rriedrich IETZSCHE eyond Good and Evil
BEYOND GOOD AND EVIL
Translated and with an Introduction by Marianne Cowan
A GATEWAY EDITION
H EN RY R EGNERY COMPANY CHICAGO 20 FRIEDRICH NIETZSCHE BEYOND GOOD AND EVIL 21 !.osopb.ers. L~t u.s !>e more cautious, then; let us be the act of the will: because, on t~e othe.r ha~d, we . unphilosophical '; let us say: in every willing there e in the habit of glo sing over th1s duahty wtth the rs first ?~ all a murtiplicity of feelings: the feeling of ar of the synthetic concept "I"-for these reasons bep1 . d a. ~oodltion to get away from, the feeling of a con whole chain of erroneous conclusiOns, an conse- dition to get to; then the feeling of this "away" and false valuations of the will, has weighted "to"· furtb a uently . ' ermore, an accompanying muscular feeling down our notion of willing, so m~c~ so that the Which, from a sort of habit, begins a game of its own ·uer believe in good faith that willmg suffices to WI . . f as soon as we "will"-even without our moving our produce action. Because in the maJonty o cases "arms ~d legs." In the first place, then, feeling there was a willing only where the e!fect of the ~any .kind~ of .feeling-is to be recognized as an ommand, the obedience, i. e. the action, was an ~gredrent tn Willing. Secondly, there is thinking: ~xpected one, the appearance translated itself into m every act of the will there is a thought which gives the feeling that there bad been a necessary effect. commands-and we must not imagine that we can In short, the wilier believes, with a considerable de separat~ thi~ thought out of "willing" and still have gree of certainty, that will and action ar~ somehow somethmg like will left! Thirdly, the will is not one. He credits the success, the execution of the me~cl~ a complex of feeling and thinking but above willing, to the will itself, therewith luxuriating in an ~II It rs a passion-the passion of commanding. What increase of the feeling of power which all success ~~ called "freedom of the will" is essentially a pas produces. "Freedom of the will" is the w?rd for th~t SIOnate superiority toward a someone who must manifold pleasurable condition of the wilier who IS obey. "I ~. free; 'be' must obey"-the conscious in command and at the same time considers himself ness of this Is the very willing; likewise that tension as one with the executor of the command-as such of a!ertoes~, that straightforward look which fixes enjoying the triumph over .th~ r~sist~oc.e, but po~ on. one thmg exclusively, that absolute valuation sessed of the judgment that It IS his will Itself that IS which m~:Ws "ju.st now this, and nothing else, is overcoming the resistance. In this fashion the willer nece~sary, that moer certainty that there will be adds the pleasurable feelings of the executing, suc obed~~oce-alJ this and whatever else is part of the cessful instruments, the subservient "lower wills" or conditiOn of one who is in command A b ?l · · . · man w o "lower souls" (for our body is nothing but a social wr s IS grvmg a command to something in himself structure of many souls) to bis pleasurable feeling that obeys, or which be believes will obey. But now as Commander. L' effet c'est moi-the same thing let us note the oddest thing about the will th. . f ld . , IS mam- happens here that happens in .any well .cons~ruct~d o somethmg for which the people have only one and happy community: the ruhng class rdentifies It word: because we, in a given case, are simultaneously self with the succes of the community. In all will the commander and the obeyers and, a obeyers, ing, then, there is commanding and obeying on the ~n~w the feelmg~ of fo~ciog, crowding, pres ing, re basis, as we have seen, of a ocial tructure of many srstmg, and movmg whrch begin immediately after "souls." This is why a philosopher should consider 22 FRIEDRICH NIETZSCHE BEYOND GOOD AND EVIL 2~ himself justified in including d eems willing within the gen closed to certain other po st eral sphere of morality-morality tt:ason, the road-i:ter understood a the retation. Philosopher be~o~g doctrine of the rank-relations bilities of 1-Altafc that produce the w~r linguistic group ( phenomenon iog to the. con~ammg we call "life."- : ahich the concept of "subject" languages tn ts le~ t bably "view the world" qUite 20. developed) m; ~~robe found on paths other The various differently an than philosophical concepts do not ak of Indo-European at random evolve ose travelled by or or autonomou ly but in reference th pe ulers. exerted by certain lationship and re by Moslems. The comp ston to one another; although . . the end . they seem to oc mrnatical functions the compulston cur uddenly and arbitrarily gra IS m d of the in the history of thought, . l value judgments an condi- they belong to a system or physiolog lCO . This exactly like all the members much by way of re- of the fauna of tions that deternune rrfiac~·-;.