No More Learning



## p. 84 (#114) #############################################

84
THE WILL TO POWER.
degree of reality), is a metaphysical postulate
which starts out with the hypothesis that we know
the order of rank among values; and that this
order is a inoral one. . . It is only on this
hypothesis that truth is necessary as a definition
of all that is of a superior value.
B.
It is of cardinal importance that the real world
should be suppressed. It is the most formidable
inspirer of doubts, and depreciator of values,
concerning the world which we are: it was our
most dangerous attempt heretofore on the life of Life.
War against all the hypotheses upon which a
real world has been imagined. The notion that
moral values are the highest values, belongs to
this hypothesis.
The superiority of the moral valuation would
be refuted, if it could be shown to be the result
of an immoral valuation—a specific case of real
immorality: it would thus reduce itself to an
appearance, and as an appearance it would cease
from having any right to condemn appearance.
:
C.
»
Then the “Will to Truth would have to be
examined psychologically: it is not a moral
power, but a form of the Will to Power. This
would have to be proved by the fact that it avails
itself of every immoral means there is; above all,
of the metaphysicians.


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THE WILL TO POWER IN SCIENCE.
85
2
At the present moment we are face to face
with the necessity of testing the assumption that
moral values are the highest values. Method in
research is attained caly when all moral prejudices
have been overcome: it represents a conquest
over morality. ,
584.
The aberrations of philosophy are the outcome
of the fact that, instead of recognising in logic
and the categories of reason merely a means to
the adjustment of the world for utilitarian ends
(that is to say, “especially," a useful falsification),
they were taken to be the criterion of truth-
particularly of reality. The “criterion of truth
was, as a matter of fact, merely the biological utility
of a systematic falsification of this sort, on principle:
and, since a species of animals knows nothing
more important than its own preservation, it was
indeed allowable here to speak of“ truth. ” Where
the artlessness came in, however, was in taking
this anthropocentric idiosyncrasy as the measure
of things, as the canon for recognising the “real”
and the “unreal”: in short, in making a relative
thing absolute. And behold, all at once, the
world fell into the two halves, "real" and
apparent"; and precisely that world which
:
man's reason had arranged for him to live and
to settle in, was discredited. Instead of using
.
the forms as mere instruments for making the
world manageable and calculable, the mad fancy
of philosophers intervened, and saw that in these
categories the concept of that world is given which
2
be
I
oral
Chis
rails
= all
,


## p. 86 (#116) #############################################

86
THE WILL TO POWER.
does not correspond to the concept of the world
in which man lives. . . . The means were mis-
understood as measures of value, and even used
as a condemnation of their original purpose. . . .
The purpose was, to deceive one's self in a use-
ful way: the means thereto was the invention of
forms and signs, with the help of which the
confusing multifariousness of life could be reduced
to ą useful and wieldy scheme.
But woe! a moral category was now brought
into the game: no creature would deceive itself,
no creature may deceive itself-consequently there
is only a will to truth. What is “ truth”?
The principle of contradiction provided the
scheme: the real world to which the way is
being sought cannot be in contradiction with
itself, cannot change, cannot evolve, has
beginning and no end.
That is the greatest error which has ever been
committed, the really fatal error of the world: it
was believed that in the forms of reason a criterion
of reality had been found—whereas their only
no
1
7
و مدل


## p. 87 (#117) #############################################

THE WILL TO POWER IN SCIENCE.
87
as possible from the world of appearance? (the
concept of the perfect being as a contrast to the
real being; or, more correctly still, as the contra-
diction of life. . . . ).
The whole direction of values was towards the
slander of life; people deliberately confounded
ideal dogmatism with knowledge in general: so
that the opposing parties also began to reject
science with horror.
Thus the road to science was doubly barred :
first, by the belief in the real world; and secondly,
by the opponents of this belief. Natural science
and psychology were (1) condemned in their
objects, (2) deprived of their artlessness.
Everything is so absolutely bound and related
to everything else in the real world, that to
condemn, or to think away anything, means to
condemn and think away the whole. The words
“this should not be," "this ought not to be," are
a farce. . . . If one imagines the consequences,
one would ruin the very source of Life by sup-
Dressing everything which is in any sense what-
Physiology proves


