Most of us inherit our values without thinking much about them.
We learn what is good and bad, right and wrong, admirable and shameful from our families, cultures and institutions. These values often feel timeless—as though they couldn’t have been any other way.
In the previous article, we explored Nietzsche’s idea of genealogy: a method for uncovering how our values came to exist, what keeps them alive, and what they do.
But genealogy was never Nietzsche’s final goal.
Once we’ve uncovered the history of a value, a new question emerges:
Should we keep it?
Nietzsche called the process of answering that question the revaluation of values.
In this article, we’ll use the six basic DSRP moves to build a clearer picture of what it means to revalue our values - and why Nietzsche believed this was one of philosophy’s most important tasks.
Defining Revaluation
Before we can understand revaluation, it helps to clarify what it is—and what it isn’t.
Many people assume revaluing values means rejecting traditional morality or replacing old values with new ones. Nietzsche’s idea is more subtle than that.
| Revaluation IS | Revaluation IS NOT |
|---|---|
| Re-examining inherited values. | Automatically rejecting traditional values. |
| Asking whether a value deserves to be kept. | Accepting values simply because they are familiar. |
| Evaluating values in light of their history and effects. | Judging values only by their origins. |
| Being willing to affirm, revise or abandon a value. | Replacing every old value with a new one. |
| A creative process of shaping how we ought to live. | A purely destructive critique of morality. |
| Taking responsibility for one’s own values. | Blindly adopting someone else’s values. |
| An ongoing practice of reflection and experimentation. | A one-time decision or final answer. |
These distinctions reveal that revaluation is not about destroying values. It is about becoming conscious of them.
Genealogy uncovers how a value came to exist. Revaluation asks what we should do with that knowledge. Sometimes we may decide a value deserves to be preserved. Sometimes we may revise it. And sometimes we may conclude that it no longer serves the life we want to create.
The Parts of Revaluation
Now let’s look inside the concept of revaluation.
Rather than treating it as a single act, we’ll organise it into parts. This isn’t meant to be Nietzsche’s model of revaluation. It’s our model—a way of making the concept easier to understand and work with.
| Part | Role in Revaluation |
|---|---|
| Existing values | The beliefs or principles being examined. |
| Evaluation criteria | The standards used to judge a value. |
| Reflection | Carefully considering whether a value deserves to be kept. |
| Choice | Deciding to affirm, revise or reject the value. |
| New or renewed values | The values that guide future action. |
| Action | Living according to the values we have chosen. |
| Continuous revaluation | Remaining open to re-examining values as circumstances change. |
Breaking revaluation into parts helps us see that it is more than changing our minds. It is an ongoing process of examining inherited values, making thoughtful choices about them, and putting those choices into practice.
How the Parts Connect
Knowing the parts is useful, but it doesn’t tell us how revaluation unfolds.
This step looks at the relationships between the parts. Together, they reveal revaluation as a continuous process rather than a single decision.
| Relationship | Description |
|---|---|
| Existing values → Evaluation criteria | Values are examined against standards for judging them. |
| Evaluation criteria → Reflection | Our criteria guide how we think about each value. |
| Reflection → Choice | Careful reflection leads to a decision about the value. |
| Choice → New or renewed values | Decisions shape the values we choose to live by. |
| New or renewed values → Action | Values become meaningful when they influence how we live. |
| Action → Continuous revaluation | Living with our values gives us new experiences that may prompt further reflection and change. |
Looking at these relationships reveals that revaluation is never truly finished. Our values shape our actions, our actions shape our experiences, and our experiences may lead us to re-examine our values once again.
Rather than a straight line with a final destination, revaluation is an ongoing cycle of reflection, choice and growth.
Exploring Evaluation More Deeply
One part of our model deserves a closer look: evaluation.
Revaluation depends on our ability to judge values. But what does it mean to evaluate a value?
People use many different standards. Some ask whether a value is logical or consistent. Others ask whether it produces happiness, promotes justice or follows religious teachings.
