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On the Genealogy of Morals
Nietzsche claimed that the purpose of The Genealogy of Morals was to call attention to his previous writings. But in fact the book does much more than that, elucidating and expanding on the cryptic aphorisms of Beyond Good and Evil and signalling a return to the essay form. In these three essays, Nietzsche considers the development of ideas of 'good' and 'evil'; explores notions of guilt and bad consience; and discusses ascetic ideals and the purpose of the philosopher. Together, they form a coherent and complex discussion of morality in a work that is more accessible than some of Nietzsche's previous writings.
208 pages, Paperback
Published January 1, 1887
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About the author
Friedrich Nietzsche
4,390 books25.7k followersFriedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche was a German classical scholar, philosopher, and critic of culture, who became one of the most influential of all modern thinkers. He began his career as a classical philologist before turning to philosophy. He became the youngest person to hold the Chair of Classical Philology at the University of Basel in 1869 at the age of 24, but resigned in 1879 due to health problems that plagued him most of his life; he completed much of his core writing in the following decade. In 1889, at age 44, he suffered a collapse and afterward a complete loss of his mental faculties, with paralysis and probably vascular dementia. He lived his remaining years in the care of his mother until her death in 1897 and then with his sister Elisabeth Förster-Nietzsche. Nietzsche died in 1900, after experiencing pneumonia and multiple strokes.
Nietzsche's work spans philosophical polemics, poetry, cultural criticism, and fiction while displaying a fondness for aphorism and irony. Prominent elements of his philosophy include his radical critique of truth in favour of perspectivism; a genealogical critique of religion and Christian morality and a related theory of master–slave morality; the aesthetic affirmation of life in response to both the "death of God" and the profound crisis of nihilism; the notion of Apollonian and Dionysian forces; and a characterisation of the human subject as the expression of competing wills, collectively understood as the will to power. He also developed influential concepts such as the Übermensch and his doctrine of eternal return. In his later work, he became increasingly preoccupied with the creative powers of the individual to overcome cultural and moral mores in pursuit of new values and aesthetic health. His body of work touched a wide range of topics, including art, philology, history, music, religion, tragedy, culture, and science, and drew inspiration from Greek tragedy as well as figures such as Zoroaster, Arthur Schopenhauer, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Richard Wagner, Fyodor Dostoevsky, and Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.
After his death, Nietzsche's sister Elisabeth became the curator and editor of his manuscripts. She edited his unpublished writings to fit her German ultranationalist ideology, often contradicting or obfuscating Nietzsche's stated opinions, which were explicitly opposed to antisemitism and nationalism. Through her published editions, Nietzsche's work became associated with fascism and Nazism. 20th-century scholars such as Walter Kaufmann, R.J. Hollingdale, and Georges Bataille defended Nietzsche against this interpretation, and corrected editions of his writings were soon made available. Nietzsche's thought enjoyed renewed popularity in the 1960s and his ideas have since had a profound impact on 20th- and early 21st-century thinkers across philosophy—especially in schools of continental philosophy such as existentialism, postmodernism, and post-structuralism—as well as art, literature, music, poetry, politics, and popular culture.
Nietzsche's work spans philosophical polemics, poetry, cultural criticism, and fiction while displaying a fondness for aphorism and irony. Prominent elements of his philosophy include his radical critique of truth in favour of perspectivism; a genealogical critique of religion and Christian morality and a related theory of master–slave morality; the aesthetic affirmation of life in response to both the "death of God" and the profound crisis of nihilism; the notion of Apollonian and Dionysian forces; and a characterisation of the human subject as the expression of competing wills, collectively understood as the will to power. He also developed influential concepts such as the Übermensch and his doctrine of eternal return. In his later work, he became increasingly preoccupied with the creative powers of the individual to overcome cultural and moral mores in pursuit of new values and aesthetic health. His body of work touched a wide range of topics, including art, philology, history, music, religion, tragedy, culture, and science, and drew inspiration from Greek tragedy as well as figures such as Zoroaster, Arthur Schopenhauer, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Richard Wagner, Fyodor Dostoevsky, and Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.
