What Socrates tried to build troughout his whole life, Nietzsche almost destroyed in couple of books. Said like this, it seems simplistic enough, but it is far from that. To understand Nietzsche, one has to reach much deeper than Nietzsche's words suggest. One has to know Schoppenhauer, has to now french philosophers, contractualist, and most of all one has to know greek philosophy. And greek culture. The place where it all began. At least for the westerners. Nietzsche was also great admirer and critic of Indian, Vedanta tradition, so to understand Nietzsche one will eventualy have to travel even to those horisons, which are in itself something completely different.

Why am I saying all of this?

Because it is often proven that it is too easy to misread Nietzsche, calling him an emerging point from which Nacism rose, and putting him, with Plato in a place where inventors of fascist state sleep their eternal sleep.

One has to be careful when reading Nietzsche. It is too easy to insert meaning which are not present in the text. And in that manner, it is easy to create philosophy totaly alien from its author.

If one wants to travel deep inside the Nietzsches core, one should start his journey with this book. It seems to be the most grateful for begginners. Not to mention that it is excellent for trying different approach to history of morals, approach that is in a way revolutionary if we were not customed to it nowadays. But in time of Nietzsches life, this sounded outrageous.

It may stand as constant reminder, if some of you forgot that, how radical criticism is not looked upon with kindness.

These are just few words which doesen't explain a thing in fact, but if you are at least interested in history (or geneaology) of morals, and conceptual problems which rise from it, you should definitely read this book.

This particular piece of Nietzsche's writing is a marvelous work - it is interesting and lively, 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 the 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.

In another edition, Walter Kaufmann states 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.

'The 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.

In his book Ecce Homo (first published posthumously), Nietzsch

This is the intelligent man or woman's bible. It shows just how morals came to be. How they have dictated our lives ever since they have been created. How they have changed our society, and especially how they have silenced the common man. Nietzsche is, for lack of a better word, brillant. His writing never ever loses its passion. He believes in what he writes and he supports it even more, with not just what Christians call "athiest dogma" but with theory and evne fact.

He outlines how "Good and Evil" really came to be. How what we define as good is only what the people in power (the rich and people of religion) tell us is good. They only share with us the good that keeps us in line, not what sets us free. This is what Nietzsche outlines so very well. This book is brillant, one of a kind, and possibly one of his most important novels.

No matter your race, religion, or creed, I hope you check this book out. It is worth your time, trust me. What he talks about affects us all and should be shared in the public. It really is a shame that even today, long after his death, his words still have not had the affect they should have had.

This is a REAL HIGHLIGHT out of the last "creative period" of Nietzsche, dating from about one and a half year before he fell in that cruel mental illness (NOT syphillis, as is told in the streets...), that lead him to his death: HE WROTE THIS BOOK IN ONE BREATHE, WITHOUT INTERRUPTION, IN 3 WEEKS: FROM JULY 10th UNTIL JULY 30th OF 1887 !!! In his "Genealogy" we find back some basic concepts, principles of ethics as there are "GOOD AND EVIL", "GUILT AND CONSCIENCE" and "THE ASCETIC IDEAL". These subjects stay central anywhere in the book. But the author DOES NOT AT ALL "TREAT" these notions conform to their normal usage in the philosophy of morality. He is NOT INTERESTED IN WHAT THEY (the morals) MEAN, or in THEIR VALUE in whatever kind of morality, NOR in their NORMATIVE VALUE OR MERIT. Instead he is in search of their "BIRTH", their "ORIGIN" and in how they "FUNCTION" in an organised society.

Again, it is NOT IMPORTANT to Nietzsche what is the VALUE of this or that action. WHAT IS REALLY OF IMPORTANCE HERE IS THE VALUE/MERIT OF THIS OR THAT VALUE ITSELF. As he wrote (and said so many times): "WE NEED A CRITICISM OF MORAL VALUES: FIRST OF ALL, THE VALUE OF THESE VALUES MUST BE QUESTIONED." As to him there doesn't exist anything like a linear, progressive development of morality: the latter is the RESULT of the eternal combat between "masters and slaves", between "those who govern and those that are being reigned over". Each of these "GROUPS" tries - ALWAYS AND EVERYWHERE - to acquire as much power as possible versus the other.
MORALITY ("MORALS") IS THE MOST IMPORTANT INSTRUMENT - IF NOT BY EXCELLENCE - IN THIS FIGHT, THIS COMBAT, WHICH IS THE RESULT OF THE DRIFT, THE PASSION OF EACH MAN OR GROUP: THE WILL FOR POWER.

This MASTERPIECE from the giant German philosopher DOES NOT READ like a novel. BUT THE BOOK IS SO IMPORTANT FOR THE THOUGHTS, THIS HIGHEST-LEVEL THINKING of this genius concerning morals which he describes, even DISSECTS here. "Not an easy read" DOES NOT MEAN that it can't and/or shouldn't be read! ON THE CONTRARY: THANKS TO THE ENORMOUS LITERARY TALENT OF NIETZSCHE, THE THEMES AND THOUGHTS THAT TOUCH, AFFECT ALL OF US EVERY DAY, THIS WORK "NEEDS" OUR ATTENTION (and vice versa).
TO EVERY READER WHO KNOWS THE IMPORTANCE OF INTROSPECTION, AND WHO WANTS TO KNOW MORE ABOUT THE ORIGIN OF "OUR MORALS", I RECOMMEND THIS "GENEALOGY" (OH YES, HE CHOSE THE RIGHT WORDS...) OUT OF MY HEART AND REASON. NONE OF YOU WILL EVER REGRET HAVING READ THIS SO "MATURE" MASTERPIECE, WHICH TOUCHES ALL OF OUR BEINGS AND SOULS.

Nietzsche, like no other philosopher that I have read, has changed the way that I see the world. This is a book to read if you want to learn something about yourself. Nietzsche may have gone insane and had delusions that he was God, but he revolutionised modern thought. There is a special place in hell for German philosophers, but itýs a place thatýs worth visiting.