The Genealogy of Morals
The Genealogy of Morals (1887, also On the Genealogy of Morality) by Friedrich Nietzsche traces the historical and psychological origins of our moral concepts to show that they are contingent, not eternal.
Core Idea
Across three essays, Nietzsche asks where ideas like “good,” “evil,” guilt, and conscience actually came from — arguing, for example, that “slave morality” inverted an older aristocratic valuation. The point is not that morality is worthless but that examining its genealogy exposes hidden motives and loosens unexamined moral certainty.
Why It Matters for Critical Thinking
A masterclass in suspicion toward inherited beliefs: by historicizing values we hold as self-evident, it reduces ideological rigidity and models how to question the source of a conviction, not just its content.