## p. 88 (#118) #############################################

88
THE WILL TO POWER.
585.
The awful recovery of our consciousness: not
of the individual, but of the human species. Let
us reflect; let us think backwards ; let us follow
the narrow and broad highway.
A.
Man seeks “the truth": a world that does not
contradict itself, that does not deceive, that does
not change, a real world—a world in which there
is no suffering : contradiction, deception, varia-
bility—the causes of suffering! He does not
doubt that there is such a thing as a world as it
ought to be; he would fain find a read to it. (Indian
criticism : even the ego is apparent and not real. )
Whence does man derive the concept of reality?
-Why does he make variability, deception, con-
tradiction, the origin of suffering; why not rather
of his happiness? .
The contempt and hatred of all that perishes,
changes, and varies: whence comes this valuation
of stability? Obviously, the will to truth is
merely the longing for a stable world,
The senses deceive; reason corrects the errors:
therefore, it was concluded, reason is the road to
a static state; the most spiritual ideas must be
nearest to the “real world. ”—It is from the
senses that the greatest number of misfortunes
come-they are cheats, deluders, and destroyers.
Happiness can be promised only by Being :
change and happiness exclude each other. The
>


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THE WILL TO POWER IN SCIENCE.
89
.
loftiest desire is thus to be one with Being. That
is the formula for the way to happiness.
In summa: The world as it ought to be exists;
this world in which we live is an error—this our
world should not exist.
The belief in Reing shows itself only as a result:
the real primum mobile is the disbelief in Becom-
ing, the mistrust of Becoming, the scorn of all
Becoming
What kind of a man reflects in this way? An
unfruitful, suffering kind, a world - weary kind.
If we try and fancy what the opposite kind of man
would be like, we have a picture of a creature
who would not require the belief in Being; he
would rather despise it as dead, tedious, and in-
different.
The belief that the world which ought to be, is,
really exists, is a belief proper to the unfruitful,
who do not wish to create a world as it should be.
They take it for granted, they seek for means and
1
tavs


## p. 90 (#120) #############################################

90
THE WILL TO POWER.
The same species of men, grown one degree
poorer, no longer possessed of the power to inter-
pret and to create fictions, produces the Nihilists.
A Nihilist is the man who says of the world as it
is, that it ought not to exist, and of the world as
it ought to be, that it does not exist. According
to this, existence (action, suffering, willing, and
feeling) has no sense: the pathos of the “in vain ”
is the Nihilist's pathos—and as pathos it is more-
over an inconsistency on the part of the Nihilist.
He who is not able to introduce his will into
things, the man without either will or energy, at
least invests them with some meaning, i. e. he
believes that a will is already in them.
The degree of a man's will-power may be
measured from the extent to which he can dis-
pense with the meaning in things, from the extent
to which he is able to endure a world without
meaning: because he himself arranges a small


## p. 91 (#121) #############################################

THE WILL TO POWER IN SCIENCE.
91
(they attribute the highest degree of reality to the
things which are valued highest).
The connection between philosophers and moral
men and their evaluations (the moral interpreta-
tion of the world as the sense of the world : after
the collapse of the religious sense).
The overcoming of philosophers by the annihila-
tion of the world of being : intermediary period of
Nihilism; before there is sufficient strength present
to transvalue values, and to make the world of
becoming, and of appearance, the only world to be
deified and called good.
B.
Nihilism as a normal phenomenon may be a
symptom of increasing strength or of increasing
weakness :
Partly owing to the fact that the strength to
create and to will has grown to such an extent,


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92
THE WILL TO POWER.
C.
The belief in truth, the need of holding to some-
thing which is believed to be true: psychological
reduction apart from the valuations that have
existed hitherto. Fear and laziness.
At the same time unbelief: Reduction. In
what way does it acquire a new value, if a real
world does not exist at all (by this means the
capacity of valuing, which hitherto has been
lavished 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:
(6) 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
.


## p. 93 (#123) #############################################

THE WILL TO POWER IN SCIENCE.
93
1
a
blow and attack which we have ever received; so
many things have become encrusted in the word
"true," that we involuntarily give these to the
“ real world”: the real world must also be a truth-
ful world, such a one as would not deceive us or
make fools of us: to believe in it in this way is to
be almost forced to believe (from convention, as
is the case among people worthy of confidence).
The concept, “the unknown world,” suggests
that this world is known to us (is tedious);
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 un-
advisable to become adapted to it; better resist it).
9
Thus we escape from “this" world in three
different ways >
(a) With our curiosity—as though the interest-
ing part was somewhere else;
(6) 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
í


## p. 94 (#124) #############################################

94
THE WILL TO POWER.
made X our
three different ways; we
have
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.
(6) 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 orror
moci
.


