1. Nihilism is at our door: whence comes this most gruesome of all
guests to us?--To begin with, it is a mistake to point to "social
evils," "physiological degeneration," or even to corruption as a cause
of Nihilism. This is the most straightforward and most sympathetic age
that ever was. Evil, whether spiritual, physical, or intellectual, is,
in itself, quite unable to introduce Nihilism, _i.e.,_ the absolute
repudiation of worth, purpose, desirability. These evils allow of yet
other and quite different explanations. But there is one _very definite
explanation_ of the phenomena: Nihilism harbours in the heart of
Christian morals.
2. The downfall of Christianity,--through its morality (which is
insuperable), which finally turns against the Christian God Himself
(the sense of truth, highly developed through Christianity, ultimately
revolts against the falsehood and fictitiousness of all Christian
interpretations of the world and its history. The recoil-stroke of
"God is Truth" in the fanatical Belief, is: "All is false." Buddhism
of _action_....).
3. Doubt in morality is the decisive factor. The downfall of the
_moral_ interpretation of the universe, which loses its _raison
d'être_ once it has tried to take flight to a Beyond, meets its
end in Nihilism. "Nothing has any purpose" (the inconsistency of
one explanation of the world, to which men have devoted untold
energy,--gives rise to the suspicion that all explanations may perhaps
be false). The Buddhistic feature: a yearning for nonentity (Indian
Buddhism has no fundamentally moral development at the back of it; that
is why Nihilism in its case means only morality not overcome; existence
is regarded as a punishment and conceived as an error; error is thus
held to be punishment--a moral valuation). Philosophical attempts to
overcome the "moral God" (Hegel, _Pantheism_). The vanquishing of
popular ideals: the wizard, the saint, the bard. Antagonism of "true"
and "beautiful" and "good."
4. Against "purposelessness" on the one hand, against moral valuations
on the other: how far has all science and philosophy been cultivated
heretofore under the influence of moral judgments? And have we not got
the additional factor--the enmity of science, into the bargain? Or the
prejudice against science? Criticism of Spinoza. Christian valuations
everywhere present as remnants in socialistic and positivistic systems.
_A criticism of Christian_ morality is altogether lacking.
5. The Nihilistic consequences of present natural science (along
with its attempts to escape into a Beyond). Out of its practice there
finally _arises_ a certain self-annihilation, an antagonistic attitude
towards itself--a sort of anti-scientificality. Since Copernicus man
has been rolling away from the centre towards _x_.
6. The Nihilistic consequences of the political and politico-economical
way of thinking, where all principles at length become tainted with the
atmosphere of the platform: the breath of mediocrity, insignificance,
dishonesty, etc. Nationalism. Anarchy, etc. Punishment. Everywhere
the _deliverer_ is missing, either as a class or as a single man--the
justifier.
7. Nihilistic consequences of history and of the "practical historian,"
_i.e.,_ the romanticist. The attitude of art is quite unoriginal in
modern life. Its gloominess. Goethe's so-called Olympian State.
8. Art and the preparation of Nihilism. Romanticism (the conclusion of
Wagner's _Ring of the Nibelung_).