Or our world is imperfect; evil and guilt are real, determined, and are absolutely inherent to
its being; in that case it cannot be the real world: consequently knowledge can only be a
way of denying the world, for the latter is error
which may be recognised as such.
its being; in that case it cannot be the real world: consequently knowledge can only be a
way of denying the world, for the latter is error
which may be recognised as such.
Nietzsche - Works - v14 - Will to Power - a
is .
in
in
a
? THE WILL TO POWER.
and growing stronger, if individuals are seen to
grow more feeble and more equally mediocre. Humanity--mankind--is an abstract thing: the
object of rearing, even in regard to the most
individual cases, can only be the strong man (the man who has no breeding is weak, dissipated,
and unstable).
6. CONCLUDING REMARKS CONCERNING THE CRITICISM OF MORALITY.
399.
These are the things I demand of you--how ever badly they may sound in your ears: that
320
? you subject
moral valuations themselves to
criticism. That you should put a stop to your
instinctive moral impulse--which in this case demands submission and not criticism--with the
question: "why precisely
submission? " That
this yearning for a "why? "--for a criticism of morality should not only be your present form of
morality, but the sublimest of all moralities, and
an honour to yourselves and to the age you live in. That your honesty, your will, may give an
account of itself, and not deceive you: "why not? "--Before what tribunal P
4OO.
The three postulates --
All that is ignoble is high (the protest of the "vulgar man").
All that is contrary to Nature is high (the protest of the physiologically botched).
? ? ? A CRITICISM OF MORALITY.
32I
All that is of average worth is high (the pro
test of the herd, of the "mediocre").
Thus in the history of morality a will to power
finds expression, by means of which, either the slaves, the oppressed, the bungled and the botched,
phenomenon Morality is of a highly suspicious nature. Up to the present, morality has developed
at the cost of: the ruling classes and their specific |
those that suffer from themselves, or the mediocre, A/ attempt to make those valuations prevail which
favour their existence.
From a biological standpoint, therefore, the
i
instincts,
natures, the independent and privileged classes in all respects.
Morality, then, is a sort of counter-movement
opposing Nature's endeavours to arrive at a higher type. Its effects are: mistrust of life in general (in so far as tendencies are felt be immoral), --hostility towards the senses (inasmuch the
highest values are felt opposed the
the well - constituted and beautiful
? higher instincts)--Degeneration
tion "higher natures," because precisely them that the conflict becomes conscious.
4OI.
Which values have been paramount hitherto Morality the leading value all phases
philosophy (even with the Sceptics). Result: this
world no good, "true world" must exist somewhere.
What that here determines the highest VOL.
and self-destruc
? ? I.
it
is
as
of
its
is
a X
to be
| of \|ttit
in
it is
to
?
to as in
? THE WILL TO POWER.
322
value P What, in sooth, is morality? The instinct of decadence; it is the exhausted and the dis inherited who take their revenge in this way and play the masters. . . .
Historical proof: philosophers have always been
decadents and always in the pay of Nihilistic religions.
The instinct of decadence appears as the will to power. The introduction of its system of means: its means are absolutely immoral.
General aspect: the values that have been
highest hitherto have been a special instance of the will to power; morality itself is a particular
instance of immorality.
sk
Why the Antagonistic Values always succumbed.
1. How was this actually possible? Question: why did life and physiological well-constitutedness
succumb everywhere? Why was there no affirma tive philosophy, no affirmative religion?
The historical signs of such movements: the pagan religion. Dionysos versus the Christ. The Renaissance. Art.
2. The strong and the weak: the healthy and the sick; the exception and the rule. There is no doubt as to who is the stronger. . . .
General view of history: Is man an exception in
the history of life on this account? --An objection to Darwinism. The means wherewith the weak suc
ceed in ruling have become: instincts, "humanity," "institutions. " . . .
3. The proof of this rule on the part of the
? ? ? -
A CRITICISM OF MORALITY.
* 323
weak is to be found in our political instincts, in our social values, in our arts, and in our science.
sk
The instincts of decadence have become master of the instincts of ascending life. . . . The will to nonentity has prevailed over the will to life!
Is this true? is there not perhaps a stronger guarantee of life and of the species in this victory
of the weak and the mediocre ? --is it not perhaps
only a means in the collective movement of life, a mere slackening of the pace, a protective measure
against something even more dangerous?
Suppose the strong were masters in all respects,
even in valuing: let us try and think what their attitude would be towards illness, suffering, and sacrifice! Self-contempt on the part of the weak would be the result: they would do their utmost to disappear and to extirpate their kind. And
would this be desirable? --should we really like a world in which the subtlety, the consideration, the intellectuality, the plasticity--in fact, the whole
/\
influence of the weak--was lacking? " . . . sk
*TRANSLATOR's NOTE. --Werealise here the great differ
ence between Nietzsche and those who draw premature con clusions from Darwinism. There is no brutal solution of
modern problems in Nietzsche's philosophy. He did not // advocate anything so ridiculous as the total suppression of
the weak and the degenerate. What he wished to resist and
to overthrow was their supremacy, their excessive power. He
felt that there was a desirable and stronger type which was in need of having hopes, aspirations, and instincts upheld
defiance of Christian values.
------------" "
? ? ? ? in
its
? 324
THE WILL TO POWER.
We have seen two "wills to power" at war (in this special case we had a principle: that of agree
ing with the one that has hitherto succumbed, and of disagreeing with the one that has hitherto triumphed): we have recognised the "real world"
as a "world of lies," and morality as a form of immorality. We do not say "the stronger is wrong. "
We have understood what it is that has deter
mined the highest values hitherto, and why the
latter should have prevailed over the opposite value: it was numerically the stronger.
If we now purify the opposite value of the in fection, the half-heartedness, and the degeneration,
with which we identify we restore Nature the throne, free from moralic acid.
4O2.
Morality, useful error; or, more clearly still, necessary and expedient lie according the
? greatest and most impartial
4O3.
One ought be able
supporters.
acknowledge the truth sufficiently elevated
up that point where one
no longer require the disciplinary school moral
error. --When one judges life morally, One.
