Basic writings
"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."--Jacket
liii, 178 pages ; 24 cm.
9780252028182, 025202818X
50549011
On books and authors
On human actions and their motives
On women, love, and marriage
Mixed thoughts
On religious things
On happiness and unhappiness
Essay on vanity
The origin of the concepts "good" and"evil"
The origin of conscience
Responsibility and freedom of the will
The origin of punishment and the feeling of justice : on deterrence and retribution
The origin of vanity
Moral progress
The relation of goodness to happiness