Chapter III: Preface (1)

1.

Concerning great things one should either be silent or one should speak loftily:--loftily--that is to say, cynically and innocently.

2.

What I am now going to relate is the history of the next two centuries. I shall describe what will happen, what must necessarily happen: _the triumph of Nihilism._ This history can be written already; for necessity itself is at work in bringing it about. This future is already proclaimed by a hundred different omens; as a destiny it announces its advent everywhere, for this music of to-morrow all ears are already pricked. The whole of our culture in Europe has long been writhing in an agony of suspense which increases from decade to decade as if in expectation of a catastrophe: restless, violent, helter-skelter, like a torrent that will _reach its bourne,_ and refuses to reflect--yea, that even dreads reflection.

3.

On the other hand, the present writer has done little else, hitherto, than _reflect and meditate,_ like an instinctive philosopher and anchorite, who found his advantage in isolation--in remaining outside, in patience, procrastination, and lagging behind; like a weighing and testing spirit who has already lost his way in every labyrinth of the future; like a prophetic bird-spirit that _looks backwards_ when it would announce what is to come; like the first perfect European Nihilist, who, however, has already outlived Nihilism in his own soul--who has out-grown, overcome, and dismissed it.

4.

For the reader must not misunderstand the meaning of the title which has been given to this Evangel of the Future. "_The Will to Power: An Attempted Transvaluation of all Values_"--with this formula a _counter-movement_ finds expression, in regard to both a principle and a mission; a movement which in some remote future will supersede this perfect Nihilism; but which nevertheless regards it as a _necessary step,_ both logically and psychologically, towards its own advent, and which positively cannot come, except _on top of_ and _out of_ it. For, why is the triumph of Nihilism _inevitable_ now? Because the very values current amongst us to-day will arrive at their logical conclusion in Nihilism,--because Nihilism is the only possible outcome of our greatest values and ideals,--because we must first experience Nihilism before we can realise what the actual worth of these "values" was.... Sooner or later we shall be in need of _new values._

FIRST BOOK.

EUROPEAN NIHILISM.

I.

A PLAN.

1. Nihilism is at our door: whence comes this most gruesome of all guests to us?--To begin with, it is a mistake to point to "social evils," "physiological degeneration," or even to corruption as a cause of Nihilism. This is the most straightforward and most sympathetic age that ever was. Evil, whether spiritual, physical, or intellectual, is, in itself, quite unable to introduce Nihilism, _i.e.,_ the absolute repudiation of worth, purpose, desirability. These evils allow of yet other and quite different explanations. But there is one _very definite explanation_ of the phenomena: Nihilism harbours in the heart of Christian morals.

2. The downfall of Christianity,--through its morality (which is insuperable), which finally turns against the Christian God Himself (the sense of truth, highly developed through Christianity, ultimately revolts against the falsehood and fictitiousness of all Christian interpretations of the world and its history. The recoil-stroke of "God is Truth" in the fanatical Belief, is: "All is false." Buddhism of _action_....).

3. Doubt in morality is the decisive factor. The downfall of the _moral_ interpretation of the universe, which loses its _raison d'être_ once it has tried to take flight to a Beyond, meets its end in Nihilism. "Nothing has any purpose" (the inconsistency of one explanation of the world, to which men have devoted untold energy,--gives rise to the suspicion that all explanations may perhaps be false). The Buddhistic feature: a yearning for nonentity (Indian Buddhism has no fundamentally moral development at the back of it; that is why Nihilism in its case means only morality not overcome; existence is regarded as a punishment and conceived as an error; error is thus held to be punishment--a moral valuation). Philosophical attempts to overcome the "moral God" (Hegel, _Pantheism_). The vanquishing of popular ideals: the wizard, the saint, the bard. Antagonism of "true" and "beautiful" and "good."

4. Against "purposelessness" on the one hand, against moral valuations on the other: how far has all science and philosophy been cultivated heretofore under the influence of moral judgments? And have we not got the additional factor--the enmity of science, into the bargain? Or the prejudice against science? Criticism of Spinoza. Christian valuations everywhere present as remnants in socialistic and positivistic systems. _A criticism of Christian_ morality is altogether lacking.

5. The Nihilistic consequences of present natural science (along with its attempts to escape into a Beyond). Out of its practice there finally _arises_ a certain self-annihilation, an antagonistic attitude towards itself--a sort of anti-scientificality. Since Copernicus man has been rolling away from the centre towards _x_.

6. The Nihilistic consequences of the political and politico-economical way of thinking, where all principles at length become tainted with the atmosphere of the platform: the breath of mediocrity, insignificance, dishonesty, etc. Nationalism. Anarchy, etc. Punishment. Everywhere the _deliverer_ is missing, either as a class or as a single man--the justifier.

7. Nihilistic consequences of history and of the "practical historian," _i.e.,_ the romanticist. The attitude of art is quite unoriginal in modern life. Its gloominess. Goethe's so-called Olympian State.

8. Art and the preparation of Nihilism. Romanticism (the conclusion of Wagner's _Ring of the Nibelung_).

NIHILISM.

1. NIHILISM AS AN OUTCOME OF THE VALUATIONS AND INTERPRETATIONS OF EXISTENCE WHICH HAVE PREVAILED HERETOFORE.

2.

What does Nihilism mean?--_That the highest values are losing their value._ There is no bourne. There is no answer to the question: "to what purpose?"

3.

Thorough Nihilism is the conviction that life is absurd, in the light of the highest values already discovered; it also includes the _view_ that we have not the smallest right to assume the existence of transcendental objects or things in themselves, which would be either divine or morality incarnate.

This view is a result of fully developed "truthfulness": therefore a consequence of the belief in morality.

4.

What _advantages_ did the Christian hypothesis of morality offer?

