No More Learning

A great lie in history; as if the corruption of
the Church were the cause of the Reformation |
This was only the pretext and self-deception of
the agitators--very strong needs were making
themselves felt, the brutality of which sorely re quired a spiritual dressing.
382.
Schopenhauer declared high intellectuality to be the emancipation from the will: he did not wish to recognise the freedom from moral pre judices which is coincident with the emancipation
? ? ? ? 3O4
THE WILL TO POWER.
of a great mind; he refused to see what is the typical immorality of genius; he artfully contrived
to set up the only moral value he honoured-- self-effacement, as the one condition of highest
intellectual
activity: "objective" contemplation.
"Truth," even in art, only manifests itself after the withdrawal of the will. . . .
Through all moral idiosyncrasies I see a
fundamentally different valuation. Such absurd distinctions as "genius" and the world of will, of morality and immorality, I know nothing about at all. The moral is a lower kind of animal than
the immoral, he is also weaker; indeed--he is a type in regard to morality, but he is not a type
of his own. He is a copy; at the best, a good
copy--the standard of his worth lies without him. I value a man according to the quantum of power
and fullness of his will : not according to the enfeeblement and moribund state thereof. I con
sider that a philosophy which teaches the denial
of will is both defamatory and slanderous. . . . I
test the power of a will according to the amount
of resistance it can offer and the amount of pain and torture it can endure and know how to turn
to its own advantage; I do not point to the evil
and pain of existence with the finger of reproach,
but rather entertain the hope that life may one
day be more evil and more full of suffering than it has ever been.
The zenith of intellectuality, according to Schopenhauer, was to arrive at the knowledge that all is to no purpose--in short, to recognise what the good man already does instinctively. . . .
? ? ? ? A CRITICISM OF MORALITY.
305
He denies that there can be higher states of intellectuality--he regards his view as a non plus
ultra. . . . Here intellectuality is placed much
lower than goodness; highest value (as art, for
instance) would lead and advise the adoption of, morality, the absolute predomin ance of moral values.
Next Schopenhauer will now characterise
Kant: there was nothing Greek Kant; was
quite anti-historical (cf his attitude regard
the French Revolution) and moral fanatic (see Goethe's words concerning the radically evil
element human nature *). Saintliness also
? lurked somewhere his soul. criticism the saintly type.
Hegel's value: "Passion. "
require
Herbert Spencer's tea-grocer's philosophy: total absence of an ideal save that of the mediocre man.
*TRANSLATOR'S NOTE. --This doubtless reference
passage letter written by Goethe Herder, on 7th June 1793, from the camp Marienborn, near Mainz, which
the following words occur:--"Dagegen hat aber auch Kant seinen philosophischen Mantel, nachdem ein langes
AMenschenleben gebraucht hat, ihn von mancherlei sudel haften Vorurteilen zu reinigen, freventlich mit dem Schand. fleck des radikalen Bo? sen beschlabbert, damit doch auch Christen herbeigelockt werden den Saum zu kissen. "-- ("Kant, on the other hand, after had tried throughout his life keep his philosophical cloak unsoiled by foul pre judices, wantonly dirtied the end with the disreputable
stain the 'radical evil' human nature, order that Christians too might lured into kissing hem. ") From
this passage will be seen how Goethe had anticipated Nietzsche's view Kant namely, that he was Christian
disguise. VOL.
? ? U
in in
its
in
of I.
to
in a
it of
be
; it
at
in
be to
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to he
its
. era I
in
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he to a up
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to
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.
in to,
? 306
THE WILL TO POWER.
philosophers, historians, and psychologists: everything of value in mankind, art, history, science, religion, and
technology must be shown to be morally valuable and morally conditioned, in its aim, means, and
result. Everything is seen in the light of this highest value; for instance, Rousseau's question concerning civilisation, "Will it make man grow
better? "--a funny question, for the reverse is
obvious, and is a fact which speaks in favour of civilisation.
383.
Religious morality. --Passion, great desire; the passions of power, love, revenge, and property:
the moralists wish to uproot and exterminate all these things, and "purify" the soul by driving them out of it.
