Part 7

(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.

_C._

_The belief in truth,_ the need of holding to something 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_ upon 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 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 _truthful_ 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);

The 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 unadvisable 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 interesting 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 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 realised 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 creating an imaginative world, because he will 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 unknown._ The "other," the "unknown" world--good! but to speak of the "true world" is as good as "_knowing_ something about it,"--that is the _contrary_ of the assumption of an _x_-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 _x_-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 valuable 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 adequate:--this is the root of the "true" world.

The religious man who invents a "divine world";--this is the root of the "denaturalised" and the "anti-natural" world.

The moral man who invents a "free world":--this is the root of 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._

_(l)_ 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 concerning 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 according 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 annihilated,_ but only _driven to the background_ or _subordinated. There is no such thing as annihilation in intellectual spheres._

589.

"End and means" "Cause and effect" "Subject and object" "Action and suffering" "Thing-in-itself and appearance"

As interpretations (_not_ as established facts)--and in what respect were they perhaps necessary interpretations? (as "preservative measures")--all in the sense of a Will to Power.

590.

Our values are _interpreted into the heart_ of things.

Is there, then, any _sense_ in the absolute?

Is not sense necessarily _relative-sense_ and perspective?

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._"

_(m)_ Science.

594.

Science hitherto has been a means of disposing 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 of 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 _recognised,_ 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 consistency 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 existence_ 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 consequences 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 subsequent 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 belief, is a tremendous relaxation for one who, as 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 generalisation 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 disquieting and enigmatical nature.

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 understood, 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 perceive 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 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 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, moulding, 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 susceptible 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 _transvaluation_ of concepts.

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.

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 haughtiness 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 perspective 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.

609.

It does not suffice for you to see in what ignorance 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 a 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 concepts 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 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 ourselves 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 interpretations (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 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._

_The 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 attributed 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, formulæ, 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 short-sighted, 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 interpretation of all that takes place, once their bestial origin and utility have been recognised, 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 _worth_lessness, _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-back," not too much ardour to get to the fore. (_N.B._--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.

1. The Mechanical Interpretation of the World.

618.

Of all the interpretations of the world attempted heretofore, the _mechanical_ one seems to-day to stand most prominently in the front. Apparently it has a clean conscience on its side; for no science believes inwardly in progress and success unless it be with the help of mechanical procedures. Every one knows these procedures: "reason" and "purpose" are allowed to remain out of consideration as far as possible; it is shown that, provided a sufficient amount of time be allowed to elapse, everything can evolve out of everything else, and no one attempts to suppress his malicious satisfaction, when the "apparent design in the fate" of a plant or of the yolk of an egg, may be traced to stress and thrust in short, people are heartily glad to pay respect to this principle of profoundest stupidity, if I may be allowed to pass a playful remark concerning these serious matters. Meanwhile, among the most select intellects to be found in this movement, some presentiment of evil, some anxiety is noticeable, as if the theory had a rent in it, which sooner or later might be its last: I mean the sort of rent which denotes the end of all balloons inflated with such theories.

Stress and thrust themselves cannot be "explained," one cannot get rid of the _actio in distans._ The belief even in the ability to explain is now lost, and people peevishly admit that one can only describe, not explain that the dynamic interpretation of the world, with its denial of "empty space" and its little agglomerations of atoms, will soon get the better of physicists: although in this way _Dynamis_ is certainly granted an inner quality.

619.

The triumphant concept "_energy_" with which our physicists created God and the world, needs yet to be completed: it must be given an inner will which I characterise as the "_Will to Power_"--that is to say, as an insatiable desire to manifest power; or the application and exercise of power as a creative instinct, etc. Physicists cannot get rid of the "_actio in distans_" in their principles; any more than they can a repelling force (or an attracting one). There is no help for it, all movements, all "appearances," all "laws" must be understood as _symptoms_ of an _inner_ phenomenon, and the analogy of man must be used for this purpose. It is possible to trace all the instincts of an animal to the will to power; as also all the functions of organic life to this one source.

620.