Among the most influential philosophers of modern times, Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900) declared in this classic study that Greek tragedy achieved greatness through a fusion of elements of Apollonian restraint and control with Dionysian components of passion and the irrational. In Nietzsche's eyes, however, Greek tragedy had been destroyed by the rationalism and optimism of thinkers like Socrates. Nevertheless, he found in these ancient works the life-affirming concept that existence is still beautiful, however grim and depressing it may sometimes be. These and many other ideas are argued with passionate conviction in this challenging book, called by British classicist F. M. Cornford "a work of profound imaginative insight, which left the scholarship of a generation toiling in the rear."

Major work on ethics, by one of the most influential thinkers of the last two centuries, deals with master/slave morality and modern man's current moral practices; the evolution of man's feelings of guilt and bad conscience; and how ascetic ideals help maintain human life under certain conditions. This challenging, rewarding work is required reading in philosophy courses worldwide.

Este es el má s certero de los ataques de Friedrich Nietzsche contra la moral judeocristiana. En este libro el filó sofo desdeñ a la compasió n, la debilidad y las creencias que dieron nacimiento a la sociedad occidental luego de la muerte de Cristo en la cruz, al tiempo que plantea la necesidad de recuperar los ?valores de la aristocracia?, es decir, el poder, la fuerza, el gusto por la bú squeda de la verdad má s allá de las supersticiones. El anticristo es la gé nesis de una religió n, el cristianismo, pero tambié n del mundo occidental tal cual lo conocemos. En é l, Nietzsche desentrañ a los sentimientos que llevaron a los primeros cristianos a tergiversar el mensaje de Jesú s, para convertirlo en una ?contradicció n de la vida?.

In Beyond Good and Evil, Nietzsche accuses past philosophers of lacking critical sense and blindly accepting dogmatic premises in their consideration of morality. The work moves into the realm "beyond good and evil" in the sense of leaving behind the traditional morality which Nietzsche subjects to a destructive critique in favour of what he regards as an affirmative approach that fearlessly confronts the perspectival nature of knowledge and the perilous condition of the modern individual.

Nietzsche's 'Beyond Good and Evil' is a tour de force of moral and ethical philosophy. First published in 1886, the book comprises almost three hundred 'statements' - from pithy one-liners, to long convoluted arguments of a page or more. Nietzsche boldly claims that all philosophy is on the wrong track: we need to change, to become 'new philosophers' who will overcome accepted morality, which the author sees as 'slave-morality', glorifying failure. Long before the rise of the European Union, Nietzsche calls for a United Europe. 'Beyond Good and Evil' is replete - one might even say overstocked - with prescient ideas that can provoke, shock, and astonish; but which will always demand that you look at the world from new, intriguing perspectives.

Nietzsche claimed that the "Twilight of the Idols" was a general introduction to his philosophy. Against the current of his times, he attacked Greek civilization as the ultimate source of decadence. Socrates and Plato are vilified, and the concept of a 'real' world beyond that which we see is scorned as a moral 'optical illusion'. "The Anti-Christ" offers a similarly pungent critique of Christianity, pointing out that the Gospels reveal two contradictory views of Jesus, one a 'bringer of joy' the other a preacher of Last Judgment, Sin, and Guilt.