The Will to Power

The opposite views, according to the most accepted notions, are indeed common views; and if one does not stand firmly and bravely on one’s legs, one has nothing to give, and it is perfectly useless to stretch out one’s hand either to protect or to support others. . . .

Result: The belief in the categories of reason2 is the cause of Nihilism—we have measured the worth of the world according to categories which can only be applied to a purely fictitious world.

What has actually happened? The feeling of worthlessness was realised when it was understood that neither the notion of “Purpose,” nor that of “Unity,” nor that of “Truth,” could be made to interpret the general character of existence. Nothing is achieved or obtained thereby; the unity which intervenes in the multiplicity of events is entirely lacking: the character of existence is not “true,” it is false; there is certainly no longer any reason to believe in a real world. In short, the categories, “Purpose,” “Unity,” “Being,” by means of which we had lent some worth to life, we have once more divorced from it—and the world now appears worthless to us. . . .

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.

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.”

because Nihilism is the only possible outcome of our greatest values and ideals—because we must first experience Nihilism before we can realise what the actual worth of these “values” was. . . . Sooner or later we shall be in need of new values.

Modern Pessimism is an expression of the uselessness only of the modern world, not of the world and existence as such.

All attempts made to escape Nihilism, which do not consist in transvaluing the values that have prevailed hitherto, only make the matter worse; they complicate the problem.

What does Nihilism mean? That the highest values are losing their value. There is no bourne. There is no answer to the question: “to what purpose?”