First published in 1886 at Nietzsche's own expense, the book was not initially considered important. In it, Nietzsche denounced what he considered to be the moral vacuity of 19th century thinkers. He attacked philosophers for what he considered to be their lack of critical sense and their blind acceptance of Christian premises in their considerations of morality and values. Beyond Good and Evil is a comprehensive overview of Nietzsche's mature philosophy, written partly with the motive of giving further explanation to ideas presented in his previous work, Also Sprach Zarathustra (or Thus Spoke Zarathustra)..

Beyond Good and Evil: Prelude to a Philosophy of the Future most closely resembles the aphoristic style of his middle period. Therein he identifies the qualities of genuine philosophers: imagination, self-assertion, danger, originality and the "creation of values" — all else he considers incidental. Continuing from this he contests some key pre-suppositions such as "self-consciousness" and "free-will" as used by some of the great members of the philosophic tradition. Instead of these traditional analyses, which Nietzsche paints as insufficient, he offers the will to power as an explanatory device, being part of his "perspective of life" which he regards as "beyond good and evil", denying a universal morality for all human beings. The master and slave moralities feature prominently as Nietzsche re-evaluates deeply-held humanistic beliefs, portraying even domination, appropriation and injury to the weak as not universally objectionable. A tone of moral relativism and perspectivism dominates throughout.

In Beyond Good and Evil, the one thing he keeps expressing to the reader is that this is entirely his opinion, and not a belief that everyone should hold. He encourages the reader to find faults in his work, and, most of all, to think for his or herself. He frequently uses metaphors to put across his point. He is possibly one of the easiest philosophers to read, but is most definitely one of the hardest to interpret.

One of the most important things to remember when reading Nietzsche is that, while he often criticizes every philosopher at one point or another, he has respect for those who shaped modern philosophy. He says 'Let us not be ungrateful towards them ['them' being the philosophers that have come before], even though we must certainly admit that of all errors thus far, the most grievous, protracted and dangerous has been a dogmatist's error: Plato's invention of Pure Spirit and Transcendental Goodness'.