The argument is: the passions often lead to disaster--therefore, they are evil and ought to be
This is of the same nature as: "If thy right eye offend thee, pluck it out. " In this particular case when, with that "bucolic simplicity," the Founder of Christianity recommended a certain practice to His disciples, in the event of sexual excitement, the result would not be only the loss of a parti cular member, but the actual castration of the whole of the man's character. . . . And the same
applies to the moral mania, which, instead of insisting upon the control of the passions, sues for
Fundamental instinct of all
? condemned. Man must wring himself free from them, otherwise he cannot be a good man. . . .
? ? ? A CRITICISM OF MORALITY.
307
their extirpation. conclusion always only
the emasculated man good man.
Instead making use and economising
the great sources passion, those torrents the
dangerous, overwhelming, and impetuous, morality--this most shortsighted
soul which are often
and most corrupted mental attitudes--would
fain make them dry up.
384.
-
Conquest over the passions 3-No, not
to mean their enfeeblement and annihilation.
this
? They must
end may
deal (not
etc. ). At length we should trust them enough
enlisted our service and this necessary tyrannise them good
individuals, but communities, races,
restore their freedom them: they love like good servants, and willingly go wherever our best interests lie.
385.
Intolerance the part morality sign
man's weakness: he frightened his own "immorality," he must deny his strongest instincts,
because he does not yet know how use them. Thus the most fruitful quarters the globe remain uncultivated longest: the power lack ing that might become master here.
386.
There are some very simple peoples and men who believe that continuous fine weather would be
? ? . ofto
. of is
:
of
of is:
on
is to of
in
of
is Its
isa if us ato
of
to is
as
it
as be be
of of so
to
a of
? THE WILL TO POWER.
308
a desirable thing: they still believe to-day in rebus moralibus, that the "good man" alone and
nothing else than the "good man" is to be desired, and that the ultimate end of man's evolution will
be that only the good man will remain on earth (and that it is only to that end that all efforts
highest
degree an uneconomical thought; as we have already suggested, it is the very acme of simplicity,
and it is nothing more than the expression of the
agreeableness which the "good man" creates (he gives rise to no fear, he permits of relaxation, -
he gives what one is able to take).
With a more educated eye one learns to desire
exactly the reverse -- that is to say, an ever greater dominion of evil, man's gradual emancipa
tion from the narrow and aggravating bonds of morality, the growth of power around the greatest
forces of Nature, and the ability to enlist the
passions
The whole idea of the hierarchy of the passions:
as if the only right and normal thing were to be
led by reason--whereas the passions are abnormal, dangerous, half-animal, and moreover, in so far as
their end is concerned, nothing more than desires for pleasure. . . . .
Passion is deprived of dignity (1)
only manifested itself an unseemly way and were not necessary and always the motive force,
should be directed). This is in the
? in one's service.
387.
? ? in
its
as if it
-
-
---* - ***- -
=-
-------------"
-
? A CRITICISM OF MORALITY.
309
(2) inasmuch as it is supposed to aim at no high purpose--merely at pleasure. . . .
The misinterpretation of passion and reason, as
if the latter were an independent entity, and not
a state of relationship between all the various | passions and desires; and as though every passion : did not possess its quantum of reason. . . .
388.
How it was that, under the pressure of the
dominion of an ascetic and self-effacing morality, it was precisely the passions--love, goodness, pity, even justice, generosity, and heroism, which were
necessarily misunderstood:
It is the richness of a personality, the fullness of
its power flow over and bestow, its instinctive feeling ease, and its affirmative attitude towards itself, that creates great love
and great sacrifices: these passions proceed from strong and godlike personalism surely do
? obtrude, and the inner right everything. The the most accepted notions, are indeed common views; and one does not stand firmly and bravely on one's legs, one has nothing give, and perfectly useless
the desire be master,
certainty that one has opposite views, according
stretch out one's hand either support others.
protect
How was possible transform these instincts to such an extent that man could feel that to be
value which directed against himself, that he could sacrifice himself for another self! the
? ? of
to
it,
is
. .
to
to
O so
or
as
it
to
to
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it
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of
? 3IO
THE WILL TO POWER.
psychological baseness and falseness which hither to has laid down the law in the Church and in
Church-infected philosophy !
