Book Two: A Criticism of the Highest Values That Have Prevailed Hitherto
I: Criticism of Morality§257 Formerly it was said of every form of morality, “Ye shall know them by their fruits”. I say of every form of morality: “It is a fruit and from it I learn the Soil out of which it grew”.
Again, the claim that morality is not ‘out there,’ but arises out of circumstances, and that communal expectations reflect a consensus about the behaviors that are necessary for the tribe to flourish. This explains why some moral demands are universal, and others are local. It is everywhere inimical to order if theft and murder are commonplace, for example, but only a small tribe whose very existence is precarious has any reason to be concerned with same-sex relations.