Beyond Good and Evil

Consider the following extracts : “The noble type of man regards HIMSELF as a determiner of values; he does not require to be approved of; he passes the judgment: What is injurious to me is injurious in itself; he knows that it is he himself only who confers honour on things; he is a CREATOR OF VALUES. [ie. lives life by his own rules]“Without the PATHOS OF DISTANCE, such as grows out of the incarnated difference of classes, out of the constant out-looking and down-looking of the ruling caste on subordinates and instruments, and out of their equally constant practice of obeying and commanding, of keeping down and keeping at a distance that other more mysterious pathos could never have arisen, the longing for an ever new widening of distance within the soul itself, the formation of ever higher, rarer, further, more extended, more comprehensive states, in short, just the elevation of the type man, the continued self-surmounting of man, to use a moral formula in a supermoral sense.‘Noble’ to a 21st century ear sounds like superiority. The 'pathos of distance' is like you have with a pet dog to which you show approval or disapproval. Is Nietzsche saying that people need to be bred like dogs to serve the needs of their human masters???Absolutely YES - because that is how we serve ourselves !!!This is Nietzsches discovery. The sovereign individual, lord and master over itself. Over its caprices, impulses, lusts, fears. What kind of ruler are you of yourself and your own emotions? This shows itself in how you treat others under your command or those who are part of you - your children, your staff, your students, your soldiers etc etc All a direct reflection of your own personal philosophy which you create - it is not given to you.So it has always been between aristocrats and their subjects. And the point is that so it is also between your commanding instincts and your mixed inner feelings which will often have to be dragged kicking and screaming to submit to your will if you are to accomplish anything of value. It is a neat idea in which the personal is externalised to become the political and the moral. Brilliant.We all can be masters of our base instincts or we can be servants of them. It is up to us - but societies that discriminate in favour of the noble instincts over the base will clearly do much better than others - all pretty uncontroversial really - the chapter on being noble is a really good place to start with this book.

You have to admire the consistence of thought in this one.

It cost less than 1 pound when I purchased this, with narrator's voice. Should be at least considered on these grounds alone, if one had interest on this book before and found the cost troublesome.The book itself, the structure of paragraphs is digestible and original (as far as my knowledge goes) in a number format. This makes it easy to find the specific subtitle for citation purposes or for a re read. Very interesting insights into man's problem and what man should accept as their problem as nature (and to their fault). Nietzsche holds views which is often amusing to his berating (and rightly so) with the subjects of contention. It reminds me of another contrarian, Hitchens. Although I think is more masterful with his language. A great dismantled of philosophers and should be seen to be read by them, as the criticism put forth is worth reading about.

A hard read, for sure. Nietzsche's style is convoluted, and the translation from German to English did not help clarity. There are also a few passages without full stops between the sentences (luckily, the first letter of the sentence is still capitalized). However, one of the few books that Must be read in a lifetime.

There are a lot of amazing thoughts and views in this book especially when you realise how long ago it was written.I just wish there was more philosophy and less bitching about fellow academics.The writing style is filled with academicese (rambling paragraphs of obscure and unnecessary verbiage) and thus very difficult to get to grips with and Nietzsche himself even says he does his best not to be understood.Give it a quick read without worrying if you understand it all and then read it again slower once you understand his writing style to get the most out of it

This is more about the quality of the download to my iPod's Kindle app. No problems at all... and this free download is worth the struggle.

I was thinking of an aul drop of philosophy for the wee tablet and I says to myself says I "There's Fred Nietzsche going for a song" so I says to myself says I- "The likes of that there'll do for the likes of me " and do you know what.................................IT WAS FANTASTIC!!!

I read this book for the first time in my twenties, in Italian, and I wanted to have also the English edition, but this one is totally unreadable. The pagination is simply terrible