knowledge, by the instinct of self-preservation: we regard that as good, valu able, and true, which favours the preservation of the species...(a) We have no categories which allow us to distinguish between a real and an apparent world. (At the most, there could exist a world of appear ance, but not our world of appearance.) (U) Taking the real world for granted, it might still be the less valuable to us: for the quantum of illusion might be of the highest order, owing to its value to us as a preservative measure. (Unless appearance in itself were sufficient to condemn anything?) (c] That there exists a correlation between the degrees of value and the degrees of reality (so that the highest values also possessed the greatest 84 degree of reality), is a metaphysical postulate which starts out with the hypothesis that we know the order of rank among values; and that this order is a moral one...It is only on this hypothesis that truth is necessary as a definition of all that is of a superior value. B. It is of cardinal importance that the real world should be suppressed. It is the most formidable inspirer of doubts, and depredator of values, concerning the world which we are it was our most dangerous attempt heretofore on the life of Life. War against all the hypotheses upon which a real world has been imagined. The notion that moral values are the highest values, belongs to this hypothesis. The superiority of the moral valuation would be refuted, if it could be shown to be the result of an immoral valuation a specific case of real immorality: it would thus reduce itself to an appearance, and as an appearance it would cease from having any right to condemn appearance. C. Then the " Will to Truth " would have to be examined psychologically: it is not a moral power, but a form of the Will to Power. This would have to be proved by the fact that it avails itself of every immoral means there is; above all, of the metaphysicians. 85 At the present moment we are face to face with the necessity ot testing the assumption that moral values are the highest values. MetJiod in research is attained only when all moral prejudices have been overcome: it represents a conquest over morality.,.; 584. The aberrations of philosophy are the outcome of the fact that, instead of recognising in logic and the categories of reason merely a means to the adjustment of the world for utilitarian ends (that is to say, " especially," a useful falsification}, they were taken to be the criterion of truth particularly of reality. The " criterion of truth " was, as a matter of fact, merely the biological utility of a systematic falsification of this sort, on principle: and, since a species of animals knows nothing more important than its own preservation, it was indeed allowable here to speak of " truth." Where the artlessness came in, however, was in taking this anthropocentric idiosyncrasy as the measure of things, as the canon for recognising the " real " and the " unreal ": in short, in making a relative thing absolute. And behold, all at once, the world fell into the two halves, " real " and " apparent ": and precisely that world which man s reason had arranged for him to live and to settle in, was discredited. Instead of using the forms as mere instruments for making the world manageable and calculable, the mad fancy of philosophers intervened, and saw that in these categories the concept of that world is given which 86 does not correspond to the concept of the world in which man lives...The means were mis understood as measures of value, and even used as a condemnation of their original purpose...The purpose was, to deceive one s self in a use ful way: the means thereto was the invention of forms and signs, with the help of which the confusing multifariousness of life could be reduced to a useful and wieldy scheme. But woe! a moral category was now brought into the game: no creature would deceive itself, no creature may deceive itself consequently there is only a will to truth. What is " truth "? The principle of contradiction provided the scheme: the real world to which the way is being sought cannot be in contradiction with itself, cannot change, cannot evolve, has no beginning and no end. That is the greatest error which has ever been committed, the really fatal error of the world: it was believed that in the forms of reason a criterion of reality had been found whereas their only purpose was to master reality, by misunderstanding it intelligently...And behold, the world became false precisely owing to the qualities which constitute its reality, namely, change, evolution, multifariousness, con trast, contradiction, war. And thenceforward the whole fatality was there. 1. How does one get rid of the false and merely apparent world? (it was the real and only one). 2. How does one become one s self as remote 87 as possible from the world of appearance? (the concept of the perfect being as a contrast to the real being; or, more correctly still, as the contra diction of life...). The whole direction of values was towards the slander of life; people deliberately confounded ideal dogmatism with knowledge in general: so that the opposing parties also began to reject; science with horror. Thus the road to science was doubly barred: first, by the belief in the real world; and secondly, by the opponents of this belief. Natural science and psychology were (i) condemned in their objects, (2) deprived of their artlessness...Everything is so absolutely bound and related to everything else in the real world, that to condemn, or to think azvay anything, means to condemn and think away the whole. The words " this should not be," " this ought not to be," are a farce...If one imagines the consequences, one would ruin the very source of Life by sup pressing everything which is in any sense what ever dangerous or destructive. Physiology proves this much better We see how morality (a) poisons the whole concept of the world, (b) cuts off the way to science, (c) dissipates and undermines all real in stincts (by teaching that their root is immoral]. We thus perceive a terrible tool of decadence at work, which succeeds in remaining immune, thanks to the holy names and holy attitudes it assumes. 