Neither should false personalities
one should not say, for instance, "Nature
disgusts
invented; cruel. "
precisely when one perceives that there
? ? It is
a
is
be
it
of is
to
no
to
to
to
to
a
is
of its
to
it,
-- -----
A CRITICISM OF MORALITY.
2
-
- **, *,
? such central controlling and responsible force that one is relieved /
Evolution of man. A. He tried to attain to a certain power over Nature and over himself. (Morality was necessary in
order to make man triumph in his struggle with Nature and the "wild animal. ")
B. Ifpower over Nature has been attained, this power can be used as a help in our development: Will to Power as a self-enhancing and self-strengthening principle.
4O4.
Morality may be regarded as the illusion of
a species, fostered with the view of urging the individual to sacrifice himself to the future, and seemingly granting him such a very great value,
that with that self-consciousness he may tyrannise over, and constrain, other sides of his nature, and
find it difficult to be pleased with himself.
We ought to be most profoundly thankful for what morality has done hitherto: but now it is
no more than a burden which may prove fatal. Morality itself in the form of honesty urges us to deny morality.
4O5.
To what extent is the self-destruction of morality still a sign of its own strength? We Europeans
have within us the blood of those who were ready to die for their faith; we have taken morality
*- - -
? ? ? ? 326
THE WILL TO POWER.
frightfully seriously, and there is nothing which we have not, at one time, sacrificed to On the
other hand, our intellectual subtlety has been reached essentially through the vivisection our consciences. We do not yet know the "whither" towards which we are urging our steps, now that we have departed from the soil our forebears. But was this very soil that we acquired the strength which now driving
search adventure, and
strength that we are now
from our homes thanks that
by untried possibilities and things undiscovered-- we can no longer choose, we must conquerors, now that we have no land which we feel at home and which we would fain "survive. " A concealed "yea" driving forward, and stronger than all our "nays. " Even our strength
no longer bears with the old swampy land: we venture out into the open, we attempt the task. The world still rich and undiscovered, and even
mid-sea, surrounded
? perish
poisonous men. Our very strength itself urges
were better than half-men
take the sea; there where all suns have hitherto sunk we know of new world.
? ? a
us in
. . .
be
to
of
it.
us to
to
in
it
to
is
in
of is
on
to be
us
in
or
is
it is
of
in
it us is
? III.
CRITICISM OF PHILOSOPHY.
I. GENERAL REMARKS.
4O6.
LET us rid ourselves of a few
? superstitions
among
Philosophers are prejudiced against appearance,
change, pain, death, the things of the body, the
senses, fate, bondage, and all that which has no purpose.
In the first place, they believe in: absolute knowledge, (2) in knowledge for own sake,
(3) virtue and happiness necessarily related,
(4) the recognisability men's acts. They are
led by instinctive determinations values, which former cultures are reflected (more danger ous cultures too).
408.
What have philosophers lacked (1) sense history, (2) knowledge physiology, (3)
which heretofore have been fashionable philosophers!
4O7.
? ? of
a
of
?
of
as
of A
its
a in
in in
? THE WILL TO POWER.
goal in the future. --The ability to criticise without irony or moral condemnation.
4O9.
have had (1) from times im memorial a wonderful capacity for the contradictio in adjecto, (2) they have always trusted concepts
as unconditionally as they have mistrusted the senses: it never seems to have occurred to them
that notions and words are our inheritance of past ages in which thinking was neither very clear nor very exact.
What seems to dawn upon philosophers last of all: that they must no longer allow themselves to be presented with concepts already conceived, nor must they merely purify and polish up those con
cepts; but they must first make them, create them,
themselves, and then present them and get people
to accept them. Up to the present, people have
trusted their concepts generally, as if they had
been a wonderful dowry from some kind of
wonderland: but they constitute the inheritance
of our most remote, most foolish, and most intelli
gent forefathers. This piety towards that which
already exists in us is perhaps related to the moral element in science. What we needed above all is
absolute scepticism towards all traditional concepts (like that which a certain philosopher may already have possessed--and he was Plato, of course: for he taught the reverse).
328
Philosophers
? ? ? ? CRITICISM OF PHILOSOPHY,
329
4 I. O.
Profoundly mistrustful towards the dogmas of the theory of knowledge, I liked to look now out of this window, now out of that, though I took good care not to become finally fixed anywhere, indeed I should have thought it dangerous to have done so--though finally: is it within the range of probabilities for an instrument to criticise its own fitness? What I noticed more particu larly was, that no scientific scepticism or dog
matism has ever arisen quite free from all arrie`res pense? es--that it has only a secondary value as
soon as the motive lying immediately behind it is discovered.
Fundamental aspect: Kant's, Hegel's, Schopen
hauer's, the sceptical and epochistical, the histori
fying and the pessimistic attitudes--all have a moral origin. I have found no one who has
dared to criticise the moral valuations, and I soon turned my back upon the meagre attempts that have been made to describe the evolution of these
feelings (by English and German Darwinians). How can Spinoza's position, his denial and repudiation of the moral values, be explained ?
(It was the result of his Theodicy I)
4 II.
Morality regarded as the highest form of
must be in the highest degree perfect (Leibnitz's
? protection. --Our
world is either the work and expression (the modus) of God, in which case it
? ? ? 330
THE WILL TO POWER.
conclusion . . . ),--and no one doubted that he
knew what perfection must be like,--and then all evil can only be apparent (Spinoza is more radical,
he says this of good and evil), or it must be a part of God's high purpose (a consequence of a particu
larly great mark of favour on God's part, who thus
allows man to choose between good and evil: the privilege of being no automaton; "freedom," with
the ever-present danger of making a mistake and of choosing wrongly. . . . See Simplicius, for instance, in the commentary to Epictetus).
Or our world is imperfect; evil and guilt are real, determined, and are absolutely inherent to
its being; in that case it cannot be the real world: consequently knowledge can only be a
way of denying the world, for the latter is error
which may be recognised as such. This is Schopenhauer's opinion, based upon Kantian
first principles. Pascal was still more desperate: he thought that even knowledge must be corrupt
and false--that revelation is a necessity if only
in order to recognise that the world should be denied. . . .
