Summary Of The Book Beyond Good And Evil is a collection of 296 aphorisms, and each of them can be considered to stand out by themselves. However, there is a sort of linear progression from one aphorism to the other. Some of these are merely a few lines in length, while some run into several pages. All these aphorisms are grouped together and divided into nine chapters, thematically.
Nietzsche attacks the approach of philosophers in general, accusing them of dogmatism. He says that what philosophers claim to be their theories, are nothing more than glorified confessions. It is Nietzsche’s opinion that if one could really dissect these theories, one would be able to find out what these philosophers truly value in life and what their shortcomings are.
Beyond Good And Evil then talks of the modern concept of thought, saying that philosophers in the future should be more experimental, having no prejudices but willing to accept any hypothesis, and should be able to follow their conclusions to the end, wherever they may be led by their theories.
Nietzsche also speaks of religious spirit, saying that it is a kind of dogma in itself. He also condemns the “herd” mentality, saying that it encourages a sort of dull mediocrity at best. He says that all scholastic approaches have come to this, and that they are wrong in just using dry facts. He says that the ideal philosopher should be able to produce values and real meanings, rather than relying on endless facts and statistics.
Whether speaking on religion, philosophy, nationality and race, anti-Semitism or the concept of ‘nobility’, Beyond Good And Evil is candid and penetrating.
About Friedrich Nietzsche Friedrich Nietzsche was a philosopher, poet, composer, and a philologist. Other books by Nietzsche include The Birth of Tragedy, Human, All Too Human, Man Alone WIth Himself, Twilight of Idols and Anti-Christ, Why I Am So Wise, and Thus Spoke Zarathustra. Nietzsche was born in a small village called Rocken in the Prussian Province of Saxony, in 1844. He became very popular for several critical texts written by him on subjects like religion, culture, science and philosophy. He was famous for his aphorisms and ironical comments. Nietzsche gained admittance into the nationally recognised Schulpforta, and then went on to study theology and classical philology in the University of Bonn after his graduation from Schulpforta in 1864.
Friedrich Wilhelm was born 15 October 1844 – 25 August 1900) was a German philosopher, cultural critic, composer, poet, philologist and a Latin and Greek scholar whose work has exerted a profound influence on Western philosophy and modern intellectual history. He began his career as a classical philologist before turning to philosophy. He became the youngest ever to hold the Chair of Classical Philology at the University of Basel in 1869 at the age of 24. Nietzsche resigned in 1879 due to health problems that plagued him most of his life and he completed much of his core writing in the following decade. In 1889 at age 44, he suffered a collapse and afterwards, a complete loss of his mental faculties. He lived his remaining years in the care of his mother until her death in 1897 and then with his sister Elisabeth Förster-Nietzsche. Nietzsche died in 1900. Nietzsche's body of work touched a wide range of topics, including art, philology, history, religion, tragedy, culture and science. His early inspiration was drawn from figures such as Arthur Schopenhauer, Richard Wagner and Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. His writing spans philosophical polemics, poetry, cultural criticism and fiction while displaying a fondness for aphorism and irony. Prominent elements of his philosophy include his radical critique of truth in favor of perspectivism; his genealogical critique of religion and Christian morality and his related theory of master–slave morality; his aesthetic affirmation of existence in response to the "death of God" and the profound crisis of nihilism; his notion of the Apollonian and Dionysian; and his characterization of the human subject as the expression of competing wills, collectively understood as the will to power. He also developed influential concepts such as the Übermensch and the doctrine of eternal return. In his later work, he became increasingly preoccupied with the creative powers of the individual to overcome social, cultural and moral contexts in pursuit of new values and aesthetic health. After his death, Elisabeth Förster-Nietzsche became the curator and editor of her brother's manuscripts. She reworked Nietzsche's unpublished writings to fit her own German nationalistideology while often contradicting or obfuscating Nietzsche's stated opinions, which were explicitly opposed to antisemitism and nationalism. Through her published editions, Nietzsche's work became associated with fascism and Nazism; 20th century scholars contested this interpretation of his work and corrected editions of his writings were soon made available. Nietzsche's thought enjoyed renewed popularity in the 1960s and his ideas have since had a profound impact on 20th and early-21st century thinkers across philosophy—especially in schools of continental philosophy such as existentialism, postmodernism and post-structuralism—as well as art, literature, psychology, politics and popular culture. He Died 25 August 1900 (Aged 55).