## p. 95 (#125) #############################################

THE WILL TO POWER IN SCIENCE.
95
.
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 valu-
able than theirs; they regard the strange unknown
world as their enemy, as their opposite; they feel
no curiosity, but rather repugnance in regard to
what is strange to them. . . . Such a body of men
would never admit that another people were the
true people. "
The very fact that such a distinction is possible,
--that this world should be called the world of
appearance, and that the other should be called
the "true" world, is symptomatic.
The places of origin of the idea of “another
world":
The philosopher who invents a rational world
where reason and logical functions are
a


## p. 96 (#126) #############################################

96
THE WILL TO POWER.
G
adequate :—this is the root of the "true"
world.
The religious man who invents a "divine
world": this is the root of the “de-
naturalised” and the "anti-natural” world.
The moral man who invents a “ free world":
-this is the root 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.
»
( THE BIOLOGICAL VALUE OF KNOWLEDGE.
587.
It might seem as though I had evaded the
question concerning “certainty. " The reverse is
true: but while raising the question of the
criterion of certainty, I wished to discover the
weights and measures with which men had weighed
heretofore-and to show that the question con-


## p. 97 (#127) #############################################

THE WILL TO POWER IN SCIENCE.
97
cerning certainty is already in itself a dependent
question, a question of the second rank.
588.
The question of values is more fundamental
than the question of certainty: the latter only
becomes serious once the question of values has
been answered.
Being and appearance, regarded psychologically,
yield no “Being-in-itself," no criterion for“ reality,"
but only degrees of appearance, measured accord-
ing to the strength of the sympathy which we
feel for appearance.
There is no struggle for existence between
ideas and observations, but only a struggle for
supremacy - the vanquished idea is not anni-
hilated, but only driven to the background or
subordinated. There is no such thing as annihila-
tion in intellectual spheres.
.
)
.
.
589.
As interpretations (not
as established facts)
“ End and means”
--and in what respect
« Cause and effect"
were they perhaps
Subject and object”
“ Action and suffering
necessary interpreta-
tions ? (as “preserva-
“Thing - in- itself and
tive measures ")-all
appearance"
in
the sense of a
Will to Power.
G
VOL. II.


## p. 98 (#128) #############################################

98
THE 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 per-
spective?
All sense is Will to Power (all relative senses
may be identified with it).
591.
The desire for “established facts”- Epistem-
ology: 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. "


## p. 99 (#129) #############################################

THE WILL TO POWER IN SCIENCE.
99
(m) SCIENCE.
594.
Science hitherto has been a means of dis-
posing of the confusion of things by hypotheses
which "explain everything "—that is to say, it
.
has been the result of the intellect's repugnance
to chaos.
This same repugnance takes hold 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 consist-
ency here alone, we must order our lives in
accordance with it so that it may help us to
preserve it.
This results in a sort of practical
meditation concerning the conditions of our exist-
ence as investigators.
595
Our first principles: no God: no purpose :
limited energy.
We will take good care to
avoid thinking out and prescribing the necessary
lines of thought for the lower orders.


## p. 100 (#130) ############################################

100
THE WILL TO POWER.
596.
No "moral education" of humanity: but the
disciplinary school of scientific errors is necessary,
because truth disgusts and creates a dislike of
life, provided a man is not already irrevocably
launched upon
his
way,
and bears the con-
sequences of his honest standpoint with tragic
pride.
597
The first principle of scientific work: faith in
the union and continuance of scientific work, so
that the individual may undertake to work at any
point, however small, and feel sure that his efforts
will not be in vain.
There is a great paralysing force: to work in
vain, to struggle in vain.
The periods of hoarding, when energy and
power are stored, to be utilised later by sub-
sequent periods: Science as a half-way house,
at which the mediocre, more multifarious, and
more complicated beings find their most natural
gratification and means of expression: all those
who do well to avoid action.
598.
A philosopher recuperates his strength in a
way quite his own, and with other means: he
does it, for instance, with Nihilism. The belief
that there is no such thing as truth, the Nihilistic
belief, is a tremendous relaxation for one who, as
;


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THE WILL TO POWER IN SCIENCE.
101
1
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
when he sees
purpose, he denies that there can be one!
man:
no
600.
The unlimited ways of interpreting the world :
every interpretation is a symptom of growth or
decline.
Unity (monism) is a need of inertia ; Plurality
in interpretation is a sign of strength. One
should not desire to deprive the world of its disquiet-
ing and enigmatical nature
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 ap-


