Beyond Good and Evil: Prelude to a Philosophy of the Future

Friedrich Nietzsche

Jul 2009 · Blackstone Audio Inc. · Narrated by Stephen Van Doren

About this audiobook

This is one of the most important works written by Nietzsche and represents his attempt to sum up his philosophy. The great nineteenth-century philosopher refines his previously expressed ideal of the superman in this work, a fascinating examination of human values and morality. It takes up and expands on the ideas of his previous work, Thus Spoke Zarathustra, but approaches it from a more critical, polemical stance. In nine parts, this book is designed to give listeners a comprehensive idea of Nietzsche's thought and style.

In Beyond Good and Evil, Friedrich Nietzsche attacks past philosophers for their alleged lack of critical sense and their blind acceptance of Christian premises in their consideration of morality. The work moves into the realm "beyond good and evil" in the sense of leaving behind the traditional morality, which Nietzsche subjects to a destructive critique, in favor of what he regards as an affirmative approach that fearlessly confronts the contextual nature of knowledge and the perilous condition of the modern individual.

Of the four "late-period" writings of Nietzsche, Beyond Good and Evil most closely resembles the aphoristic style of his middle period. In it he exposes the deficiencies of those usually called "philosophers" and identifies the qualities of the "new philosophers": imagination, self-assertion, danger, originality, and the "creation of values." Religion and the master and slave moralities feature prominently as Nietzsche re-evaluates deeply-held humanistic beliefs, portraying even domination, appropriation, and injury to the weak as not universally objectionable.

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About the author

Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900) was a nineteenth-century German-born philosopher and classical philologist. He wrote critical texts on religion, morality, contemporary culture, philosophy, and science, using a distinctive German language style. In 1889 he exhibited symptoms of insanity and lived his remaining years in the care of his mother and sister. His ideas exercised a major influence on several prominent European philosophers, including Martin Heidegger, Albert Camus, and Jean-Paul Sartre.

Helen Zimmern (1846–1934) was a German-British writer and translator.

Stephen Van Doren is new to the narration side of audiobook production, having spent some years on the production side, and over a decade in the completely unrelated field of online software development. He lives in Denver and is working on completing his first novel.