A review by cinaedussinister
On the Genealogy of Morals, by Friedrich Nietzsche

4.0

The core of Nietzsche’s argument here is excellent, and truly original. I don’t think I’ve seen a more accurate analysis of the fundamental difference between the (unfortunately named) systems of master and slave morality, and the effects both have on their adherents. However, in many places his execution of these very insightful arguments is uncomfortable to read at best and damning at worst: his failure to distinguish between more generally Abrahamic morality and specific Jewish morality leads him to go on disconcerting tirades against the “Jewish poisoning of culture”, and we all know what this led to. Obviously Nietzsche can’t be held entirely to blame for the Holocaust, and I find it very likely that a fair portion of these outwardly antisemitic tirades were posthumous additions made by Nietzsche’s ethnonationalist sister who edited much of his work, I still feel that this specific incident plays into a larger pattern of Nietzsche going on angry tangents against marginalised people, even if his intentions are not rooted in a specific hatred of these people but more broadly a critique of systems of thinking which these groups happen to follow (despite his anti-Jewish rhetoric, Nietzsche also condemns the antisemites of his time). Overall, though this book is a very uncomfortable read in our day and age, and although I think that Nietzsche’s arguments here could sometimes feel tangential, the core of the philosophy which is expressed in this book is so prescient that it must be commended.