genealogical-method skill

---
name: genealogical-method
description: "Master genealogical methodology - Nietzschean and Foucauldian genealogy of concepts and practices. Use for: historical analysis, power, origins of concepts. Triggers: 'genealogy', 'genealogical', 'Nietzsche genealogy', 'Foucault', 'archaeology', 'power knowledge', 'origin of', 'history of', 'emergence', 'descent', 'Entstehung', 'Herkunft', 'moral history'."
---

# Genealogical Method Skill

Master genealogical analysis: tracing the contingent historical emergence of concepts, practices, and institutions to reveal hidden power relations and challenge present assumptions.

## Overview

### What Is Genealogy?

NOT:
- History of ideas (how ideas develop logically)
- Origin stories (single founding moment)
- Teleological progress (development toward goal)

IS:
- History of the present (why we are as we are)
- Contingent emergence (could have been otherwise)
- Power analysis (whose interests served?)
- Destabilization (question what seems natural)

### Two Major Forms

| Nietzschean | Foucauldian |
|-------------|-------------|
| *Genealogy of Morals* | *Discipline and Punish*, *History of Sexuality* |
| Origin of moral values | Constitution of subjects |
| Ressentiment, will to power | Power/knowledge |
| Unmask slave morality | Unmask normalization |

---

## Nietzschean Genealogy

### Core Project

Trace how moral values ("good," "evil") emerged
- Not from reason or nature
- From historical struggles, power relations
- To reveal: morality serves interests

### Key Concepts

```
NIETZSCHEAN GENEALOGY
═════════════════════

MASTER MORALITY
├── Created by the strong, noble
├── Good = powerful, noble, beautiful
├── Bad = weak, common, ugly
└── Self-affirming, active

SLAVE MORALITY
├── Created by the weak against masters
├── Good = humble, meek, suffering
├── Evil = powerful, proud, strong
├── Reactive, born of ressentiment

RESSENTIMENT
├── Resentment of the powerful
├── Inability to act directly
├── Revenge through revaluation
└── "The last shall be first"

WILL TO POWER
├── Not political domination
├── Self-overcoming, creativity
├── Life's fundamental drive
└── Behind all valuations
```

### The Three Essays (*Genealogy of Morals*)

1. **Good and Evil, Good and Bad**
   - Master vs. slave moralities
   - Priestly revaluation

2. **Guilt, Bad Conscience, and Related Matters**
   - Origin of guilt from debt
   - Internalization of instincts
   - Self-torture

3. **Ascetic Ideals**
   - Why asceticism appealing?
   - Will to nothingness rather than no will
   - Science as latest ascetic form

---

## Foucauldian Genealogy

### Core Project

Show how present forms of subjectivity, knowledge, and power were historically constituted
- Not necessary or natural
- Through specific practices, institutions
- Could be otherwise

### Key Concepts

```
FOUCAULDIAN GENEALOGY
═════════════════════

POWER/KNOWLEDGE
├── Not separable
├── Knowledge is a form of power
├── Power produces knowledge
└── No neutral standpoint

DISCOURSE
├── Systems of statements
├── Produce objects, subjects
├── Govern what can be said/thought
└── Historical, changeable

DISCIPLINE
├── Techniques of power over bodies
├── Surveillance, normalization
├── Creates docile bodies
└── Schools, prisons, hospitals

BIOPOWER
├── Power over populations
├── Statistics, demographics
├── "Make live, let die"
└── Governmentality
```

### Foucault's Terms (from "Nietzsche, Genealogy, History")

| Term | German | Meaning |
|------|--------|---------|
| Entstehung | Emergence | Moment of arising from forces |
| Herkunft | Descent | Multiple origins, not single source |
| Ursprung | Origin | (Rejected) Mythical single origin |

### Example: Punishment (*Discipline and Punish*)

```
GENEALOGY OF PUNISHMENT
═══════════════════════

SOVEREIGN POWER (Pre-modern)
├── Public spectacle of torture
├── Display monarch's power
├── Excess, vengeance
└── Body as target

TRANSITION
├── Humanitarian reform?
├── Or: New economy of power
├── Efficiency, not mercy
└── New targets, new techniques

DISCIPLINARY POWER (Modern)
├── Prison, rehabilitation
├── Surveillance (Panopticon)
├── Normalize, not destroy
├── Soul as target
└── Produces useful subjects
```

---

## Method: Doing Genealogy

### Foucault's "Prescriptions" (adapted)

```
GENEALOGICAL PROTOCOL
═════════════════════

1. PROBLEMATIZE THE PRESENT
   └── What seems natural, inevitable, obvious?
   └── What present practice do we want to understand?

2. TRACE DESCENT (Herkunft)
   └── Multiple, scattered origins
   └── Not single noble origin
   └── Look for accidents, contingencies

3. IDENTIFY EMERGENCE (Entstehung)
   └── What forces clashed to produce this?
   └── What power relations are at work?
   └── Who benefits?

4. SHOW DISCONTINUITIES
   └── Ruptures, not smooth development
   └── Different epistemes, different rationalities
   └── Things were otherwise

5. REVEAL POWER/KNOWLEDGE
   └── What counts as knowledge?
   └── What practices constitute subjects?
   └── What is normalized, excluded?

6. DESTABILIZE
   └── Show contingency
   └── Open space for critique
   └── Possibilities for change
```

### Avoiding Whig History

**Don't**:
- Read past through present categories
- See history as progress toward now
- Find single origin for complex phenomena
- Ignore discontinuities and accidents

**Do**:
- Respect difference of past
- See present as contingent outcome
- Trace multiple, conflicting forces
- Highlight ruptures and transformations

---

## Applications

### Genealogy of Concepts

What is the history of:
- "Sexuality" (Foucault)
- "Madness" (Foucault)
- "Justice" (could be done)
- "Consciousness" (could be done)

### Genealogy of Practices

- Punishment (Foucault)
- Confession (Foucault)
- Examination (Foucault)
- Self-help (could be done)

### Genealogy of Subjects

- "The homosexual" as identity type
- "The criminal" as subject
- "The normal person" as norm

---

## Output Format

```markdown
## Genealogy of [CONCEPT/PRACTICE]

### Present Problematic
[What seems natural today that we want to question?]

### Descent (Herkunft)
[Multiple scattered origins, not single source]
- Origin thread 1
- Origin thread 2
- Origin thread 3

### Emergence (Entstehung)
[What forces clashed? What power relations?]

### Key Discontinuities
[Where did things change? Ruptures, not smooth development]

### Power/Knowledge Analysis
[Who benefits? What is normalized? What is excluded?]

### Destabilization
[How does this history open critique?]
[What alternatives become visible?]
```

---

## Key Vocabulary

| Term | Meaning |
|------|---------|
| Genealogy | Historical critique of present |
| Descent (Herkunft) | Multiple, scattered origins |
| Emergence (Entstehung) | Arising from struggle |
| Episteme | Historical conditions of knowledge |
| Discourse | System of statements producing objects |
| Apparatus (dispositif) | Network of power relations |
| Normalization | Making conform to norms |
| Ressentiment | Reactive resentment (Nietzsche) |
| Archaeology | Earlier Foucault: uncovering epistemes |
| History of the present | Genealogy's aim |

---

## Integration with Repository

### Related Skills
- `continental-critical`: Foucault in context
- `german-idealism-existentialism`: Nietzsche's context

### For Thought Development
Use genealogy to question assumptions in your philosophical explorations.