After the Preface, Nietzsche's book is divided into nine major Parts. These Parts are, by and large, of similar length. Each of the major Parts, however, consists of numbered sections that vary dramatically in length, from a single sentence to several pages. (Here, we shall reference these sections with the symbol § rather than referring to a page number. This is merely a matter of convenience; and it involves an irony Nietzsche might have appreciated, since the §-sign is so often associated with scientific or systematic philosophy, such as Kant's.) Now, this way of writing should be familiar to anyone who has read Nietzsche before. Most of his other books, although they may not have “major Parts”, are certainly written as a series of variably short sections. This has a mixed effect upon us as readers. On the one hand, it makes Nietzsche eminently readable: he is brief, pithy, apparently without long arguments or developments to follow. On the other, though, this readability has a cost: it is more difficult to see, and thus all too easy to forget about, the relationships between sections. The reader struggles to understand how Nietzsche's writing comprises more than a series of observations. The only way to answer this is to go through the text patiently, looking for the links that turn a series of observations into a sustained philosophy.

§1

Part 1 is, in brief, a critique of a handful of basic metaphysical positions which Nietzsche sees as having a controlling influence in the history of philosophy, and which stand in the way of asking a new set of questions.