Basic Writings (Hardcover) (ISBN-13: 9780252028182)

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 R e. These essays present R e'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 R e's and have failed to detect responses to R e's works in Nietzsche's writings. R e'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. R e's moral Darwinism was a central factor prompting Nietzsche to write On the Genealogy of Morals and the groundwork for much of today's "evolutionary ethics."

In an illuminating critical introduction, Robin Small examines R e's life and work, locating his application of evolutionary concepts to morality within a broader history of Darwinism while exploring R e's theoretical 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.


Author: Paul Ree, Robin Small
ISBN-10: 025202818X
ISBN-13: 9780252028182
Publisher: University of Illinois Press
Language: English
Published: 06/09/2003
Pages: 240
Format: Hardcover
Weight: 1.08lbs
Size: 9.28h x 6.40w x 0.86d

Review Citation(s):
Choice 03/01/2004 pg. 1311