(1) It bestowed an intrinsic value upon men, which contrasted with their apparent insignificance and subordination to chance in the eternal flux of becoming and perishing.

(2) It served the purpose of God's advocates, inasmuch as it granted the world a certain _perfection_ despite its sorrow and evil--it also granted the world that proverbial "freedom": evil seemed full of _meaning_.

(3) It assumed that man could have a _knowledge_ of absolute values, and thus granted him _adequate perception_ for the most important things.

(4) It prevented man from despising himself as man, from turning against life, and from being driven to despair by knowledge: it was a self-preservative measure.

In short: Morality was the great _antidote_ against practical and theoretical Nihilism.

5.

But among the forces reared by morality, there was _truthfulness_: this in the end turns against morality, exposes the _teleology_ of the latter, its interestedness, and now the _recognition_ of this lie so long incorporated, from which we despaired of ever freeing ourselves, acts just like a stimulus. We perceive certain needs in ourselves, implanted during the long dynasty of the moral interpretation of life, which now seem to us to be needs of untruth: on the other hand, those very needs represent the highest values owing to which we are able to endure life. We have _ceased_ from attaching any worth to what we know, and we _dare_ not attach any more worth to that with which we would fain deceive ourselves--from this antagonism there results a process of dissolution.

6.

This is the _antinomy_: In so far as we believe in morality, we condemn existence.

7.

The highest values in the service of which man ought to live, more particularly when they oppressed and constrained him most--these _social values, owing to their tone-strengthening_ tendencies, were built over men's heads as though they were the will of God or "reality," or the actual world, or even a hope of a world to come. Now that the lowly origin of these values has become known, the whole universe seems to have been transvalued and to have lost its significance--but this is only an intermediate stage.

8.

The consequence of _Nihilism_ (disbelief in all values) as a result of a moral valuation:--_We have grown to dislike egotism_ (even though we have realised the impossibility of altruism);--_we have grown to dislike what is most necessary_ (although we have recognised the impossibility of a _liberum arbitrium_ and of an "intelligible freedom"[1]). We perceive that we do not reach the spheres in which we have set our values--at the same time those other spheres in which we live have _not_ thereby gained _one iota_ in value. On the contrary, we are _tired,_ because we have lost the main incentive to live. "All in vain hitherto!"

9.

"Pessimism as a preparatory state to Nihilism."

10.

A. Pessimism viewed as strength--_in what respect?_ In the energy of its logic, as anarchy, Nihilism, and analysis.

B. Pessimism regarded as collapse--_in what sense?_ In the sense of its being a softening influence, a sort of cosmopolitan befingering, a "tout comprendre," and historical spirit.

_Critical tension_: extremes make their appearance and become dominant.

11.

_The logic of Pessimism leads finally to Nihilism: what is the force at work?_--The notion that _there are no values,_ and _no purpose_: the recognition of the part that moral valuations have played in all other lofty values.

Result: _moral valuations are condemnations, negations; morality is the abdication of the will to live...._

[Footnote 1: This is a Kantian term. Kant recognised two kinds of Freedom--the practical and the transcendental kind. The first belongs to the phenomenal, the second to the intelligible world.--TRANSLATOR'S NOTE.]

12.

THE COLLAPSE OF COSMOPOLITAN VALUES.

_A._

Nihilism will have to manifest itself as a _psychological condition, first_ when we have sought in all that has happened a purpose which is not there: so that the seeker will ultimately lose courage. Nihilism is therefore the coming into consciousness of the long _waste_ of strength, the pain of "futility," uncertainty, the lack of an opportunity to recover in some way, or to attain to a state of peace concerning anything--shame in one's own presence, as if one had _cheated_ oneself too long.... The purpose above-mentioned might have been achieved: in the form of a "realisation" of a most high canon of morality in all worldly phenomena, the moral order of the universe; or in the form of the increase of love and harmony in the traffic of humanity; or in the nearer approach to a general condition of happiness; or even in the march towards general nonentity--any sort of goal always constitutes a purpose. The common factor to all these appearances is that something will be _attained,_ through the process itself: and now we perceive that Becoming has been aiming at _nothing,_ and has achieved nothing. Hence the disillusionment in regard to a so-called _purpose in existence,_ as a cause of Nihilism; whether this be in respect of a very definite purpose, or generalised into the recognition that all the hypotheses are false which have hitherto been offered as to the object of life, and which relate to the whole of "Evolution" (man _no longer_ an assistant in, let alone the culmination of, the evolutionary process).

Nihilism will manifest itself as a psychological condition, in the second place, when man has fixed a totality, a systematisation, even an organisation in and behind all phenomena, so that the soul thirsting for respect and admiration will wallow in the general idea of a highest ruling and administrative power (if it be the soul of a logician, the sequence of consequences and perfect reasoning will suffice to conciliate everything). A kind of unity, some form of "monism":' and as a result of this belief man becomes obsessed by a feeling of profound relativity and dependence in the presence of an All which is infinitely superior to him, a sort of divinity. "The general good exacts the surrender of the individual ..." but lo, there is no such general good! At bottom, man loses the belief in his own worth when no infinitely precious entity manifests itself through him--that is to say, he conceived such an All, _in order to be able to believe in his own worth._

Nihilism, as a psychological condition, has yet a third and last form. Admitting these two _points of view_: that no purpose can be assigned to Becoming, and that no great entity rules behind all Becoming, in which the individual may completely lose himself as in an element of superior value; there still remains the _subterfuge_ which would consist in condemning this whole world of Becoming as an illusion, and in discovering a world which would lie beyond it, and would be a _real_ world. The moment, however, that man perceives that this world has been devised only for the purpose of meeting certain psychological needs, and that he has no right whatsoever to it, the final form of Nihilism comes into being, which comprises _a denial of a metaphysical world,_ and which forbids itself all belief in a _real_ world. From this standpoint, the reality of Becoming is the only reality that is admitted: all bypaths to back-worlds and false godheads are abandoned--but _this world is no longer endured, although no one wishes to disown it._

What has actually happened? The feeling of worthlessness was realised when it was understood that neither the notion of "_Purpose_" nor that of "_Unity_" nor that of "_Truth_" could be made to interpret the general character of existence. Nothing is achieved or obtained thereby; the unity which intervenes in the multiplicity of events is entirely lacking: the character of existence is not "true," it is _false_; there is certainly no longer any reason to believe in a _real_ world. In short, the categories, "Purpose," "Unity," "Being," by means of which we had lent some worth to life, we have once more divorced from it--and the world now appears _worthless_ to us....