4 I 2.
Owing to our habit of believing in uncondi tional authorities, we have grown to feel a profound need for them: indeed, this feeling is
so strong that, even in an age of criticism such as Kant's was, it showed itself to be superior to the need for criticism, and, in a certain sense, was able to subject the whole work of critical acumen,
? and to convert it to own use.
proved
? ? its
It its
? 33 I
superiority once more in the generation which followed, and which, owing to its historical
instincts, naturally felt itself drawn to a relative
view of all authority, when it converted even the Hegelian philosophy of evolution (history re
christened and called philosophy) to own use, and represented history being the self-revela
tion and self-surpassing moral ideas. Since
Plato, philosophy has lain under the dominion morality. Even Plato's predecessors, moral
interpretations play most important ro^le (Anaxi
mander declares that all things are made perish punishment for their departure from pure
being; Heraclitus thinks that the regularity phenomena proof the morally correct
CRITICISM OF PHILOSOPHY.
? character evolution
general).
The progress philosophy has been hindered
most seriously hitherto through the influence moral arrie`res-pense? es.
I4.
all ages, "fine feelings" have been regarded
arguments, "heaving
bellows godliness, convictions have been the
"criteria" truth, and the need opposition
has been the note interrogation affixed
wisdom. This falseness and fraud permeates the whole history philosophy. But for few
respected sceptics,
uprightness found anywhere. Finally,
breasts" have been the
no instinct for intellectual
? ? is to be
of of
of is
of
of
a of
a in
a
to
to
of of of
of
its
as
as a
In
4 4I3.
in of
of as
? THE WILL TO POWER.
332
Kant guilelessly sought to make this thinker's corruption scientific by means of his concept, "practical reason. " He expressly invented a reason which, in certain cases, would allow one
not to bother about reason--that is to say, in cases where the heart's desire, morality, or "duty" are
the motive power.
4 I5.
Hegel : his popular side, the doctrine of war
and of great men. Right is on the side of the
victorious: he (the victorious man) stands for the
progress of mankind. His is an attempt at
proving the dominion of morality by means of history.
Kant: a kingdom of moral values withdrawn from us, invisible, real.
Hegel: a demonstrable process of evolution,
the actualisation of the kingdom of morality.
We shall not allow ourselves to be deceived
either in Kant's or Hegel's way:--We no longer believe, as they did, in morality, and therefore have
no philosophies to found with the view of justify ing morality. Criticism and history have no
charm for us in this respect: what is their charm, then P
416.
The importance of German philosophy (Hegel),
the thinking out of a kind of pantheism which would not reckon evil, error, and suffering as
arguments against godliness. This grand initia tive was misused by the powers that were (State,
? ? ? ? CRITICISM OF PHILOSOPHY.
333
etc. ) to sanction the rights of the people that happened to be paramount.
Schopenhauer appears as a stubborn opponent
of this idea; he is a moral man who, in order to keep in the right concerning his moral valuation,
finally becomes a denier of the world. Ultimately
he becomes a "mystic. "
I myself have sought an aesthetic justification
of the ugliness in this world. I regarded the
desire for beauty and for the persistence of certain forms as a temporary preservative and recupera tive measure: what seemed to me to be funda mentally associated with pain, however, was the
eternal lust of creating and the eternal compulsion to destroy.
We call things ugly when we look at them with the desire of attributing some sense, some new
to what has become senseless: it is the accumulated power of the creator which compels him to regard what has existed hitherto as no longer acceptable, botched, worthy of being sup pressed--ugly |
4 I 7.
My first solution of the problem : Dionysian
wisdom. The joy in the destruction of the most noble thing, and at the sight of its gradual undoing,
regarded as the joy over what is coming and what lies in the future, which triumphs over actual things, however good they may Dionysian:
temporary identification with the principle life (voluptuousness the martyr included).
My innovations. The Development Pessim
? sense,
? ? of
of
of
-
be.
? 334
THE WILL TO POWER.
ism: intellectual pessimism; moral criticism, the dissolution of the last comfort. Knowledge, a
sign of decay, veils by means of an illusion all strong action; culture isolates, is unfair and
therefore strong.
(1) My fight against decay and the increas
ing weakness of personality. I sought a new ce? ! ? ? /7/2.
(2) The impossibility of this endeavour is recognised.
(3) I therefore travelled farther along the road of dissolution--and along it I found new sources of strength for individuals. We must be destroyers | --I perceived that the state of dissolution is one in
which individual beings are able to arrive at a kind of perfection not possible hitherto, it is an image and
isolated example of life in general. To the para lysing feeling of general dissolution and imperfec
tion, I opposed the Eternal Recurrence.
418.
People naturally seek the picture of life in that
philosophy which makes them most cheerful-- that is to say, in that philosophy which gives the highest sense of freedom to their strongest instinct. This is probably the case with me.
419.
German philosophy, as a whole,--Leibnitz,
? Kant, Hegel, Schopenhauer,
greatest, -- is the most out-and-out form of
to mention the
? ? ? CRITICISM OF PHILOSOPHY,
335
romanticism and home-sickness that has ever yet
existed : it is a yearning for the best that has ever been known on earth. One is at home no
where; that which is ultimately yearned after is a
place where one can somehow feel at home; be cause there alone one would like to be at home, and
that place is the Greek world ! But it is precisely in that direction that all bridges are broken down --save, of course, the rainbow of concepts | And
the latter lead everywhere, to all the homes and
"fatherlands" that ever existed for Greek souls | Certainly, one must be very light and thin in
order to cross these bridges! But what happiness lies even in this desire for spirituality, almost for
from North passage out
? ghostliness!