Nietzsche proposed a different approach. Rather than asking whether a value conforms to an external rule, he asked what the value does.
- Does it encourage growth or stagnation?
- Does it cultivate strength or dependence?
- Does it help people confront reality honestly?
- Does it expand life’s possibilities or restrict them?
- Does it arise from confidence or from fear and resentment?
These questions don’t produce automatic answers. Instead, they encourage us to think more deeply about the kind of life a value creates.
By zooming in on evaluation, we can see that revaluation is not simply replacing one set of values with another. It is the ongoing practice of asking whether our values help us become the kinds of people we aspire to be.
Revaluation in Context
So far we’ve explored revaluation as a concept. Now let’s zoom out and see where it fits within a bigger picture.
Our values are shaped by many areas of life. Each one gives us different reasons for accepting, questioning or prioritising particular values.
| Domain | Primary Question |
|---|---|
| Tradition | What values have we inherited? |
| Religion | What values has our religion asked us to adopt? |
| Family | What values were we taught at home? |
| Culture | What values does our culture treat as normal or admirable? |
| Law | What values should society protect or enforce? |
| Ethics | What ought we to do? |
| Politics | What values should shape collective life and institutions? |
| Economics | What should be produced, exchanged or prioritised? |
| Science | What values guide the responsible pursuit and use of knowledge? |
| Psychology | What values support wellbeing, development or integration? |
| Education | What qualities and ways of thinking should we cultivate? |
| Art | What forms of life, feeling and experience are worth expressing? |
| Revaluation | Which of these values deserve our continued commitment? |
Zooming out helps us see that revaluation is not simply another source of values alongside religion, tradition, politics or culture.
It is a process for examining the values those domains give us.
A religious teaching, political ideal, family expectation or cultural norm can all become objects of revaluation. We can ask where the value came from, what it encourages, what effects it produces, and whether it still deserves our commitment.
Revaluation therefore operates at a different level. It asks us to examine not only particular values, but also the authorities, institutions and traditions through which we came to accept them.
Nietzsche’s Perspective
So far we’ve organised the concept of revaluation without assuming any particular philosophical position.
Now let’s look at how Nietzsche understood it.
For Nietzsche, the revaluation of values was one of philosophy’s greatest tasks.
He believed that many of the values inherited from Western culture—particularly those shaped by religion and traditional morality—had become detached from the conditions that originally gave rise to them. People continued to follow these values because they were familiar, not because they had consciously chosen them.
Genealogy was Nietzsche’s way of uncovering those histories. Revaluation was what came next.
Once a value had been brought into the open, it could be examined. Did it encourage strength or weakness? Did it expand life’s possibilities or restrict them? Did it arise from confidence and creativity, or from fear and resentment?
These were not questions with universal answers. Nietzsche did not offer a final list of values for everyone to adopt. Instead, he challenged people to become active participants in shaping the values that guided their own lives.
For Nietzsche, revaluation was therefore more than a philosophical exercise. It was an invitation to move from inherited values to examined values, and from passive acceptance to creative responsibility.
Trying Revaluation
The best way to understand revaluation is to practise it.
Choose a value that matters to you. It could be something you’ve inherited from your family, culture, religion, workplace or education.
Begin by asking yourself:
- Why do I hold this value?
- Have I consciously chosen it, or simply accepted it?
- What kind of person does this value encourage me to become?
- What effects does it have on my life and on the lives of others?
- Does it help me flourish, or does it hold me back?
- What would happen if I modified or abandoned it?
- If I were choosing my values today, would I choose this one again?
There are no universally correct answers.
Some values may become even more meaningful after careful reflection. Others may need to be revised to better fit the life you want to live. Still others may no longer deserve your commitment.
The goal of revaluation is not constant change for its own sake. It is to ensure that the values guiding your life are values you have genuinely examined and deliberately chosen.
In that sense, revaluation is less about creating new values than about taking responsibility for the ones you live by.