Nietzsche on the Methods and Aims of Philosophy
The Seal of Liberation

A groundbreaking examination of Nietzsche's genealogical methods and their liberatory potential to free us from shame.

Allison Merrick (Author)

9781009370974, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 14 August 2025

198 pages
23.5 x 16 x 1.7 cm, 0.44 kg

We are, says Nietzsche, often unknown to ourselves. Most recent studies of Nietzsche's works focus on our reactions to conditions of self-estrangement, particularly nihilistic despair or decadence. Allison Merrick takes a different approach, focusing on what she argues is Nietzsche's greatest contribution to philosophical thought: the method of genealogy. While genealogical analysis is often understood as having vindicatory, subversive, or problematizing aims, Merrick emphasizes its emancipatory potential. Nietzsche's analysis reveals how our motivations and our feelings, our reflective thoughts and our judgments, are shaped by evaluative 'templates' of which we are often unaware and how these templates can be revealed, articulated, and contested. By uncovering and challenging these hidden frameworks, Nietzsche's genealogical approach aims to render us less obscure to ourselves, to liberate us from value systems that no longer serve our interests, and to demonstrate how we might become less prone to guilt and shame.

Introduction: why genealogy?
1. The descent of our moral prejudices: on the subject of Nietzsche's genealogical analysis
2. The order of rank: on the role of history in Nietzsche's genealogical analysis
3. The most difficult backward inference: on the role of psychology in Nietzsche's genealogical analysis
4. The moral defense: cruelty turned inward
5. The psychological type of the redeemer
6. The seal of liberation
7. But how can we find ourselves again?
Acknowledgments
Reference List
Index.

Subject Areas: Western philosophy: c 1600 to c 1900 [HPCD]