After his death, Nietzsche's sister Elisabeth became the curator and editor of his manuscripts. She edited his unpublished writings to fit her German ultranationalist ideology, often contradicting or obfuscating Nietzsche's stated opinions, which were explicitly opposed to antisemitism and nationalism. Through her published editions, Nietzsche's work became associated with fascism and Nazism. 20th-century scholars such as Walter Kaufmann, R.J. Hollingdale, and Georges Bataille defended Nietzsche against this interpretation, and corrected editions of his writings were soon made available. Nietzsche's thought enjoyed renewed popularity in the 1960s and his ideas have since had a profound impact on 20th- and early 21st-century thinkers across philosophy—especially in schools of continental philosophy such as existentialism, postmodernism, and post-structuralism—as well as art, literature, music, poetry, politics, and popular culture.
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Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
June 16, 2025
As with The Will to Power: I'm enjoying philosophy again!
November 16, 2023
Less philosophy than unscientific diatribe in the style of Luther. The few historical or philological arguments are amateurish and sometimes outright wrong. Nevertheless, a good read, worthwhile for Christians
July 7, 2023
This is an interesting book. Nietzsche clearly perceives that morality is an external yardstick against which individual interests and acts are measured; he sees that the demand for a moral corrective implies an underlying conflict of interests, and that morality regulates or subordinates the execution of the wills of those it ensnares. Instead of pursuing our private interests with abandon and enforcing our will ruthlessly, taking our own interests as our standard, we are required by morality to pursue our interests hypocritically, always apologising, always paying lip-service to an external standard. We are supposed to compete for money, for example, but not too much money; we must not be greedy. We must, in a word, moderate ourselves.
But Nietzsche rejects this whole imposition. He would have us pursue our interests uncritically, without the bad conscience that dogs us today. In the clash of interests that characterises bourgeois society, Nietzsche would have us compete without restraint - he would have us admit to ourselves that we are embroiled in a conflict, and strive unapologetically to win that conflict. But nowhere does he question the necessity of the conflict itself, i.e. the necessity of the clash of interests over which morality asserts itself as a moderating influence. He wants us to compete, but without the hypocrisy of a bad conscience. In this sense Nietzsche is just as much a moralist as those he criticises - his morality, the credo he wants us all to follow, lies not in restraint but in its crude negation, in the total war of all against all, the brutal assertion of interest against interest. He replaces one morality - a hypocritical, affected morality which conceals the clash of wills that characterises bourgeois society - with another, an honest morality which nevertheless accepts this clash of wills as given and even revels in it.
He never makes the transition to the question: what is the necessity of this clash of wills, this clash of interests? Need things be this way? As such he cannot be considered a critic of morality, but rather a remarkably self-aware moralist.
The third essay in this book is by far the weakest, and the influence of Stirner is particularly striking here. Nietzsche considers as an imposition everything in which the will (i.e. his will) has not recognised itself, so that even the striving after scientific truth is said to be an 'ascetic ideal' enslaving mankind.
This leads him to some quite ridiculous conclusions. For example, he says that by striving after scientific truth, man has degraded himself from a 'demigod' to a 'mere animal', i.e. man has disproved God, and in doing so has sacrificed 'his belief that he was precious, unique and indispensable in the hierarchy of beings', whereas earlier he was 'almost God ('child of God', 'demigod')'. But, as Feuerbach has demonstrated, criticism of religion shows us that God did not make man, man made God. It shows us that the old theistic notion - according to which man is nothing, God is everything, man the dependent variable, God the independent variable, man the effect, God the cause - is completely backwards. Man is revealed as the real generative force, and God merely the transfigured, alienated form of man's own characteristics. Whatever man finds divine he alienates, gives independent form, in God. And when he recognises the truth of his relationship with God, i.e. that God is nothing but his own fantastical reflection, his view of himself is enriched. He now 'revolves around himself as his own Sun' rather than around his own product, God. In this sense, science - which has effected this criticism of God and religion - is precisely the negation of the 'ascetic ideal', i.e. of man's self-alienation, that Nietzsche seeks in vain throughout the third essay. His idealist, speculative method leads him to abstract from the various different concrete truths sought by various different concrete individuals for their own purposes; he sees only a single, abstract 'truth' towards which every scientific thinker and enquirer is subjugated. In exactly the same way, we might conclude from the fact that people around the world cultivate crops for various reasons that people are enslaved to 'the crop', the idea of the crop, and so impute to all of these different people - with their manifold individual purposes and desires, for which they require manifold different concrete crops - a single, abstract desire which has no existence in reality. The ridiculous and shallow nature of this method is obvious. Cf. Marx's remarks on 'utility' in The German Ideology:
"Hence the actual relations that are presupposed here are speech, love, definite manifestations of definite qualities of individuals. Now these relations are supposed not to have the meaning peculiar to them but to be the expression and manifestation of some third relation attributed to them, the relation of utility or utilisation."
