Nietzsche’s Werke Band VII: Jenseits von Gut und Bose (Beyond Good and Evil, fifth ed.); Zur Genealogie der Moral (On the Genealogy of Morals, fourth ed.)

Leipzig: C. G. Naumann, 1895. publisher's boards. Very good. NIETZSCHE, Friedrich. Nietzsche’s Werke Band VII: Jenseits von Gut und Bose (Beyond Good and Evil, fifth ed.); Zur Genealogie der Moral (On the Genealogy of Morals, fourth ed.). Leipzig: C. G. Naumann, 1895. 1 blank leaf with half-title on verso + TP + 1 leaf = Inhalt + TP (JGB) +1 leaf = Inhalt + [3] - 279 + TP (GM) + half-title + 1 leaf = Inhalt + [287] - 484 + [i] - xv. Octavo. Fifth and Fourth editions.

In the first collected edition of Nietzsche’s work, his two most important books combine to form the seventh volume: Beyond Good and Evil (originally published in 1886, here in its fifth edition) and On the Genealogy of Morals (originally published in 1887, here in its fourth edition).

Beyond Good and Evil: Here, for the first time, Nietzsche proposes a "natural history of morals" and proposes that the revaluation of former values is the central task to be accomplished by the philosopher of the future – this indeed would be the primary task of his own final works. He begins: “If a person should regard even the effects of hatred, envy, covetousness and the lust to rule as conditions of life, as factors which, fundamentally and essentially, must be present in the general economy of life (and must, therefore, be further enhanced if life is to be further enhanced) – he will suffer from such a view of things as from seasickness. And yet even this hypothesis is far from being the strangest and most painful in this immense and almost new domain of dangerous insights…” Finally, Nietzsche’s concept of will to power plays a prominent and central role in the book, as does his famous analysis of master and slave morality, which is mentioned here for the first time.

On the Genealogy of Morals: Genealogy has generated more scholarly comments in the past thirty years than any other book that Nietzsche wrote. The book’s structure is that of three sustained and interlocking essays. The first addresses the origins of our conceptions of "good" and "bad," as against those of “good” and “evil” and contains Nietzsche's famous analysis of master morality and slave morality (a topic he had first introduced in Beyond Good and Evil, so it makes sense these two titles would be bound together in his Werke). The second essay traces the origin of a "bad conscience" – the phenomenon of the soul taking sides against itself – while the third and final essays attacks the Christian advocacy of ascetic ideals, even while recognizing that “almost everything we call ‘higher culture’ rests on the spiritualization of, and giving depth to, cruelty (against oneself).” Throughout, Nietzsche employs his "genealogical" method, which has proven to be so influential in the 20th century.

CONDITION: Very good in original Naumann binding: half-leather with marbled boards. Some edge wear and scuffing. Corners bumped. Marbled endpapers. Pages lightly browned, but clean and unmarked.