Reddit reviews Nietzsche on Morality

Concerning Nietzsche versus Peterson: Nietzsche is an anti-realist about value [see Brian Leiter, Nietzsche on Morality, 2nd Ed, section on metaethics, anti-realism about value, pages 119-121], whereas Peterson is a value realist who believes that “transcendent values genuinely exist; that they are in fact the most tangible realities of being.” This is a direct quote from Peterson's Patreon. In contrast, Leiter writes that "Nietzsche’s central argument for anti-realism about value is explanatory: moral facts don’t figure in the “best explanation” of experience, and so are not real constituents of the objective world. Moral values, in short, can be “explained away” [p 120, ibid].

I had a long response typed out, but then my browser crashed and erase everything. I'll post the links I was going to attach anyway. Thanks for being so helpful.

https://sexnotgender.files.wordpress.com/2014/02/fine_cordelia_delusions-of-gender.pdf

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https://rosswolfe.files.wordpress.com/2017/05/barbara-j-fields-and-karen-fields-racecraft-the-soul-of-inequality-in-american-life.pdf

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http://apcz.pl/czasopisma/index.php/THS/article/download/ths.2015.002/8179

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https://www.researchgate.net/publication/5420507_Deconstructing_the_Feminine_Essence_Narrative

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https://www.researchgate.net/publication/7735086_Early_History_of_the_Concept_of_Autogynephilia

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http://www.annelawrence.com/autogynephilia,_a_paraphilic_model_of_GID.pdf

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http://www.alevelphilosophy.co.uk/handouts_religion/ReligionFormLife.pdf

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https://www.amazon.com/Worm-Core-Role-Death-Life-ebook/dp/B00VW7BJ9Q/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1497921511&sr=1-1&keywords=worm+at+the+core

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https://www.amazon.com/Nietzsche-Morality-Brian-Leiter/dp/0415856809/ref=pd_sbs_14_1?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=0415856809&pd_rd_r=W4KKPV25WWB20P0GM410&pd_rd_w=TSyC8&pd_rd_wg=iNVkH&psc=1&refRID=W4KKPV25WWB20P0GM410

I personally wouldn’t recommend Kaufman’s book on Nietzsche. I find his reading of Nietzsche too sanitized.

As for what you should read—well, that really depends on what you’re interested in with respects to Nietzsche. I find him most compelling as an ethicist, and I think that Brian Leiter’s book is an excellent entry into the secondary literature on that topic. Nietzsche’s critique of the thing-in-itself/noumenal reality and how that relates to ideas of truth is another popular topic; Maudemarie Clark’s book is an excellent starting point there.

Nietzsche is a highly unsystematic thinker, and this can often make him difficult in the beginning. (Although he’s always a joy to read. His rhetorical abilities are delightful!) I would certainly recommend using some secondary literature to get grounded, but do give his writings more of a chance—particularly his later writings: Beyond Good and Evil, The Genealogy of Morality, Twilight of the Idols.

My suggestion is to abandon podcasts and videos. I have not watched or listened to very many, but the ones I have bothered to listen to or watch (on various philosophers and topics) have generally left me unsatisfied. The material is usually superficial at best, and may only add to one's confusion by giving bad interpretations. Maybe other people have found good material and can offer suggestions.

Nietzsche's style of presentation makes things difficult for first-time readers. One of his frequent rhetorical methods is to present the reader with conclusions first (often rather startling ones), sometimes barely showing the lines of reasoning, often times withholding any context or background whatsoever. This is an unconventional method of presentation in philosophy, to say the least. The only way to remedy this is to have a strong philosophical background so you can just follow along and more or less "get it." To accomplish this, you need to study Kant, Schopenhauer, and especially Friedrich Lange.

There are a couple of good reading guides out there, and a ton of secondary literature as well. The one that comes to mind is by Pearson and Acampora, and although I never finished it, I did think it was a good guide for BGE. Another guide is Brian Leiter's Nietzsche On Morality, which is a guide for reading the Genealogy, but the introduction gives a good summary of the philosophical themes and background for Nietzsche's major concerns in both BGE and GM.