where to find the best sword and how to use it the best.
The difficulty of this mastery is precisely the difficulties of acquiring new languages: it is hard for an adult thrown into a different country to learn the native tongue, but unlike those of the slave morality who give up and blame oneself for inherent inability or blame the language for being evil, the strong people will patiently learn the language. All this requires is a little bravery! Nietzsche writes, man's suffering is
"the result of a forcible sundering from his animal past, as it were a leap and plunge into new surroundings and conditions of existence, a declaration of war against the old instincts upon which his strength, joy and terribleness had rested hitherto." (P85)
Indeed, instinct is the ability of man to react quickly to familiar environment, but the civil man's life requires a new set of skills and understandings, new instincts. Just like the strong with their new tongue can now express themselves in anyway way they desire, the strong man in the greater world will be a master of the "language" of the civil society and thus gain the ability to set values and fulfill wills.
The above ideas draw a positive conclusion from the genealogy, and offers hope to those who are brave, but the Genealogy is a pessimistic book. Nietzsche writes,
"Man has all too long had an `evil eye' for his natural inclinations, so that they have finally become inseparable from his `bad conscience.' An attempt at the reverse would in itself be possible-but who is strong enough for it?... The attainment of this goal would require a different kind of spirit from that likely to appear in this present age..." (p96)
Reading this, it seems that our age is doomed, and the essay in front of you has been promoting a pointless hope that even the hope's supposed originator does not have. But Nietzsche's words are no mere pessimism, they carry a pessimism that is angry at the "bad air" in life, it is pessimism with passion! Nietzsche is an angry mother telling her son that he has no future at all because he only drinks himself to death in a bar every night. The world perhaps has been dark, but this anger will be the lightening rod which shakes away the shells of our complacent irreverence toward truth and nature!
When a reader is confounded by the world which Nietzsche depicts, he may turn to Politics as Vocation by Weber. In this essay, Weber paints a specific case of the grandiose problem of adaptation, or survival in new environments, in the person of the conflicted politician.
Politics as Vocation inherits the essence of Genealogy of Morals in calling for the politician's mastery over circumstances. The politician must both be a master of his internal conditions, and his external conditions. Internally, for the politician to be a politician, he must have "passionate devotion to a `cause'". This passion, or excessive energy, however, can lead to vanity and then the "striving for power ceases to be objective and becomes purely personal self-intoxication" (p116). In order to counterbalance this tendency, Weber says that the politician must have a "cool sense of proportion" (p115). One's ardent political passion is the fire that will draw the hearts of a thousands followers, however, if he gets carried away by the worshipping crowds, then the fire has burnt onto himself. In another word, there is no strength in the ecstasy of self-adulation, there is no power when one does not even notice the reality within himself and is merely fooled by vanity. Although the context is different, Weber is asking exactly what Nietzsche asked: the politician must know what words of praises he should forget and always know what he needs to remember to keep his crowds in control; he needs to constantly adapt to the changing conditions of the crowd so that he will always know its language and express his Will with this tongue.
Extending this into a greater sphere, politicians must rely on the support of businessmen and interest groups, and he necessarily have to use his power to bring to his backers a profit on their investments. Living in this reality, Weber advises the politician to gain mastery over the situation, to know the goals of their political life with a clarity, and to pursue this goal with a sense of responsibility to the goal. In Nietzsche's terms, the politician must learn to forget and not fall into the moral trap of self-deprecation against every "unethical" act that he necessarily takes, but he must also always remember his promised end which he will reach with his mastery over the tools of politics.
Behinds Webber, Plato also has similar things to say as Nietzsche. Nietzsche offers his readers hope with the model of the truthful he erects which all who have a little bravery could follow. Despite differences that can not be discussed here, Plato's creation of the noble city with the noble people could be regarded as an imaginary application of Nietzche's theory (although 2000 earlier).
The whole of Republic is about understanding man and the world. Plato writes, "this very thing, good judgment, is clearly some kind of knowledge, for it's through knowledge, not ignorance, that people judge well." (IV, 426e) The ultimate search for knowledge rests in understanding the light from the "sun", but practically speaking, Plato has made it his duty to search for human nature and the social nature of the Greek-state. The "tripartite soul" conclusion that he draws from the natural conditions of his world is contentious today, and Nietzsche certainly has much to say against it, however, the resolute search for understanding the internal and external conditions of man, however, is the same.