_B._

Admitting that we have recognised the impossibility of _interpreting_ world by means of these three categories, and that from this standpoint the world begins to be worthless to us; we must ask ourselves whence we derived our belief in these three categories. Let us see if it is possible to refuse to believe in them. If we can _deprive them of their value,_ the proof that they cannot be applied to the world, is no longer a sufficient reason for _depriving that world of its value_.

Result: _The belief_ in the categories of reason[2] is the cause of Nihilism--we have measured the worth of the world according to categories _which can only be applied to a purely fictitious world._

Conclusion: All values with which we have tried, hitherto, to lend the world some worth, from our point of view, and with which we have therefore _deprived it of all worth_ (once these values have been shown to be inapplicable)--all these values, are, psychologically, the results of certain views of utility, established for the purpose of maintaining and increasing the dominion of certain communities: but falsely projected into the nature of things. It is always man's _exaggerated ingenuousness_ to regard himself as the sense and measure of all things.

[Footnote 2: This probably refers to Kant's celebrated table of twelve categories. The four classes, quantity, quality, relation, and modality, are each provided with three categories.--TRANSLATOR'S NOTE.]

13.

Nihilism represents an intermediary pathological condition (the vast generalisation, the conclusion that there _is no purpose_ in anything, is pathological): whether it be that the productive forces are not yet strong enough--or that _decadence_ still hesitates and has not yet discovered its expedients.

_The conditions of this hypothesis_:--That there is _no truth_; that there is no absolute state of affairs--no "thing-in-itself." _This alone is Nihilism, and of the most extreme kind._ It finds that the value of things consists precisely in the fact that these values are _not_ real and never have been real, but that they are only a symptom of strength on the part of the _valuer,_ a simplification serving the _purposes of existence._

14.

_Values and their modification_ are related to the _growth of power of the valuer._

The measure of _disbelief_ and of the "freedom of spirit" which is tolerated, viewed as an _expression of the growth of power._

"Nihilism" viewed as the ideal of the _highest spiritual power,_ of the over-rich life, partly destructive, partly ironical.

15.

What is _belief_? How is a belief born? All belief assumes that _something is true._

The extremest form of Nihilism would mean that _all_ belief--all assumption of truth--is false: because no real world is at hand. It were therefore: only an _appearance seen in perspective,_ whose origin must be found in us (seeing that we are constantly in need of a narrower, a shortened, and simplified world).

This should be realised, that the extent to which we can, in our heart of hearts, acknowledge appearance, and the necessity of falsehood, without going to rack and ruin, is the _measure of strength._

In this respect, Nihilism, in that it is the _negation_ of a real world and of Being, might be _a divine view of the world._

16.

If we are disillusioned, we have not become so in regard to life, but owing to the fact that our eyes have been opened to all kinds of "desiderata." With mocking anger we survey that which is called "_Ideal_": we despise ourselves only because we are unable at every moment of our lives to quell that absurd emotion which is called "Idealism." This _pampering_ by means of ideals is stronger than the anger of the _disillusioned one._

17.

_To what extent does Schopenhauerian Nihilism continue to be the result of the same ideal as that which gave rise to Christian Theism?_ The amount of certainty concerning the most exalted desiderata, the highest values and the greatest degree of perfection, was so great, that the philosophers started out from it as if it had been an _a priori_ and _absolute fact_: "God" at the head, as the _given quantity_--Truth. "To become like God," "to be absorbed into the Divine Being"--these were for centuries the most ingenuous and most convincing desiderata (but that which convinces is not necessarily true on that account: it is _nothing more nor less than convincing._ An observation for donkeys).

The granting of a _personal-reality_ to this accretion of ideals has been unlearned: people have become atheistic. But has the ideal actually been abandoned? The latest metaphysicians, as a matter of fact, still seek their true "reality" in it--the "thing-in-itself" beside which everything else is merely appearance. Their dogma is, that because our world of appearance is so obviously _not_ the expression of that ideal, it therefore cannot be "true"--and at bottom does not even lead back to that metaphysical world as cause. The unconditioned, in so far as it stands for that highest degree of perfection, cannot possibly be the reason of all the conditioned. Schopenhauer, who desired it otherwise, was obliged to imagine this metaphysical basis as the antithesis to the ideal, as "an evil, blind will": thus it could be "that which appears," that which manifests itself in the world of appearance. But even so, he did not give up that ideal absolute--he circumvented it....

(Kant seems to have needed the hypothesis of "intelligible freedom,"[3] in order to relieve the _ens perfectum_ of the responsibility of having contrived this world as it is, in short, in order to explain evil: scandalous logic for a philosopher!).

[Footnote 3: See Note on p. 11.]

18.

_The most general sign of modern times_: in his own estimation, man has lost an infinite amount of _dignity._ For a long time he was the centre and tragic hero of life in general; then he endeavoured to demonstrate at least his relationship to the most essential and in itself most valuable side of life--as all metaphysicians do, who wish to hold fast to the _dignity of man,_ in their belief that moral values are cardinal values. He who has let God go, clings all the more strongly to the belief in morality.