88 585. The awful recovery of our consciousness: not of the individual, but of the human species. Let us reflect; let us think backwards; let us follow the narrow and broad highway. A. Man seeks " the truth ": a world that does not contradict itself, that does not deceive, that does not change, a real world a world in which there is no suffering: contradiction, deception, varia bility the causes of suffering! He does not doubt that there is such a thing as a world as it ought to be; he would fain find a road to it. (Indian criticism: even the ego is apparent and not real.) Whence does man derive the concept of reality? Why does he make variability, deception, con tradiction, the origin of suffering; why not rather of his happiness?...The contempt and hatred of all that perishes, changes, and varies: whence comes this valuation of stability? Obviously, the will to truth is merely the longing for a stable world. The senses deceive; reason corrects the errors: therefore it was concluded, reason is the road to a static state; the most spiritual ideas must be nearest to the " real world." It is from the senses that the greatest number of misfortunes come they are cheats, deluders, and destroyers. Happiness can be promised only by Being: change and happiness exclude each other. The loftiest desire is thus to be one with Being. That is the formula for the way to happiness. In summa: The world as it ought to be exists; this world in which we live is an error this our world should not exist. The belief in Being shows itself only as a result: the real primum mobile is the disbelief in Becom ing, the mistrust of Becoming, the scorn of all Becoming..., What kind of a man reflects in this way? An unfruitful, suffering kind, a world - weary kind. If we try and fancy what the opposite kind of man would be like, we have a picture of a creature who would not require the belief in Being; he would rather despise it as dead, tedious, and in different...The belief that the world which ought to be, is, really exists, is a belief proper to the unfruitful, who do not wish to create a world as it should be. They take it for granted, they seek for means and ways of attaining to it. " The will to truth " is the impotence of the will to create. To recognise that something Antagonism in is thus or thus: I the degrees of To act so that something will j energy in be thus or thus: j various natures. The fiction of a world which corresponds to our desires; psychological artifices and interpretations calculated to associate all that we honor and regard as pleasant, with this real world. " The will to truth " at this stage is essentially the art of interpretation: to which also belongs that interpretation which still possesses strength. The same species of men, grown one degree poorer, no longer possessed of the power to inter pret and to create fictions, produces the Nihilists. A Nihilist is the man who says of the world as it is, that it ought not to exist, and of the world as it ought to be, that it does not exist. According to this, existence (action, suffering, willing, and feeling) has no sense: the pathos of the " in vain " is the Nihilist s pathos and as pathos it is more over an inconsistency on the part of the Nihilist. He who is not able to introduce his will into things, the man without either will or energy, at least invests them with some meaning, i.e. he believes that a will is already in them. The degree of a man s will-power may be measured from the extent to which he can dis pense with the meaning in things, from the extent to which he is able to endure a world without meaning: because he himself arranges a small portion of it. The philosophical objective view of things may thus be a sign of poverty both of will and of energy. For energy organises what is closest and next; the " scientists," whose only desire is to ascertain what exists, are such as cannot arrange things as they ought to be. The artists an intermediary species: they at least set up a symbol of what should exist, they are productive inasmuch as they actually alter and transform; not like the scientists, who leave everything as it is. The connection between philosophers and the pessimistic religions; the same species of man - 91 (they attribute the highest degree of reality to the things which are valued highest). The connection between philosophers and moral men and their evaluations (the moral interpreta tion of the world as the sense of the world: after the collapse of the religious sense). The overcoming of philosophers by the annihila tion of the world of being: intermediary period of Nihilism; before there is sufficient strength present to revalue values, and to make the world of becoming, and of appearance, the only world to be deified and called good. A Nihilism as a normal phenomenon may be a symptom of increasing strength or of increasing weakness: Partly owing to the fact that the strength to create and to will ha? grown to such an extent, that it no longer requires this collective interpreta tion and introduction of a sense (" present duties," state, etc.); Partly owing to the fact that even the creative power necessary to invent sense, declines, and disappointment becomes the ruling condition. The inability to believe in a sense becomes " unbelief." What is the meaning of science in regard to both possibilities? (1) It is a sign of strength and self-control; it shows an ability to dispense with healing, consoling worlds of illusion. (2) It is also able to undermine, to dissect, to disappoint, and to weaken. 