--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 haughtiness 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 "numbers and logic," the misleading influence of "laws."
_Wisdom_ is an attempt to _overcome_ the perspective 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.
609.
It does not suffice for you to see in what ignorance 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 concepts 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.
611.
_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 when
Schopenhauer taught: _in the release 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 ourselves 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 interpretations (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
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 attributed 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.
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 short-sighted, 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 interpretation 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
_worth_lessness, _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.)