19.

Every purely _moral_ valuation (as, for instance, the Buddhistic) _terminates in Nihilism_: Europe must expect the same thing! It is supposed that one can get along with a morality bereft of a religious background; but in this direction the road to Nihilism is opened. There is nothing in religion which compels us to regard ourselves as valuing creatures.

20.

The question which Nihilism puts, namely, "to what purpose?" is the outcome of a habit, hitherto, to regard the purpose as something fixed, given and exacted _from outside_--that is to say, by some supernatural authority. Once the belief in this has been unlearned, the force of an old habit leads to the search after _another_ authority, which would _know how to speak unconditionally,_ and could _point to_ goals and missions. The authority of the _conscience_ now takes the first place (the more _morality_ is emancipated from theology, the more imperative does it become) as a compensation for the _personal authority._ Or the authority of _reason._ Or the _gregarious instinct_ (the herd). Or history with its _immanent_ spirit, which has its goal in itself, and to which one can _abandon oneself._ One would like to _evade_ the _will,_ as also the _willing_ of a goal and the risk of setting oneself a goal. One would like to get rid of the responsibility (_Fatalism_ would be accepted). Finally: Happiness and with a dash of humbug, the _happiness of the greatest number._

It is said:--

(1) A definite goal is quite unnecessary.

(2) Such a goal cannot possibly be foreseen. Precisely now, when _will_ in its _fullest strength_ were _necessary,_ it is in the _weakest_ and most _pusillanimous_ condition. _Absolute mistrust concerning the organising power_ of the will.

21.

_The perfect Nihilist._--The Nihilist's eye _idealises in an ugly sense,_ and is inconstant to what it remembers: it allows its recollections to go astray and to fade, it does not protect them from that cadaverous coloration with which weakness dyes all that is distant and past. And what it does not do for itself it fails to do for the whole of mankind as well--that is to say, it allows it to drop.

22.

Nihilism. It may be _two things_:--

A. Nihilism as a sign of _enhanced spiritual strength_: active Nihilism.

B. Nihilism as a sign of the _collapse_ and _decline_ of spiritual _strength_: passive Nihilism.

23.

Nihilism, a _normal_ condition.

It may be a sign of _strength_; spiritual vigour may have increased to such an extent that the _goals_ toward which man has marched _hitherto_ (the "convictions," articles of faith) are no longer suited to it (for a faith generally expresses the exigencies of the _conditions of existence,_ a submission to the authority of an order of things which _conduces_ to the _prosperity,_ the _growth_ and _power_ of a living creature ...); on the other hand, a sign of _insufficient_ strength, to fix a goal, a "wherefore," and a faith for itself.

It reaches its _maximum_ of relative strength, as a powerful _destructive_ force, in the form of _active Nihilism._

Its opposite would be _weary_ Nihilism, which no longer attacks: its most renowned form being Buddhism: as _passive_ Nihilism, a sign of weakness: spiritual strength may be fatigued, _exhausted,_ so that the goals and values which have prevailed _hitherto_ are no longer suited to it and are no longer believed in--so that the synthesis of values and goals (upon which every strong culture stands) decomposes, and the different values contend with one another: _Disintegration,_ then everything which is relieving, which heals, becalms, or stupefies, steps into the foreground under the cover of various _disguises,_ either religious, moral, political or æsthetic, etc.

24.

Nihilism is not only a meditating over the "in vain!"--not only the belief that everything deserves to perish; but one actually puts one's shoulder to the plough; _one destroys._ This, if you will, is illogical; but the Nihilist does not believe in the necessity of being logical.... It is the condition of strong minds and wills; and to these it is impossible to be satisfied with the negation of judgment: the _negation by deeds_ proceeds from their nature. Annihilation by the reasoning faculty seconds annihilation by the hand.

25.

_Concerning the genesis of the Nihilist._ The courage of all one really _knows_ comes but late in life. It is only quite recently that I have acknowledged to myself that heretofore I have been a Nihilist from top to toe. The energy and thoroughness with which I marched forward as a Nihilist deceived me concerning this fundamental principle. When one is progressing towards a goal it seems impossible that "aimlessness _per se_" should be one's fundamental article of faith.

26.

_The Pessimism of strong natures._ The "wherefore" after a terrible struggle, even after victory. That something may exist which is a hundred times _more important_ than the question, whether we feel well or unwell, is the fundamental instinct of all strong natures--and consequently too, whether the _others_ feel well or unwell. In short, that we have a purpose, for which we would not even hesitate to _sacrifice men,_ run all risks, and bend our backs to the worst: _this is the great passion_.

2. FURTHER CAUSES OF NIHILISM.

27.

_The causes of Nihilism_: (1) _The higher species is lacking, i.e.,_ the species whose inexhaustible fruitfulness and power would uphold our belief in Man (think only of what is owed to Napoleon--almost all the higher hopes of this century).

(2) _The inferior species_ ("herd," "ass," "society") is forgetting modesty, and inflates its needs into _cosmic_ and _metaphysical_ values. In this way all life is _vulgarised_: for inasmuch as the _mass_ of mankind rules, it tyrannises over the _exceptions,_ so that these lose their belief in themselves and become _Nihilists._

All attempts to _conceive of a new species_ come to nothing ("romanticism," the artist, the philosopher; against Carlyle's attempt to lend them the highest moral values).

The result is that higher types are _resisted_.

_The downfall and insecurity of all higher types._ The struggle against genius ("popular poetry," etc.). Sympathy with the lowly and the suffering as a _standard_ for the _elevation of the soul_.

