(A)
1.On the Genealogy of Morality is a philosophical treatise by German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche, first published in 1887, and is also a follow-up to Beyond Good and Evil. , a book previously written by Nietzsche. 2. This book is composed of a preface and three additional sections which discuss the ways in which our views of morality have changed. He goes through history and gives a timeline of how morality has changed up until the time of when the book was written. One major point of Nietzsche is that there is a difference between a thing and its meaning. He argues that things don’t have an inherent meaning, and that the meaning of those things have changed over time. In the books he connects this concept with or view of morality, and in particular to good and evil. Thus he arrives at a conclusion that there isn’t any objective and inherent truth to morality. He concludes the one can only have a true understanding of things only when we realize that the meaning of certain things has changed overtime. In this book he explains this in further detail with his “will to power” perspective.
(3) Outline- Prologue
1) Good and Evil, Good and Bad
A) Faulty Explanations of Morality
B) Meaning of Good
C) Change in language
- Change in power
D) Jews as Priestly class
- Revaluation of values
E) Lambs and Birds of Prey
F) Slave Morality
- Justice
-Christian Hatred2 Guilt, Bad Conscience, and Related Matters
A) Promises
-human predictability
B) Guilt
C) Suffering
D) Origin of Guilt
E) Origin of Justice
F) Origin of Bad Conscience - Hunter-gatherer societies to permanent settlements G) Development of bad conscience
3) What is the Meaning of Ascetic Ideals? A)
-opinions among philosophers
-“Life against life” B) Ascetic Priest - Dull sensations - distract the mind C New Testament D) Meaning of Ascetic Ideals E) Science and Truth B)

Problems
4)
- English scientists fail to accurately explain the origins of morality-
Niche argues the reason being that modern day moral philosophy is based on utility, and that philosopher’s view morality and the history of morality in these terms and that “good” and “utility” have always been one in the same. However Nietzsche points out that this lack of knowledge distorts their view because morality changes over time and their viewing it through the present day scope -A similar problem Nietzsche addresses is that our views of morality have indeed changed overtime. His genealogy attempts to show these changes by presenting many historical instances where views on morality have changed as well as the words used to describe morality have changed. Therefore what we see as good today wasn’t good in the traditional sense.
-One of the main problems Nietzsche tries to answer re questions pertaining to the value of our morality. He argues that the predominant sense of morality today is a reverse of what it used to be. He goes on to say that it was born from resentment that the weak felt towards the strong and powerful. Here he is referring to the Morality portrayed in Christianity and Judaism. He believes this sense of morality is not in the best interest in the human race because it doesn’t embrace power. He explains that this morality turns the struggle inward causing people to overcome their internal instincts. Nietzsche's responds by saying that one should embrace these internal desires such as power.
(2)
1) Ascetic ideal- priestly ideal where a life of self-denial is the highest human life.
Goodness- originate in the higher class ancients, and are qualities they had distinguishing them from the commoners.
Genealogical Method- a way to investigate values shows how certain values were originally formed.
Morality- developed in a society, not inherent.
Noble- the powerful, the higher ranking, distinct from the slave class.
Ressentiment- deep-seated resentment, frustration, and hostility, accompanied by a sense of being powerless to express these feelings
Reverse-current values have reversed in meaning from when originally
Slave revolt- event where priests began to overthrow the way the noble’s way of evaluating goodness.
Will to power- basic instinct of all human beings is to gain power

