This chapter gives a section-by-section commentary on the Preface to the Genealogy. It includes comment on Nietzsche's opening theme of the impossibility of self-knowledge among ‘we knowers’, arguing that the group in question here is philosophers or scholars. The use of various rhetorical devices is examined — selective autobiography to define his position as unique and consistent, irony, metaphor, heightened emotional tone, the alleged ‘unreadability’ of his writings. The chapter highlights conceptions of the self that Nietzsche alludes to, his statement of the origins and purposes of his book — investigating the origins of our morality and preparing to call them into question in the interests of furthering the flourishing of humanity — and provides some background orientation on the disagreements with Schopenhauer and Rée that Nietzsche especially mentions. Selflessness emerges as the definitive feature of the morality Nietzsche attacks.
Keywords: autobiography, morality, self-knowledge, Rée, rhetorical devices, Schopenhauer, self, selflessness