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102
THE WILL TO POWER.
-
paratus. But its comprehensibility, its clearness,
its practicability, its beauty, will begin to near
their end if we refine our senses, just as beauty
ceases to exist when the processes of its history
are reflected upon : the arrangement of the end
is in itself an illusion. Let it suffice, that the
more coarsely and more superficially it is under-
stood, the more valuable, the more definite, the
more beautiful and important the world then
seems. The more deeply one looks into it, the
further our valuation retreats from our view,-
senselessness approaches ! We have created the world
that has any value! Knowing this, we also per-
ceive that the veneration of truth is already the
result of illusion — and that it is much more
necessary to esteem the formative, simplifying,
moulding, and romancing power.
“All is false-everything is allowed ! ”
!
Only as the result of a certain bluntness of
vision and the desire for simplicity does the
beautiful and the " valuable" make its appearance :
in itself it is purely fanciful.
603.
We know that the destruction of an illusion
does not necessarily produce a truth, but only
one more piece of ignorance ; it is the extension of
our “empty space," an increase in our waste. ”
604.
Of what alone knowledge consist ? -
Interpretation,” the introduction of a sense into
can


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THE WILL TO POWER IN SCIENCE.
103
things, not "explanation" (in the majority of
cases a new interpretation of an old interpretation
which has grown incomprehensible and little more
than a mere sign). There is no such thing as an
established fact, everything fluctuates, everything
is intangible, yielding; after all, the most lasting
of all things are our opinions.
605.
The ascertaining of “truth” and “untruth,” the
ascertaining of facts in general, is fundamentally
different from the creative placing, forming, mould-
ing, subduing, and willing which lies at the root
of philosophy. To give a sense to things—this duty
always remains over, provided no sense already
lies in them. The same holds good of sounds,
and also of the fate of nations: they are suscept-
ible of the most varied interpretations and turns,
for different purposes.
A higher duty is to fix a goal and to mould
facts according to it: that is, the interpretation of
action, and not merely a transvaluation of con-
cepts.
боб.
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'


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104
THE WILL TO POWER
607.
Science : its two sides :-
In regard to the individual;
In regard to the complex of culture
("levels of culture ")
-antagonistic valuation in regard to this and
that side.
608.
The development of science tends ever more
to transform the known into the unknown: its
aim, however, is to do the reverse, and it starts
out with the instinct of tracing the unknown to
the known.
In short, science is laying the road to sovereign
ignorance, to a feeling that “knowledge” does not
exist at all, that it was merely a form of haughti-
ness to dream of such a thing; further, that we
have not preserved the smallest notion which
would allow us to class knowledge even as a
possibility—that "knowledge” is a contradictory
idea. We transfer a primeval myth and piece
of human vanity into the land of hard facts: we
can allow a "thing-in-itself” as a concept, just
as little as we can allow “knowledge-in-itself. ”
The misleading influence of a numbers and logic,"
the misleading influence of “laws. "
Wisdom is an attempt to overcome the per-
spective valuations (i. e. the “ will to power "): it is
a principle which is both unfriendly to Life, and also
decadent; a symptom in the case of the Indians,
etc. ; weakness of the power of appropriation,


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THE WILL TO POWER IN SCIENCE.
105
609.
It does not suffice for you to see in what ignor-
ance man and beast now live; you must also
have and learn the desire for ignorance. It is
necessary that you should know that without this
form of ignorance life itself would be impossible,
that it is merely 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 con-
cepts for the purpose of governing Nature—that
is part of the rubric " means. "
But the purpose and will of mankind must grow
in the same way, the intention in regard to the
whole.
бII.
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


## p. 106 (#136) ############################################

106
THE WILL TO POWER.
when Schopenhauer taught: in the reiease from
passion and in will alone lay the road to "truth,"
to knowledge; the intellect freed from will could
not help seeing the true and actual essence of things.
The same error in art: as if everything became
beautiful the moment it was regarded without will.
613.
The contest for supremacy among the passions, ,
and the dominion of one of the passions over the
intellect.
614.
To "humanise " the world means to feel our-
selves ever more and more masters upon earth.
615.
Knowledge, among a higher class of beings,
will also take new forms which are not yet
necessary.
616.
That the worth of the world lies in our inter-
pretations (that perhaps yet other interpretations
are possible somewhere, besides mankind's); that
the interpretations made hitherto were perspective
valuations, by means of which we were able to
survive in life, i. e. in the Will to Power and in
the growth of power; that every elevation of man
involves the overcoming of narrower interpretations;
that every higher degree of strength or power
attained, brings new views in its train, and teaches
a belief in new horizons-these doctrines lie


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THE WILL TO POWER IN SCIENCE.
107
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 at-
tributed to Being, that the condemnation of, and
dissatisfaction with, Becoming, have sprung: once
such a world of Being had been invented.
The metamorphoses of Being (body, God, ideas,
natural laws, 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.