Leading propositions
2)
- “In this sphere, i.e. the sphere of the law of obligation the cradle of the world of moral concepts is to be found “guilt”, “conscience”, “duty”, “sacredness of duty”. Their origin as the origin of everything great on earth was for a long time sprinkled and thoroughly saturated with blood.”This quote is referring to a period where all guilt and conscience were born, the underlying reason for this are our natural instincts that governed human behavior for thousands of years. These instincts include strength and violence, which is what Nietzsche is referring to when he uses the term “saturated in blood. However society became more civilized these instincts turned inward, they gave way to the moral concepts previously noted.
-“To three Jews as is known and one Jewess (Jesus of Nazareth Peter the fisherman Paul the tentmaker and the mother of the aforesaid Jesus called Maria). This is very remarkable Rome beyond all doubt did succumb.” This quote is talking about how Rome fell to the Jewish principles. In this event, our moral values changed, and the priest class became good. These moral values would be a dominant force throughout much of history although in certain periods, our morality would switch or reverse through will to power. However, in Nietzsche's essay, he seems to be making the Jews an exception because they did not gain their power with a physical presence but with moral ideals, which goes against his theory.
-“To this end a knowledge is necessary of the conditions and circumstances from which they grew and under which they developed and shifted in meaning morality as effect as symptom as mask as tartuffism, as disease, as misunderstanding, but also morality as cause as remedy, as stimulant, as impediment, as poison.” This quote is talking about the importance of having knowledge of a moral system. What is saying is that our value of morality has changed over time, through different events that have shaped our current moral beliefs. He is also criticizing the way in which many English philosophers are interpreting these values because they are looking at morality from a biased utilitarian standpoint. This quote is part of Nietzsche's call to action for there to be an unbiased way in which morality can be studied and valued.
-“…also the faith of Plato the faith that God is the truth that truth is divine How now if even this belief should grow ever more improbable.” In order to understand this quote one must know that Nietzsche was an atheist, and in this book he makes mention of the fact that science underlies anything metaphysical. In this quote he is basically saying that God doesn’t exist, and if he doesn’t exist then our moral beliefs are based on a lie.” This belief is one of the foundations for his belief, and one can witness this first hand by seeing a slightly Darwinian approach to morality. This quote also helps explain the origin of some of his contempt for Christianity which has become the dominant religion of the English world.
Argument-
3)
-One of Nietzsche's most important arguments is that morality can be traced back to two kinds of classes of human beings. He refers to these two classes as the “slaves” and “masters”. These two classes had very different views of morality and can shed light on how morality has changed. At the beginning master morality evaluated things naturally and were based on desirable traits of human beings. People who had these traits were at one time considered good in a non moral sense. These traits included power, strength and wealth. The word “bad”, signified the absence of these desirable traits in people. However on the flipside, the slaves grew a sense of resentment towards the noble class formed through there inferiority. In saying this, the slave class judged the nobles’ and there morals as bad and considered themselves to be good. This sense of resentment also stems from the slaves inability to compete with the warrior class in combatant situations, which in turn spawned a hatred for power. Nietzsche considers this to be the beginning of his concept called "slave revolt in morality” and according to Nietzsche began with the Jews. As mentioned earlier, this slave or priestly class unable to compete with the powerful in areas warfare, seek revenge in an ideological sense. ”. They then believe that they are blessed and will become victorious because of their deity. This ideology begins to apply morality to the words “good” and “bad”. The struggle between the two classes and ideologies have changed how we perceive morality on many occasions throughout history.
-Another argument of Nietzsche’s is that “bad conscience” doesn’t come from punishment. In the later part of his second treatise he discusses the origins of” bad conscience” and “guilt”. His explains that bad conscience originated during the transition between barbaric societies to more modern societies, and that instincts came second to consciousness in utility and that these repressed instincts turned inward. These violent instincts weren’t able to be expressed outwardly in society. People began to have an internal struggle within themselves referred to by Nietzsche as “man's suffering of man, of himself." This consisted of a constant struggle of man trying to suppress these instincts. Nietzsche identifies freedom as mans will to act on these instincts which in-turn leads to a bad conscience. The idea of giving up your instincts in turn became selflessness. Nietzsche later gives a further explanation for the exact origins of bad consciousness. He traces the beginning to a period where powerful tribe leaders led tribe members to feel as if they were in debt to them. Down the road we applied a spiritual meaning to this debt, and in many religions bad conscience has a direct link with people fear of consequences from their deity or god. In the text Nietzsche uses Christianity as an example.
4)
-The author solves all of the problems stated prior or at least does so in a way rational to himself. He approaches these problems and gives evidence through historical accounts to back his assumptions. He also solves these problems methodically, and presents a lot of information to prove his point. However, I’m sure to many people, his explanations although make some sense don’t coincide with their moral beliefs.
(3)
To start off I think that Frederick Nietzsche was a very emotional writer, and put a lot of ideas in his works to catch readers by surprise and spark ideas and form notions. Therefore Nietzsche's ideas should not be read rigidly. Because Nietzsche was an atheist he took a more scientific approach to morality rather than one of metaphysical origin. This is important for two reasons. One is that science has become a major influence in society and has come to debunk prior religious beliefs. Therefore one must wonder if the same can’t be done in regards to morality. Also, his book is important because it offers a good contrast with utilitarianism which is arguably the most predominant philosophies used today. I do believe that Nietzsche’s arguments are compelling; however, they lack metaphysics, so therefore his concepts aren’t useful to the average person. They give you an understanding but don’t dictate how one should act. I found most of his arguments complete however, often times I felt that he made some assumptions. When discussing history, he seemed to blur some events together and seemed to infer on the causation of historical events in certain instances. He also seemed to link events together giving an explanation to prove his point, however the there is no proof of the evidence he presented is accurate. In addition, I believe that Nietzsche is wrong in certain instances. For one, I believe that science and religion aren’t mutually exclusive which he seems to stand against. Also I don’t believe that power is the number one priority of human beings. There are other needs that humans have that one hopes to receive before gaining power. In other words, it’s not on the bottom of the hierarchy of needs.

-