What is Enshrined in Morality? Understanding the Grounds for Nietzsche’s Critique

Inquiry: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Philosophy 58 (3):281-307 (2015)
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Abstract

It is a truism that Nietzsche is a critic of morality. But what does Nietzsche have against this institution of morality? I consider the prominent interpretation of Brian Leiter’s that Nietzsche takes morality to task for its bad effects in hampering the flourishing of great individuals and cultures. There are good reasons, I argue, to resist this reading as the best, and certainly as the exclusive, account of the grounds for Nietzsche’s criticism of morality. I go on to propose an alternative construal that sees Nietzsche as objecting to the expressive character of moral values themselves . My project, in the first instance, is the exegetical one of understanding what is going on in Nietzsche’s texts when he criticizes morality. Nonetheless, there are important philosophical lessons to be learned here from Nietzsche’s work, if not necessarily about the actual failings of morality itself, the..

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Andrew Huddleston
University of Warwick

Citations of this work

Nietzsche’s Conceptual Ethics.Matthieu Queloz - 2023 - Inquiry: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Philosophy 66 (7):1335-1364.
Choosing Values? Williams Contra Nietzsche.Matthieu Queloz - 2021 - Philosophical Quarterly 71 (2):286-307.
Nietzsche on the health of the soul.Andrew Huddleston - 2017 - Inquiry: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Philosophy 60 (1-2):135-164.
Why "All Joy Wills Eternity" for Nietzsche.Richard Elliott - 2022 - In Michael McNeal & Paul Kirkland (eds.), Joy and Laughter in Nietzsche's Philosophy. London: Bloomsbury Academic. pp. 85 - 102.

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References found in this work

Ethics and the limits of philosophy.Bernard Williams - 1985 - Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.
The affirmation of life: Nietzsche on overcoming nihilism.Bernard Reginster - 2006 - Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.
Nietzsche, life as literature.Alexander Nehamas - 1985 - Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.
Facts and Values.Peter Railton - 1986 - Philosophical Topics 14 (2):5-31.

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