With how far one from the "press and bustle" and the mechanical boorish ness the natural sciences, how far from the vulgar din "modern ideas"! One wants get back the Greeks via the Fathers the Church,
South, from formulae forms; the antiquity--Christianity--is still
source joy means access antiquity,
portion
mosaic ancient concepts and ancient valuations.
the old world itself, glistening
Arabesques, scroll-work,
abstractions--always better, that say, finer and more slender, than the peasant and plebeian reality Northern Europe, and still protest on the part higher intellectuality against the
peasant war and insurrection the mob which have become master the intellectual taste Northern Europe, and which had its leader
man great and unintellectual Luther:--in
rococo scholastic
? ? as ofofoftoof
of as
is of as
to ato
to of
in
a of
a
of of
of as of to
it,
a
is to
as a
of a
of
? 336
THE WILL TO POWER.
this respect German philosophy belongs to the Counter-Reformation, it might even be looked
upon as related to the Renaissance, or at least to the will to Renaissance, the will to get ahead with
the discovery of antiquity, with the excavation of ancient philosophy, and above all of pre-Socratic
philosophy--the most thoroughly dilapidated of
all Greek temples! Possibly, in a few hundred years, people will be of the opinion that all
German philosophy derived its dignity from this fact, that step by step it attempted to reclaim the
soil of antiquity, and that therefore all demands for "originality" must appear both petty and foolish when compared with Germany's higher
claim to having refastened the bonds which seemed for ever rent--the bonds which bound us to
the Greeks, the highest type of "men" ever evolved hitherto. To-day we are once more approach ing all the fundamental principles of the cosmogony which the Greek mind in Anaximander, Hera clitus, Parmenides, Empedocles, Democritus, Anaxagoras, was responsible for. Day by day we are growing more Greek; at first, as is only natural, the change remains confined to concepts
and valuations, and we hover around like Grecis ing spirits: but it is to be hoped that some day
our body will also be involved ! Here lies (and has always lain) my hope for the German nation.
42O.
I do not wish to convert anybody to philosophy: it is both necessary and perhaps desirable that the
? and
? ? ? cause he
CRITICISM OF PHILOSOPHY.
337
philosopher should be a rare plant. Nothing is more repugnant to me than the scholarly praise
of philosophy which is to be found in Seneca and
Cicero. Philosophy has not much in common
with virtue. I trust I may be allowed to say that
even the scientific man is a fundamentally different
person from the philosopher. What I most desire that the genuine notion "philosopher" should
not completely perish Germany. There are many incomplete creatures Germany already
who would fain conceal their ineptitude beneath such noble names.
42
must set the highest ideal philosopher.
? Learning sheep
told do so, and because others have done so before him.
422.
The superstition concerning philosophers: They
are confounded with men of science. As the
value things were inherent them and required
only be held on tightly To what extent are their researches carried on under the influence
values which already prevail (their hatred appearance the body, etc. )? Schopenhauer
not everything! The scholar the
the kingdom learning; he studies be
concerning morality
(scorn Utilitarianism).
Ultimately the confusion goes far that Darwinism regarded philosophy, and thus
the present day power has gone over the men
science. Even Frenchmen like Taine prosecute VOL. Y
? ? ofof Iis,
I.
is
to of
in
to
as
of
in I.
at
of
so
so
of a
of
to
up to
in of
in
I
if
is
is
is
? 338
THE WILL TO POWER.
research, or mean to prosecute research, without
being already in possession of a standard of ? valuation. Prostration before "facts" of a kind
of cult. As a matter of fact, they destroy the existing valuations.
The explanation of this misunderstanding. The
man who is able to command is a rare phenomenon;
he misinterprets himself. What one wants to do,
above all, is to disclaim all authority and to
attribute it to circumstances. In Germany the
critic's estimations belong to the history of awakening manhood. Lessing, etc. (Napoleon
concerning Goethe). As a matter of fact, the movement is again made retrograde owing to
German romanticism: and the fame of German philosophy relies upon , it as if it dissipated the
danger of scepticism and could demonstrate faith. Both tendencies culminate in Hegel: at bottom, what he did was to generalise the fact of German criticism and the fact of German romanticism,-a kind of dialectical fatalism, but to the honour of intellectuality, with the actual submission of the philosopher to reality. The critic prepares the way: that is all !
With Schopenhauer the philosopher's mission dawns; it is felt that the object is to determine
? values;
The ideal of Pessimism.
still under the dominion of eudemonism.
423.
Theory and practice. --This is a pernicious dis tinction, as if there were an instinct of knowledge,
? ? ? CRITICISM OF PHILOSOPHY.
339
which, without inquiring into the utility or harm fulness of a thing, blindly charged at the truth;
and then that, apart from this instinct, there were the whole world of practical interests.
In contradiction of this, I try to show what instincts are active behind all these pure theorists, --and how the latter, as a whole, under the dominion of their instincts, fatally make for some thing which to their minds is "truth," to their minds and only to their minds. The struggle between systems, together with the struggle between epistemological scruples, is one which
involves very special instincts (forms of vitality, of decline, of classes, of races, etc. ).
The so-called thirst for knowledge may be traced to the lust of appropriation and of conquest: in
obedience to this lust the senses, memory, and the instincts, etc. , were developed. The quickest
possible reduction of the phenomena, economy,
the accumulation of spoil from the world of know
ledge (i. e. that portion of the world which has been appropriated and made manageable). . . .
Morality is therefore such a curious science, because it is in the highest degree practical : the
purely scientific position, scientific uprightness, is thus immediately abandoned, as soon as morality calls for replies to its questions. Morality says: . I require certain answers--reasons, arguments; scruples may come afterwards, or they may not come at all.
"How must one act? " If one considers that one is dealing with a supremely evolved type--a type which has been "dealt with " for countless.
? ? ? ? 34O
THE WILL TO POWER.
thousands of years, and in which everything ! become instinct, expediency, automatism, fatali
the urgency of this moral question seems ratl funny.
"How must one act? " Morality has alwa been a subject of misunderstanding: as a mat
of fact, a certain species, which was constituted
act in a certain way, wished to justify itself making its norm paramount.
"How must one act? " this is not a cause, l
an effect. Morality follows, the ideal con attheend. . . .
On the other hand, the appearance of mo
scruples (or in other words, the coming to conscio
ness of the values which guide action) betray certain morbidness; strong ages and people
not ponder over their rights, nor over the princip
of action, over instinct or over reason. Conscio
ness is a sign that the real morality--that is to s
the certainty of instinct which leads to a defin
course of action--is going to the dogs. . . . Ev.
time a new world of consciousness is created, moralists are signs of a lesion, of impoverishm
and of disorganisation. Those who are dee instinctive fear bandying words over duties: amo them are found pyrrhonic opponents of dialect and of knowableness in general. . . . A virtue refuted with a "for. " . . .
Thesis : The appearance of moralists belo to periods when morality is declining.
Thesis : The moralist is a dissipator of ma
instincts, however much he may appear to be th restorer,
? ? ? ? CRITICISM OF PHILOSOPHY.
