Nietzsche's Ethics and Critique of Morality

The book demonstrates that Nietzsche consistently advocated an ethical standpoint that, under certain conditions, recommends and prescribes the affirmation of life. For Nietzsche, the affirmation of life is closely connected to the “Dionysian.” Agatonovic reveals how Nietzsche cites the life and culture of ancient Greeks as an example of affirmation. Building upon the affirmation of life, the author shows how Nietzsche criticises morality and calls for a revaluation of ordinary value judgments. This text adopts an approach that highlights naturalism in interpreting Nietzsche’s philosophy.

Contrary to Brian Leiter’s interpretation of Nietzsche’s naturalism, the author argues that Nietzsche’s naturalism is broad, which, in considering different forms of life, involves the use of the everyday concept of causality as it is employed in historical explanations. Agatonovic affirms how the concept of causality in Nietzsche depends upon the context that constitutes the totality of life, which can encompass various kinds of conditions, including physical, and psychological, as well as social and cultural phenomena, norms, and values, as causes. The reader is forced to confront how in some contexts, a cause could be composed of different types of conditions and further, how morals and values can be causes since they represent conditions of. One of the fundamental theses of the book is that Nietzsche evaluates values and other norms by assessing the foundation of the whole of life upon which they supervene. The reader finds that Nietzsche evaluates favourably, above all, the life and culture of ancient Greeks in the pre-classical period, as well as individuals of the modern era such as Goethe and Beethoven. This book appeals to students and researches in the field of Nietzsche scholarship.