Be strong, not weak.

On as many levels as possible, this towering philosopher for the ages, tormented soul and liberated intellectual, has set the bar bar for courage and value, leaving most United States Marines in the dust.

He established the spiritual, intellectual and physical norm for "weakness leaving the body."

If you look at his intensity as a war for the individual against false authority (master) and against false submissiveness (slave) you can then understand how his battle is to establish true value in life, as opposed to false submissiveness or brute authoritarianism. Enjoy.

16 people found this helpful

An Essential Precursor to Evolutionary Psychology

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

I would recommend this work to my more free-thinking friends and to those who want to challenge themselves intellectually. Nietzsche's words are bolts of lightning which wake us from our sleep.

Who was your favorite character and why?

My favorite character was "the ascetic man" because I had never seen through his disguise so clearly until I listened to this work. I also realized how much I have been seduced by his perspective throughout my life.

Which scene was your favorite?

Since this was a non-fiction work, I will put forth my favorite section rather than scene...I was most interested in the section on the nature of punishment. This section demonstrated how punishment originally arose as a way for the powerful to demonstrate this power.It also deals with the transformation of this phenomenon after the "slave revolt in morals." The "sick" man becomes "master" of himself and punishes himself by submitting to religion and filtering both his resentments and hopes through this narcotic denial of life.

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

Nietzsche provides much food for thought, but I was very much moved by his description of master/slave moralities and the creditor/debtor carryover into morality. Though I would tweak his critiques based on modern evolutionary psychology, he provides much provocative insight and gets behind the scenes of our moral realities.

Any additional comments?

Not for the faint-of-heart or easily offended...

12 people found this helpful

A bit dense for listening

While the ideas presented are profound and interesting, Nietzsche as a listen is difficult to understand. This work to better suited as a read where it can be studied to glean the deeper message being delivered. That all said, the narration was superb and this served as a good gateway into Nietzsche's philosophy in a more accessible form.

5 people found this helpful

Good narration.

There are many narrations of Nietzsche, some of which are terrible. This guy definitely is much, much better.

5 people found this helpful

Just right at 1.5x

Interesting perspectives. Nietzsche was quite the master of rhetoric. This is a collection of 3 essays, the second in a trilogy.

He commences with an essay contrasting 'good' and 'evil' relative to 'good'. In the second, his focus is on how The concept of 'guilt' weaseled its way into usage by way of herd morality through the conduit of religion. Finally, he differentiates 'ascetic' across three actors.

4 people found this helpful

Great book, well read

It's a great book and the reader makes it easy to follow, emphasising appropriate words and phrases.

4 people found this helpful

Ahead of his time!

Guaranteed a true athiest even if he wouldn't have Thot so of himself in that era... If he were alive today he would be leading with the new atheists in searching for a peaceful world without faith! For sure ;)
His words ring true in my ears

4 people found this helpful

Well, it's not a geniology.

I had to read this for college. The audiobook got too confusing so I just buckled down and read the real thing.

TLDR: It is awfull, and I would not recommend to anyone looking for truth or just sound reasoning.
Nietzsche makes everything way longer than it has to be, and hide every stupid point behind a rhetorical flourish. He claims he is trying to be unbiased, but the whole thing is biased against any religion at all. This not only completely clouds his logic, but his whole twisted perception of history as well. I guess it's a good example at how bias affects philosophy, and you could write a good paper on that. At least the reader was decent. Not my thing.

3 people found this helpful

A window into the past

Event though Nietzche offers a look into a more controversial thinking, his thoughts are antiquated and his argument often onesided.

2 people found this helpful

Nietzsche speaks from the bottom of his brain

Would you say that listening to this book was time well-spent? Why or why not?

Nietzsche speaks from the bottom of his heart brain.
This is so plain, simple and honest. Here is the breakdown:
There is not one absolute morality. There are two types of moralities. Master morality and slave morality. And, these are not linked to your essence, but to your existence. Meaning, you are not born with it. You can grow in or out of it depending on your life experiences.

Master morality believes that
- Exterminating Indians is useful, therefore it's good
- Slavery is useful, therefore it's good
- Colonization is useful, therefore it's good
- Exterminating Jews will cure the German nation, therefore it's good
- Invading the whole Europe will enrich the German empire, therefore it's good
- Dropping an uranium Bomb on Hiroshima, killing thousands of innocent civilians will end the war, therefore it's good
- Dropping a second bomb (a plutonium one this time) on Nagasaki, killing more thousands babies will help compare plutonium versus Uranium (fission versus fusion), therefore it's good
- Placing puppets dictators (bloodthirsty tyrants) in poor nations, to prevent them from becoming communists is useful, therefore it is good.
Masters do all these things because they genuinely believe it is the right thing to do.


Slave morality on the other hand believes that it is evil to be strong, rich and powerful. They believe that turning the other cheek is the ultimate sign of greatness. Little do they know that this belief has been forced onto them by their state of weakness. Little do they know that the only condition for their emancipation is a pure and simple change of morality.
Many individuals and nations have crossed that morality ligne, and it's working pretty good them. Look at China. From a lamb to an eagle. It all starts with how you think of yourself.

Malick Tchakpedeou.

2 people found this helpful