Overview

Christopher Janaway presents a full commentary on Nietzsche's most studied work, On the Genealogy of Morality, and combines close reading of key passages with an overview of Nietzsche's wider aims. Arguing that Nietzsche's goal is to pursue psychological and historical truths concerning the origins of modern moral values, Beyond Selflessness is distinctive in that it also emphasizes the significance of Nietzsches rhetorical methods as an instrument of persuasion. Nietzsche's outlook is broadly naturalist, but he is critical of typical scientific and philosophical methods for their advocacy of impersonality and suppression of the affects. In contrast to his opponents, Schopenhauer and Paul Rée, who both account for morality in terms of selflessness, Nietzsche believes that our allegiance to a post-Christian morality that centres around selflessness, compassion, guilt, and denial of the instincts is not primarily rational but affective: underlying feelings, often ambivalent and poorly grasped in conscious thought, explain our moral beliefs. The Genealogy is designed to detach the reader from his or her allegiance to morality and prepare for the possibility of new values. Janaway shows how, according to Nietzsches perspectivism, one can best understand a topic such as morality through allowing as many of ones feelings as possible to speak about it, and how Nietzsche seeks to enable us to feel differently': his provocation of the reader's affects helps us grasp the affective origins of our attitudes and prepare the way for healthier values such as the affirmation of life (as tested by the thought of eternal return) and the self-satisfaction to be attained by 'giving style to one's character'.

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a superb study. Janaway consistently offers fresh insights and nuanced observations about the text, its structure, the motives behind its composition, its argument and its philosophical methods, or rather tactics. Taylor Carman, Times Literary Supplement Janaway consistently offers fresh insights and nuanced observations about the text, its structure, the motives behind its composition, its arguement and its philosophical methods. Taylor Carman TLS intelligent and illuminating...a valuable resource for Nietzsche scholars...there are ample rewards in terms of intelligent and discerning exposition of difficult passages, lucid placing of themes and arguments in historical context, and a rich and sympathetic appreciation of Nietzsche's style, both as a therapeutic tool and for the philosophical assumptions that underlie it. Brian Leiter, Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews

...an intellectually rewarding book, well written and well argued. Robert Wicks, The Philosophical Quarterly Vol 62 No 244 July 2011 a superb study. Janaway consistently offers fresh insights and nuanced observations about the text, its structure, the motives behind its composition, its argument and its philosophical methods, or rather tactics. Taylor Carman, Times Literary Supplement Janaway consistently offers fresh insights and nuanced observations about the text, its structure, the motives behind its composition, its arguement and its philosophical methods. Taylor Carman TLS intelligent and illuminating...a valuable resource for Nietzsche scholars...there are ample rewards in terms of intelligent and discerning exposition of difficult passages, lucid placing of themes and arguments in historical context, and a rich and sympathetic appreciation of Nietzsche's style, both as a therapeutic tool and for the philosophical assumptions that underlie it. Brian Leiter, Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews

intelligent and illuminating...a valuable resource for Nietzsche scholars...there are ample rewards in terms of intelligent and discerning exposition of difficult passages, lucid placing of themes and arguments in historical context, and a rich and sympathetic appreciation of Nietzsche's style, both as a therapeutic tool and for the philosophical assumptions that underlie it. Brian Leiter, Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews

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