Furthermore, in building his world, Plato asks his nobles to be able to forget certain things with the noble lie. The goal here is precisely the same as Nietzsche's: Plato wanted to leave the inessentials in the past, and prevent obsession with the "dark" things that gods supposed did or the petty accounts of who was truly "silver" or "gold", stories and accounts that will elude man on their journey for greater power. With their passion freed from the foolishness of the past, from the plays of dark shadows reflected from the fires in the cage, men and society as a whole is better positioned to get out of the hole of the past and embrace the glory of truth.
In all, Nietzsche's strong men are not scary. The weak ones of the slave morality are not scary either, it is merely so sad to behold them that catapulted Nietzsche writes about them with such vehement anger. Nietzsche never says that the strong should be followed, and perhaps in other books of his one can draw differing conclusions about what Nietzsche really is promoting, however, from the Genealogy, it is clear that the contrast between the strong and the weak makes the strong a more appropriate role model. Again, one does not need to be scared of them, they are merely adroit adaptationists, masters of their environment, not destroyers.
Book Description
Is God to blame? This is often the question that comes to mind when we confront real suffering in our own lives or in the lives of those we love. Pastor Gregory A. Boyd helps us deal with this question honestly and biblically, while avoiding glib answers. Writing for ordinary Christians, Boyd wrestles with a variety of answers that have been offered by theologians and pastors in the past. He finds that a fully Christian approach must keep the person and work of Jesus Christ at the very center of what we say about human suffering and God's place in it. Yet this is often just what is missing and what makes so much talk about the subject seem inadequate and at times even misleading. What comes through in Is God to Blame? is a hopeful picture of a sovereign God who is relentlessly opposed to evil, who knows our sufferings and who can be trusted to bring us through them to renewed life.
Customer Reviews:
No Two Biblical Interpretations May Coexist .......2006-10-12
I open with a Bible verse from the Gospel of Matthew Chapter 5 verse 40, "and if anyone would sue you and take your coat, let him have your cloak as well;" Any Biblical literalist who is willing to put that verse into action, I am willing to listen to. In the meantime tremendous quantities of words by certain sectors of the self avowed Biblically correct have been spilled out upon this book in these reviews. A universal anger among certain of the devout permeates an assessment of how God allows free will to act. I am so glad that my fellow man feels free to impose his interpretations of Scripture on me as writ large by God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit and him or her self as the case may be. Amateur exegesis at this level is awe inspiring if for nothing more than its intolerant virulence. Obviously, a preponderance of the readers of this book as reflected in these threads are offended by Boyd's proposition that God is not the direct author of every evil event in the world and the cosmos.
Which leads me to the following observation. Boyd musters a plausible case for his theology backed by reasonable Biblical exegesis. Is this book a tour de force by a master theologian? No, but it does represent one possible Bible based exposition of the problems of the authorship and responsibility for evil in the world. The constant reminder that Jesus Christ is the revelation of the one true God who assumed human form for our salvation and edification is paramount to Boyd's knowledge of God. The radical egalitarian love of Jesus is constantly pointed out as the true reflection of God the Father. Other interpretations of scripture are assuredly available, and Boyd makes no exclusive claims for his theology. However, it is the certainty of the correctness of their theology on the part of many in the reviewing population that distresses me. Hidebound doctrinal arguments and positions of self righteousness are tearing the Church apart. The Church is the body of Christ on earth. What are we doing other than the work of Satan? Where is Christian love, tolerance and corrective spirit when needed? Boyd speaks for a kinder gentler God who allows us the freedom to cavort with the devil if we wish. However, he does not attribute responsibility for the results of our iniquity to a master plan of the Lord.
