Part 2

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.