I've only made it about 13 pages into this book, but I really need to write some of this down to try and understand it.
So far, Nietzsche has stated that his goal is to analyze, in a historical sense, the etymology of "good" and "bad". Philosophers to date (contemporary 1887) he argues, have taken the meanings of "good" and "evil" for granted, assuming that things which are typically considered good (e.g., altruism) have always been considered good, or are intrinsically good.
In examining language describing things as "good", Nietzsche found that the root of these words across numerous languages (he is not specific as to which languages besides English and German) is actually "aristocrat". He argues that the aristocratic - those able to behave altruistically - had the power to define their actions as "useful", which became synonymous with that which is "good". Conversely, the root of "bad" lies within words describing the "plebeian", the "vulgar", and the "low".
Following this point, Nietzsche argues that the rise of the Judeo-Christian religion represents a moral "revolt", whereas the "vulgar", "low", and the "plebeian" reversed the meanings of "good" and "bad" by emphasizing the meek, the down-trodden, and the poor. He claims that this revolt, or revenge, is not apparent to those without a historical sense, because it has achieved victory.
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I had some confusion in trying to gauge where Nietzsche was going with his argument, given that I am reading his book 120 years later. As he was describing the origin of "good" among the powerful - given contemporary distrust towards the rich and the powerful - I was thinking that perhaps he was prodding at the illegitimacy of definitions of "good" and "bad" coming from the well-to-do. However, after his scathing description of the Judeo-Christian moral revolt, I am not so sure. I am also not sure if this is even an important point to dwell on - perhaps I should be staying away from adjectives and sticking to facts until I get a better handle on the context through Nietzsche is describing the genealogy of morals.
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