The Biology of Evil: Nietzsche on Degeneration (Entartung) and Jewification (Verjüdung)

This article examines Nietzsche's use of the rhetorics of degeneration (Entartung) and “jewification” (Verjüdung), arguing that he often, though not always, uses them in unconventional ways to undermine his audience's comfortable assumptions about their values and identity. In doing so, he challenges the idea of health as the isolation of alleged infectious elements and promotes the ideal of a “great health” predicated on the incorporation of such elements into a greater whole.