Overall this is a very thought-provoking book, worth reading simply for its novelty and willingness to criticise prevailing dogma. It offers some valuable insights into the way morality operates - the hypocritical way in which it degrades us and camouflages the real clash of interests arising from the very basis of society.
But Nietzsche rejects this whole imposition. He would have us pursue our interests uncritically, without the bad conscience that dogs us today. In the clash of interests that characterises bourgeois society, Nietzsche would have us compete without restraint - he would have us admit to ourselves that we are embroiled in a conflict, and strive unapologetically to win that conflict. But nowhere does he question the necessity of the conflict itself, i.e. the necessity of the clash of interests over which morality asserts itself as a moderating influence. He wants us to compete, but without the hypocrisy of a bad conscience. In this sense Nietzsche is just as much a moralist as those he criticises - his morality, the credo he wants us all to follow, lies not in restraint but in its crude negation, in the total war of all against all, the brutal assertion of interest against interest. He replaces one morality - a hypocritical, affected morality which conceals the clash of wills that characterises bourgeois society - with another, an honest morality which nevertheless accepts this clash of wills as given and even revels in it.
He never makes the transition to the question: what is the necessity of this clash of wills, this clash of interests? Need things be this way? As such he cannot be considered a critic of morality, but rather a remarkably self-aware moralist.
The third essay in this book is by far the weakest, and the influence of Stirner is particularly striking here. Nietzsche considers as an imposition everything in which the will (i.e. his will) has not recognised itself, so that even the striving after scientific truth is said to be an 'ascetic ideal' enslaving mankind.
This leads him to some quite ridiculous conclusions. For example, he says that by striving after scientific truth, man has degraded himself from a 'demigod' to a 'mere animal', i.e. man has disproved God, and in doing so has sacrificed 'his belief that he was precious, unique and indispensable in the hierarchy of beings', whereas earlier he was 'almost God ('child of God', 'demigod')'. But, as Feuerbach has demonstrated, criticism of religion shows us that God did not make man, man made God. It shows us that the old theistic notion - according to which man is nothing, God is everything, man the dependent variable, God the independent variable, man the effect, God the cause - is completely backwards. Man is revealed as the real generative force, and God merely the transfigured, alienated form of man's own characteristics. Whatever man finds divine he alienates, gives independent form, in God. And when he recognises the truth of his relationship with God, i.e. that God is nothing but his own fantastical reflection, his view of himself is enriched. He now 'revolves around himself as his own Sun' rather than around his own product, God. In this sense, science - which has effected this criticism of God and religion - is precisely the negation of the 'ascetic ideal', i.e. of man's self-alienation, that Nietzsche seeks in vain throughout the third essay. His idealist, speculative method leads him to abstract from the various different concrete truths sought by various different concrete individuals for their own purposes; he sees only a single, abstract 'truth' towards which every scientific thinker and enquirer is subjugated. In exactly the same way, we might conclude from the fact that people around the world cultivate crops for various reasons that people are enslaved to 'the crop', the idea of the crop, and so impute to all of these different people - with their manifold individual purposes and desires, for which they require manifold different concrete crops - a single, abstract desire which has no existence in reality. The ridiculous and shallow nature of this method is obvious. Cf. Marx's remarks on 'utility' in The German Ideology:
"Hence the actual relations that are presupposed here are speech, love, definite manifestations of definite qualities of individuals. Now these relations are supposed not to have the meaning peculiar to them but to be the expression and manifestation of some third relation attributed to them, the relation of utility or utilisation."
Overall this is a very thought-provoking book, worth reading simply for its novelty and willingness to criticise prevailing dogma. It offers some valuable insights into the way morality operates - the hypocritical way in which it degrades us and camouflages the real clash of interests arising from the very basis of society.
December 30, 2025
I read part of this for class, and I’m glad I did. It’s foundational for a lot of the philosophy and political thought that comes after it, and it’s helps explain the way culture works, but I ultimately despised the underlying message. Part of that is probably because it offends my Catholicism, and I’ll admit that I’m biased. I, also maybe because of my faith, have a contempt for the kind of narcissism that offers no vision for a better world yet attacks all the good in the world as illusions, or tricks, or perversions of ideas. He’s a good writer and creates foundational concepts that have a lot staying power, but I feel deep down like I’m opposed to his main message. Nietzsche is like a great player on the Braves: I can appreciate that they’re very good at what they do, but I don’t like them.