This is the first and last book I will be reviewing that deals with contemporary Christianity. This book came up for me to read in the context of a structured conversation on Augustine and free will. If one looks at my reviews, they will find them centered on the history of the early Church and antiquity. The early Church suffered through just such problems of division as we do today. And to its credit, the early Church always sought to reform and reintegrate the "holier than thou" as exemplified by the Mellitians and Donatists, and it attempted to rehabilitate and bring back into communion its heretics. Each soul and life is and was precious to God. It was only later that the Church burned dissenters and heretics at the stake. And please remember, the author of this book is not some "new age" liberal theologian. He is a respected scholar at a conservative mid-western theological seminary. He is also the pastor of a major evangelical church in St. Paul, Minnesota. And yes, he has lost over twenty percent of his flock because of his theology and writings. I can only suggest that one reads and reflects on this book and makes up their own mind as to whether Boyd is right or wrong. If the idea of God as author of all evil in the world as part of His inscrutable plan for His creation disturbs you, this book will present an alternate, albeit hotly contested, look at the issue. It was in 1919 when one of the most brilliant minds of the 20th Century, Bertrand Russell, at the end of World War One stated and I paraphrase, "If this war was part of your God's divine plan, I do not wish to know Him." Do not Christians wish God to be known to all men?
Not all things that happen are God's will.......2006-05-25
Boyd explores the idea that not everything that happens in our world is God's will. He develops the thesis that we were created with true free will, which necessitates the possibility of things happening which God does not want to happen. The practical implication in regards to suffering is that when we suffer, God suffers with us, rather than causing our suffering for some higher purpose.
Another idea Boyd discusses is that rather than God's will being something which is inscrutable and creation being relatively simple, he suggests that God's will is easy to understand (it is demonstrated in Jesus Christ), but creation is incomprehensibly complicated.
Boyd emphaszies that our starting point in understanding God's character needs to be Jesus Christ. He is our starting point. Everything we need to know about God was revealed in Him. Starting from here, he seeks to develop a theology of suffering which is consistent with the picture of God which Jesus Christ presented.
A balanced view of Evil.......2005-09-19
This is a great book with a balanced view of evil. This book is a shorter version of Satan and the problem of Evil, by the same author. This book presents a theology that explains the problem of evil in a way that the layperson can fully understand how a God of Love can also be a God of Wrath. It presents a realistic theology dealing with Satan and the fallen angels, and mankind's responsibility for evil in this world. This book does all these things while preserving and even expanding God's sovereignty, and demonstrating that men and women have a free will.
...other books to read.......2005-03-18
For someone who has read some of Boyds books I don't agree with everything he says....he does get you thinking and for thinking people he has compelling answers that shouldnt be tossed aside lightly. We should be thinking reasoning christians not looking for the pat answers that plague so many christian answers to life. Not that we set aside the Biblical truth for our own but likewise we don't discard completely human reason. I find it so interesting to read others reviews that denounce his books with an almost hateful attitude. I have heard that we become just like the God that we revere. If you believe in a god of hate in any form and violence you will most likely become just that. Two other wonderful books that come from another viewpoint but support a God of love and relationship, might be interesting to people who have read this book. They are "Servants or Friends?: Another Look at God" and "Can God be trusted?" both by author Graham Maxwell. These books and I think Boyds books give christian and non christian alike, hope in biblical truth and the truth about the father and the son, that they are both for us not against us...our freedom and his wanting of a relationship with us is paramount.
Shane
Fails as serious response to evil.......2005-01-20
For those enjoying Rabbi Harold Kushner 'Why Bad Things Happen to Good People', this will make a spongy sequel.
If you are serious about answers to the problem of evil in a Good God's world, read the Book of Revelation carefully with a good commentary (Mounce, Alan Johnson, Metzger, More Than Conquerors). Suffering is the way it is in this cursed world, for believers & unbelievers alike. You can either follow the Beast and be in pain-avoidance/rationalizing mode ("I demand answers! I want out!"). Or you can follow the Lamb and see God-authorized suffering/tribulation as redemptive and conformative to Christ Who suffered unbearably, yet conquered ("Thy will be done. We must thru much tribulation enter the Kingdom of God"). Christus Victor!
Book Description
BradyGames' Beyond Good and Evil Official Strategy Guide features a comprehensive walkthrough. All 56 animal species locations are revealed, with tips showing how to nab pictures of them all! Masterful fighting strategies. Maps of key levels that point out important items, ideal photo spots and more! Species checklist helps players keep track of which animals still need to be photographed.
This product is available for sale worldwide, excluding France, Germany & Japan.
