Friedrich Nietzsche's Beyond Good and Evil is translated from the German by R.J. Hollingdale with an introduction by Michael Tanner in Penguin Classics. Beyond Good and Evil confirmed Nietzsche's position as the towering European philosopher of his age. The work dramatically rejects the tradition of Western thought with its notions of truth and God, good and evil. Nietzsche demonstrates that the Christian world is steeped in a false piety and infected with a 'slave morality'. With wit and energy, he turns from this critique to a philosophy that celebrates the present and demands that the individual imposes their own 'will to power' upon the world.
This edition includes a commentary on the text by the translator and Michael Tanner's introduction, which explains some of the more abstract passages in Beyond Good and Evil.
Frederich Nietzsche (1844-1900) became the chair of classical philology at Basel University at the age of 24 until his bad health forced him to retire in 1879. He divorced himself from society until his final collapse in 1899 when he became insane. A powerfully original thinker, Nietzsche's influence on subsequent writers, such as George Bernard Shaw, D.H. Lawrence, Thomas Mann and Jean-Paul Sartre, was considerable.
If you enjoyed Beyond Good and Evil you might like Nietzsche's Thus Spoke Zarathustra, also available in Penguin Classics.
On the Genealogy of Morals, written in 1887, showcases Friedrich Nietzsche's use of philosophy, psychology, and classical philology to offer new directions to ancient ethical inquiries. This work is divided into three essays, each exploring different aspects of morality and its origins. The first essay delves into the contrast between master morality and slave morality, highlighting the diverse meanings of "good" in each context. The second essay investigates the concepts of guilt and the bad conscience, while the third essay examines ascetic ideals not only in religion but also in the academic realm.
Ecce Homo, Nietzsche's autobiographical review of his life and works, was written in 1898 and first published posthumously in 1908. It provides chapters on all the books he published, offering his interpretations which are both fascinating and invaluable. This edition, translated and annotated by renowned Nietzsche scholar Walter Kaufmann, presents Nietzsche's most clear and thorough expression of his psychological philosophy.
In a world that is overflowing with man's traditions, that often put a dark cloud over God's truth, you will be astonished by the answers that now await you concerning the mysteries of death.