34I
Thesis : That which really prompts the action of a moralist is not a moral instinct, but the instincts of decadence, translated into the forms of morality (he regards the growing uncertainty of the instincts as corruption).
in
in
a
? THE WILL TO POWER.
and growing stronger, if individuals are seen to
grow more feeble and more equally mediocre. Humanity--mankind--is an abstract thing: the
object of rearing, even in regard to the most
individual cases, can only be the strong man (the man who has no breeding is weak, dissipated,
and unstable).
6. CONCLUDING REMARKS CONCERNING THE CRITICISM OF MORALITY.
399.
These are the things I demand of you--how ever badly they may sound in your ears: that
320
? you subject
moral valuations themselves to
criticism. That you should put a stop to your
instinctive moral impulse--which in this case demands submission and not criticism--with the
question: "why precisely
submission? " That
this yearning for a "why? "--for a criticism of morality should not only be your present form of
morality, but the sublimest of all moralities, and
an honour to yourselves and to the age you live in. That your honesty, your will, may give an
account of itself, and not deceive you: "why not? "--Before what tribunal P
4OO.
The three postulates --
All that is ignoble is high (the protest of the "vulgar man").
All that is contrary to Nature is high (the protest of the physiologically botched).
? ? ? A CRITICISM OF MORALITY.
32I
All that is of average worth is high (the pro
test of the herd, of the "mediocre").
Thus in the history of morality a will to power
finds expression, by means of which, either the slaves, the oppressed, the bungled and the botched,
phenomenon Morality is of a highly suspicious nature. Up to the present, morality has developed
at the cost of: the ruling classes and their specific |
those that suffer from themselves, or the mediocre, A/ attempt to make those valuations prevail which
favour their existence.
From a biological standpoint, therefore, the
i
instincts,
natures, the independent and privileged classes in all respects.
Morality, then, is a sort of counter-movement
opposing Nature's endeavours to arrive at a higher type. Its effects are: mistrust of life in general (in so far as tendencies are felt be immoral), --hostility towards the senses (inasmuch the
highest values are felt opposed the
the well - constituted and beautiful
? higher instincts)--Degeneration
tion "higher natures," because precisely them that the conflict becomes conscious.
4OI.
Which values have been paramount hitherto Morality the leading value all phases
philosophy (even with the Sceptics). Result: this
world no good, "true world" must exist somewhere.
What that here determines the highest VOL.
and self-destruc
? ? I.
it
is
as
of
its
is
a X
to be
| of \|ttit
in
it is
to
?
to as in
? THE WILL TO POWER.
322
value P What, in sooth, is morality? The instinct of decadence; it is the exhausted and the dis inherited who take their revenge in this way and play the masters. . . .
Historical proof: philosophers have always been
decadents and always in the pay of Nihilistic religions.
The instinct of decadence appears as the will to power. The introduction of its system of means: its means are absolutely immoral.
General aspect: the values that have been
highest hitherto have been a special instance of the will to power; morality itself is a particular
instance of immorality.
sk
Why the Antagonistic Values always succumbed.
1. How was this actually possible? Question: why did life and physiological well-constitutedness
succumb everywhere? Why was there no affirma tive philosophy, no affirmative religion?
The historical signs of such movements: the pagan religion. Dionysos versus the Christ. The Renaissance. Art.
2. The strong and the weak: the healthy and the sick; the exception and the rule. There is no doubt as to who is the stronger. . . .
General view of history: Is man an exception in
the history of life on this account? --An objection to Darwinism. The means wherewith the weak suc
ceed in ruling have become: instincts, "humanity," "institutions. " . . .
3. The proof of this rule on the part of the
? ? ? -
A CRITICISM OF MORALITY.
* 323
weak is to be found in our political instincts, in our social values, in our arts, and in our science.
sk
The instincts of decadence have become master of the instincts of ascending life. . . . The will to nonentity has prevailed over the will to life!
Is this true? is there not perhaps a stronger guarantee of life and of the species in this victory
of the weak and the mediocre ? --is it not perhaps
only a means in the collective movement of life, a mere slackening of the pace, a protective measure
against something even more dangerous?
Suppose the strong were masters in all respects,
even in valuing: let us try and think what their attitude would be towards illness, suffering, and sacrifice! Self-contempt on the part of the weak would be the result: they would do their utmost to disappear and to extirpate their kind. And
would this be desirable? --should we really like a world in which the subtlety, the consideration, the intellectuality, the plasticity--in fact, the whole
/\
influence of the weak--was lacking? " . . . sk
*TRANSLATOR's NOTE. --Werealise here the great differ
ence between Nietzsche and those who draw premature con clusions from Darwinism. There is no brutal solution of
modern problems in Nietzsche's philosophy. He did not // advocate anything so ridiculous as the total suppression of
the weak and the degenerate. What he wished to resist and
to overthrow was their supremacy, their excessive power. He
felt that there was a desirable and stronger type which was in need of having hopes, aspirations, and instincts upheld
defiance of Christian values.
------------" "
? ? ? ? in
its
? 324
THE WILL TO POWER.
We have seen two "wills to power" at war (in this special case we had a principle: that of agree
ing with the one that has hitherto succumbed, and of disagreeing with the one that has hitherto triumphed): we have recognised the "real world"
as a "world of lies," and morality as a form of immorality. We do not say "the stronger is wrong. "
We have understood what it is that has deter
mined the highest values hitherto, and why the
latter should have prevailed over the opposite value: it was numerically the stronger.
If we now purify the opposite value of the in fection, the half-heartedness, and the degeneration,
with which we identify we restore Nature the throne, free from moralic acid.
4O2.
Morality, useful error; or, more clearly still, necessary and expedient lie according the
? greatest and most impartial
4O3.
One ought be able
supporters.
acknowledge the truth sufficiently elevated
up that point where one
no longer require the disciplinary school moral
error. --When one judges life morally, One.
Neither should false personalities
one should not say, for instance, "Nature
disgusts
invented; cruel. "
precisely when one perceives that there
? ? It is
a
is
be
it
of is
to
no
to
to
to
to
a
is
of its
to
it,
-- -----
A CRITICISM OF MORALITY.
