On the Genealogy of Morals

Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900) was a German scholar, philosopher, and critic. He was born on October 15, 1844, in Prussian Saxony. His father and grandfather were Protestant pastors, and young Nietzsche grew up with religious values. Nietzsche went to a prestigious Protestant boarding school and later studied theology and classical philology at Bonn University. Nietzsche only spent two semesters at Bonn University; records indicate that he argued with his classics professors during his time in their courses. When one of these professors, Friedrich Wilhelm Rischl, transferred to the University of Leipzig, Nietzsche followed and became his student.

In 1867, Nietzsche went into military service in an artillery regiment. In 1868, he was granted extended sick leave after injuring himself while mounting a horse and returned to his studies at the University of Leipzig. During this time, Nietzsche encountered the philosophical work of Arthur Schopenhauer and developed intellectual friendships that lasted his lifetime. In 1869, Nietzsche taught classical philology in Switzerland at the University of Basel despite never completing his doctoral thesis or dissertation. He was highly praised by his mentor Rischl and received a glowing review of his teaching abilities and intellectual prowess. At the onset of the Franco-German War, Nietzsche left his professorship to serve as a medical orderly; he soon contracted dysentery and diphtheria and returned to teaching.

In 1872, the young philosopher published his first work: The Birth of Tragedy from the Spirit of Music. This book marked his deviation from classical scholarship and entrance into cultural and artistic criticism. His 1878 work Human, All-Too-Human: A Book for Free Spirits, paved the way for Nietzsche’s unique writing style that would persist throughout his life. His first book modeled the essay format of his philosophical peers, but this second book relied on aphorisms: shorter phrases or paragraphs that are loosely organized (See: Index of Terms).

From 1879 to 1889, Nietzsche entered a period of prolific writing and isolation. After the war, his health continued to decline, so he moved in with his sister and friend Peter Gast. By this point, Nietzsche was half-blind and experiencing a great amount of pain. During this period, Nietzsche published Thus Spoke Zarathustra (1883), Beyond Good and Evil (1886), The Antichrist (1895), The Will to Power (1901), and others. Nietzsche’s work dismantled traditional Western values by examining their origin and challenging accepted ideals and assumptions about the human condition. The philosopher recognized the movement of culture away from religion and is often associated with nihilism. Nietzsche believed that the important work of a person’s life is to rigorously seek self-realization and self-awareness. His writing explores conflicting ideas and the myriad influences on a person’s perception of the world, including morality, history, consciousness, power, and becoming. Scholars continue to debate whether Nietzsche’s texts should be taken as part of a larger philosophical understanding of the human condition or whether they should be digested separately.

In 1887, Nietzsche published On the Genealogy of Morals. Nietzsche claimed that the book only took him three weeks to write, although some reports suggest that the third essay took longer than Nietzsche originally suggested. The book stands out in comparison to Nietzsche’s other works because it utilizes the essay form. In his other works, such as the four Untimely Meditations (1873), Nietzsche employed traditional models for philosophical writing. The use of the essay form allowed Nietzsche to continue his ideas from Beyond Good and Evil and to provide readers with something short that would introduce his other works. By this point in his career, having written 15 volumes of philosophical works, Nietzsche still remained unknown in Germany and paid for his own publications. He saw On the Genealogy of Morals as a gateway text to entice German academics to read his other works. Nietzsche insisted that his publisher, Georg Naumann, format On the Genealogy of Morals so that it looked similar in appearance to Beyond Good and Evil.

Some of Nietzsche’s work has been used as support for the antisemitic messages of the Nazi party and Adolf Hitler. Nietzsche’s sister, who gained control of his intellectual property after his death in 1900, was a supporter of the Nazi party and manipulated his work to fit with party ideologies. During his life, Nietzsche was vehemently opposed to antisemitism and fascism and severed friendships over the antisemitic views of his fellow intellectuals. However, his writing reflected the social and historical context within which he lived, and racial messaging does feature in his philosophical work.

During the last 11 years of his life, Nietzsche’s illness grew more serious, likely from dormant tertiary syphilis which caused paralysis and blindness. On January 3, 1889, Nietzsche suffered a nervous breakdown and was found embracing a horse outside his apartment that was being beaten by its owner. He was reliant upon the care of others, first at an asylum and, later, by his mother and then sister.