Basic writings
By: Paul Rée ; translated from the German and edited by Robin Small
Contributors: Rée, Paul, 1849-1901.; Small, Robin, 1944-
Series: International Nietzsche studies
Publisher: University of Illinois Press
Published: 2003
Place of publication: Urbana
Language: eng
Number of pages: 178
Subjects: Philosophy
Work titles: Ursprung der moralischen Empfindungen.
Description: "This book contains the first English translations of The Origin of the Moral Sensations and Psychological Observations, the two most important works by the German philosopher Paul Ree (1849-1901). These essays present Ree's moral philosophy, which influenced the ideas of his close friend Friedrich Nietzsche considerably." "Nietzsche scholars have often incorrectly attributed to him arguments and ideas that are Ree's and have failed to detect responses to Ree's works in Nietzsche's writings. Ree's thinking combined two strands: a pessimistic conception of human nature, presented in the French moralists' aphoristic style that would become a mainstay of Nietzsche's own writings, and a theory of morality derived from Darwin's theory of natural selection. Ree's moral Darwinism was a central factor prompting Nietzsche to write On The Genealogy of Morals and laid the groundwork for much of today's "evolutionary ethics."" "In an illuminating critical introduction, the editor and translator Robin Small examines Ree's life and work, locating his application of evolutionary concepts to morality within a broader history of Darwinism while exploring Ree's philosophical and personal relationship with Nietzsche. In placing Nietzsche in his intellectual and social context, Small profoundly challenges the myth of Nietzsche as a solitary thinker."--BOOK JACKET.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. [169]-173) and index
Table of contents: title: On books and authors; title: On human actions and their motives; title: On women, love, and marriage; title: Mixed thoughts; title: On religious things; title: On happiness and unhappiness; title: Essay on vanity; title: The origin of the concepts "good" and"evil"; title: The origin of conscience; title: Responsibility and freedom of the will; title: The origin of punishment and the feeling of justice : on deterrence and retribution; title: The origin of vanity; title: Moral progress; title: The relation of goodness to happiness