The fundamental question underlying the Genealogy is: Can there be meaning and value in natural life following the death of God? The eclipse of the supernatural in modern thought is a presumed turn to nature, but Nietzsche insists that this turn is in fact a looping reliance on the theological tradition, and that the eclipse of God forces a more radical naturalistic challenge: If the Western tradition in one way or another is beholden to a nature-transcending or life-averse condition, then the loss of this condition’s divine warrant undermines traditional sources of meaning and value, to the point where the West faces the choice between nihilism and a new, affirmative philosophy of nature.

The Genealogy is a historical study that fills out the details of the above scenario by trying to show how and why the tradition has been life-averse and cannot be sustained in the wake of modern developments. The genealogical history unfolding in the book is meant to simultaneously clarify and critique the counter-natural drives in European culture, no less in its supposed departures from supernatural beliefs. Nietzsche wants this historical narrative to shock us out of complacency, which hides troubling questions that a genealogical treatment may reveal and that Nietzsche is more than willing to launch: Can our intellectual and moral convictions actually stem from life-negating or live-averse conditions?