If man is thoroughly sinful, then all he can do
is to hate himself. As a matter of fact, he ought
not to regard even his fellows otherwise than he does himself; the love of man requires a justifi
cation,
commanded it. --From this it follows that all the
and it is found in the fact that God
natural instincts of man (to love, etc. ) appear to him to be, in themselves, prohibited; and that he
re-acquires a right to them only after having
denied them as an obedient worshipper of God. . . . Pascal, the admirable logician of Christianity,
went as far as this ! let any one examine his relations to his sister. "Not to make one's self
loved," seemed Christian to him,
389.
Let us consider how dearly a moral canon such as this ("an ideal") makes us pay. (Its enemies are--well? The "egoists. ")
The melancholy astuteness of self-abasement in
The perpetual process of laying stress upon mediocre qualities as being the most valuable (modesty in rank and file, the creature who is an
instrument).
Pangs
? La Rochefoucauld)--inner en
Europe (Pascal,
feeblement, discouragement, and self-consumption of the non-gregarious man.
of conscience associated with all that
? ? ? A CRITICISM OF MORALITY.
3II
is self-glorifying and original: thus follows the unhappiness--the gloominess of the world from
the standpoint of stronger and better-constituted men
Gregarious
transferred to philosophy and religion.
consciousness and timorousness
Let us leave the psychological impossibility of a purely unselfish action out of consideration |
390.
My ultimate conclusion that the real man represents much higher value than the "de sirable" man any ideal that has ever existed hitherto; that all "desiderata" regard man kind have been absurd and dangerous dissipations by means which particular kind man has sought establish his measures preservation and growth law for all; that every "desideratum of this kind which has been made
dominate has reduced man's worth, his strength, and his trust the future; that the indigence and mediocre intellectuality man becomes most apparent, even to-day, when he reveals desire;
that man's ability fix values has hitherto been developed too inadequately do justice the
actual, not merely the "desirable," worth man; that, up the present, ideals have really been the power which has most slandered man and the world, the poisonous fumes which have
hung over reality, and which have seduced men yearn for nonentity.
? ? ? . . .
to
as a
a
to
of
to
to
in" of
to
of
is, in
a to
of
of
to
of
to
of a
to
i
? 312
THE WILL TO POWER.
D. A Criticism of the Words :
Improving, Perfecting, Elevating.
39 I.
The standard according to which the value o moral valuations is to be determined.
The fundamental fact that has been overlooked The contradiction between "becoming mor
moral" and the elevation and the strengthening of the type man.
Homo natura : The "will to power. "
392.
Moral values regarded as values of appearanc and compared with physiological values.
393.
Reflecting upon generalities is always retrograde
the ultimate "desiderata" concerning men, fo instance, have never been regarded as problem:
by philosophers. They always postulate "improvement" of man, quite guilelessly, as
though by means of some intuition they had beer helped over the note of interrogation following the question, why necessarily "improve"? To what extent is it desirable that man should be more virtuous, or more intelligent, or happieri
Granting that nobody yet knows the "wherefore? ' of mankind, all such desiderata have no sense whatever; and if one aspires to one of them--
? the
? ? ? A CRITICISM OF MORALITY.
3I3
who knows? --perhaps one is frustrating the
other. Is an increase of virtue compatible with an increase of intelligence and insight? Dubito:
only too often shall I have occasion to show that
the reverse is true. Has virtue, as an end, in the
strict sense of the word, not always been opposed
to happiness hitherto? And again, does it not require misfortune, abstinence, and self-castigation
as a necessary means? And if the aim were to arrive at the highest insight, would it not therefore
be necessary to renounce all hope of an increase in happiness, and to choose danger, adventure,
mistrust, and seduction as a road to enlighten
ment? . . . And suppose one will have happiness;
maybe one should join the ranks of the "poor in spirit. "
394.
