Summary Of Nietzsche's 'Genealogy Of Morals'

As Nietzsche begins the preface on the Genalogy of Morals it seems he saying philosophers are not men of knowledge. However, their job is find knowledge. He goes on to introduce the subject matter of the essay, “the origin of our moral prejudices.” Prior to the Genealogy of Morals, he had also written a book title Human. In this book a lot the same thoughts appear as in the Genealogy of Morals, and he is hoping over time these thought have become clearer. Nietzsche states he has pondered for a long period of time over the ideas of good and evil. With this, he recalls back when was thirteen years of age where his philosophical research first began. Then he found the origin of evil being God. Following this idea he began asking how humans differentiated between good and evil and began asking questions, one being, have concepts of good and evil been a help of hindrance to our development? Nietzsche seems to want to find the value of morality. However, in order to find the value of morality we, humans, must find the origin of good and evil. Nietzsche seems to put a twist on the concept …show more content…
The psychologist claim they are experts in this field, but they simply are not. They have come up with several theories on the the origin of morality which suggest that good actions are for example, when other individuals benefit from the “egoistic actions” of others. However, as time went on these “historians” forgot about these theories and simply got in a habit of calling these “unegoistic actions” good. Nietzsche disagrees with the proclamation and says that those individuals who show goodness did not necessarily define what good was. These “good” individuals believed they were good because of the contrast between others individuals who were poorer or weaker. Therefore, they put the power in their own hands to decide the difference between good and