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Title: Beyond Good & Evil : Prelude to a Philosophy of the Future by Walter Kaufmann, Friedrich Nietzsche ISBN: 0-679-72465-6 Publisher: Vintage Pub. Date: 17 December, 1989 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $12.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.44 (50 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: Ethics for the "Great-Souled Man"
Comment: The title, Beyond Good & Evil, can make the author seem a bit (perhaps a lot!) crude, but only if the title is to be interpreted (without reading the whole book) at face value. This is precisely what Nietzsche was against: reaching a conclusion that is ‘certain’ based on the ‘name,’ ‘idea,’ or ‘concept’ given to things and persons from a bias of superficiality. From this ‘labeling’ the ‘simple man’ becomes prejudiced, and therefore, locked into his ‘tradition’ of thought and language, and as a consequence, cannot rise to a height ‘beyond’ this ‘good & evil’ man has created for himself. It is Nietzsche’s task to drive his readers ‘beyond’ this ‘good & evil’ (where it is possible to create higher values), to shift perspectives, to a height where one cannot look up nor look down. At this height there exists no god, no mask, no prejudice. There is only the “great-souled man.” There is a lesson to be learned, but to learn it one only has to read Nietzsche in his spirit to find it.
Rating: 5
Summary: Newbies, Start With This One!
Comment: I'm a newbie to Nietzsche's works, though I'd come to Beyond Good and Evil through the proverbial back door. After having read prominent 20th century texts from Camus to Derrida, I figured it was time to read something by Nietzsche, perhaps the most famous first figure to doubt what was "knowable." Nietzsche, anticipating the cynicism and angst that would become the hallmark of existential texts, was equally scornful of religion AND science (both, which he argued, were reductionist and misleading). The ultimate skeptic, Nietzsche warned readers about believing to deeply in "certain truths" often framed within the dichotomy of binary opposites (good vs. evil, black vs. white, heaven vs. hell; in short, everything the Western world bases its moral framework on).
I've given Beyond Good and Evil five stars, but there are some problems with the book that the unintiated may want to know. First, although this is the most straight-forward and accessible of Nietzsche's works, it's still a difficult read. Second, although Nietzsche's writing style is full of verve and gusto (or, to use N's own word, "brio") and although this style makes for delightful anti-philosophic reading, his points do become burdensome after a while. After reading the introduction and the first 30 pages or so, I found myself saying, "Okay, okay, I got it." Nietzsche's misogyny, his failure to provide concrete examples (occassionally) and his belief in a human two-level caste system ("...life itself in its essence means appropriating, injuring, overpowering those who are foreign and weaker" (152-153)) may challenge (or turn off) some readers. Neverhtheless, at 180 slim pages, Beyond Good and Evil accomplishes its task before it becomes tiresome.
Rating: 4
Summary: Autobiography of a mind
Comment: Forget Nietzsche the philosopher. As he himself said, 'Before you ask what a philosopher thinks, find out what he wants' (or something to that effect), and, as Freud said, "He had a sharper understanding of himself than any man in recent history." You could blow holes in the logical validity of his arguments, but he has never been about logic; all of his texts are deeply personal, and show an outstandingly intelligent and sensitive man grappling with the same issues that plague most people. Although he often has a reputation as arrogant and self-centered, he was often more tenuous about his ideas than other philosophers, advancing an idea by a series of partly related statements, sometime changing his mind or pausing to restate his position in different terms. You can see his ideas evolving over the course of this book alone. There are also some solid and entertaining insights here, and the aphorisms are highly quotable, but I think its greatest value is as a glimpse into a human soul.
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Title: Thus Spake Zarathustra by Friedrich Nietzsche ISBN: 0486406636 Publisher: Dover Pubns Pub. Date: 16 June, 1999 List Price(USD): $3.50 |
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Title: The Will to Power by Friedrich Nietzsche ISBN: 0394704371 Publisher: Vintage Pub. Date: 12 August, 1968 List Price(USD): $16.00 |
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Title: The Anti-Christ by H. L. Mencken, Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche ISBN: 1884365205 Publisher: Independent Publishers Group Pub. Date: August, 1999 List Price(USD): $6.95 |
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Title: On the Genealogy of Morals and Ecce Homo by Walter Kaufmann, Friedrich Nietzsche ISBN: 0679724621 Publisher: Vintage Pub. Date: 17 December, 1989 List Price(USD): $12.95 |
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Title: The Birth of Tragedy by Friedrich Nietzsche ISBN: 0486285154 Publisher: Dover Pubns Pub. Date: 01 June, 1995 List Price(USD): $2.00 |
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