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108
THE WILL TO POWER.
Becoming is inventing, willing, self-denying,
self-overcoming: no subject but an action, it places
things, it is creative, no "causes and effects. "
,
Art is the will to overcome Becoming, it is a
process of “eternalising”; but shortsighted, always
according to the perspective; repeating, as it were
in a small way, the tendency of the whole.
That which all life shows, is to be regarded as
a reduced formula for the collective tendency:
hence the new definition of the concept “ Life" as
“ will to power. ”
Instead of " cause and effect," the struggle of
”
evolving factors with one another, frequently with
the result that the opponent is absorbed ; no
constant number for Becoming.
The uselessness of old ideals for the interpreta-
tion of all that takes place, once their bestial
origin and utility have been 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 worthlessness, 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. )


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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 considera-
tion 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 satisfac-
tion, when the "apparent design in the fate” of a
a
plant or of theyolk 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 con-
cerning these serious matters. Meanwhile, among
the most select intellects to be found in this move-
109


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IIO
THE WILL TO POWER.
ex-
ment, 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
plained,” 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 interpreta-
tion 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.


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THE WILL TO POWER IN NATURE.
III
620.
Has anybody ever been able to testify to a
force ? No, but to effects, translated into a com-
pletely strange language. Regularity in sequence
has so spoilt us, that we no longer wonder at the
wonderful process.
621.
A force of which we cannot form any idea, is an
empty word, and ought to have no civic rights in
the city of science: and the same applies to the
purely mechanical powers of attracting and repel-
ling by means of which we can form an image of
the world—no more!
622,
Squeezes and kicks are something incalculably
recent, evolved and not primeval. They pre-
suppose something which holds together and can
press and strike!
But how could it hold to-
gether?
623.
There is nothing unalterable in chemistry: this
is only appearance, a mere school prejudice. We
it was who introduced the unalterable, taking it
from metaphysics as usual, Mr. Chemist. It is a mere
superficial judgment to declare that the diamond,
graphite, and carbon are identical. Why? Simply
because no loss of substance can be traced in the
scales! Well then, at least they have something
in common; but the work of the molecules in the


## p. 112 (#142) ############################################

I 12
THE WILL TO POWER.
process of changing from one form to the other, an
action we can neither see nor weigh, is just exactly
what makes one material something different-with
specifically different qualities.
>
624.
Against the physical atom. -In order to under-
stand the world, we must be able to reckon it up;
in order to be able to reckon it up, we must be
aware of constant causes; but since we find no
such constant causes in reality, we invent them for
ourselves and call them atoms. This is the origin
of the atomic theory.
The possibility of calculating the world, the
possibility of expressing all phenomena by means
of formulæ — is that really "understanding”?
-
What would be understood of a piece of music, if
all that were calculable in it and capable of being
expressed in formulæ, were reckoned up ? Thus
“ constant causes," things, substances, something
“ unconditioned,” were therefore invented ;-what
has been attained thereby ?
625.
The mechanical concept of "movement is
already a translation of the original process into the
language of symbols of the eye and the touch.
The concept atom, the distinction between the
“ seat of a motive force and the force itself,” is a
language of symbols derived from our logical and
cpsyhical world.
It does not lie within our power to alter our
a


## p. 113 (#143) ############################################

THE WILL TO POWER IN NATURE.
113
means of expression: it is possible to understand
to what extend they are but symptomatic. To
demand an adequate means of expression is non-
sense: it lies at the heart of a language, of a medium
of communication, to express relation only.
The concept“ truth” is opposed to good sense. The
whole province of “truth--falseness” only applies
to the relations between beings, not to an "abso-
lute. ” There is no such thing as a "being in
itself” (relations in the first place constitute being),
any more than there can be “knowledge in itself. ”
626.
The feeling of force cannot proceed from move-
ment: feeling in general cannot proceed from
movement. ”
“Even in support of this, an apparent experi-
ence is the only evidence: in a substance (brain)
feeling is generated through transmitted motion
(stimuli). But generated? Would this show that
the feeling did not yet exist there at all? so that
its appearance would have to be regarded as the
creative act of the intermediary-motion? The
feelingless condition of this substance is only an
hypothesis ! not an experience ! Feeling, therefore
is the quality of the substance: there actually are
substances that feel. ”
“ Do we learn from certain substances that they
have no feeling? No, we merely cannot tell that
they have any. It is impossible to seek the origin
of feeling in non-sensitive substance. ”-Oh what
hastiness!
H
-
VOL. II.


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114
THE WILL TO POWER.
9
627
“To attract” and “to repel," in a purely
mechanical sense, is pure fiction: a word. We
cannot imagine an attraction without a purpose.