The wholesale deception and fraud of so-called moral improvement.
We do not believe that one man can be another
if he is not that other already--that is to say, if
he is not, as often happens, an accretion of person
alities or at least of parts of persons. In this
case it is possible to draw another set of actions
from him into the foreground, and to drive back
"the older man. " . . . The man's aspect is altered, but not his actual nature. . . .
It is but the
merest factum brutum that any one should cease from performing certain actions, and the fact allows of the most varied interpretations. Neither
does it always follow therefrom that the habit of performing a certain action is entirely arrested,
? ? ? ? 314
THE WILL TO POWER.
nor that the reasons for that action are dissipated
He whose destiny and abilities make him a
criminal never unlearns anything, but is con tinually adding to his store of knowledge: and
long
talent. . . . Certainly, as far as society is con cerned, the only interesting fact is that some one
has ceased from performing certain actions; and
to this end society will often raise a man out of
those circumstances which make him able to per
form those actions: this is obviously a wiser course
than that of trying to break his destiny and his particular nature. The Church,--which has done
nothing except to take the place of, and to
appropriate, the philosophic treasures of antiquity,
--starting out from another standpoint and wishing
to secure a "soul" or the "salvation" of a soul,
believes in the expiatory power of punishment, as
also in the obliterating power of forgiveness: both
of which supposed processes are deceptions due to
religious prejudice--punishment expiates nothing,
forgiveness obliterates nothing; what is done can
not be undone. Because some one forgets some thing it by no means proves that something has
been wiped out. . . . An action leads to certain consequences, both in a man and outside him, and
it matters not whether it has met with punishment or whether it has been "expiated," "forgiven,'
or "obliterated," it matters not even if the Church
abstinence acts as a sort of tonic on his
? meanwhile canonises the man who
The Church believes things that do not
exist, believes "Souls"; believes "influences" that do not exist--in divine in
performed
? ? it. it
in
in it
in
? A CRITICISM OF MORALITY.
3I 5
fluences; it believes in states that do not exist, in sin, redemption, and spiritual salvation: in all
things it stops at the surface and is satisfied with
signs, attitudes, words,
arbitrary interpretation. It possesses a method
of counterfeit psychology which is thought out quite systematically.
395.
"Illness makes men better," this famous
assumption which is to be met with in all ages,
and in the mouth of the wizard quite as often as
in the mouth and jaws of the people, really makes one ponder. In view of discovering
whether there is any truth in one might be
allowed ask whether there not perhaps
fundamental relationship between morality and
illness? Regarded whole, could not the
"improvement mankind"--that say, the unquestionable softening, humanising, and taming
which the European has undergone within the last two centuries--be regarded the result
long course secret and ghastly suffering, failure,
abstinence, and grief? Has illness made "Euro peans" "better"? Or, put into other words,
wherever history shows "man" state particular glory and power, his type always dangerous, impetuous, and boisterous, and cares
to which it lends an
? not our modern soft-hearted
which could be likened that the Chinese, perhaps expression physiological deteriora tion cannot be denied, for instance, that
European morality,
? ? is a of
is to
us
of a to
? . . .
an
to
It
of
of
of in
as
is it,
of
isa a
as
? 316
THE WILL TO POWER.
little for humanity; and perhaps, in those cases in which it seems otherwise, all that was required was the courage or subtlety to see sufficiently below the surface in psychological matters, in
order even in them to discover the general pro position: "the more healthy, strong, rich, fruitful and enterprising a man may feel, the more
immoral he will be as well. " A terrible thought, to
which one should on no account give way. Pro.
vided, however, that one take a few steps forward
with this thought, how wondrous does the future
then appear! What will then be paid for more dearly on earth, than precisely this very thing
which we are all trying to promote, by all means in our power--the humanising, the improving and the increased "civilisation" of man? Noth
ing would then be more expensive than virtue:
for by means of it the world would ultimately be
turned into a hospital : and the last conclusion of wisdom would be, "everybody must be everybody
else's nurse. " Then we should certainly have attained to the "Peace on earth," so long desired But how little "joy we should find in each other's company"! How little beauty, wanton spirits, daring, and danger | So few "actions"
mained fresh the memory men, and which have not been destroyed by time, been immoral
the deepest sense the word?