2
-
- **, *,
? such central controlling and responsible force that one is relieved /
Evolution of man. A. He tried to attain to a certain power over Nature and over himself. (Morality was necessary in
order to make man triumph in his struggle with Nature and the "wild animal. ")
B. Ifpower over Nature has been attained, this power can be used as a help in our development: Will to Power as a self-enhancing and self-strengthening principle.
4O4.
Morality may be regarded as the illusion of
a species, fostered with the view of urging the individual to sacrifice himself to the future, and seemingly granting him such a very great value,
that with that self-consciousness he may tyrannise over, and constrain, other sides of his nature, and
find it difficult to be pleased with himself.
We ought to be most profoundly thankful for what morality has done hitherto: but now it is
no more than a burden which may prove fatal. Morality itself in the form of honesty urges us to deny morality.
4O5.
To what extent is the self-destruction of morality still a sign of its own strength? We Europeans
have within us the blood of those who were ready to die for their faith; we have taken morality
*- - -
? ? ? ? 326
THE WILL TO POWER.
frightfully seriously, and there is nothing which we have not, at one time, sacrificed to On the
other hand, our intellectual subtlety has been reached essentially through the vivisection our consciences. We do not yet know the "whither" towards which we are urging our steps, now that we have departed from the soil our forebears. But was this very soil that we acquired the strength which now driving
search adventure, and
strength that we are now
from our homes thanks that
by untried possibilities and things undiscovered-- we can no longer choose, we must conquerors, now that we have no land which we feel at home and which we would fain "survive. " A concealed "yea" driving forward, and stronger than all our "nays. " Even our strength
no longer bears with the old swampy land: we venture out into the open, we attempt the task. The world still rich and undiscovered, and even
mid-sea, surrounded
? perish
poisonous men. Our very strength itself urges
were better than half-men
take the sea; there where all suns have hitherto sunk we know of new world.
? ? a
us in
. . .
be
to
of
it.
us to
to
in
it
to
is
in
of is
on
to be
us
in
or
is
it is
of
in
it us is
? III.
CRITICISM OF PHILOSOPHY.
I. GENERAL REMARKS.
4O6.
LET us rid ourselves of a few
? superstitions
among
Philosophers are prejudiced against appearance,
change, pain, death, the things of the body, the
senses, fate, bondage, and all that which has no purpose.
In the first place, they believe in: absolute knowledge, (2) in knowledge for own sake,
(3) virtue and happiness necessarily related,
(4) the recognisability men's acts. They are
led by instinctive determinations values, which former cultures are reflected (more danger ous cultures too).
408.
What have philosophers lacked (1) sense history, (2) knowledge physiology, (3)
which heretofore have been fashionable philosophers!
4O7.
? ? of
a
of
?
of
as
of A
its
a in
in in
? THE WILL TO POWER.
goal in the future. --The ability to criticise without irony or moral condemnation.
4O9.
have had (1) from times im memorial a wonderful capacity for the contradictio in adjecto, (2) they have always trusted concepts
as unconditionally as they have mistrusted the senses: it never seems to have occurred to them
that notions and words are our inheritance of past ages in which thinking was neither very clear nor very exact.
What seems to dawn upon philosophers last of all: that they must no longer allow themselves to be presented with concepts already conceived, nor must they merely purify and polish up those con
cepts; but they must first make them, create them,
themselves, and then present them and get people
to accept them. Up to the present, people have
trusted their concepts generally, as if they had
been a wonderful dowry from some kind of
wonderland: but they constitute the inheritance
of our most remote, most foolish, and most intelli
gent forefathers. This piety towards that which
already exists in us is perhaps related to the moral element in science. What we needed above all is
absolute scepticism towards all traditional concepts (like that which a certain philosopher may already have possessed--and he was Plato, of course: for he taught the reverse).
328
Philosophers
? ? ? ? CRITICISM OF PHILOSOPHY,
329
4 I. O.
Profoundly mistrustful towards the dogmas of the theory of knowledge, I liked to look now out of this window, now out of that, though I took good care not to become finally fixed anywhere, indeed I should have thought it dangerous to have done so--though finally: is it within the range of probabilities for an instrument to criticise its own fitness? What I noticed more particu larly was, that no scientific scepticism or dog
matism has ever arisen quite free from all arrie`res pense? es--that it has only a secondary value as
soon as the motive lying immediately behind it is discovered.
Fundamental aspect: Kant's, Hegel's, Schopen
hauer's, the sceptical and epochistical, the histori
fying and the pessimistic attitudes--all have a moral origin. I have found no one who has
dared to criticise the moral valuations, and I soon turned my back upon the meagre attempts that have been made to describe the evolution of these
feelings (by English and German Darwinians). How can Spinoza's position, his denial and repudiation of the moral values, be explained ?
(It was the result of his Theodicy I)
4 II.
Morality regarded as the highest form of
must be in the highest degree perfect (Leibnitz's
? protection. --Our
world is either the work and expression (the modus) of God, in which case it
? ? ? 330
THE WILL TO POWER.
conclusion . . . ),--and no one doubted that he
knew what perfection must be like,--and then all evil can only be apparent (Spinoza is more radical,
he says this of good and evil), or it must be a part of God's high purpose (a consequence of a particu
larly great mark of favour on God's part, who thus
allows man to choose between good and evil: the privilege of being no automaton; "freedom," with
the ever-present danger of making a mistake and of choosing wrongly. . . . See Simplicius, for instance, in the commentary to Epictetus).
Or our world is imperfect; evil and guilt are real, determined, and are absolutely inherent to
its being; in that case it cannot be the real world: consequently knowledge can only be a
way of denying the world, for the latter is error
which may be recognised as such. This is Schopenhauer's opinion, based upon Kantian
first principles. Pascal was still more desperate: he thought that even knowledge must be corrupt
and false--that revelation is a necessity if only
in order to recognise that the world should be denied. . . .