The _philosopher is lacking,_ the interpreter of deeds, and not alone he who poetises them.

28.

_Imperfect_ Nihilism--its forms: we are now surrounded by them.

All attempts made to escape Nihilism, which do not consist in transvaluing the values that have prevailed hitherto, only make the matter worse; they complicate the problem.

29.

_The varieties of self-stupefaction._ In one's heart of hearts, not to know, whither? Emptiness. The attempt to rise superior to it all by means of emotional intoxication: emotional intoxication in the form of music, in the form of cruelty in the tragic joy over the ruin of the noblest, and in the form of blind, gushing enthusiasm over individual _men_ or distinct _periods_ (in the form of hatred, etc.). The attempt to work blindly, like a scientific instrument; to keep an eye on the many small joys, like an investigator, for instance (modesty towards oneself); the mysticism of the voluptuous _joy_ of eternal emptiness; art "for art's sake" ("le fait"), "immaculate investigation," in the form of narcotics against the disgust of oneself; any kind of incessant work, _any_ kind of small foolish fanaticism; the medley of all means, illness as the result of general profligacy (dissipation kills pleasure).

(1) As a result, feeble will-power.

(2) Excessive pride and the humiliation of petty weakness felt as a contrast.

30.

The time is coming when we shall have to pay for having been _Christians_ for two thousand years: we are losing the equilibrium which enables us to live--for a long while we shall not know in what direction we are travelling. We are hurling ourselves headlong into the _opposite_ valuations, with that degree of energy which could only have been engendered in man by an _overvaluation_ of himself.

Now, everything is false from the root, words and nothing but words, confused, feeble, or over-strained.

_(a)_ There is a seeking after a sort of earthly solution of the problem of life, but in the same sense as that of the _final triumph_ of truth, love, justice (socialism: "equality of persons").

_(b)_ There is also an attempt to hold fast to the _moral ideal_ (with altruism, self-sacrifice, and the denial of the will, in the front rank).

_(c)_ There is even an attempt to hold fast to a "Beyond": were it only as an antilogical _x_; but it is forthwith interpreted in such a way that a kind of metaphysical solace, after the old style, may be derived from it.

_(d)_ There is an attempt to read the phenomena of life in such a way as to arrive _at the divine guidance of old,_ with its powers of rewarding, punishing, educating, and of generally conducing to a something _better_ in the order of things.

_(e)_ People once more believe in good and evil; so that the victory of the good and the annihilation of the evil is regarded as a _duty_ (this is English, and is typical of that blockhead, John Stuart Mill).

(f) The contempt felt for "naturalness," for the desires and for the ego: the attempt to regard even the highest intellectuality of art as a result of an impersonal and disinterested attitude.

(g) The Church is still allowed to meddle in all the essential occurrences and incidents in the life of the individual, with a view to consecrating it and giving it a _loftier_ meaning: we still have the "Christian State" and the "Christian marriage."

31.

There have been more thoughtful and more destructively thoughtful[4] times than ours: times like those in which Buddha appeared, for instance, in which the people themselves, after centuries of sectarian quarrels, had sunk so deeply into the abyss of philosophical dogmas, as, from time to time, European people have done in regard to the fine points of religious dogma. "Literature" and the press would be the last things to seduce one to any high opinion of the spirit of our times: the millions of Spiritists, and a Christianity with gymnastic exercises of that ghastly ugliness which is characteristic of all English inventions, throw more light on the subject.

European _Pessimism_ is still in its infancy--a fact which argues against it: it has not yet attained to that prodigious and yearning fixity of sight to which it attained in India once upon a time, and in which nonentity is reflected; there is still too much of the "ready-made," and not enough of the "evolved" in its constitution, too much learned and poetic Pessimism; I mean that a good deal of it has been discovered, invented, and "created," but not caused.

[Footnote 4: _zerdachtere_.]

32.

Criticism of the Pessimism which has prevailed hitherto. The want of the eudæmonological standpoint, as a last abbreviation of the question: what is the _purpose_ of it all? The reduction of gloom.

_Our_ Pessimism: the world has not the value which we believed it to have,--our faith itself has so increased our instinct for research that we are _compelled_ to say this to-day. In the first place, it seems of less value: _at first it is felt_ to be of less value,--only in this sense are we pessimists,--that is to say, with the will to acknowledge this transvaluation without reserve, and no longer, as heretofore, to deceive ourselves and chant the old old story.

It is precisely in this way that we find the pathos which urges us to seek for _new values._ In short: the world might have far more value than we thought--we must get behind the _naïveté of our ideals,_ for it is possible that, in our conscious effort to give it the highest interpretation, we have not bestowed even a moderately just value upon it.

What has been _deified_? The valuing instinct inside the _community_ (that which enabled it to survive).

What has been _calumniated_? That which has tended to separate higher men from their inferiors, the instincts which cleave gulfs and build barriers.

33.

Causes effecting the _rise of Pessimism_:--

(1) The most powerful instincts and those which promised most for the future have hitherto been _calumniated,_ so that life has a curse upon it.

(2) The growing bravery and the more daring mistrust on the part of man have led him to discover the fact that _these instincts cannot be cut adrift from life,_ and thus he turns to embrace life.

(3) Only the most _mediocre,_ who are not _conscious_ of this conflict, prosper; the higher species fail, and as an example of degeneration tend to dispose all hearts against them--on the other hand, there is some indignation caused by the mediocre positing themselves as the end and meaning of all things. No one can any longer reply to the question: "Why?"

(4) Belittlement, susceptibility to pain, unrest, haste, and confusion are steadily increasing--the materialisation of all these tendencies, which is called "civilisation," becomes every day more simple, with the result that, in the face of the monstrous machine, the individual _despairs_ and _surrenders._

34.

