Zeitlin's aim in this re-examination of Nietzsche's work is to consider how we should assess Nietzsche's philosophical claims today. He argues that although Nietzsche has given us a useful theory of the origin of moral values, his philosophy is beset by unresolved problems, ambiguities and defects. Zeitlin gives considerable attention to Nietzsche's theory of Ressentiment and the "inversion of values" by elaborating the theory and applying it to the two classical cases with which Nietzsche was most concerned - the Jews and the Greeks. He goes on to analyze: Socrates's encounter with the "proto-Nietzscheans" of his time; Karl Marx's rejoinder to Max Stirner, the boldest of Nietzsche's precursors in the modern era; Nietzsche's one-sided and erroneous interpretation of Darwin's theory; and the dangerous implications of Nietzsche's "beyond good and evil" aestheticism. Finally, Zeitlin confronts Nietzsche's protagonist, Zarathustra - the spokesman for the "master morality".