4 I 2.
Owing to our habit of believing in uncondi tional authorities, we have grown to feel a profound need for them: indeed, this feeling is
so strong that, even in an age of criticism such as Kant's was, it showed itself to be superior to the need for criticism, and, in a certain sense, was able to subject the whole work of critical acumen,
? and to convert it to own use.
proved
? ? its
It its
? 33 I
superiority once more in the generation which followed, and which, owing to its historical
instincts, naturally felt itself drawn to a relative
view of all authority, when it converted even the Hegelian philosophy of evolution (history re
christened and called philosophy) to own use, and represented history being the self-revela
tion and self-surpassing moral ideas. Since
Plato, philosophy has lain under the dominion morality. Even Plato's predecessors, moral
interpretations play most important ro^le (Anaxi
mander declares that all things are made perish punishment for their departure from pure
being; Heraclitus thinks that the regularity phenomena proof the morally correct
CRITICISM OF PHILOSOPHY.
? character evolution
general).
The progress philosophy has been hindered
most seriously hitherto through the influence moral arrie`res-pense? es.
I4.
all ages, "fine feelings" have been regarded
arguments, "heaving
bellows godliness, convictions have been the
"criteria" truth, and the need opposition
has been the note interrogation affixed
wisdom. This falseness and fraud permeates the whole history philosophy. But for few
respected sceptics,
uprightness found anywhere. Finally,
breasts" have been the
no instinct for intellectual
? ? is to be
of of
of is
of
of
a of
a in
a
to
to
of of of
of
its
as
as a
In
4 4I3.
in of
of as
? THE WILL TO POWER.
332
Kant guilelessly sought to make this thinker's corruption scientific by means of his concept, "practical reason. " He expressly invented a reason which, in certain cases, would allow one
not to bother about reason--that is to say, in cases where the heart's desire, morality, or "duty" are
the motive power.
4 I5.
Hegel : his popular side, the doctrine of war
and of great men. Right is on the side of the
victorious: he (the victorious man) stands for the
progress of mankind. His is an attempt at
proving the dominion of morality by means of history.
Kant: a kingdom of moral values withdrawn from us, invisible, real.
Hegel: a demonstrable process of evolution,
the actualisation of the kingdom of morality.
We shall not allow ourselves to be deceived
either in Kant's or Hegel's way:--We no longer believe, as they did, in morality, and therefore have
no philosophies to found with the view of justify ing morality. Criticism and history have no
charm for us in this respect: what is their charm, then P
416.
The importance of German philosophy (Hegel),
the thinking out of a kind of pantheism which would not reckon evil, error, and suffering as
arguments against godliness. This grand initia tive was misused by the powers that were (State,
? ? ? ? CRITICISM OF PHILOSOPHY.
333
etc. ) to sanction the rights of the people that happened to be paramount.
Schopenhauer appears as a stubborn opponent
of this idea; he is a moral man who, in order to keep in the right concerning his moral valuation,
finally becomes a denier of the world. Ultimately
he becomes a "mystic. "
I myself have sought an aesthetic justification
of the ugliness in this world. I regarded the
desire for beauty and for the persistence of certain forms as a temporary preservative and recupera tive measure: what seemed to me to be funda mentally associated with pain, however, was the
eternal lust of creating and the eternal compulsion to destroy.
We call things ugly when we look at them with the desire of attributing some sense, some new
to what has become senseless: it is the accumulated power of the creator which compels him to regard what has existed hitherto as no longer acceptable, botched, worthy of being sup pressed--ugly |
4 I 7.
My first solution of the problem : Dionysian
wisdom. The joy in the destruction of the most noble thing, and at the sight of its gradual undoing,
regarded as the joy over what is coming and what lies in the future, which triumphs over actual things, however good they may Dionysian:
temporary identification with the principle life (voluptuousness the martyr included).
My innovations. The Development Pessim
? sense,
? ? of
of
of
-
be.
? 334
THE WILL TO POWER.
ism: intellectual pessimism; moral criticism, the dissolution of the last comfort. Knowledge, a
sign of decay, veils by means of an illusion all strong action; culture isolates, is unfair and
therefore strong.
(1) My fight against decay and the increas
ing weakness of personality. I sought a new ce? ! ? ? /7/2.
(2) The impossibility of this endeavour is recognised.
(3) I therefore travelled farther along the road of dissolution--and along it I found new sources of strength for individuals. We must be destroyers | --I perceived that the state of dissolution is one in
which individual beings are able to arrive at a kind of perfection not possible hitherto, it is an image and
isolated example of life in general. To the para lysing feeling of general dissolution and imperfec
tion, I opposed the Eternal Recurrence.
418.
People naturally seek the picture of life in that
philosophy which makes them most cheerful-- that is to say, in that philosophy which gives the highest sense of freedom to their strongest instinct. This is probably the case with me.
419.
German philosophy, as a whole,--Leibnitz,
? Kant, Hegel, Schopenhauer,
greatest, -- is the most out-and-out form of
to mention the
? ? ? CRITICISM OF PHILOSOPHY,
335
romanticism and home-sickness that has ever yet
existed : it is a yearning for the best that has ever been known on earth. One is at home no
where; that which is ultimately yearned after is a
place where one can somehow feel at home; be cause there alone one would like to be at home, and
that place is the Greek world ! But it is precisely in that direction that all bridges are broken down --save, of course, the rainbow of concepts | And
the latter lead everywhere, to all the homes and
"fatherlands" that ever existed for Greek souls | Certainly, one must be very light and thin in
order to cross these bridges! But what happiness lies even in this desire for spirituality, almost for
from North passage out
? ghostliness!
With how far one from the "press and bustle" and the mechanical boorish ness the natural sciences, how far from the vulgar din "modern ideas"! One wants get back the Greeks via the Fathers the Church,
South, from formulae forms; the antiquity--Christianity--is still
source joy means access antiquity,
portion
mosaic ancient concepts and ancient valuations.
the old world itself, glistening
Arabesques, scroll-work,
abstractions--always better, that say, finer and more slender, than the peasant and plebeian reality Northern Europe, and still protest on the part higher intellectuality against the
peasant war and insurrection the mob which have become master the intellectual taste Northern Europe, and which had its leader
man great and unintellectual Luther:--in
rococo scholastic
? ? as ofofoftoof
of as
is of as
to ato
to of
in
a of
a
of of
of as of to
it,
a
is to
as a
of a
of
? 336
THE WILL TO POWER.
