Nietzsche on Morality

303 Pages·2014·1.584 MB·English

by  Brian Leiter

Nietzsche on Morality
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 nat-
uralism to Nietzsche’s philosophy, generating a substantial scholarly literature to
which Leiter responds inanimportantnewPostscript. Inaddition, Leiterhasrevised
andrefreshedthebook throughout, takinginto accountnewscholarlyliterature, and
revising or clarifying his treatment of such topics as the objectivity of value,
epiphenomenalism and consciousness, and the possibility of “autonomous” agency.
Brian Leiter is theKarlN. Llewellyn Professor ofJurisprudence andDirector ofthe
Center for Law, Philosophy and Human Values at the University of Chicago, USA,
where he teaches and writes about moral, political, and legal philosophy in both the
Anglophone and Continental European traditions.
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Nietzsche on Morality
Second Edition
Brian Leiter
ROUTLEDG R~~oo~u;t!l~end~~g~eup
E
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[Routledge philosophyguidebooktoNietzscheonmorality]
Nietzscheonmorality /byBrianLeiter. -- 2nded.
pagescm
Rev.ed.of:Routledge philosophyguidebookto Nietzscheonmorality. 2002.
Includesbibliographical referencesandindex.
1.Nietzsche,Friedrich Wilhelm,1844-1900.2.Ethics,
Modern--19thcentury. I.Title.
B3318.E9L452014
170.92--dc23
2014016618
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Contents
Preface and acknowledgements to the second edition x
Preface and acknowledgements to the first edition xiii
Abbreviations xxi
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: fatalism
and agency 64
The critique of free will 69
Transparency of the self 81
Universality and similarity 83
viii Contents
4 Nietzsche’s critique of morality II: the critique
of moral norms 91
“Higher men” 92
Higher men and the critique of MPS: 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
Contents ix
9 Nietzsche since 1900: critical questions 232
Postscript: Nietzsche’s naturalism revisited 244
The role of culture in naturalistic explanations 252
Problems of causation 254
The metaphysics of the will to power 258
Concluding thoughts 261
Bibliography 264
Index 273