On the Significance of Genealogy in Nietzsche’s Critique of Morality

T times Nietzsche’s discussion of morality seems to be nothing more than a confused and polemic attack, a verbal war against traditional values, quasi-philosophical bombs planted by a “moral terrorist”1—but underlying this apparently arbitrary bombardment of accusations, I shall argue in this paper, there is to be revealed a network of explanations of and objections against morality. Understanding Nietzsche’s attack on morality requires one to make use of methods similar to those Nietzsche himself employs. The creative activity of genealogy, a science of which only Nietzsche’s “readers, [his] right readers, [his] predestined readers”2 are capable, supplies the methodological means by which Nietzsche’s works are to be made sense of. Why did Nietzsche investigate into the origin of morality and how is genealogy related to his overall critique of morality? These questions I would like to answer in the following. In order to arrive at a satisfactory answer, one needs to know what Nietzsche means by the expression ‘morality’ and what his criticisms of it are. Part I offers a particularly narrow conception of morality, merging into an outline of Nietzsche’s attack against this conception. Part II outOn the Significance of Genealogy in Nietzsche’s Critique of Morality*