this respect German philosophy belongs to the Counter-Reformation, it might even be looked
upon as related to the Renaissance, or at least to the will to Renaissance, the will to get ahead with
the discovery of antiquity, with the excavation of ancient philosophy, and above all of pre-Socratic
philosophy--the most thoroughly dilapidated of
all Greek temples! Possibly, in a few hundred years, people will be of the opinion that all
German philosophy derived its dignity from this fact, that step by step it attempted to reclaim the
soil of antiquity, and that therefore all demands for "originality" must appear both petty and foolish when compared with Germany's higher
claim to having refastened the bonds which seemed for ever rent--the bonds which bound us to
the Greeks, the highest type of "men" ever evolved hitherto. To-day we are once more approach ing all the fundamental principles of the cosmogony which the Greek mind in Anaximander, Hera clitus, Parmenides, Empedocles, Democritus, Anaxagoras, was responsible for. Day by day we are growing more Greek; at first, as is only natural, the change remains confined to concepts
and valuations, and we hover around like Grecis ing spirits: but it is to be hoped that some day
our body will also be involved ! Here lies (and has always lain) my hope for the German nation.
42O.
I do not wish to convert anybody to philosophy: it is both necessary and perhaps desirable that the
? and
? ? ? cause he
CRITICISM OF PHILOSOPHY.
337
philosopher should be a rare plant. Nothing is more repugnant to me than the scholarly praise
of philosophy which is to be found in Seneca and
Cicero. Philosophy has not much in common
with virtue. I trust I may be allowed to say that
even the scientific man is a fundamentally different
person from the philosopher. What I most desire that the genuine notion "philosopher" should
not completely perish Germany. There are many incomplete creatures Germany already
who would fain conceal their ineptitude beneath such noble names.
42
must set the highest ideal philosopher.
? Learning sheep
told do so, and because others have done so before him.
422.
The superstition concerning philosophers: They
are confounded with men of science. As the
value things were inherent them and required
only be held on tightly To what extent are their researches carried on under the influence
values which already prevail (their hatred appearance the body, etc. )? Schopenhauer
not everything! The scholar the
the kingdom learning; he studies be
concerning morality
(scorn Utilitarianism).
Ultimately the confusion goes far that Darwinism regarded philosophy, and thus
the present day power has gone over the men
science. Even Frenchmen like Taine prosecute VOL. Y
? ? ofof Iis,
I.
is
to of
in
to
as
of
in I.
at
of
so
so
of a
of
to
up to
in of
in
I
if
is
is
is
? 338
THE WILL TO POWER.
research, or mean to prosecute research, without
being already in possession of a standard of ? valuation. Prostration before "facts" of a kind
of cult. As a matter of fact, they destroy the existing valuations.
The explanation of this misunderstanding. The
man who is able to command is a rare phenomenon;
he misinterprets himself. What one wants to do,
above all, is to disclaim all authority and to
attribute it to circumstances. In Germany the
critic's estimations belong to the history of awakening manhood. Lessing, etc. (Napoleon
concerning Goethe). As a matter of fact, the movement is again made retrograde owing to
German romanticism: and the fame of German philosophy relies upon , it as if it dissipated the
danger of scepticism and could demonstrate faith. Both tendencies culminate in Hegel: at bottom, what he did was to generalise the fact of German criticism and the fact of German romanticism,-a kind of dialectical fatalism, but to the honour of intellectuality, with the actual submission of the philosopher to reality. The critic prepares the way: that is all !
With Schopenhauer the philosopher's mission dawns; it is felt that the object is to determine
? values;
The ideal of Pessimism.
still under the dominion of eudemonism.
423.
Theory and practice. --This is a pernicious dis tinction, as if there were an instinct of knowledge,
? ? ? CRITICISM OF PHILOSOPHY.
339
which, without inquiring into the utility or harm fulness of a thing, blindly charged at the truth;
and then that, apart from this instinct, there were the whole world of practical interests.
In contradiction of this, I try to show what instincts are active behind all these pure theorists, --and how the latter, as a whole, under the dominion of their instincts, fatally make for some thing which to their minds is "truth," to their minds and only to their minds. The struggle between systems, together with the struggle between epistemological scruples, is one which
involves very special instincts (forms of vitality, of decline, of classes, of races, etc. ).
The so-called thirst for knowledge may be traced to the lust of appropriation and of conquest: in
obedience to this lust the senses, memory, and the instincts, etc. , were developed. The quickest
possible reduction of the phenomena, economy,
the accumulation of spoil from the world of know
ledge (i. e. that portion of the world which has been appropriated and made manageable). . . .
Morality is therefore such a curious science, because it is in the highest degree practical : the
purely scientific position, scientific uprightness, is thus immediately abandoned, as soon as morality calls for replies to its questions. Morality says: . I require certain answers--reasons, arguments; scruples may come afterwards, or they may not come at all.
"How must one act? " If one considers that one is dealing with a supremely evolved type--a type which has been "dealt with " for countless.
? ? ? ? 34O
THE WILL TO POWER.
thousands of years, and in which everything ! become instinct, expediency, automatism, fatali
the urgency of this moral question seems ratl funny.
"How must one act? " Morality has alwa been a subject of misunderstanding: as a mat
of fact, a certain species, which was constituted
act in a certain way, wished to justify itself making its norm paramount.
"How must one act? " this is not a cause, l
an effect. Morality follows, the ideal con attheend. . . .
On the other hand, the appearance of mo
scruples (or in other words, the coming to conscio
ness of the values which guide action) betray certain morbidness; strong ages and people
not ponder over their rights, nor over the princip
of action, over instinct or over reason. Conscio
ness is a sign that the real morality--that is to s
the certainty of instinct which leads to a defin
course of action--is going to the dogs. . . . Ev.
time a new world of consciousness is created, moralists are signs of a lesion, of impoverishm
and of disorganisation. Those who are dee instinctive fear bandying words over duties: amo them are found pyrrhonic opponents of dialect and of knowableness in general. . . . A virtue refuted with a "for. " . . .
Thesis : The appearance of moralists belo to periods when morality is declining.
Thesis : The moralist is a dissipator of ma
instincts, however much he may appear to be th restorer,
? ? ? ? CRITICISM OF PHILOSOPHY.
34I
Thesis : That which really prompts the action of a moralist is not a moral instinct, but the instincts of decadence, translated into the forms of morality (he regards the growing uncertainty of the instincts as corruption).
