On the Subject of Nietzsche’s Genealogical Analysis
Published online by Cambridge University Press: aN Invalid Date NaN
This chapter demonstrates that Nietzsche’s genealogical analysis aims to bring into view that which insists on opacity – our moral prejudices – through the task of description. I pick up this descriptive work myself by outlining “the recurring forms” of evaluative frameworks (BGE 186). As this descriptive work unearths and brings to the surface what was buried – “the so well hidden land of morality” (GM P 7) – it also allows us to finally detail the shape of our moral prejudices. What we finally see is an interlocking system of value-commitments and value-feelings that shape our expectations of how the world works. I conclude by drawing out the implications for Nietzsche’s genealogical investigations. First, we notice that the main target of Nietzsche’s genealogical analysis are moral prejudices – complex systems of evaluation – rather than particular evaluative concepts or discrete moral judgments. Second, it shows that descriptive work is essential to bring into view that our experiences and expectations of how the world works are ordered and structured by systems of evaluation. Only then can we properly take up those secondary questions of their descent.
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