Nietzsche, Friedrich - Beyond Good and Evil [trans. Horstmann & Norman] (Cambridge UP, 2002)

Beyond Good and Evil (BGE) is often considered to be one of Friedrich

Nietzsche’s greatest books. Though it is by no means clear what criteria

this assessment is based on, it is easy to understand how it comes about. It

seems to be an expression of the feeling that in this book Nietzsche gives

the most comprehensible and detached account of the major themes that

concerned him throughout his life. Nietzsche was suspicious of almost

everything addressed in this book – whether it be knowledge, truth, philosophy,

or morality and religion. He regarded them as the source, or at

least the effect, of a misguided tendency in the development of human

nature: one that has led to disastrous cultural, social, and psychological

consequences. At the same time he lets us share his more constructive

views as well, mainly his views on how he wants us to perceive the world

and to change our lives in order to live up to this newperception.Hespeaks

of perspectivism, the will to power, of human nobility (Vornehmheit) and

of the conditions of a life liberated from the constraints of oppressive

tradition. In the middle of the book, he even adds a number of short