Nietzsche And Genealogy Essay

As Newmark puts it, Nietzsche '[…] tirelessly pointed out that the question of values is first and foremost precisely that, a genuine question. Any given system of values […] has to be critically examined and interrogated before it can reasonably be accepted, maintained, or altered.'1 In this light, genealogy was the tool he developed in order to investigate the nature and origin of our values. By linking values to our instinctual life Nietzsche underlined their historical nature, thereby creating the possibility for asking the question concerning the value of our values and for envisioning alternatives to them. In this respect, genealogy also gives Nietzsche the necessary materials for arguing for or against a certain set of values by showing which instincts they express. Accordingly, genealogy does not carry any a priori, at least in the sense that to successfully provide a genealogy of a set of value does not imply that they are not beneficial to us.2 In this sense, let us take as an example Nietzsche’s remark in BGE 2, according to which
To use Nietzsche’s words, the failure of the metaphysicians consists in the fact that they do not take the problems of morality with the necessary seriousness. On the contrary, metaphysicians take the question of the value of morality with what Nietzsche calls cheerfulness – that is, with light-heartedness. In their view true issues lie elsewhere and this question is one not worthy to be asked. However, as he puts it, ‘[…] cheerfulness […] is a reward: the reward of a long, brave industrious and subterranean seriousness […] (GM P:7).’ In other words, we can take with light-heartedness the problem of the value of our values only once we have investigated their origin, and have thereby come to ask the question concerning their