92 c. The belief in truth, the need of holding to some thing which is believed to be true: psychological reduction apart from the valuations that have existed hitherto. Fear and laziness. At the same time unbelief-. Reduction. In what way does it acquire a new value, if a real world does not exist at all (by this means the capacity of valuing, which hitherto has been lavished upora the world of being, becomes free once more), 586. The real and the "apparent" world. A. The erroneous concepts which proceed from this concept are of three kinds: (a) An unknown world: we are adventurers, we are inquisitive, that which is known to us makes us weary (the danger of the concept lies in the fact it suggests that " this " world is known to us...); (b) Another world, where things are different: something in us draws comparisons, and thereby our calm submission and our silence lose their value perhaps all will be for the best, we have not hoped in vain...The world where things are different who knows? where we ourselves will be different...(c) A real world: that is the most singular 93 blow and attack which we have ever received; so many things have become encrusted in the word " true," that we involuntarily give these to the " real world ": the real world must also be a truth ful world, such a one as would not deceive us or make fools of us: to believe in it in this way is to be almost forced to believe (from convention, as is the case among people worthy of confidence). * The concept, " the unknown world," suggests that this world is known to us (is tedious); True concept, "the other world," suggests that this world might be different, it suppresses necessity and fate (it is useless to submit and to adapt one s self}; The concept, the true world, suggests that this world is untruthful, deceitful, dishonest, not genuine, and not essential, and consequently not a world calculated to be useful to us (it is un- advisable to become adapted to it; better resist it). * Thus we escape from " this " world in three different ways: (a) With our curiosity as though the interest ing part was somewhere else; (b) With our submission as though it was not necessary to submit, as though this world was not an ultimate necessity; (c) With our sympathy and respect as though this world did not deserve them, as though it was mean and dishonest towards us...In summa: we have become revolutionaries in 94 three different ways; we have made x our criticism of the " known world." B. The first step to reason; to understand to what extent we have been seduced, for it might be precisely the reverse: (a) The unknown world could be so constituted as to give us a liking for " this " world it may be a more stupid and meaner form of existence. (b) The other world, very far from taking account of our desires which were never realized here, might be part of the mass of things which this world makes possible for us; to learn to know this world would be a means of satisfying us. (c) The true world: but who actually says that the apparent world must be of less value than the true world? Do not our instincts contradict this * judgment? Is not man eternally occupied in I creating an imaginative world, because he will 1 have a better world than reality? In the first place, how do we know that our world is not the true world?...for it might be that the other world is the world of " appearance " (as a matter of fact, the Greeks, for instance, actually imagined a region of shadows, a life of appearance, beside real existence). And finally, what right have we to establish degrees of reality, as it were? That is something different from an unknown world that is already the will to know something of the un known. The " other," the " unknown " world- good! but to speak of the " true world is as 95 good as " knowing something about it," that is the contrary of the assumption of an r-world...In short, the world x might be in every way a more tedious, a more inhuman, and a less dignified world than this one. It would be quite another matter if it were assumed that there were several.r-worlds that is to say, every possible kind of world besides our; own. But this has never been assumed.. C. Problem: why has the image of the other world always been to the disadvantage of " this " one that is to say, always stood as a criticism of it; what does this point to? A people that are proud of themselves, and who are on the ascending path of Life, always picture another existence as lower and less valu able than theirs; they regard the strange unknown world as their enemy, as their opposite; they feel no curiosity, but rather repugnance in regard to what is strange to them...Such a body of men would never admit that another people were the; true people."...The very fact that such a distinction is possible, that this world should be called the world of appearance, and that the other should be called the " true " world, is symptomatic. The places of origin of the idea of " another world ": The philosopher who invents a rational world where reason and logical functions are 96" adequate: this is the root of the " true " world. The religious man who invents a " divine world ": this is the root of the " de naturalised " and the " anti-natural " world. The moral man who invents a " free world ": this is the root }f the good, the perfect, the just, and the holy world. The common factor in the three places of origin: psychological error, physiological confusion. With what attributes is the " other world," as it actually appears in history, characterised? With the stigmata of philosophical, religious, and moral prejudices. The " other world " as it appears in the light of these facts, is synonymous with not-Being with not-living, with the will not to live...General aspect: it was the instinct of the fatigue of living and not that of life, which created the " other world." Result: philosophy, religion, and morality are symptoms of decadence.
