Genealogy of Morals: A Polemic

The Genealogy of Morals

A Polemic

By

Friedrich Nietzsche

Translated By

Horace B. Samuel

Peoples and Countries (Fragment)

Translated by J. M. Kennedy

On the Genealogy of Morality: A Polemic is an 1887 book by German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche. It consists of a preface and three interrelated essays that expand and follow through on concepts Nietzsche sketched out in Beyond Good and Evil (1886). The three Abhandlungen trace episodes in the evolution of moral concepts with a view to confronting "moral prejudices," specifically those of Christianity and Judaism.

Some Nietzsche scholars consider Genealogy to be a work of sustained brilliance and power as well as his masterpiece. Since its publication, it has influenced many authors and philosophers.

Nietzsche's treatise outline his thoughts "on the origin of our moral prejudices" previously given brief expression in his Human, All Too Human (1878). Nietzsche attributes the desire to publish his "hypotheses" on the origins of morality to reading his friend Paul Rée's book The Origin of the Moral Sensations (1877) and finding the "genealogical hypotheses" offered there unsatisfactory.

CONTENTS

PREFACE

• FIRST ESSAY. "GOOD AND EVIL," "GOOD AND BAD."
• SECOND ESSAY. "GUILT," "BAD CONSCIENCE," AND THE LIKE
• THIRD ESSAY
• PEOPLES AND COUNTRIES. Translated by J. M. KENNEDY