Beyond Good and Evil
Friedrich Nietzsche presents 296 numbered aphorisms and short essays grouped into nine parts, each circling questions of truth, morality, religion, and what he calls the prejudices of philosophers. He argues that traditional moral categories of good and evil are products of historical forces, especially Christianity and the slave revolt in morals, rather than timeless truths. The book sets out his concept of the will to power, his suspicion of universal claims, and his vision of a philosopher who creates values rather than discovering them. Nietzsche works by provocation, moving from praise of strength and rank to caustic remarks on women, scholars, nationalism, and democracy, daring the reader to follow his arguments past their comfort. The book closes with a poem and a sense that what has been demolished must eventually be rebuilt by minds willing to think past inherited categories.
What you might want to know about Beyond Good and Evil
The questions readers send us most often, answered without spoilers.
Nietzsche's prelude to a philosophy of the future, attacking inherited moral categories and the prejudices of past philosophers.
Peterson has delivered a multi-part lecture series on Nietzsche and calls Beyond Good and Evil essential reading, arguing that Nietzsche correctly diagnosed the consequences of the death of God a century before the West felt them and forces every serious reader to confront the foundations of their own values.
The Walter Kaufmann translation for Vintage and the Judith Norman translation for Cambridge are the two most widely used; both keep Nietzsche's tone and are footnoted for general readers.
Beyond Good and Evil was written by Friedrich Nietzsche, published in 1886 by Penguin Classics.
Beyond Good and Evil is 240 pages in standard print editions, though page counts vary slightly between hardcover, paperback, and large-print formats.
At an average reading pace of about 250 words per minute, Beyond Good and Evil takes most readers 4 to 5 hours to finish.
Beyond Good and Evil is available in hardcover, paperback, ebook, and audiobook formats from Amazon, Bookshop.org, ThriftBooks, and most major bookstores.
