Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche was a German philosopher who lived from October 16, 1844 to August 25, 1900. Nietzsche views traditional morality as both erroneous and destructive. He is critical of earlier philosophers for basing their philosophies on faith in religion, rather than on critical analysis. According to Nietzsche, a good man and an evil man are not opposites. Rather, they both express the same impulses. The evil man merely expresses them in a more direct manner.

Beyond Good and Evil (German: Jenseits von Gut und Bose), subtitled "Prelude to a Philosophy of the Future" (Vorspiel einer Philosophie der Zukunft), is a book by the German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche, first published in 1886. It takes up and expands on the ideas of his previous work, Thus Spoke Zarathustra, but approached from a more critical, polemical direction. In Beyond Good and Evil, Nietzsche attacks past philosophers for their alleged lack of critical sense and their blind acceptance of Christian premises in their consideration of morality. The work moves into the realm "beyond...

In this book, Nietzsche accuses past philosophers of lacking critical sense and blindly accepting dogmatic premises in their consideration of morality. Specifically, he accuses 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. The work moves into the realm "beyond good and evil" in the sense of leaving behind the traditional morality which Nietzsche subjects to a destructive critique in favour of what he regards as an...

Beyond Good and Evil
Friedrich Nietzsche (1844 - 1900)

First published in 1886 at Nietzsche's own expense, the book was not initially considered important. In it, Nietzsche denounced what he considered to be the moral vacuity of 19th century thinkers. He attacked philosophers for what he considered to be their lack of critical sense and their blind acceptance of Christian premises in their considerations of morality and values. Beyond Good and Evil is a comprehensive overview of Nietzsche's mature philosophy.