(f) THE BIOLOGICAL VALUE OF KNOWLEDGE.
587. It might seem as though I had evaded the question concerning " certainty." The reverse is true: but while raising the question of the criterion of certainty, I wished to discover the weights and measures with which men had weighed heretofore and to show that the question con- 97 cerning certainty is already in itself a dependent question, a question of the second rank.
588. The question of values is more fundamental than the question of certainty: the latter only becomes serious once the question of values has been answered. Being and appearance, regarded psychologically, yield no " Being-in-itself," no criterion for " reality," but only degrees of appearance, measured accord ing to the strength of the sympathy which we feel for appearance. There is no struggle for existence between ideas and observations, but only a struggle for supremacy the vanquished idea is not anni hilated, but only driven to the background or subordinated. There is no such thing as annihilation in intellectual spheres.
589. As interpretations (not ~,, as established facts) End and means Cause and effect" c,. were they perhaps 41 Subject and object Action and sufferincj u ~,...ir tions? (as "preserva- " Thing - in - itself and tive measures ) all appearance ind in what respect necessary interpreta- in the sense of a Will to Power. I. G 98 590. Our values are interpreted into the heart of things. Is there, then, any sense in the absolute? Is not sense necessarily retative-sensQ and per spective? All sense is Will to Power (all relative senses may be identified with it).
591. The desire for " established facts " Epistemology: how much pessimism there is in it!
592. The antagonism between the " true world," as pessimism depicts it, and a world in which it were possible to live for this the rights of truth must be tested. It is necessary to measure all these " ideal forces " according to the standard of life, in order to understand the nature of that antagonism: the struggle of sickly, desperate life, cleaving to a beyond, against healthier, more foolish, more false, richer, and fresher life. Thus it is not " truth " struggling with Life, but one kind of Life with another kind. But the former would fain be the higher kind! Here we must prove that some order of rank is necessary, that the first problem is the order of rank among kinds of Life.
593. The belief, " It is thus and thus" must be altered into the will, " Thus and thus shall it be" 99 (m) SCIENCE.
594. Science hitherto has been a means of dis- posing of the confusion of things by hypotheses; which " explain everything " that is to say, it has been the result of the intellect s repugnance? to chaos. This same repugnance takes hold off me when I contemplate myself I should like to form some kind of representation of my inner world for myself by means of a scheme, and thus overcome intellectual confusion. Morality was a simplification of this sort: it taught man as recognized, as known. Now we have annihilated morality we have once more grown completely obscure to ourselves! I know that I know nothing about myself. Physics shows itself to be a boon for the mind: science (as the road to knowledge) acquires a new charm after morality has been laid aside and owing to the fact that we find consist ency here alone, we must order our lives in accordance with it so that it may help us to preserve it. This results in a sort of practical meditation concerning the conditions of our exist ence as investigators.
595. Our first principles: no God: no purpose: limited energy. We will take good care to avoid thinking out and prescribing the necessary lines of thought for the lower orders.
596. No " moral education " of humanity: but the disciplinary school of scientific errors is necessary, because truth disgusts and creates a dislike of life, provided a man is not already irrevocably launched upon his way, and bears the con sequences of his honest standpoint with tragic pride.
597. The first principle of scientific work: faith in the union and continuance of scientific work, so that the individual may undertake to work at any point, however small, and feel sure that his efforts will not be in vain. There is a great paralysing force: to work in vain, to struggle in vain. * The periods of hoarding, when energy and power are stored, to be utilised later by sub sequent periods: Science as a half-way house, at which the mediocre, more multifarious, and more complicated beings find their most natural gratification and means of expression: all those who do well to avoid action.