? which would make life on earth worth
Ah! and no longer any "deeds"! But have not the great things and deeds which have re
living
? ? in
all
in of
. . .
of
--
-
A CRITICISM OF MORALITY.
396.
317
? The priests--and with them the half-priests or
philosophers of all ages--have always called that
doctrine true, the educating influence of which was a benevolent one or at least seemed so--
that is to say, tended to "improve. " In this way they resemble an ingenuous plebeian empiric and
miracle-worker who, because he had tried a
certain poison as a cure, declared it to be no
poison. "By their fruits ye shall know them. "--
that is to say, "by our truths. " This has been the reasoning of priests until this day. They
have squandered their sagacity, with results that have been sufficiently fatal, in order to make the "proof of power" (or the proof "by the fruits")
pre-eminent and even supreme arbiter over all
other forms of proof. "That which makes good
must be good; that which is good cannot lie"-- these are their inexorable conclusions--"that
which bears good fruit must consequently be
true;
false step, a vice can refute. . . . This indecent form of opposition, which comes from below and
behind--the doglike kind of attack, has not died out either. Priests, as psychologists, never dis
covered anything more interesting than spying out
the secret vices of their adversaries--they prove their Christianity by looking about for the world's
? there is no other criterion of truth. " . . . But to the extent to which "improving" acts as an argument, deteriorating must also act as a refuta tion. The error can be shown to be an error, by examining the lives of those who represent it: a
? ? ? THE WILL TO POWER.
filth. They apply this principle more particu larly to the greatest on earth, to the geniuses readers will remember how Goethe has bee.
attacked on every conceivable occasion in Ger many (Klopstock and Herder were among th first to give a "good example" in this respect--
birds of a feather flock together).
397.
One must be very immoral in order to mak people moral by deeds. The moralist's means
deeds may be for anything else, but not the duties of moralist.
Morality bars may
318
the most terrible that have ever been
who has not the courage be an immoralist
the creatures
there are animal-tamers about who do not shrin
the use red-hot iron. This terrible
specie: struggle with the wild anima
an iron cage errors, man; he sick, emaciated ill-disposed towards himself, filled with loathin
the impulses life, filled with
all that beautiful and happy
he wandering monument
shall we ever succeed vindicating this phen
used;
? menagerie;
more useful than freedom, even
imprisons; also assumes tha from terrible means, and who are acquainted wit
which enters into called "priests. "
Man, incarcerated become caricature
assumes that iro
mistrust
life--in fac misery. Ho
? ? in
of in
sk
is a
of in
is
is
of
it a fit
of
is a
of
a
a
a
of ha
it
to it
beis a
fo
fo i h ar.
? A CRITICISM OF MORALITY.
319
menon--this artificial, arbitrary, and recent mis
carriage--the sinner--which the priests have bred on their territory?
In order to think fairly of morality, we must put two biological notions in its place: the taming of the wild beasts, and the rearing of a particular species.
* The priests of all ages have always pretended
that they wished to "improve. " . . . But we, of
another persuasion, would laugh if a lion-tamer
ever wished to speak to us of his "improved"
animals. As a rule, the taming of a beast is only
achieved by deteriorating it: even the moral man
is not a better man; he is rather a weaker
member of his species. But he is less harm ful. . . .
398.
What I want to make clear, with all the means in my power, is:
(a) That there is no worse confusion than that
which confounds rearing and taming: and these
two things have always been confused. . . .
Rearing, as I understand means hus banding the enormous powers humanity
such way that whole generations may build
upon the foundations laid by their progenitors-- not only outwardly, but inwardly, organically,
developing from the already existing stem and growing stronger.
.
? exceptional danger believing that mankind whole developing
(b) That there
? ? an as
a
it, is
is
of a of
. 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?