The Genealogy of Morals · Chapter
Chapter 4 explained
Nietzsche recounts his first encounter with Dr.
What happens
Nietzsche recounts his first encounter with Dr. Paul Rée's book 'The Origin of the Moral Emotions' (1877), which provoked his own hypotheses on the origin of morality. He contrasts his positive, genealogical approach with Rée's English moral philosophy, referencing his earlier works to outline his theories on the origin of good and evil from aristocratic and slave castes, ascetic morality, the morality of custom, justice as equilibrium, and punishment as non-essential deterrence.
Themes in this chapter
Historical Method and Genealogy
Nietzsche contrasts his positive, genealogical approach to morality with the English moral philosophers' ahistorical and dogmatic method, emphasizing substitution of improbable theories with more probable ones.
Master Morality vs. Slave Morality
Referenced via the parallel early history of Good and Evil from the castes of aristocrats and slaves, as earlier discussed in 'Human, All Too Human'.
The Ascetic Ideal and Its Meaning
Nietzsche mentions his earlier treatment of the birth and value of ascetic morality in 'Human, All Too Human'.
Characters to notice
- Dr. Paul Rée
Author of 'The Origin of the Moral Emotions' (1877), whose perverse and vicious moral philosophy first prompted Nietzsche to publish his own hypotheses on the origin of morality.
- Nietzsche
Reflects on his early clumsy expressions of his theories in 'Human, All Too Human' and 'The Dawn of Day', contrasting his positive genealogical method with Rée's English moral philosophy.
Key passages
“My first impulse to publish some of my hypotheses concerning the origin of morality I owe to a clear, well-written, and even precocious little book, in which a perverse and vicious kind of moral philosophy (your real English kind) was definitely presented to me for the first time”
Nietzsche credits Dr. Paul Rée's book as the catalyst for his own theories on the origin of morality, describing it as a clear but perverse example of English moral philosophy.
Nietzsche acknowledges the provocative role of Rée's work in stimulating his genealogical inquiries.
“I referred accordingly both in season and out of season in the previous works, at which I was then working, to the arguments of that book, not to refute them—for what have I got to do with mere refutations but substituting, as is natural to a positive mind, for an improbable theory one which is more probable”
Nietzsche explains that he engaged with Rée's arguments not to refute them but to replace improbable theories with more probable ones, reflecting his positive, constructive method.
Highlights Nietzsche's genealogical approach as substitution rather than negation.
“concerning the origin of Justice as a balance between persons of approximately equal power (equilibrium as the hypothesis of all contract, consequently of all law); similarly, concerning the origin of Punishment, Human, All Too Human , part II , Aphs. 22, 23, in regard to which the deterrent object is neither essential nor original (as Dr. Rée thinks:—rather is it that this object is only imported, under certain definite conditions, and always as something extra and additional).”
Nietzsche asserts that justice originates from a balance of power between equals, and that punishment's deterrent purpose is not original but a later addition, contrary to Rée's view.
Illustrates Nietzsche's critique of Rée's utilitarian assumptions about punishment.