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September 24, 2025The most systematic text of Nietzsche’s I’ve read thus far. I am highly sympathetic to his etymological approach to the origins of our moral language, and the realization that much of it comes from economic “creditor and debtor” terms was a provoking one. When this is expanded out to the idea of God as the ultimate creditor and humanity as the ultimate debtor, finally redeemed by the “payment” of Christ on the cross - this is where Nietzsche’s genius shines through.
Genealogy is in many ways a scathing critique of “slave morality” as touched upon in both Twilight and Antichrist, but it does offer a more fleshed out exploration of the alternative “noble” or “master” morality. He also calls into question free will and the value of truth, but what else is new. His exploring of asceticism is interesting, especially when it pertains to philosophical asceticism, but I do think he paints Christianity at large with a gnostic brush. Also, I did find some of his most (at the risk of sounding sensationalist) morally monstrous ideas to be found here. “Humanity sacrificed en masse for the benefit of the stronger…that would be progress.” It’s hard to read something like that and not imagine what the coming century would entail in Germany.
Genealogy is in many ways a scathing critique of “slave morality” as touched upon in both Twilight and Antichrist, but it does offer a more fleshed out exploration of the alternative “noble” or “master” morality. He also calls into question free will and the value of truth, but what else is new. His exploring of asceticism is interesting, especially when it pertains to philosophical asceticism, but I do think he paints Christianity at large with a gnostic brush. Also, I did find some of his most (at the risk of sounding sensationalist) morally monstrous ideas to be found here. “Humanity sacrificed en masse for the benefit of the stronger…that would be progress.” It’s hard to read something like that and not imagine what the coming century would entail in Germany.
April 29, 2023
Incredibly influential, paradigm shifting, and inspirational, however does dramatize and generalise.
Nietzsche is known for his provocative style, and the conlusions he draws in all three essays are certainly provocative:
1. Christian morals are the result of resenting slaves failing to free themselves, and leads to weak people who fail to achieve greatness
2. Moral values are interchangeable, and we must craft our own systems through revaluating all our values
3. Asceticism is the root of most non-physical power and the justification of religious preaching, without it we'd still just be a bunch of brutal bartering murderers
However, the book speaks quite broadly using anti-semetic-adjecent language and definately should not be used as a definitive guide to understanding morality; also his understanding of evolution is laughably incorrect.
Very well written and enjoyable, though very dense
Nietzsche is known for his provocative style, and the conlusions he draws in all three essays are certainly provocative:
1. Christian morals are the result of resenting slaves failing to free themselves, and leads to weak people who fail to achieve greatness
2. Moral values are interchangeable, and we must craft our own systems through revaluating all our values
3. Asceticism is the root of most non-physical power and the justification of religious preaching, without it we'd still just be a bunch of brutal bartering murderers
However, the book speaks quite broadly using anti-semetic-adjecent language and definately should not be used as a definitive guide to understanding morality; also his understanding of evolution is laughably incorrect.
Very well written and enjoyable, though very dense
December 19, 2024
Written with the eloquence that is to be expected from Nietzsche, this book is exactly what he describes it to be at the beginning— a polemic. Through a thorough rundown of the history of morality as it was understood at the time of the book's writing, Nietzsche provides his insights into themes such as guilt, punishment, and religion, all the while criticizing major figures and groups including but not limited to the church, Kant, Wagner, scientists, and buddhists. The book also serves as a considerably good entry for those looking to read more of Nietzsche's works as it introduces and expounds on themes discussed in his other works such as Beyond Good and Evil, The Gay Science, The Will to Power, and The Birth of Tragedy.
October 13, 2023
At first, 'On the Genealogy of Morals' seemed challenging, but as I delved deeper, Nietzsche's profound insights emerged.
This book is a testament to Nietzsche's reputation, offering a thought-provoking exploration of humans morality. It's a must-read for those who enjoy dope shit.
This book is a testament to Nietzsche's reputation, offering a thought-provoking exploration of humans morality. It's a must-read for those who enjoy dope shit.
October 10, 2022
Made me question how I judge something. There were some parts that didn't sit well with me. But I guess, the book succeeded in stirring up my mind.
January 25, 2025
An outstanding analysis and dissection of Christian morality, and the overall evolution of ethics. Lots of physiological and psychological elements involved too.
July 2, 2025
Life changing.
October 22, 2025
It took me like a book and a half to actually understand this guy but it’s sweet. First two essays were alright, third was sick.
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews