Customer Reviews: Read 72 more reviews...
 Heavy December 12, 2008
Peter Banck (Sweden, Helsingborg)
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
This takes time to digest no matter how smart you are. But it's worth it, make the journey through time and see how a ranting madmamn/genius sees the world and mankind!
 A Profound Book December 11, 2008
Brad Hoevel (Saginaw)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
If you want to get into philosophy, if you want to get into Nietzsche, or if you simply want to read a really literature: BEYOND GOOD AND EVIL is a book I highly suggest that you read. I can't make any guarantees, but there is a good chance this book will change the way you think about the world.
What is Beyond Good and Evil? Quite simply, it is a profound work of literature. As there is no overarching story or characters, this book is not a novel. It is highly readable...I don't hesitate to call it a 'page-turner'.
It is not necessary to have any philosophical training. Having a familiarity with the ideas of Plato, Aristotle and Kant, wouldn't hurt, but are not in the least bit necessary. More helpful would be a general knowledge of 19th century European history. But really, all you need is an active mind and there is a good chance you will enjoy this book thoroughly.
Beyond Good and Evil contains 296 aphorisms divided among nine chapters. Nietzsche strings together his aphorisms using logic. Through this method he is able to reveal stunning truths, hypothesis, challenges and ideas. There are many ideas put forward here; so many, in fact, that it would not make sense to mention them all.
I will say this: Nietzsche uses logic to hypothesize about the origin of morals. He uses logic to explain and -one may even say- discredit Christianity.
Beyond Good and Evil often presents ideas that are challenging--ideas that evoke outrage. One must grapple with these ideas...the reader of this book must be a free spirit.
Like the Bible, or really like any great philosophical text, the reader of Beyond Good and Evil must carefully ponder the entire text. Presented in bits and pieces, the ideas contained in these works can be used to promote brotherly love...they can also be used to promote genocide.
By the way,I do not suggest the Penguin Classic version. Take a look at
these: Basic Writings of Nietzsche (Modern Library Classics)($12.24)(Paperback) or Basic Writings of Nietzsche (Modern Library)($17.79)(Hardcover). Both contain Beyond Good and Evil in its entirety along with other writing from Nietzsche, as well as helpful commentary from Walter Kaufmann.
 Vastly Overrated August 26, 2008
Christopher R Travers (Chelan, WA)
2 out of 4 found this review helpful
I figured this would be a good introduction to the writings of Nietzsche. While I believe it was, I was sorely disappointed in what I found.
In the first part of the book Nietzsche finds fault with every school of philosophy aside from his own. In this section, he raises several valid concerns about the direction and limitation of philosophy to date. In particular, he points out that philosphy has been tied to the tyrrany of words and word opposites (a favorite trap Plato falls into), and that it often is simply an exercise in edifying one's own pre-existing prejudices. He then acts as a guide to these traps by falling into them. Repeatedly.
For example, he generally mocks other philosophers by posing quotes and then asking what it says about the philosopher rather than the subject matter, but if we take this same process and apply it to Nietzsche's work, we get a sad picture of an antisemitic, misogynistic, power-hungry, racial purist who believes in modernism.
At the same time, having read just before this W. Guthrie's translation of Plato's Protagoran and Meno I found that Nietzsche seemed in my mind to be reinventing (perhaps intentionally) the arguments of the Greek Sophists but seemed vastly inferior in wisdom to Protagoras (interestingly the only philosopher he quotes and does not dismiss off-hand). I found Plato's arguments vastly more convincing than Nietzsche's despite the fact that I managed to identify many logical problems with the same arguments (most notably confusing words and concepts, which Plato seems to do quite frequently).
I suppose Nietzsche's great accomplishment was to essentially to badly re-invent the Greek Sophist traditions which lay to some extent at the origin of European philosophy.
At the same time, this *is* an influential work in the modern world and probably should be read for historical purposes.
What was on Zarathustra's mind on those mountains? June 3, 2008
Alaric
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
Beyond Good and Evil clarifies much of what is left in the air in Thus Spoke Zarathustra and hinted at in the Gay Science. It helps to be familiar with TSZ, or at least the Gay Science coming into reading this text, given the subtlety of the allusions to his former writings and concepts, and the elaborateness of the traps the author lays for cursory readers. For newcomers, hopefully BGE will prove to be a catalyst to further interest in the man's thought; if that's the case you have much to look forward to. Happy hunting.
 FRIEDRICH NIETZSCHE: "...PUTTING HIS FINGER ON BAD ARTS OF INTERPRETATION" (start here with Nietzsche) May 26, 2008
ol' nuff n' den sum (the Virginia coast, USA)
1 out of 3 found this review helpful
Beyond Good And Evil (1886) was German existentialist philosopher Friedrich Nietzche's attempt to completely devalue religon, science and philosophy and replace it with a universal reality that allows man's true spirit, his "will to power", to be left unbridled by spirit draining, intellectual and timid conventions. The human spirit must never be stifled! Let man's passions and desires be set free! Nietzsche rips into Voltaire:
Oh Voltaire! Oh humanity! Oh imbecility! There is some point to 'truth', to the search for truth; and if a human being goes about it too humanely - I wager he finds nothing!
Nietzsche will offend almost everyone who reads Beyond Good And Evil. Women, Christians and Jews are all portrayed by Nietzsche as either inferior or misguided. He calls working people (and others) "herd-animals" who need a master, and he scorns France at every turn. You can't take everything here to heart. This was written in the 19th century by a very unconventional and passionate existentialist philosopher. Just the same, Nietzsche was a poetic and optimistic visionary of his day who had keen insights into human behavior:
To talk of oneself a great deal can also be a means of concealing oneself.
Who has not for the sake of his reputation - sacrificed himself?
One does not hate so long as one continues to rate low, but only when one has come to rate equal or higher.
Poets behave impudently towards their experiences: they exploit them.
Beyond Good And Evil is a short book of around 230 pages, and Nietzsche has divided his thoughts into 296 aphorisms, some as short as a sentence, and others several pages long.
While Beyond Good And Evil isn't as comprehensive or influential as his "Thus Spake Zarathustra", it does give the reader a basic overview of Nietzsche's philosophy. God has died. Will To Power. Science, religon and philosophy are misleading, and glorify weakness and lack of courage. Live passionately, unabated by convention!
Nietzsche and his works aren't for everybody, but Beyond Good And Evil is an important work from one of the most influential and important existentialist philosophers in history. His works have been twisted and especially misinterpreted, and while I don't subscribe to his philosophy as a way of life, I admire his poetic spirit, passion, intelligence and courage to explore unconventional ideas.
Beyond Good And Evil?
"That which is done out of love always takes place beyond good and evil."
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