Modern Pessimism is an expression of the uselessness only of the _modern_ world, not of the world and existence as such.

35.

The "preponderance of _pain over pleasure"_ or the reverse (Hedonism); both of these doctrines are already signposts to Nihilism....

For here, in both cases, no other final purpose is sought than the phenomenon pleasure or pain.

But only a man who no longer dares to posit a will, a purpose, and a final goal can speak in this way--according to every healthy type of man, the worth of life is certainly not measured by the standard of these secondary things. And a _preponderance_ of pain would be possible and, _in spite of it,_ a mighty will, a _saying of yea_ to life, and a holding of this preponderance for necessary.

"Life is not worth living"; "Resignation"; "what is the good of tears?"--this is a feeble and sentimental attitude of mind. "_Un monstre gai vaut mieux qu'un sentimental ennuyeux._"

36.

The philosophie Nihilist is convinced that all phenomena are without sense and are in vain, and that there ought to be no such thing as Being without sense and in vain. But whence comes this "There ought not to be?"--whence this "sense" and _this standard_? At bottom the Nihilist supposes that the sight of such a desolate, useless Being is _unsatisfying_ to the philosopher, and fills him with desolation and despair. This aspect of the case is opposed to our subtle sensibilities as a philosopher. It leads to the absurd conclusion that the character of existence _must perforce afford pleasure to the philosopher_ if it is to have any right to subsist.

Now it is easy to understand that happiness and unhappiness, within the phenomena of this world, can only serve the purpose of _means_: the question yet remaining to be answered is, whether it _will ever be possible_ for us to perceive the "object" and "purpose" of life--whether the problem of purposelessness or the reverse is not quite beyond our ken.

37.

The development of _Nihilism out of Pessimism._ The denaturalisation of _Values._ Scholasticism of values. The values isolated, idealistic, instead of ruling and leading action, turn _against_ it and condemn it.

Opposites introduced in the place of natural gradations and ranks. Hatred of the order of rank. Opposites are compatible with a plebeian age, because they are more easy to grasp.

The _rejected_ world is opposed to an artificially constructed "true and valuable" one. At last we discover out of what material the "true" world was built; all that remains, now, is the rejected world, and to the account of our reasons for _rejecting it we place our greatest disillusionment._

At this point _Nihilism_ is reached; the directing values have been retained--nothing more!

This gives rise to _the problem of strength and weakness_:--

(1) The weak fall to pieces upon it;

(2) The strong destroy what does not fall to pieces of its own accord;

(3) The strongest overcome the directing values.

_The whole condition of affairs produces the tragic age._

3. THE NIHILISTIC MOVEMENT AS AN EXPRESSION OF DECADENCE.

38.

Just lately an accidental and in every way inappropriate term has been very much misused: everywhere people are speaking of "_Pessimism_," and there is a fight around the question (to which some replies must be forthcoming): which is right--Pessimism or Optimism?

People have not yet seen what is so terribly-obvious--namely, that Pessimism is not a problem but a _symptom,_--that the term ought to be replaced by "Nihilism,"--that the question, "to be or not to be," is itself an illness, a sign of degeneracy, an idiosyncrasy.

The Nihilistic movement is only an expression of physiological decadence.

39.

_To be understood_:--That every kind of decline and tendency to sickness has incessantly been at work in helping to create general evaluations: that in those valuations which now dominate, decadence has even begun to preponderate, that we have not only to combat the conditions which present misery and degeneration have brought into being; but that all decadence, previous to that of our own times, has been transmitted and has therefore remained an _active force_ amongst us. A universal departure of this kind, on the part of man, from his fundamental instincts, such universal decadence of the valuing judgment, is the note of interrogation _par excellence,_ the real riddle, which the animal "man" sets to all philosophers.

40.

_The notion "decadence":--Decay, decline,_ and _waste,_ are, _per se,_ in no way open to objection; they are the natural consequences of life and vital growth. The phenomenon of decadence is just as necessary to life as advance or progress is: we are not in a position which enables us to _suppress_ it. On the contrary, reason _would have it retain its rights._

It is disgraceful on the part of socialist-theorists to argue that circumstances and social combinations could be devised which would put an end to all vice, illness, crime, prostitution, and poverty.... But that is tantamount to condemning _Life_ ... a society is not at liberty to remain young. And even in its prime it must bring forth ordure and decaying matter. The more energetically and daringly it advances, the richer will it be in failures and in deformities, and the nearer it will be to its fall. Age is not deferred by means of institutions. Nor is illness. Nor is vice.

41.

Fundamental aspect of the nature of decadence: _what has heretofore been regarded as its causes are its effects._

In this way, the whole perspective _of the problems of morality_ is altered.

All the struggle of morals against vice, luxury, crime, and even against illness, seems a _naïveté,_ a superfluous effort: there is no such thing as "_improvement_" (a word against _repentance_).

Decadence itself is not a thing _that can be withstood_: it is absolutely necessary and is proper to all ages and all peoples. That which must be withstood, and by all means in our power, is the spreading of the contagion among the sound parts of the organism.

Is that done? The very _reverse_ is done. It is precisely on this account that one makes a stand on behalf of _humanity._

How do the _highest values_ created hitherto stand in relation to this fundamental question in _biology_? Philosophy, religion, morality, art, etc.

(The remedy: militarism, for instance, from Napoleon onwards, who regarded civilisation as his natural enemy.)

42.

All those things which heretofore have been regarded as the _causes of degeneration,_ are really its effects.

But those things also which have been regarded as the _remedies_ of degeneration are only _palliatives_ of certain effects thereof: the "cured" are _types of the degenerate._

_The results of decadence_: vice--viciousness; illness--sickliness; crime--criminality; celibacy--sterility; hysteria--the weakness of the will; alcoholism; pessimism, anarchy; debauchery (also of the spirit). The calumniators, underminers, sceptics, and destroyers.

