Overview
In Part VII of Beyond Good & Evil, we get to learn about why “spirit” resembles a “stomach” and try to make sense of Nietzsche’s misogynistic remarks at the end of the chapter.
In this chapter Nietzsche continues his dissection of morality by turning to one of the major topics in the history of moral philosophy — virtue. The first handful of sections begin with an exploration of the relationship between virtue and “order of rank”. This all comes to a head in sections 230 which concerns the “fundamental will of the spirit”, before coming to a clunky conclusion in sections 232-239 which contain Nietzsche notorious remarks about “woman”.
We have been engaged in an extended exploration of the “free spirits” and “philosophers of the future” throughout BGE, and the title of this section tells us that Nietzsche wants to determine what sorts of virtues such individuals will posses.
What are virtues?
Aristotle is the most influential classical source for the ethics of virtue. Aristotle ar…
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