Beyond Good and Evil Themes

As the title of the book suggests, Nietzsche finds that moral philosophy’s central problem lies in the question of good and evil. Nietzsche believes that modern conceptions of good and evil are a historical novelty and, rather than expressing fundamental truths about human nature, they actually repress and distort our true values. To Nietzsche, the approach that European and Judeo-Christian philosophy has taken to good and evil is not only wrong, but actively harmful. Nietzsche…

Nietzsche criticizes the philosophers that came before him not only for their moral biases, but also for the way that these biases prevented them from asking truly difficult and rewarding questions about knowledge, truth, and untruth. Because practically all philosophy has accepted the moral schema of good and evil, it has replicated this binary way of thinking in other areas, too. As Nietzsche rejects good and evil, he wonders to what extent opposites exist at…

Nietzsche is a harsh, aggressive critic of European modernity and its moral and philosophical values, namely that of “progress,” which he sees as corrosive and destructive to human nature and frustrating the true advancement of humankind. Because of the morality in which Europeans have been immersed, however, they are unable to recognize the damaging effects of modern life. Written in the late 19th century, Nietzsche’s criticisms are very much against the grain of their historical…

Nietzsche argues that the relationship between women and men is one of fundamental antagonism, an antagonism which the emancipation of women in modernity has distorted and disguised but not abolished. Indeed, Nietzsche firmly believes that this antagonism cannot be abolished, nor should one attempt to do so. Nietzsche believes that the general attitude towards women in Europe has been distorted by the women’s movements’ attempts to explain the meaning of “woman as such.” Nietzsche believes…