Nietzsche’s ‘Genealogy of Morals’ and His Unfinished Philosophy : New Insights from the Late Notebooks

Through detailed analysis of Nietzsche’s correspondence and late notebooks, Thomas Brobjer uncovers the intricate relationship between Nietzsche’s Genealogy of Morals and his unfinished Revaluation of All Values.

Demonstrating the close links in content between the two works, Brobjer explores how it is in the Genealogy that Nietzsche charts the two-value dichotomy between noble (active) and Christian (passive) values: a dichotomy that was also to constitute the basis of his project of revaluating values. Moreover, unearthing for the first time Nietzsche’s plans for a second volume of the Genealogy and translating many of the notes and plans for this text into English, he reveals how the idea for this second volume eventually merged into the third volume of the Hauptwerk. In doing so, this book bridges the gap between Nietzsche’s published works and his Nachlass in a way that few English-language studies have done.

By engaging directly with Nietzsche''s late notebooks and other elements of his Nachlass, this book makes a significant contribution to the debate around these sources. Arguing against their dismissal, Brobjer classes them as active working materials crucial for understanding the development and intended trajectory of Nietzsche''s unfinished philosophy. In these sources he also finds new information about how Nietzsche worked – his reading habits, note-taking, compositional process, and routine of walking and thinking – further enriching our understanding of the philosopher’s thought beyond his finished texts.

History of philosophy at its best, this is the third volume in Brobjer’s trilogy examining the connections between Nietzsche’s published works and the Revaluation of All Values. It is an essential read for all Nietzsche scholars, providing crucial insights into not only the Genealogy ­and Hauptwerk, but also Nietzsche’s ethics, working methods, and Nachlass.