Description
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. 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 the groundwork for much of today's "evolutionary ethics."
In an illuminating critical introduction, 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 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.
This first English translations of two of the German philosopher Paul Ree's most important works.
Reviews
ADVANCE PRAISE "In addition to doing an excellent job of acquainting us with the life and work of an important and influential thinker, this book fills a hole in Nietzsche studies that most people did not know existed." -- Tracy B. Strong, author of Jean Jacques Rousseau and the Politics of the Ordinary and Friedrich Nietzsche and the Politics of Transfiguration.
Book Information
ISBN 9780252028182
Author Paul Ree
Format Hardback
Page Count 240
Imprint University of Illinois Press
Publisher University of Illinois Press
Dimensions(mm) 229mm * 152mm * 20mm
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 the groundwork for much of today's "evolutionary ethics."
In an illuminating critical introduction, 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 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.
This first English translations of two of the German philosopher Paul Ree's most important works.
Reviews
ADVANCE PRAISE "In addition to doing an excellent job of acquainting us with the life and work of an important and influential thinker, this book fills a hole in Nietzsche studies that most people did not know existed." -- Tracy B. Strong, author of Jean Jacques Rousseau and the Politics of the Ordinary and Friedrich Nietzsche and the Politics of Transfiguration.
Book Information
ISBN 9780252028182
Author Paul Ree
Format Hardback
Page Count 240
Imprint University of Illinois Press
Publisher University of Illinois Press
Dimensions(mm) 229mm * 152mm * 20mm
