Nietzsche on morality / Brian Leiter.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Leiter, Brian, author.

Standardized Title:

Routledge philosophy guidebook to Nietzsche on morality

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Ethics, Modern--19th century.

Ethics, Modern.

Nietzsche, Friedrich (Friedrich Wilhelm), 1844-1900.

Local Subjects:

Nietzsche, Friedrich (Friedrich Wilhelm), 1844-1900.

Physical Description:

XX, 279 pages ; 24 cm

Edition:

Second edition.

Place of Publication:

Abingdon, Oxon ; New York, NY : Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group, 2015.

Summary:

Both an introduction to Nietzsche's moral philosophy, and a sustained commentary on his most famous work, On the Genealogy of Morality, this book has become the most widely used and debated secondary source on these topics over the past dozen years. Many of Nietzsche's most famous ideas - the "slave revolt" in morals, the attack on free will, perspectivism, "will to power" and the "ascetic ideal" - are clearly analyzed and explained. The first edition established the centrality of naturalism to Nietzsche's philosophy, generating a substantial scholarly literature to which Leiter responds in an important new Postscript. In addition, Leiter has revised and refreshed the book throughout, taking into account new scholarly literature, and revising or clarifying his treatment of such topics as the objectivity of value, epiphenomenalism and consciousness, and the possibility of "autonomous" agency. Book jacket.

Contents:

1 Introduction: Nietzsche, naturalist or postmodernist? 1

What is naturalism? 2

What kind of naturalist is Nietzsche? 5

How could Nietzsche be a naturalist? 9

Nietzsche's project: the revaluation of values 21

2 Intellectual history and background 24

Classical philology 27

The Presocratics and the Sophists 30

Schopenhauer 42

German Materialism 50

Summary 56

3 Nietzsche's critique of morality I: the scope of the critique and the critique of moral agency 58

The scope problem 58

"Morality" as the object of Nietzsche's critique: a formal account 61

The Descriptive Component of MPS 63

The critique of the Descriptive Component: and agency 64

The critique of free will 69

Transparency of the self 81

Universality and similarity 83

4 Nietzsche's critique of morality II: the critique of moral norms 91

"Higher men" 92

Higher men and the critique of HPS: objections 100

The normative content of MPS and the causal mechanism of harm 103

Metaethics: realism about value? 110

Metaethics: anti-realism about value 118

Two final puzzles 126

Conclusion 131

5 What is "genealogy" and what is the Genealogy? 133

The principles and method of "genealogy" 133

"Genealogy" and critique 139

What is the Genealogy? 144

The unity of the Genealogy 146

6 A commentary on the First Essay 155

Explaining historical blindness 156

Ressentiment 162

Beyond good and evil 165

The triumph of slave morality 174

7 A commentary on the Second Essay 178

The morality of custom and the origin of conscience (1-3) 180

Bad conscience: debt and guilt (4-8) 183

Bad conscience: internalized cruelty (16-18) 185

The moralization of conscience through religion (19-22) 188

Bad conscience and the ascetic ideal (23-25) 193

8 A commentary on the Third Essay 196

Artists, philosophers, and the will to power 198

Priests, humanity, ressentiment, and the ascetic ideal 203

Truth, science, and perspectivism 211

Two final puzzles about the Third Essay 223

Unifying the three essays 227

9 Nietzsche since 1900: critical questions 232.

Notes:

Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business.

Date of publication is resource: 2015.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9780415856805

0415856809

OCLC:

896865702