Beyond Good and Evil: Prelude to a Philosophy of the Future - Friedrich Nietzsche (Ian Johnston, trans.) Audiobook

Written by Friedrich Nietzsche (Ian Johnston, trans.)
Read by Alex Jennings and Roy McMillan
Format: M4B
Bitrate: 64 Kbps
Unabridged

Continuing where Thus Spoke Zarathustra left off, attacking the notion of morality as nothing more than institutionalized weakness, Nietzsche criticizes past philosophers for their unquestioning acceptance of moral precepts & lacking critical sense. Specifically, accusing them of founding grand metaphysical systems upon the faith that the good man is the opposite of the evil man, rather than just a different expression of the same basic impulses that find more direct expression in the evil man.

In their place, he offers the “will to power (der Wille zur Macht)” as an explanation of all behavior; merging into his “perspective of life”, which he regards as “beyond good and evil”, denying a universal morality for all human beings.

The work consists of 296 numbered sections & an “epode” (or “aftersong”) entitled “From High Mountains”.

The sections are organized into 9 parts:
Part One: On the Prejudices of Philosophers
Part Two: The Free Spirit
Part Three: The Religious Mood
Part Four: Apophthegms and Interludes
Part Five: The Natural History of Morals
Part Six: We Scholars
Part Seven: Our Virtues
Part Eight: Peoples and Countries
Part Nine: What is Noble?

8 hours and 25 minutes.

©2008 Naxos Audiobooks (P)2008 Naxos Audiobooks.

Note: Originally published in Germany as ‘Jenseits von Gut und Böse. Vorspiel einer Philosophie der Zukunft’ at the author’s own expense in 1886. The first English translation was completed by British writer Helen Zimmern and published in 1907.

“Die Stärke des Geistes eines Menschen würde sich dann daran bemessen, wie viel „Wahrheit“ er zu ertragen vermag – oder genauer gesagt: in welchem ​​Maße er sie verdünnt, verschleiert, versüßt, abgemildert oder verfälscht braucht.” (“The strength of a person’s spirit would then be measured by how much ‘truth’ he could tolerate, or more precisely, to what extent he needs to have it diluted, disguised, sweetened, muted, falsified.”) - Nietzsche, 1886.