The companion book to Beyond Good and Evil the three essays included here offer vital
insights into Nietzsche's theories of morality and human psychology. Nietzsche claimed that
the purpose of The Genealogy of Morals was to call attention to his previous writings. But in
fact the book does much more than that elucidating and expanding on the cryptic aphorisms of
Beyond Good and Evil and signalling a return to the essay form. In these three essays
Nietzsche considers the development of ideas of 'good' and 'evil' explores notions of guilt
and bad consience and discusses ascetic ideals and the purpose of the philosopher. Together
they form a coherent and complex discussion of morality in a work that is more accessible than
some of Nietzsche's previous writings. Friedrich Nietzsche was born near Leipzig in 1844. When
he was only twenty-four he was appointed to the chair of classical philology at Basel
University. From 1880 however he divorced himself from everyday life and lived mainly abroad.
Works published in the 1880s include The Gay Science Thus Spoke Zarathustra Beyond Good and
Evil On the Genealogy of Morals Twilight of the Idols and The Antichrist . In January 1889
Nietzsche collapsed on a street in Turin and was subsequently institutionalized spending the
rest of his life in a condition of mental and physical paralysis. Works published after his
death in 1900 include Will to Power based on his notebooks and Ecce Homo his
autobiography. Michael A. Scarpitti is an independent scholar of philosophy whose principal
interests include English and German thought of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries as
well as exegesis and translation theory. Robert C. Holub is currently Ohio Eminent Scholar and
Professor of German at the Ohio State University. Among his published works are monographs on
Heinrich Heine German realism Friedrich Nietzsche literary and aesthetic theory and Jürgen
Habermas.