43.

Concerning the notion "decadence." (1) Scepticism is a result of decadence: just as spiritual debauchery is.

(2) Moral corruption is a result of decadence (the weakness of the will and the need of strong stimulants).

(3) Remedies, whether psychological or moral, do not alter the march of decadence, they do not arrest anything; physiologically they do not count.

A peep into the _enormous futility_ of these pretentious "reactions"; they are forms of anæsthetising oneself against certain fatal symptoms resulting from the prevailing condition of things; they do not eradicate the morbid element; they are often heroic attempts to cancel the decadent man, to allow only a minimum of his _deleterious influence_ to survive.

(4) Nihilism is not a cause, but only the _rationale_ of decadence.

(5) The "good" and the "bad" are no more than two types of decadence: they come together in all its fundamental phenomena.

(6) The _social problem_ is a result of _decadence._

(7) Illnesses, more particularly those attacking the nerves and the head, are signs that the _defensive_ strength of strong nature is lacking; a proof of this is that irritability which causes pleasure and pain to be regarded as problems of the first order.

44.

_The most common types of decadence_: (1) In the belief that they are remedies, cures are chosen which only precipitate exhaustion;--this is the case with Christianity (to point to the most egregious example of mistaken instinct);--this is also the case with "progress."

(2) The _power of resisting_ stimuli is on the wane--chance rules supreme: events are inflated and drawn out until they appear monstrous ... a suppression of the "personality," a disintegration of the will; in this regard we may mention a whole class of morality, the altruistic, that which is incessantly preaching pity, and whose most essential feature is the weakness of the personality, so that it _rings in unison,_ and, like an over-sensitive string, does not cease from vibrating ... extreme irritability....

(3) Cause and effect are confounded: decadence is not understood as physiological, and its results are taken to be the causes of the general indisposition:--this applies to all religious morality.

(4) A state of affairs is desired in which suffering shall cease; life is actually considered the cause of all ills--_unconscious_ and insensitive states (sleep and syncope) are held in incomparably higher esteem than the conscious states; hence a _method_ of life.

45.

Concerning the hygiene of the "weak." All that is done in weakness ends in failure. Moral: do nothing. The worst of it is, that precisely the strength required in order to stop action, and to cease from reacting, is most seriously diseased under the influence of weakness: that one never reacts more promptly or more blindly than when one should not react at all.

The strength of a character is shown by the ability to delay and postpone reaction: a certain ἀδιαφορία is just as proper to it, as involuntariness in recoiling, suddenness and lack of restraint in "action," are proper to weakness. The will is weak: and the recipe for preventing foolish acts would be: to have a strong will and to do nothing--contradiction. A sort of self-destruction, the instinct of self-preservation is compromised.... _The weak man injures himself_.... That is the decadent _type_.

As a matter of fact, we meet with a vast amount of thought concerning the means wherewith _impassibility_ may be induced. To this extent, the instincts are on the right scent; for to do nothing is more useful than to do something....

All the practices of private orders, of solitary philosophers, and of fakirs, are suggested by a correct consideration of the fact, that a certain kind of man is most _useful to himself_ when he hinders his own action as much as possible.

_Relieving measures_: absolute obedience, mechanical activity, total isolation from men and things that might exact immediate decisions and actions.

46.

_Weakness of Will_: this is a fable that can lead astray. For there is no will, consequently neither a strong nor a weak one. The multiplicity and disintegration of the instincts, the want of system in their relationship, constitute what is known as a "weak will"; their co-ordination, under the government of one individual among them, results in a "strong will"--in the first case vacillation and a lack of equilibrium is noticeable: in the second, precision and definite direction.

47.

That which is inherited is not illness, but a _predisposition to illness_: a lack of the powers of resistance against injurious external influences, etc. etc, broken powers of resistance; expressed morally: resignation and humility in the presence of the enemy.

I have often wondered whether it would not be possible to class all the highest values of the philosophies, moralities, and religions which have been devised hitherto, with the values of the feeble, the _insane_ and the _neurasthenic_ in a milder form, they present the same evils.

The value of all morbid conditions consists in the fact that they magnify certain normal phenomena which are difficult to discern in normal conditions....

_Health_ and _illness_ are not essentially different, as the ancient doctors believed and as a few practitioners still believe to-day. They cannot be imagined as two distinct principles or entities which fight for the living organism and make it their battlefield. That is nonsense and mere idle gossip, which no longer holds water. As a matter of fact, there is only a difference of degree between these two living conditions: exaggeration, want of proportion, want of harmony among the normal phenomena, constitute the morbid state (Claude Bernard).

Just as "evil" may be regarded as exaggeration, discord, and want of proportion, so can "good" be regarded as a sort of protective diet against the danger of exaggeration, discord, and want of proportion.

_Hereditary weakness_ as a _dominant_ feeling: the cause of the prevailing values.

_N.B._--Weakness is in demand--why?... mostly because people cannot be anything else than weak.

_Weakening considered a duty_: The weakening of the desires, of the feelings of pleasure and of pain, of the will to power, of the will to pride, to property and to more property; weakening in the form of humility; weakening in the form of a belief; weakening in the form of repugnance and shame in the presence of all that is natural--in the form of a denial of life, in the form of illness and chronic feebleness; weakening in the form of a refusal to take revenge, to offer resistance, to become an enemy, and to show anger.

