A Beginner's Guide to Nietzsche's Beyond Good and Evil

Acknowledgements

Introduction

List of Illustrations and Tables

1. Background

1.1 Life of Nietzsche

1.2 19th Century Europe

1.3 Romanticism and German Idealism

1.4 Pessimism

1.5 German Politics

2. Explanation and Summary of Main Arguments

2.1 Introduction

2.2 Preface

2.3 Part One: On the Prejudices of Philosophers

2.4 Part Two: The Free Spirit

2.5 Part Three: The Religious Nature

2.6 Part Four: Maxims and Interludes

2.7 Part Six: We Scholars

2.8 Part Seven: Our Virtues

2.9 Part Eight: Peoples and Fatherlands

2.10 Part Nine: What is Noble?

2.11 From High Mountains: Epode

3.Critical Themes

3.1 Introduction

3.2 Reality Truth, and Philosophical Prejudice

3.2.1 The Will to Truth

3.2.2 Faith in Antithetical Values

3.2.3 Distinction between Appearance and Reality

3.2.4 Atomism

3.2.5 Teleological Explanation

3.2.6 Immediate Certainties

3.2.7 Causa Sui

3.2.8 Reification

3.2.9 Nietzsche's Anti-Realism

3.3 God, Religion, and the Saint

3.3.1 The Question of God's Existence

3.3.2 Religious Neurosis and the Saint

3.3.3 Beyond Pessimism: the Übermensch the Eternal Return

3.4 Morality, Ressentiment, and the Will to Power

3.4.1 Ethical Naturalism

3.4.2 A Natural History of Morality

3.4.3 Ressentiment

3.4.4 Will to power

Appendix A: Overview of Beyond Good and Evil

Glossary

Bibliography and Suggested Reading

Notes

Gareth Southwell taught at Swansea College of Further Education between 1998 and 2005, where he also developed online learning materials and educational websites. In his spare time, he developed PhilosophyOnline, the popular resource for both teachers and students. A graduate in English and Philosophy from Swansea University, Southwell is an assistant examiner for AQA, and is about to complete a PhD in philosophy. He also works as a freelance illustrator and has regularly published caricatures in The Philosophers' Magazine.

"Anyone teaching Beyond Good and Evil will want to keep a copy of this close to hand. For those who are familiar with the texts it will help to reinvogorate their approach and for those teaching the text for the first time it will provide an excellent guide to the complexities of Nietzsche s ideas." George McWilliams, Head of Philosophy and Ethics, Ullswater Community College

"Gareth Southwell's Beginner's Guide is an outstanding introduction to Nietzsche's text: lively and approachable in tone, yet rigorous and insightful in its handling of the material. A comprehensive and well-informed treatment, this book judiciously blends detailed analysis and illuminating explanation with more wide-ranging discussion. It has some stand-out features that make it extremely helpful for the student, and represents an excellent guide not only to the text and its contexts, but more broadly to the terms and techniques of philosophical debate." Duncan Large, Swansea University and the Friedrich Nietzsche Society