Customer Reviews:
Beyond the boring.......2005-10-12
What can one say about such a unique and different game as Beyond Good and Evil, except that it is one great experience!
You are Jade a journalist with a mission. Take photos of the species around the Islands where you live. But the sweet exterior hides a sinister and conspiratorial interior. People are being taken from their homes and lands, you must find out who is taking them, where they are being taken, and why they are being taken there.
With simple controls and a mixture of platform and adventure, and an opportunity to use your brain not a weapon, this game is a must. Clever in its story line and with unique gameplay (click goes the camera, click goes your mind), it goes far Beyond Good and Evil.
Dazzers tip.......2004-05-20
it's overall a very good game with a good story all the way through. as you sneak and battle through countless maps to uncover a conspirisy that has lasted year's. I think this would be a five star game if it were not for the ultra hard boss leading to the worst end sequence ever...
Good but..........2004-01-02
There are some games that pretty much play themselves. As far as primary objectives go, Beyond Good and Evil is one of them. The game is good, but the puzzles are relatively uncomplicated for a stealth based game, and fighting is just as straightforward. In this context, it's fair to ask what purpose a strategy guide serves. Sarcasm aside, the top answer has to be that it is a cool souvenir.
Well, there are some other things. The walkthrough will get you photos of all the creatures needed for the subquest, and that is an important source of early game cash. Since there aren't dependable sources of income that is a valuable service. Ditto for making sure you find all the pearls lying about. But, for the most part, this is a well-written, intelligent guide for a game that doesn't need one.
Oddly enough, this is one of the best practical guides I've seen this year. It sticks to providing a clear, timely walkthrough with a minimum of fluff, fan service shots of Jade, or extended biographies of momentary characters. The big, overdone 300 page monstrosities that pass for strategy guides should only be this good. Whether you want this guide will depend on if you really want to accomplish everything there is to accomplish. If you do, then this guide really will help you track down those last elusive clues.
Book Description
When Nietzsche published Beyond Good and Evil in 1886, he told a friend that it was a book that would not be read properly until "around the year 2000." Now Laurence Lampert sets out to fulfill this prophecy by providing a section by section interpretation of this philosophical masterpiece that emphasizes its unity and depth as a comprehensive new teaching on nature and humanity. According to Lampert, Nietzsche begins with a critique of philosophy that is ultimately affirmative, because it shows how philosophy can arrive at a defensible ontological account of the way of all beings. Nietzsche next argues that a new post-Christian religion can arise out of the affirmation of the world disclosed to philosophy. Then, turning to the implications of the new ontology for morality and politics, Nietzsche argues that these can be reconstituted on the fundamental insights of the new philosophy. Nietzsche's comprehensive depiction of this anti-Platonic philosophy ends with a chapter on nobility, in which he contends that what can now be publicly celebrated as noble in our species are its highest achievements of mind and spirit.
Customer Reviews:
A living thing seeks above all to discharge its strength--life itself is will to power.......2007-05-01
This was required reading for a graduate course in the Humanities.
Friedrich Nietzsche's concept of a "will to power" is central to his philosophical beliefs, and a recurring theme in his book "Beyond Good and Evil." When Nietzsche was a budding philosopher, he admired and was influenced by the writings of another philosopher, Arthur Schopenhauer. However, Schopenhauer, like most scientists and philosophers of his day, attributed the "will to live" as the highest motivational life force in nature. Nietzsche observed that the "will to live" was not life affirming enough and that humankind needed a higher power. Therefore, Nietzsche theorized that living beings were not just motivated by a survival instinct to live. He understood that beings had a higher need, which he called the "will to power." One can easily interpret Nietzsche's "will to power" as a method by which people strive to grow and nurture their creative energies, and interact with the world. Nietzsche thinks that "will to power" was coupled with humankind's innate nature and passion to create. Nietzsche thinks that this "will to power" was the true driving force of humankind. "A living thing seeks above all to discharge its strength--life itself is will to power, self-preservation is only one of the indirect and most frequent results" (Nietzsche Aphorism 13). The "will to power" causes humans to dominate and impose their will on others. Thus for Nietzsche, humankind's "will to power" meant that life and will is the exploitation of others, and it has been since the beginning of time, immemorial (Nietzsche Aphorism 258). In fact, Nietzsche believed that one could take his concept of the "will to power" one-step further, and use it to explain the motivations of whole societies, and nation states, as well as the individual (Nietzsche aphorism 257, 259).