598. A philosopher recuperates his strength in a way quite his own, and with other means: he does it, for instance, with Nihilism. The belief that there is no such thing as truth, the Nihilistic V belief, is a tremendous relaxation for one who, as IOI a warrior of knowledge, is unremittingly struggling with a host of hateful truths. For truth is ugly.
599. The " purposelessness of all phenomena ": the belief in this is the result of the view that all interpretations hitherto have been false, it is a generalization on the part of discouragement and weakness it is not a necessary belief. The arrogance of man: when he sees no purpose, he denies that there can be one!
600. The unlimited ways of interpreting the world: every interpretation is a symptom of growth or decline. Unity (monism) is a need of inertia; Plurality in interpretation is a sign of strength. One should not desire to deprive the world of its disquiet ing and enigmatical nature I 601. Against the desire for reconciliation and peaceableness. To this also belongs every attempt on the part of monism.
602. This relative world, this world for the eye, the touch, and the ear, is very false, even when adjusted to a much more sensitive sensual apparatus. But its comprehensibility, its clearness, its practicability, its beauty, will begin to near their end if we refine our senses, just as beauty ceases to exist when the processes of its history are reflected upon: the arrangement of the end is in itself an illusion. Let it suffice, that the more coarsely and more superficially it is under stood, the more valuable the more definite, the more beautiful and important the world then seems. The more deeply one looks into it, the further our valuation retreats from our view, senselessness approaches. We have created the world that has any value! Knowing this, we also per ceive that the veneration of truth is already the result of illusion and that it is much more necessary to esteem the formative, simplifying, moulding, and romancing power. "All is false everything is allowed!" Only as the result of a certain bluntness of vision and the desire for simplicity does the beautiful and the "valuable" make its appearance: in itself it is purely fanciful.
603. We know that the destruction of an illusion does not necessarily produce a truth, but only one more piece of ignorance; it is the extension of our " empty space," an increase in our " waste."
604. Of what alone can knowledge consist? " Interpretation," the introduction of a sense into 103 things, not " explanation " (in the majority of cases a new interpretation of an old interpretation which has grown incomprehensible and little more than a mere sign). There is no such thing as an I established fact, everything fluctuates, everything! is intangible, yielding; after all, the most lasting of all things are our opinions.
605. The ascertaining of " truth " and " untruth," the ascertaining of facts in general, is fundamentally different from the creative placing, forming, mould ing, subduing, and willing which lies at the root of philosophy. To give a sense to things this duty always remains over, provided no sense already lies in them. The same holds good of sounds, and also of the fate of nations: they are suscept ible of the most varied interpretations and turns, for different purposes. A higher duty is to fix a goal and to mould facts according to it: that is, the interpretation of action, and not merely a Revaluation of con cepts.
606. Man ultimately finds nothing more in things than he himself has laid in them this process of finding again is science, the actual process of laying a meaning in things, is art, religion, love, pride. In both, even if they are child s play, one should show good courage and one should plough ahead; on the one hand, to find again, on the other, we are the other, to lay a sense in things 104, 607. Science: its two sides: In regard to the individual; In regard to the complex of culture (" levels of culture ") antagonistic valuation in regard to this and that side.
608. The development of science tends ever more to transform the known into the unknown: its aim, however, is to do the reverse, and it starts out with the instinct of tracing the unknown to the known. In short, science is laying the road to sovereign ignorance, to a feeling that " knowledge " does not exist at all, that it was merely a form of haughti ness to dream of such a thing; further, that we have not preserved the smallest notion which would allow us to class knowledge even as a possibility that " knowledge " is a contradictory idea. We transfer a primeval myth and piece of human vanity into the land of hard facts: we can allow a " thing-in-itself " as a concept, just as little as we can allow " knowledge-in-itself." The misleading influence of " numbers and logic," the misleading influence of " laws." Wisdom is an attempt to overcome the per spective valuations (i.e. the " will to power "): it is a principle which is both unfriendly to Life, and also decadent; a symptom in the case of the Indians, etc.; weakness of the power of appropriation. 105 609. It does not suffice for you to see in what ignor ance man and beast now live; you must also have and learn the desire for ignorance. It is necessary that you should know that without this form of ignorance life itself would be impossible, that it is merely?, vital condition under which, alone, a living organism can preserve itself and prosper: a great solid belt of ignorance must stand about you.
