Nietzsches thought and life
What follows is not an overview of all or most of the main elements of Nietzsche's thought but a sketch of those elements that I think will have particular relevance in engaging the Genealogy. We can best gain entry to Nietzsche's philosophy by beginning with his critique of metaphysics. According to Nietzsche, the fundamental faith of the metaphysicians is the faith in opposite values' BGE 2 . The Western religious and philosophical tradition has operated by dividing reality into a set of...
The preface
The first line of the Preface is strange and disconcerting We are unknown unbekannt to ourselves, we knowers Erkennenden , even to ourselves, and with good reason. What a way to begin a philosophical work This line and section are not announcing the familiar need to pursue self-knowledge or knowledge of the mind in the face of initial ignorance. Rather, we are told that there is something concealed in the pursuit of knowledge itself, and inevitably so. We remain strange to ourselves out of...