logo
episode-header-image
Mar 2021
46m 57s

Nietzsche on Morality

TALKING POLITICS
About this episode

Friedrich Nietzsche’s masterpiece The Genealogy of Morality (1887) sets out to explain where ideas of good and evil come from and why they have left human beings worse off. He traces their origins in what he calls the slave revolt in morality. David examines the ways Nietzsche’s story unsettles almost everything about modern social conventions and leaves us with the troubling question: what can possibly come next?


Free version


Recommended version to buy


Going deeper:



Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Up next
May 2021
History of Ideas Q and A
A special episode in which David answers some of the audience's questions about the second series of History of Ideas. From how he chooses which writers and works to talk about, to whether Boris Johnson is the ultimate Benthamite and whether the idea of a pleasure machine isn't - ... Show More
39m 48s
Apr 2021
Shklar on Hypocrisy
Judith Shklar’s Ordinary Vices (1984) made the case that the worst of all the vices is cruelty. But that meant we needed to be more tolerant of some other common human failings, including snobbery, betrayal and hypocrisy. David explores what she had to say about some of the other ... Show More
46m 11s
Apr 2021
Nozick on Utopia
Robert Nozick’s Anarchy, State and Utopia (1974) was designed as a rebuttal to Rawls but it was so much more than that. It offered a defence of the minimal state that appealed to the writers of The Sopranos and a vision of utopia that appealed to the founders of Silicon Valley. D ... Show More
45m 58s
Recommended Episodes
Jan 2017
Nietzsche's Genealogy of Morality
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Nietzsche's On The Genealogy of Morality - A Polemic, which he published in 1887 towards the end of his working life and in which he considered the price humans have paid, and were still paying, to become civilised. In three essays, he argued that ... Show More
48m 3s
Jan 2017
Nietzsche's Genealogy of Morality
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Nietzsche's On The Genealogy of Morality - A Polemic, which he published in 1887 towards the end of his working life and in which he considered the price humans have paid, and were still paying, to become civilised. In three essays, he argued that ... Show More
48m 3s
Nov 2020
Genealogy of Morals | Friedrich Nietzsche
<p>This episode summarises Nietzsche’s On the Genealogy of Morals in 10 minutes. It is among Nietzsche’s most sustained and cohesive works consisting of three essays: “Good and Evil, Good and Bad”, “Guilt, Bad Conscience and the Like” and “What is the Meaning of Ascetic Ideals?”< ... Show More
9m 59s
Aug 2021
11: Master & Slave Morality
This week, we approach one of the most infamous ideas of Friedrich Nietzsche: the dual-prehistory of the morality we follow today. Throughout his career, Nietzsche had an inkling that the origins of our moral ideas did not follow a clean, neat pattern -- a single course of develo ... Show More
1h 24m
Feb 2025
Beyond Good And Evil - Friedrich Nietzsche converted
The Friedrich Nietzsche Classics Podcast presents a powerful collection of his works, exploring his revolutionary ideas on free will, ethics, and human potential. 
7h 48m
Feb 2025
Ecce Homo - Friedrich Nietzsche
The Friedrich Nietzsche Classics Podcast presents a powerful collection of his works, exploring his revolutionary ideas on free will, ethics, and human potential. 
5h 36m
Feb 2025
Thus Spake Zarathustra Part 1 - Friedrich Nietzsche
The Friedrich Nietzsche Classics Podcast presents a powerful collection of his works, exploring his revolutionary ideas on free will, ethics, and human potential. 
6h 6m