Thursday, July 25, 2013

Beyond Good and Bad

In I, 17 of the Genealogy of Morals, Nietzsche asserts that 'beyond Good and Evil' "does not mean 'Beyond Good and Bad'".  Now, according to a narrow interpretation of the assertion, he is simply distinguishing Master Morality from Slave Morality, from which it easily follows that being an 'immoralist' according to the latter does not mean being one according to the former.  However, it is more problematic to more broadly infer from that inequality that Slave Morality being subject to revaluation by the Will to Power entails that Master Morality is exempt from it.  For, in general, as an original principle, all preceding doctrines are alike subject to reconsideration by a Will to Power order of rank, regardless of their established relations to one another.  And, specifically, as has been previously discussed, what is "healthy" according to the Master Morality in Beyond Good and Evil #258, i. e. aristocratic Morality in that passage, is exposed as self-destructive according to the Will to Power.  In others words, 'Good and Bad' are no more 'beyond' that principle than are 'Good and Evil'.

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