Review by Choice Review
These generally polished and penetrating essays by leading Nietzsche scholars provide a thorough analysis and critique of Nietzsche's most standard academic work. Each of the central themes of this daring and complex uncovering of the morality that has dominated Western thought and psychology for almost 2,000 years is insightfully discussed in this illuminating and often critical series of essays. There is much said about ressentiment as the "shameful origin" of "slave moralities." And Nietzsche's notorious "immoralism" is both criticized and reinterpreted. The moral psychology that pervades the Genealogy is examined from a number of different standpoints, and Nietzsche's dissection of Richard Wagner emerges here and there as a leitmotiv. The last third of this collection is devoted to the genealogical method itself, to the subversive function of genealogy, and to the role that Nietzsche's perspectivalism plays in the Genealogy. The analysis of the nature and unfortunate effects of the "ascetic ideal" is discussed from a number of interesting vantage points. Although there are occasional forays into the domain of postmodernism, they are mercifully lucid and informative. The sophisticated essays gathered here are, for the most part, as tough on Nietzsche as he was on his many victims. An outstanding array of perspectives highly recommended to Nietzscheans and others. Upper-division undergraduate; graduate; faculty; general. G. J. Stack; SUNY College at Brockport
Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Choice Review