_Blunders_ in the treatment: there is no attempt at combating weakness by means of any fortifying system; but by a sort of justification consisting of moralising; _i.e.,_ by means of _interpretation._

Two totally different conditions are _confused_: for instance, the _repose of strength,_ which is essentially abstinence from reaction (the prototype of the gods whom nothing moves), and the _peace of exhaustion,_ rigidity to the point of anæsthesia. All these philosophic and ascetic modes of procedure aspire to the second state, but actually pretend to attain to the first ... for they ascribe to the condition they have reached the attributes that would be in keeping only with a divine state.

48.

_The most dangerous misunderstanding._--There is one concept which apparently allows of no confusion or ambiguity, and that is the concept _exhaustion._ Exhaustion may be acquired or inherited--in any case it alters the aspect and _value of things._

Unlike him who involuntarily _gives_ of the superabundance which he both feels and represents, to the things about him, and who sees them fuller, mightier, and more pregnant with promises,--who, in fact, _can_ bestow,--the exhausted one belittles and disfigures everything he sees--he impoverishes its worth: he is detrimental....

No mistake seems possible in this matter: and yet history discloses the terrible fact, that the exhausted have always been _confounded_ with those with the most abundant resources, and the latter with the most detrimental.

The pauper in vitality, the feeble one, impoverishes even life: the wealthy man, in vital powers, enriches it. The first is the parasite of the second: the second is a bestower of his abundance. How is confusion possible?

When he who was exhausted came forth with the bearing of a very active and energetic man (when degeneration implied a certain excess of spiritual and nervous discharge), he was _mistaken_ for the wealthy man. He inspired terror. The cult of the madman is also always the cult of him who is rich in vitality, and who is a powerful man. The fanatic, the one possessed, the religious epileptic, all eccentric creatures have been regarded as the highest types of power: as divine.

This kind of strength which inspires terror seemed to be, above all, divine: this was the starting-point of authority; here _wisdom_ was interpreted, hearkened to, and sought. Out of this there was developed, everywhere almost, a _will_ to "deify," _i.e.,_ to a typical degeneration of spirit, body, and nerves: an attempt to discover the road to this higher form of being. To make oneself ill or mad, to provoke the symptoms of serious disorder--was called getting stronger, becoming more superhuman, more terrible and more wise. People thought they would thus attain to such wealth of power, that they would be able to _dispense_ it. Wheresoever there have been prayers, some one has been sought who had something to give away.

What led astray, here, was the experience of intoxication. This increases the feeling of power to the highest degree, therefore, to the mind of the ingenuous, it is _power._ On the highest altar of power _the most intoxicated man_ must stand, the ecstatic. (There are two causes of _intoxication_: superabundant life, and a condition of morbid nutrition of the brain.)

49.

_Acquired,_ not inherited exhaustion: (1) inadequate _nourishment,_ often the result of ignorance concerning diet, as, for instance, in the case of scholars; (2) erotic precocity: the damnation more especially of the youth of France--Parisian youths, above all, who are already dirtied and ruined when they step out of their _lycées_ into the world, and who cannot break the chains of despicable tendencies; ironical and scornful towards themselves--galley-slaves despite all their refinement (moreover, in the majority of cases, already a symptom of racial and family decadence, as all hypersensitiveness is; and examples of the infection of environment: to be influenced by one's environment is also a sign of decadence); (3) alcoholism, not the instinct but the habit, foolish imitation, the cowardly or vain adaptation to a ruling fashion. What a blessing a Jew is among Germans! See the obtuseness, the flaxen head, the blue eye, and the lack of intellect in the face, the language, and the bearing; the lazy habit of stretching the limbs, and the need of repose among Germans--a need which is not the result of overwork, but of the disgusting excitation and over-excitation caused by alcohol.

50.

_A theory of exhaustion._--Vice, the insane (also artists), the criminals, the anarchists--these are not the _oppressed_ classes, but _the outcasts_ of the community of all classes hitherto.

Seeing that all our classes are permeated by these elements, we have grasped the fact that _modern society_ is not a "society" or a "body," but a diseased agglomeration of Chandala,--a society which no longer has the strength even to _excrete_.

To what extent living together for centuries has very much deepened _sickliness_:

modern virtue }
modern intellect} as forms of disease.
modern science }

51.

_The state of corruption._--The interrelation of all forms of corruption should be understood, and the Christian form (Pascal as the type), as also the socialistic and communistic (a result of the Christian), should not be overlooked (from the standpoint of natural science, the _highest_ conception of society according to socialists, is the lowest in the order of rank among societies); the "Beyond" --corruption: as though outside the real world of Becoming there were a world of Being.

Here there must be no compromise, but selection, annihilation, and war--the Christian Nihilistic standard of value must be withdrawn from all things and attacked beneath every disguise ... for instance, from modern _sociology, music,_ and _Pessimism_ (all forms of the Christian ideal of values).

Either one thing _or_ the other is true--that is to say, tending to elevate the type man....

The priest, the shepherd of souls, should be looked upon as a form of life which must be suppressed. All education, hitherto, has been helpless, adrift, without ballast, and afflicted with the contradiction of values.

Either one thing _or_ the other is true--that is to say, tending to elevate the type man....

The priest, the shepherd of souls, should be looked upon as a form of life which must be suppressed. All education, hitherto, has been helpless, adrift, without ballast, and afflicted with the contradiction of values.

52.

If Nature have no pity on the degenerate, it is not therefore immoral: the growth of physiological and moral evils in the human race, is rather the _result_ of _morbid and unnatural morality._ The sensitiveness of the majority of men is both morbid and unnatural.

Why is it that mankind is corrupt in a moral and physiological respect? The body degenerates if one organ is _unsound._ The _right of altruism_ cannot be traced to physiology, neither can the right to help and to the equality of fate: these are all premiums for degenerates and failures.

There can be no _solidarity_ in a society containing unfruitful, unproductive, and destructive members, who, by the bye, are bound to have offspring even more degenerate than they are themselves.

53.