On the Genealogy of Morals

A Polemic

By: Friedrich Nietzsche

Narrated by: Duncan Steen

Length: 6 hrs and 33 mins

Publisher's summary

This is one of the most accessible of Nietzsche's works. It was published in 1887, a year after Beyond Good and Evil, and he intended it to be a continuation of the investigation into the theme of morality. In the first work, Nietzsche attacked the notion of morality as nothing more than institutionalized weakness, and he criticized past philosophers for their unquestioning acceptance of moral precepts. In On the Genealogy of Morals, subtitled "A Polemic", Nietzsche furthers his pursuit of a clarity that is less tainted by imposed prejudices. He looks at the way attitudes towards 'morality' evolved and the way congenital ideas of morality were heavily colored by the Judaic and Christian traditions.

Download the accompanying reference guide.

Public Domain (P)2013 Naxos AudioBooks

Readers voice

The readers voice became annoying by the end kinda took away from the substance very arrogant, tone kinda off putting.

Start Here!

This is a great gateway into Nietzsche’s philosophy and it is clear enough to introduce most of his concepts of morality

Be strong, not weak.

On as many levels as possible, this towering philosopher for the ages, tormented soul and liberated intellectual, has set the bar bar for courage and value, leaving most United States Marines in the dust.

He established the spiritual, intellectual and physical norm for "weakness leaving the body."

If you look at his intensity as a war for the individual against false authority (master) and against false submissiveness (slave) you can then understand how his battle is to establish true value in life, as opposed to false submissiveness or brute authoritarianism. Enjoy.

Mount Everest of philosophical works.

What do my likes and dislikes matter with respect to such a critique as this—what do anyone’s? Profound is too poor a word. Supremely refreshing, even in English.

Good narration.

There are many narrations of Nietzsche, some of which are terrible. This guy definitely is much, much better.

narrator sounds histrionic at first, but

I have purchased a number of Nietzsche's texts, including this one, all of which sounded extremely histrionic in the beginning. I kept wondering, why is this necessary? What in Nietzsche calls for this? Why not calm and calmly considered tone? I cant't bear this. ENOUGH! ENOUGH!

But then they started to grow on me and now I'm enjoying listening to them. This title, I listened to while reading Walter Kaufmann's translation. There are many places where translation in this audio version adds to Kafumann's in terms of clarity and subtlety. This alone was quite rewarding. There are a few places where the narrator obviously makes mistakes, like when Nietzsche contrasts physiologist with psychologist but the narrator reads both as physiologist. Or when, he pronounces the German name "Eugen" (in Eugen Dühring) as "Eugene" (as in Eugene O'Neill). I giggled a little here. Eugene as a name sounds so sincere and eager while Eugen sounds dull and square.

Brilliant

Duncan did an excellent job narrating this profound and bold work of Nietzsche's. It felt more personal to Nietzsche, and his words seemed easier to digest than some of his other works.

Iconoclastic ideas

Say what you want about Nietzche but he remains king of the hot take. He argues some wild ideas, some controversial, some dangerous and some refreshing. He is excellent at criticizing philosophical movements and religious beliefs and less effective at proposing an alternative. Also had no idea but was surprised that he cites the assassins that crusaders came across, and recounts their motto of “nothing is true, everything is permitted.” Hadn’t realized that the assassins creed video game series was grounded in a historical group.

be ready to have your morality torn apart , GREAT

its a great book not for everyone though, you may feel your very character destroyed

An Essential Precursor to Evolutionary Psychology

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

I would recommend this work to my more free-thinking friends and to those who want to challenge themselves intellectually. Nietzsche's words are bolts of lightning which wake us from our sleep.

Who was your favorite character and why?

My favorite character was "the ascetic man" because I had never seen through his disguise so clearly until I listened to this work. I also realized how much I have been seduced by his perspective throughout my life.

Which scene was your favorite?

Since this was a non-fiction work, I will put forth my favorite section rather than scene...I was most interested in the section on the nature of punishment. This section demonstrated how punishment originally arose as a way for the powerful to demonstrate this power.It also deals with the transformation of this phenomenon after the "slave revolt in morals." The "sick" man becomes "master" of himself and punishes himself by submitting to religion and filtering both his resentments and hopes through this narcotic denial of life.

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

Nietzsche provides much food for thought, but I was very much moved by his description of master/slave moralities and the creditor/debtor carryover into morality. Though I would tweak his critiques based on modern evolutionary psychology, he provides much provocative insight and gets behind the scenes of our moral realities.

Any additional comments?

Not for the faint-of-heart or easily offended...