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University of California Press

About the Book

Written at the height of the philosopher's intellectual powers, Friedrich Nietzsche's On the Genealogy of Morals has become one of the key texts of recent Western philosophy. Its essayistic style affords a unique opportunity to observe many of Nietzsche's persisting concerns coming together in an illuminating constellation. A profound influence on psychoanalysis, antihistoricism, and poststructuralism and an abiding challenge to ethical theory, Nietzsche's book addresses many of the major philosophical problems and possibilities of modernity.

In this unique collection focusing on the Genealogy, twenty-five notable philosophers offer diverse discussions of the book's central themes and concepts. They explore such notions as ressentiment, asceticism, "slave" and "master" moralities, and what Nietzsche calls "genealogy" and its relation to other forms of inquiry in his work. The book presents a cross section of contemporary Nietzsche scholarship and philosophical investigation that is certain to interest philosophers, intellectual and cultural historians, and anyone concerned with one of the master thinkers of the modern age.


Written at the height of the philosopher's intellectual powers, Friedrich Nietzsche's On the Genealogy of Morals has become one of the key texts of recent Western philosophy. Its essayistic style affords a unique opportunity to observe many of Niet

About the Author

Richard Schacht is Professor of Philosophy and Jubilee Professor of Liberal Arts and Sciences at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. His most recent books are Nietzsche: Selections (1993) and Making Sense of Nietzsche (1994).

Table of Contents

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
INTRODUCTION, BY RICHARD SCHACHT
FRIEDRICH NIETZSCHE: A BRIEF LIFE
NOTE ON TEXTS, TRANSLATIONS, AND REFERENCES

PART I · MORALITY AND MORAL PSYCHOLOGY
1. Nietzsche's Immoralism
Philippa Foot
2. Nietzsche's lmmoralism and the Concept of Morality
Maudemarie Clark
3. Some Remarks on The Genealogy of Morals
Arthur C. Danto
4. On the Genealogy of Morals-Nietzsche's Gift
Kathleen Marie Higgins
5. The Return of the Master: An Interpretation of Nietzsche's
Genealogy of Morals
Richard White
6. Nietzsche and Analytic Ethics
Frithjof Bergmann
7. One Hundred Years of Ressentiment: Nietzsche's Genealogy of Morals
Robert C. Solomon
8. Ressentiment
Rudiger Bittner
9. Pity and Mercy: Nietzsche's Stoicism
Martha C. Nussbaum
10. Nietzsche on Cruelty, Asceticism, and the Failure of Hedonism
Ivan Soll
11. Wagner's Ascetic Ideal According to Nietzsche
Sarah Kofman
12. Nietzsche, the Jews, and Ressentiment
Yirmiyahu Yovel
13. Nietzsche's Minimalist Moral Psychology
Bernard Williams

PART II · GENEALOGY AND PHILOSOPHY
14. Nietzsche, Hume, and the Genealogical Method
David Couzens Hoy
15. The Genealogy of Genealogy: Interpretation in Nietzsche's Second
Untimely Meditation and in On the Genealogy of Morals
Alexander Nehamas
16. Genealogies and Subversions
Alasdair Macintyre
17. The Question of Genealogy
Eric Blondel
18. Genealogy and Critical Method
Daniel W. Conway
19. Perspectivism in Nietzsche's Genealogy of Morals
Brian Leiter
20. Debts Due and Overdue: Beginnings of Philosophy in Nietzsche, Heidegger,
and Anaximander
Gary Shapiro
21. Reading Ascetic Reading: Toward the Genealogy of Morals and the Path Back to
the World
Bernd Magnus, Jean-Pierre Mileur, Stanley Stewart
22. Of Morals and Menschen
Richard Schacht
23. The Rationale of Nietzsche's Genealogy of Morals
Claus-Artur Scheier
24. "Have I Been Understood?"

David B. Allison
NOTES ON CONTRIBUTORS
BIBLIOGRAPHY