Nietzsche tends to be very passionate and absolutist in his aphorisms. He wrote so much that one could find plenty of instances in his works where he has contradicted himself. Nietzsche's concept of "will to power" is a philosophic thought, which led to many interpretations. To assume that Nietzsche thought that the primary instincts of the human being came down to violence and little else, amounts to a gross underestimation of Nietzsche's views of humankind. However, most of his writings on the concept of a "will to power," if interpreted as being violent, have to be understood more in vain with what he saw as the constant struggle of overcoming one's individual weaknesses (Nietzsche aphorism 22, 260). Nietzsche envisioned his "will to power" more along the lines of applying one's will in self-overcoming. Nietzsche's writings about violence are usually meant as violence against giving in to the herd or slave morality. The herd, as Nietzsche names it, is the vast majority of humans who throughout history have obeyed and followed the status quo. The herd has stymied human development with their slave morality (Nietzsche aphorism 198, 199). The slave morality invented the dichotomy of good and evil. "Moral judgments and condemnations constitute the favorite revenge of the spiritually limited against those less limited" (Nietzsche aphorism 219). The herd morality causes people to sublimate their creative drive. Thus, Nietzsche is imploring the few noble humans--the few geniuses to struggle against following the herd morality. Nietzsche wants the noble people to invent their own morality and values to live their lives by, and to fulfill their own "will to power" and not indulge in an effort to attract others to their values (Nietzsche aphorism 199, 201, 260).
Recommended reading for anyone interested in philosophy, history, and psychology.
FORGET KAUFMAN.......2004-01-02
All I can say is, whoever said to go with Kaufman does not understand Nietzsche. Kaufman has dedicated a professional life to distorting N. in subtle and pernicious ways. He takes a fire breathing dragon and translates him into a bunny rabbit.
A very frustrating read.......2003-05-28
Beyond Good and Evil from the start is a book concerning moral philosophy. The title leads the prospective reader to believe that Nietzsche is dealing essentially with ethical issues, but the scope of the text is much broader, encompassing reflections on religion, and current affairs.
Beyond Good and Evil opens with a section on the `Prejudices of Philosophers', in this he under takes a critique of the philosophical traditions. Unlike previous philosophers, Nietzsche does not select an issue or notion and analyze it, in the process distinguishing his views from those of the previous writers and erecting a body of concepts that form a system of thought. Instead he calls into question the very basis of philosophizing. His targets are philosophers themselves. He claims that philosophers merely pose as persons seeking the truth.
Nietzsche considers religion as `neurosis', it involves an unnatural self-denial and sacrifice. He is not unaware of the advantages that religion brought to human society, even as it has debases human nature. He believes it has helped create a variable social order. By demanding we love each other. However his attitude towards religion is that it represents a stage in human development that must be over come.
Beyond Good and Evil is not an easy task to read. I admit that there are parts of this I I had trouble understanding and often it was a frustrating read.
The Kaufmann translation is better.......2000-02-02
While Beyond Good and Evil is probably the quintessial Nitzschean piece, I would have to say Zimmern's translation lags behind Kaufmann's. Although her use of quaint Elizabethan English is charming, and her edition has a beautifully personal touch to it (Zimmern was Nietzsche's dinner companion and erstwhile friend), the mistakes in her translation, while subtle, detract from it, especially when precision of language is so important for reading this book. Go with Kaufmann.
