Beyond Good and Evil

Great Book, great Audio Narration

I won't drone on about the wealth of knowledge in this book. I will say i've listened to it twice since i got it two weeks ago, and i will keep listening to it. I find it very practical.
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The narration and production of this book is exceptional. Like any book, it's difficult to read to others, and communicate the nuance. Jennings & McMillan bring this production through with excellence. Even Jennings tone, a slight snear, really plays well, because Nietzsche himself writes with a slight snear.
Contrast this production with one i downloaded from "Librovox". Librovox allows non-professionals to record a book, and upload it. I downloaed Nietzsche's "The Gay Science", and i couldn't get through the first chapters. The narrator couldn't communicate the spirit and intent of the book. This production achieves that.

41 of 43 people found this review helpful

important classic with Ian Johnston's notes

"Beyond Good and Evil" is a well-known classic, so I will not review the work itself.

The narration by Alex Jennings was excellent. He kept my attention throughout with his lively speech.

And, Ian Johnston was more than a translator. He also wrote commentary which is included in this audio. The commentary is excellent: accurate and helpful for understanding Nietzsche's background and ideas.

John Christmas, author of "Democracy Society"

12 of 12 people found this review helpful

Awsome

Great read, great narrator, interesting, thought provoking, and surprisingly funny at times. If you have never read any Nietzsche this is a good one to start with.

11 of 12 people found this review helpful

Troubled Genius

Nietzsche's analysis and critique of false authority, master-slave relationships, herd morality, rationalistic/scientific barriers to living fearlessly are amazing critiques for the time he wrote, and flew in the face of the rationalistic zeitgeist of Kant, Hegel and science.

His critique is very psychological, in that he does not himself present a rationalistic argument for or against his views (although he reveals brilliant thinking), but rather a series of observations/aphorisms which we automatically string together as his "philosophy" (and then wonder what he said). He makes scathing observations of the Jews being the cause of the despised master-slave relationships, and compounded by Christians. For sure, he despises weakness.

Because of his own questioning of human motivation leading to the destructive master-slave devaluation of human, I find myself analyzing his own motivation for his concerns. While his interpretation of women parallels hatred of weakness everywhere, his misogyny, mistrust and devaluation seems embedded in every pore of his being, and explains most of his philosophy as a rant against how his mother (including father) treated him. He describes women as like a cat, they do their own thing, they have claws waiting to strike and are fundamentally manipulative and shallow.

If my impression of Nietzsche's devaluation of human relationships (esp. with women) is accurate (his self/other esteem is relationally absent), then he is blind and in contempt (indignant) of any relational resolution to his existential predicament. His primary target therefore is anyone who presents a threat to him, his thinking, his power/right to live fully.

More interestingly, this theory helps explain the either/or, master/slave position which he takes as the truth of the human condition. Since psyche (which is conditioned by society he states)/people/society/ bad philosophers/scientists/politics/countries are not to be trusted, the first goal is to avoid being a slave of your own weak conscience or that of anyone else's, have the courage to be master of your own soul, and do not be afraid of your passions/instincts/impulses, but let them give you instinctive taste/guidance, power, freedom of will, nobility--not made weak by conscience.

His use of the term "Truth" is almost always stated in some disdainful way against others, especially philosopher metaphysicians who go around telling others what "Truth" is. His effort is to invert this terrible misconception, and restore the meaning of truth as ones own Will to Truth (which becomes Will to Power), the power to be who you are based on your own value. The ultimate truth in life is thus to embrace the value of your own power. He often speaks positively of artists who engage in their expressive, empowered freedom in life (i.e., Wagner).


He states that "all organic functions [including sexuality] could be traced back to this Will to Power" (36)--this is his claim about reality/truth. There are thus two reading of Nietzsche--the amoral, harsh, cynical, heartlessness, and the one that some of us would like to believe: that his thoughts just haven't been developed clearly and that he is more artistic in his nature (and that Santa Claus and Heaven are not in jeopardy). It is not hard to see why his ideas became usable for Hitler's regime. We can thank subsequent philosophers who salvaged his genius out of his darkness.

20 of 23 people found this review helpful

Great Read, Inconsistent Material

The narration was by far the best part! To be sure, Nietzsche is dynamic and insightful writer, it's just overall imbalance in chapter quality. Like he'd have a deep understanding of social pressures and corrupted morality followed with how "inadequate" women are. Or how logical positivism cancels itself followed by a vague chapter on the German spirit. The aphorisms section was by far the most tedious.

2 of 2 people found this review helpful

Reader made the whole book sound pedantic

This is essential reading, and some moments are absolutely profound. A lot of it is rambling or self-important. But the good parts are worth the read. I only wish the reader had been someone else! This guy distorted the tone of the book.

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

To change your eyes

Some books hot you and hit you hard. This book is not intended for the faint of heart.

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

A Compendium of Eloquent Fanciful Notions

And I would say amazingly eloquent for his time (1885 here). Compare him to my paternal grandfather, born in 1889, and who, in Hungary, was a 'knife-boy' (read 'illiterate'), and which I would regard as 'normal' for the time, and you can see how Nietzsche could be held as an elite example of a human mind (if only later). Nevertheless, his thoughts are not at the highest level of thinking (compaired to the upcoming Philosophy of Universal Survival, for the Space Age, no less).

Intriguing for me was the historical aspect - imagining the contexts (both time and place) of the thinking.

The narretion was listenable - narrated in the nasal aristocratic British accent that all Americans love.

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

hold the commentary.

the flow of the book is constantly interrupted by editorializing. please, Mr. Jennings and mcillan Do Not think you are a better writer than Nietzsche, or smarter than the listener.

mental.

Reading as part of a larger project on psychology,. I was far more impressed with Jung. although he nailed it on Germany and the Jews.