Module overview
Reading the works of Friedrich Nietzsche is both exciting and troubling. He sets out to undermine the basis of many of our beliefs about values. Christianity, he believed, has had a powerfully negative effect on the potential of human beings. His method of ‘genealogy’ seeks to reveal the origins of our present-day values and make us question them. What are our values, and what should they be, if we no longer believe in God? Is morality good for us, or does it stifle great achievements? Why do we hold the values we do? What do our cherished beliefs in the values of compassion, equality, and safety from harm tell us about our own psychology? Are we under illusions about our own identity and freedom? This module will explore these issues through close readings of Nietzsche’s seminal works, On the Genealogy of Morals and Beyond Good and Evil.
Aims and Objectives
Learning Outcomes
Transferable and Generic Skills
Having successfully completed this module you will be able to:
- Undertake, with adequate supervision, independent work, including identifying and using appropriate resources.
- Take notes from talks and written materials.
- Work effectively to deadlines.
- Extract key information from complex texts.
Knowledge and Understanding
Having successfully completed this module, you will be able to demonstrate knowledge and understanding of:
- the concepts and arguments that he draws upon.
- how those concepts and arguments relate to issues in other areas of philosophy, for instance to issues in ethics, metaphysics and epistemology.
- the central problems that Nietzsche claims to have diagnosed.
Subject Specific Intellectual and Research Skills
Having successfully completed this module you will be able to:
- Interpret, synthesise and criticise complex texts and positions.
- Present and debate ideas in writing, in an open minded and rigorous way.
Syllabus
The syllabus may vary from year to year. Topics typically include:
- The death of God
- Naturalism and genealogy
- The slave revolt
- Ascetic ideals, ascetic procedures
- Truth and perspectivism: the self-overcoming of the ascetic ideal
- Nihilism, the Last Man and eternal recurrence
- The original noble and the sovereign individual
- A counter-art of the soul
Learning and Teaching
Teaching and learning methods
Teaching methods include
- Lectures.
- In-class discussion.
- Individual consultation with the module co-ordinator during office hours or by appointment.
Learning methods include:
- Attending lectures and taking notes.
- Participating in class discussion.
- Meeting with the module co-ordinator.
- Doing research for and writing textual commentaries.
- Independent study and revision for exams.
Type | Hours |
---|---|
Completion of assessment task | 40 |
Preparation for scheduled sessions | 30 |
Follow-up work | 20 |
Wider reading or practice | 25 |
Lecture | 33 |
Tutorial | 2 |
Total study time | 150 |
Resources & Reading list
Textbooks
Friedrich Nietzsche. Beyond Good and Evil.
Michael Tanner (1994). Nietzsche. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Brian Leiter (2002). Nietzsche on Morality. London: Routledge.
David Owen (2007). Nietzsche’s ‘Genealogy of Morality’. London: Acumen.
Friedrich Nietzsche. On the Genealogy of Morals.
Assessment
Assessment strategy
For MA students taking this module, expectations will be significantly higher than those for year 3 undergraduate students attending the same lectures, and the assessment criteria will accordingly by stricter. In particular students will be required to demonstrate extremely high levels of detailed and accurate exposition, critical engagement, organisation and presentation, with scholarship that draws on appropriate primary literature.
Formative
This is how we’ll give you feedback as you are learning. It is not a formal test or exam.
Business case or Essay planSummative
This is how we’ll formally assess what you have learned in this module.
Method | Percentage contribution |
---|---|
Essay | 100% |
Referral
This is how we’ll assess you if you don’t meet the criteria to pass this module.
Method | Percentage contribution |
---|---|
Resubmit assessments | 100% |
Repeat Information
Repeat type: Internal & External