A better look at this..........1999-02-17
Nietzsche never advocated any sort of morality as "good morality", nor did he encourage the creation of a "best possible society" by use of a certain morality. Nor is that what this book is about. (Nor did he propose the creation of a new moral standard: his good/evil versus good/bad antithesis is an analysis; Nietzsche was a philosopher, not an ideologue, moralist, or politician). Moreover, he did not find moral complacency to be the greatest fault of his time: rather, the mental complacency and lack of intellectual integrity displayed by many academics and "philosophers." Nietzsche here tries to analyze a range of issues and exposes in the most surprising ways numerous relationships, psychological insights, and types of morality, personality, and so forth. The aphoristic style is not a reflection of discontinuity: it is an embodiment of Nietzsche's ideal of constant questioning. These are thought experiments which develop ideas in unexpected ways, ideas which are retraced through the entire work. It has structure and continuity for those who know how to find it. The book has some faults and a few remarks which strike the reader as unnecessary drivel: but what great work doesn't? Whether we agree with it or not, like it or dislike it, until we are great critics or philosophers, we have no excuse for giving less than 5 stars to one of the greatest books of all time.
Average customer rating:
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Good Beyond Evil
Eva Gossman
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Customer Reviews:
Compelling Memoir.......2002-11-24
A scrupulous,heart-rending account of a Jewish childhood in Slovakia during WWII. Eva Gossman and some of her family were saved from hideous local anti-semitism and the Nazi onslaught by a Slovakian woman and her daughter, who sheltered and fed them. It is a shattering portrait of terror and of the redemptive power of love. Gossman does not pretend to remember everything clearly, but what she does recall is enormously powerful.
Customer Reviews:
A living thing seeks above all to discharge its strength--life itself is will to power.......2007-05-01
This was required reading for a graduate course in the Humanities.
Friedrich Nietzsche's concept of a "will to power" is central to his philosophical beliefs, and a recurring theme in his book "Beyond Good and Evil." When Nietzsche was a budding philosopher, he admired and was influenced by the writings of another philosopher, Arthur Schopenhauer. However, Schopenhauer, like most scientists and philosophers of his day, attributed the "will to live" as the highest motivational life force in nature. Nietzsche observed that the "will to live" was not life affirming enough and that humankind needed a higher power. Therefore, Nietzsche theorized that living beings were not just motivated by a survival instinct to live. He understood that beings had a higher need, which he called the "will to power." One can easily interpret Nietzsche's "will to power" as a method by which people strive to grow and nurture their creative energies, and interact with the world. Nietzsche thinks that "will to power" was coupled with humankind's innate nature and passion to create. Nietzsche thinks that this "will to power" was the true driving force of humankind. "A living thing seeks above all to discharge its strength--life itself is will to power, self-preservation is only one of the indirect and most frequent results" (Nietzsche Aphorism 13). The "will to power" causes humans to dominate and impose their will on others. Thus for Nietzsche, humankind's "will to power" meant that life and will is the exploitation of others, and it has been since the beginning of time, immemorial (Nietzsche Aphorism 258). In fact, Nietzsche believed that one could take his concept of the "will to power" one-step further, and use it to explain the motivations of whole societies, and nation states, as well as the individual (Nietzsche aphorism 257, 259).
Nietzsche tends to be very passionate and absolutist in his aphorisms. He wrote so much that one could find plenty of instances in his works where he has contradicted himself. Nietzsche's concept of "will to power" is a philosophic thought, which led to many interpretations. To assume that Nietzsche thought that the primary instincts of the human being came down to violence and little else, amounts to a gross underestimation of Nietzsche's views of humankind. However, most of his writings on the concept of a "will to power," if interpreted as being violent, have to be understood more in vain with what he saw as the constant struggle of overcoming one's individual weaknesses (Nietzsche aphorism 22, 260). Nietzsche envisioned his "will to power" more along the lines of applying one's will in self-overcoming. Nietzsche's writings about violence are usually meant as violence against giving in to the herd or slave morality. The herd, as Nietzsche names it, is the vast majority of humans who throughout history have obeyed and followed the status quo. The herd has stymied human development with their slave morality (Nietzsche aphorism 198, 199). The slave morality invented the dichotomy of good and evil. "Moral judgments and condemnations constitute the favorite revenge of the spiritually limited against those less limited" (Nietzsche aphorism 219). The herd morality causes people to sublimate their creative drive. Thus, Nietzsche is imploring the few noble humans--the few geniuses to struggle against following the herd morality. Nietzsche wants the noble people to invent their own morality and values to live their lives by, and to fulfill their own "will to power" and not indulge in an effort to attract others to their values (Nietzsche aphorism 199, 201, 260).
Recommended reading for anyone interested in philosophy, history, and psychology.
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