Bad conscience of their age#
Summary#
Nietzsche describes the true philosopher’s mission as being the “bad conscience of their age,” standing in necessary contradiction to the ideals of their time. These disagreeable fools and dangerous interrogators put the vivisector’s knife to the breast of contemporary virtues, exposing hypocrisy, indolence, and outlived moral values concealed beneath venerated types. Their task is to disclose falsehood in service of a new, untrodden path to human greatness.