On the Genealogy of Morality
On the Genealogy of Morality, the classic three essay treatise of Friedrich Nietzsche, is considered by scholars to be one of the author's philosophic masterworks. This astounding work represents the maturity of Nietzsche's ideas, and consists of three distinct essays. In each, Nietzsche isolates and expands upon ideas he expressed in Beyond Good and Evil. Nietzsche juxtaposes ideas of weakness and strength, and notions of human preconception as generated over millenia of hierarchy inclusive of slavery, to demonstrate an evolution of ideas beyond traditional duality. This text controversially introduces the 'blond beast' - a a forebear for Nietzsche's posthumous association with Nazism and racial superiority. Nietzsche demonstrates how people with allegiance to ascetic ideals gained traction in society. He proceeds to discount science as an opposing influence, together with historians and idle thinkers, advocating for criticism of what is accepted as truth, and a replacement for flawed definitions.
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What Hacker News says
- That sounds like it's from Thus Spake Zarathustra? It's translated that way intentionally, because Nietzsche wrote it to sound archaic and reminiscent of Old Testament language, on purpose, as a stylistic choice. The translators are accurately reflecting that. His version of Zarathustra is undoing the "mistake" of the original Zarathustra.
You don't see this in translations of his other works, like The Gay Science or On The Genealogy of Morality, which are better introductions anyway, not being explicitly literary like Zarathustra.
- Ha, the good old bad vs evil.
You might want to read Friedrich Nietzsche, On the Genealogy of Morality, First Treatise.
- > This is simply insane warmongering. Since you throw such threats around casually I suspect you might be a US citizen.
Take many deep breaths and cool your jets. Think about your biases - it’s not good to go through life hating an entire nation and it says more about you than about them.
I am not American.
If you actually do want to explore this topic, read On The Genealogy Of Morality by Nietzsche.
- It depends where you start with Nietzsche. If your first encounter with his work is Thus Spake Zarathustra or perhaps Ecce Homo, you're going to be confused. In contrast, On the Genealogy of Morality, The Antichrist, Beyond Good and Evil are clear, lucid, and beautifully written (whether you agree with them is another matter).
(He probably wasn't schizophrenic, but he did suffer from terrible migraines and mental illness. Traditionally his mental health problems were attributed to tertiary syphillis, but that has beeen challenged in recent years with speculative diagnoses ranging from bipolar disorder to brain tumours to early-onset dementia).
If I were to nominate a philosopher for the title of most unreadable, it would probably be Hegel.
- What does religion cause?
There has been considerable philosophical work on this topic. Contemporary scientific studies (such as the ones in the link) are not particularly useful here, as they are too trapped in the current societal context to understand deeper cultural trends. Religion as a word is so broad as to basically be meaningless. Separating religion from culture or history is a modern legacy of academic and industrial specialization.
In any case, some reading suggestions, if you're interested in this topic.
- Max Weber. Pretty much the founder of modern social science, particularly with regards to religion. He originated the idea of “The Protestant Work Ethic” and argues that specific features of Protestantism lead to market capitalism arising in Northern Europe, rather than in India or China.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Protestant_Ethic_and_the_S...
- Charles Taylor, A Secular Age. This book really changed the way I think about the modern world and what I'll call "the preference for scientistic, humanistic atheism". Taylor essentially argues that modern secularity is not merely the subtraction of religious belief, but a new historical situation where religious beliefs are co-existent both with each other and with immanent beliefs (entirely focused in the world.) This book is huge, so I recommend starting with How Not to Be Secular by James K. A. Smith, as it's a condensed summary of Taylor's book.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Secular_Age
https://www.amazon.com/How-Not-Be-Secular-Reading/dp/0802867...
- Friedrich Nietzsche. A philosopher quite interested in this problem. His main goal was to trace the development of moral ideas and subsequently create new, healthier (to him) ones. Too many books to list, but I recommend The Genealogy of Morality and Beyond Good and Evil.
- > This resentment runs deep and is stunningly widespread.
Stunning? :) Right.
Daring Fireball conveniently neglects to mention one crucial bit: he is afraid to speak his mind, because he's made a career out of being 'impartial' when Apple is in the wrong, and the biggest fanboy when they get anything right. ()
> Without touching upon the question of who’s right and who’s wrong
Wrong according to Daring Fireball is anything that exposes Gruber as an Apple shill and hurts his ability to continue making a living this way. Right is everything that strengthens Gruber's position of being the #1 Apple shill in the world and his ability to make a living.
It's hard to justify begrudging someone who is amoral and just wants to make a living by doing the least amount of work possible. I am just so filled with contempt - a personal failure on my behalf to feel this way.
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Somewhat related, to help people understand the 'stunning' resentment towards Apple, the aura of aimlessness and cynicism in America and Western culture:
We live in a corporatocracy [0] (a word that doesn't exist according to dictionary.com and Google's spell check). Almost all of us are wage slaves [1] and those who have a chance at freedom, enjoy their private dinner parties too much to ever speak up for the wage slaves. Why ruffle the feathers of your fellow Aristocrat friends when you're hoping to join or have already joined them?
Don't you know the many perks of being a wage slave master, even if you remain a wage slave yourself?
Oh and those who have become Aristocrat rich? Never have to worry about money rich? Your kids are now part of the Aristocrat family - they'll go to private school, live in gated communities and attend 'elite' universities. You don't need to worry about them wage slaves anymore, they're not as good as you, you were brave and talented in pursuing greed at all costs, you're one of us now, you're not one of them.
Resentment towards the ruling class is centuries old. For a thorough treatment on this topic, there's a masterpiece that spelled this out in a powerful way almost 150 years ago - On the Genealogy of Morality by Nietzsche [2]
[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corporatocracy
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wage_slavery
[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/On_the_Genealogy_of_Morality
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