35 pages 1 hour read

Friedrich Nietzsche

Beyond Good And Evil

Nonfiction | Book | Adult | Published in 1886

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Index of Terms

Beyond Good and Evil

The title of the work also shows up at numerous points within the body of the text as the goal at which the new philosophers must aim in the establishment of their morals, going “beyond good and evil” in the creation of new values. The traditional and customary notions of “good” and “evil” as they are held by the general public are nonsense, naïve and childish notions of the past that must be put on trial and rejected in favor of ideals that go “beyond good and evil” in their moral valuations. In the space “beyond good and evil,” the new values will be decided upon by the free spirits and by the strong, who will be able to swim against the tide and impose their own wills.

Will to Power

The will to power is the human life force that overflows in the strength of will that is able to create new values and ideals that fit a new way of viewing the world. It is Nietzsche’s philosophy of self-determination and is exhibited by the noble and most especially by the Übermensch, the “over-man” or “superman,” who will be able to rise above the teeming, weak, uneducated public and bring their own world into being by sheer force of will.