(1) That all _pain_ and _unhappiness_ should have been falsified by
being associated with what is wrong (guilt). (Thus pain was robbed of
its innocence.)
(2) That all _strong emotions_ (wantonness, voluptuousness, triumph,
pride, audacity, knowledge, assurance, and happiness in itself) were
branded as sinful, as seductive, and as suspicious.
(3) That _feelings of weakness,_ inner acts of cowardice, lack of
personal courage, should have decked themselves in the most beautiful
words, and have been taught as desirable in the highest degree.
(4) That _greatness_ in man should have been given the meaning of
disinterestedness, self-sacrifice for another's good, for other people;
that even in the scientist and the artist, the _elimination of the
individual personality_ is presented as the cause of the greatest
knowledge and ability.
(5) That _love_ should have been twisted round to mean submission
(and altruism), whereas it is in reality an act of appropriation or
of bestowal, resulting in the last case from a superabundance in the
wealth of a given personality. Only the _wholest_ people can love; the
disinterested ones, the "objective" ones, are the worst lovers (just
ask the girls!). This principle also applies to the love of God or of
the "home country": a man must be able to rely absolutely upon himself.
(Egotism may be regarded as the _pre-eminence of the ego,_ altruism as
the _pre-eminence of others_.)
(6) Life regarded as a punishment (happiness as a means of seduction);
the passions regarded as devilish; confidence in one's self as godless.
_The whole of psychology is a psychology of obstacles,_ a sort of
_barricade_ built out of fear; on the one hand we find the masses (the
botched and bungled, the mediocre) defending themselves, by means of
it, against the _strong_ (and finally _destroying_ them in their growth
...); on the other hand, we find all the instincts with which these
classes are best able to prosper, sanctified and alone held in honour
by them. Let anyone examine the Jewish priesthood.
297.
_The vestiges of the depreciation of Nature_ through moral
transcendence: The value of disinterestedness, the cult of altruism;
the belief in a reward in the play of natural consequences; the belief
in "goodness" and in genius itself, as if the one, like the other,
were the _result of disinterestedness_; the continuation of the
Church's sanction of the life of the citizen; the absolutely deliberate
misunderstanding of history (as a means of educating up to morality)
or pessimism in the attitude taken up towards history (the latter
is just as much a result of the depreciation of Nature, as is that
_pseudo-justification_ of history, that refusal to see history as the
pessimist _sees_ it).
298.
"_Morality for its own sake_"--this is an important step in the
denaturalisation of morals: in itself it appears as a final value. In
this phase religion has generally become saturated with it: as, for
instance, in the case of Judaism. It likewise goes through a phase in
which it _separates itself from_ religion, and in which no God is
"moral" enough for it: it then prefers the impersonal ideal.... This is
how the case stands at present.
"_Art for Art's sake_": this is a similarly dangerous principle: by
this means a false contrast is lent to things--it culminates in the
slander of reality ("idealising" _into the hateful_). When an ideal
is severed from reality, the latter is debased, impoverished, and
calumniated. _"Beauty for Beauty's sake," "Truth for Truth's sake,"
"Goodness for Goodness' sake"_--these are three forms of the evil eye
for reality.
_Art, knowledge, and morality_ are _means_: instead of recognising a
life-promoting tendency in them, they have been associated with the
_opposite of Life_--with "_God_"--they have also been regarded as
revelations of a higher world, which here and there transpires through
them....
"_Beautiful_" and "_ugly_," "_true_" and "_false_," "_good_" and
"_evil_"--these things are _distinctions_ and _antagonisms_ which
betray the preservative and promotive measures of Life, not necessarily
of man alone, but of all stable and enduring organisms which take up a
definite stand against their opponents. The _war_ which thus ensues is
the essential factor: it is a means of _separating_ things, _leading to
stronger_ isolation....
299.
_Moral naturalism_: The tracing back of apparently independent and
supernatural values to their real "nature"--that is to say, to
_natural immorality,_ to natural "utility," etc.
Perhaps I may designate the tendency of these observations by the term
_moral naturalism_: my object is to re-translate the moral values which
have apparently become independent and _unnatural_ into their real
nature--that is to say, into their natural "_immorality_."
_N.B._--Refer to Jewish "holiness" and its natural basis. The case is
the same in regard to _the moral law which has been made sovereign,_
emancipated from its real _feature_ (until it is almost the _opposite_
of Nature).
The stages in the _denaturalisation of morality_ (or so-called
"_Idealisation_"):--
First it is a road to individual happiness,
then it is the result of knowledge,
then it is a Categorical Imperative,
then it is a way to Salvation,
then it is a denial of the will to live.
(The gradual progress of the _hostility_ of morality to _Life_.)
300.
The suppressed and effaced _Heresy_ in morality.--Concepts: paganism,
master-morality, _virtù_.
301.
_My problem_: What harm has mankind suffered hitherto from morals, as
also from its own morality? Intellectual harm, etc.
302.
Why are not human values once more deposited nicely in the rut to
which they alone have a right--as routinary values? Many species
of animals have already become extinct; supposing man were also to
disappear, nothing would be lacking on earth. A man should be enough of
a philosopher to admire even this "nothing" (_Nil admirari_).
303.
Man, a small species of very excitable animals,
which--fortunately--has its time. Life in general on earth is a
matter of a moment, an incident, an exception that has no consequence,
something which is of no importance whatever to the general character
of the earth; the earth itself is, like every star, a hiatus between
two nonentities, an event without a plan, without reason, will, or
self-consciousness--the worst kind of necessity--_foolish_ necessity....
Something in us rebels against this view; the serpent vanity whispers
to our hearts, "All this must be false because it is revolting....
Could not all this be appearance? And man in spite of all, to use
Kant's words"----