610. Science the transformation of Nature into con cepts for the purpose of governing Nature that is part of the rubric" means " But the purpose and will of mankind must grow in the same way, the intention in regard to the whole.
611. Thought is the strongest and most persistently exercised function in all stages of life and also in every act of perception or apparent experience! Obviously it soon becomes the mightiest and most exacting of all functions, and in time tyrannises over other powers. Ultimately it becomes " passion in itself."
612. The right to great passion must be reclaimed for the investigator, after self-effacement and the cult of " objectivity " have created a false order of rank in this sphere. Error reached its zenith 106 when Schopenhauer taught: in the release from passion and in will alone lay the road to " truth," to knowledge; the intellect freed from will could not help seeing the true and actual essence of things. The same error in art: as if everything became beautiful the moment it was regarded without will.
613. The contest for supremacy among the passions, and the dominion of one of the passions over the intellect.
614. To "humanise" the world means to feel our selves ever more and more masters upon earth.
615. Knowledge, among a higher class of beings, will also take new forms which are not yet necessary.
616. That the worth of the world lies in our inter pretations (that perhaps yet other interpretations are possible somewhere, besides mankind s); that the interpretations made hitherto were perspective valuations, by means of which we were able to survive in life, i.e. in the Will to Power and in the growth of power; that every elevation of man involves the overcoming of narrower interpretations; that every higher degree of strength or power attained, brings new views in its train, and teaches a belief in new horizons these doctrines lie IO7 scattered through all my works. The world that concerns us at all is false that is to say, is not a fact; but a romance, a piece of human sculpture, made from a meagre sum of observation; it is " in flux"; it is something that evolves, a great revolving lie continually moving onwards and never getting any nearer to truth for there is no such thing as " truth."
617. Recapitulation: To stamp Becoming with the character of Being this is the highest Will to Power. Tlte twofold falsification, by the senses on the one hand, by the intellect on the other, with the view of maintaining a world of being, of rest, of equivalent cases, etc. That everything- recurs, is the very nearest approach of a world of Becoming- to a world of Being", the height of contemplation. It is out of the values which have been at tributed to Being, that the condemnation of, and dissatisfaction with, Becoming, have sprung: once such a world of Being had been invented. The metamorphoses of Being (body, God, ideas, natural laws, formulae, etc.). " Being " as appearance the twisting round of values: appearance was that which conferred the values. Knowledge in itself in a world of Becoming is impossible; how can knowledge be possible at all, then? Only as a mistaking of one s self, as will to power, as will to deception. Becoming is inventing, willing, self-denying, self-overcoming: no subject but an action, it places things, it is creative, no " causes and effects." Art is the will to overcome Becoming, it is a process of" eternalising "; but shortsighted, always according to the perspective; repeating, as it were in a small way, the tendency of the whole. That which all life shows, is to be regarded as. a reduced formula for the collective tendency: hence the new definition of the concept Life " as will to power." Instead of " cause and effect," the struggle of evolving factors with one another, frequently with the result that the opponent is absorbed; no constant number for Becoming. The uselessness of old ideals for the interpreta tion of all that takes place, once their bestial origin and utility have been recognized; they are, moreover, all hostile to life. The uselessness of the mechanical theory it gives the impression that there can be no purpose. All the idealism of mankind, hitherto, is on the point of turning into Nihilism may be shown to be a belief in absolute wordlessness, i.e. purpose- lessness. The annihilation of ideals, the new desert waste; the new arts which will help us to endure it amphibia that we are!; First principles: bravery, patience, no "stepping- Iback," not too much ardour to get to the fore. i(7V.Z?. Zarathustra constantly maintaining an attitude of parody towards all former values, as the result of his overflowing energy.)
II. THE WILL TO POWER IN NATURE i. THE MECHANICAL INTERPRETATION OF THE WORLD.