| This dissertation presents a new understanding of Friedrich Nietzsche's relationship to modernity through a study of his On the Genealogy of Morals. Today the influence of the Genealogy is so widespread that "genealogy" has become a catchphrase for a particular approach to philosophy. This study concludes, however, that this very method---often viewed as Nietzsche's main philosophical legacy---is derived from a misreading of the Genealogy, one that Nietzsche himself encouraged. This investigation is organized into four progressively broader frames of reference that collectively develop the Genealogy's overall rhetorical shape: (1) A reinterpretation of Nietzsche's argument concerning the descent of morality, based on an analysis of the interrelationship of the Genealogy's three essays. From this perspective the role of the ascetic priest emerges as the Genealogy's organizing principle. But morality's function differs for the priest and for the people. The priest's good is not that of "good versus evil" but rather the ascetic ideal, the subject of the final essay. By contrast, from the common moral standpoint the ascetic ideal is only a consequence of morality. (2) Nietzsche's inquiry into the relationship between science and the priestly ethos, an issue with which the Genealogy opens and closes and which remains a leitmotiv throughout. Nietzsche intimates that the scholar is the modern form of the priest and therefore, like the priest, holds idealism higher than morality. (3) Nietzsche's relationship to the contemporary colleagues towards whom he directed the Genealogy's voice. Nietzsche exhorts his colleagues to overcome idealism by overcoming morality. But such a move only overcomes the form of idealism that follows morality; the deeper version endures. (4) The Genealogy's effect on modernity's continuing development. Today, those influenced by Nietzsche associate anti-idealism with human liberation. Correspondingly, they view "genealogy" as a method for undermining illusions of transcendence, thereby promoting justice. But such an interpretation unknowingly presupposes a moral perspective as well as a deep but unstable version of idealism. Therefore, through the Genealogy Nietzsche promoted a radical form of the scholar-priest who, lacking self-knowledge, would subvert modernity from within, even while Nietzsche's own views remain untimely. |