-ty a continent. This is revealed . Locke's on the subject of the fact by the supe Cia I that the mo t diverse philosophers jectlllg again and ·g·m of again fill in a ba ic scheme on ideas. of possible philosophic . Invisibly compelled, they 21. revolve again and again in the same orbit. No matter . . e best bow independent of each self-contradiction hither- other they feel with their The causa ~~~ critical or systematic will ~s ~sort of logical rape and perver- something to thought up, tt IS or other in them leads them; nt pride bas managed or something an's extravaga to other keeps them running, one sion. But rn 1 d dreadfully . after another, in a ti with just lhts no~- definite sequence. They share e itself up deep y dan£ "freedom an inborn systemat The of the will," 1D tion and relation iza sense. deman or of concepts. Their thinking . erlative sense in wbtc· h · till fact not so is i n that rnetaph~stcal tt s much a discovering as a recognizing, t~be half-learned, the membering, re ru1 demand t~ a return and a homecoming es the rnmds lo d final responsibility to a remote, assume for one s ancient, commonly stocked the tota an . . God household of the soul out . th reby rehevillg world ancestors, of which the concepts own actwns, e • ' grew. Seen in this · . . h. demand i nothing light, phi nd soctety • t IS Jess lo opbizing is a sort of atavism accident, a . If b of the highest order. e elf to pull onese Y The odd family re emblance than to be the caus: i~~~ between all Indic, one's ~:isten~e out of the bog of Greek, and German philosophizing own bootstrap d is simple enough . feat drcame with a reckless- to explain. For especially non-eJUstence--a up where the languages are d" that of Muncbbausen! But related it cannot possibly ness excee mg Baron . be avoided that, thank to . one recogmzes. the peasant-like stm- a common philosophy of supposillg some . "freedom grammar (by this I mean of the will" and de- thanks to the uncon cious plicity of our f~mo~ . I domination and leadershi would now beg him to of similar grammatical p letes it from bis thmking;, functions), everything lies . " r btenrnent step farther and to prepared for a carry his en tg one similar development and sequence f tb t "free will" roonstros- the various of delete also contrary philosophical systems. For o aill" which amounts the same ity. 1 mean the "non-free w , to a 24 FRIEDRICH NIETZSCHE BEYOND GOOD AND EVIL 25 misuse of cause and effect. One should not mis takenJy objectivize "cause" and "effect" in the man . .t (The e are the vam· race .')The right to thezr men do not want to be re pon ible.for else now. ner of the natural scientists (and whoever others, convers~y, t want to be guilty of anythm?; adays naturalizes in his thinking), in accordance anything; they inner self-contempt, to nd with the ruling mechanistic oafishness that pushes fr~mn~ ~et they demand, of themselves in some directiOn or and pulls the cause until it becomes "effective." One of the latter type writes books, nowadays, should make use of "cause" and "effect" only as burde~· other. When . themselves in criminal : a s_ort pure concepts, i. e. as conventional fictions for the ~:rest they usually m . . their favorite disguise. purpose of designation and mutual understanding, . · f compaSSIOn IS ·11 ri ht: the fatalism of the weak of not for explanation. In "being-as-such" there are no of soc!alts ~~ ~,' And ther ~r g beautified by its claim ~o ~e .za "causal connections" or "necessities" or "psychologi is astomshrngly h a ·ne " Herem lies IU cal lack of freedom"; effect there does not follow rellgton. . de Ia souffrance" um t . upon a cause; there is no "Jaw" which rules phe type of "good taste. nomena. It is we, we alone, who have dreamed up 22. the cau es, the one-thing-after-anothcrs, the one . ho e an o"id philologist who tbing-reciprocating-anothers, the relativity, the con One will forgive, I PI: of pointing his finger the "rea · t f om the rna 1ce . straint, the numbers, the laws, the freedom, cannot desls r . B t really that "confonmty son why," the purpose. And when we mix up this · terpretat1on. u ' . . aJk at poor m aw" of which you physiCISts t s o world of symbols with the world of things as though of nature u.nto I that lawfulness is the only "in themselves," then we are res~lt the symbols existed proudly as if. . . ." ' d texte of your bad philology! merely doing once more what we have always done : of your expltcatzon e"t t'', at all, but only a naive, we are creating myths. The "non-free will" is a It is not a fact, not a ex d misinterpretation that piece of mythology; in real life there is only strong . · arrangement an . . f humamtanan kl to the democratic rnstmcts o will and weak will. It is almost always a symptom of you use for true ',?g ve where equality before the what the man lacks when a thinker feels something the modern soul. E ry ff than we are"- d ture is no better o . of constraint, necessity, having-to-obey, pressure, law-an na ., ~ . which are disgmsed and lack of freedom in all his "causal connections" fine arnere-pensr:e m d surely a h tility to everything privileged ~ . and "psychological necessities." It is revealing to first, a vulgar os d ve subtle atheism. N z feel these things: the personality betrays itself. On autocratic, and secon ' a ry t that and therefore . · " you too, wan • the whole, if I have observed correctly, there are two dieu, nz maztre - I '"I Am I right? But, as I have diametrically opposed factions which have picked the "Long live natur~l ~w text and someone might "non-freedom" of the will for their problem-but said ' this is ex~hc~:~:· o~~osite' intention and inter both sides reveal a profoundly personal bias. Th come along w o, t f the arne nature and . k"ll m1ght read ou o ones want to avoid giving up at any cost their "re pretlve 1 , s . tber thing: a tyran- sponsibility," their faith in themselves, their personal henomena qmte ano . thniceal, same inconsiderate, p . re I en tless enforcement of claims 46 FRIEDRICH NIETZSCHE est." (In order to be a good philosopher it i sary to be dry, clear, without illusion. A banker ha ma de a fortune has one aspect of needed to make discoveries in philosophy: say, he sees clearly into that which is.) 40. Everything deep loves masks; the deepest have a veritable hatred of image and likeness. M not contrari ety be the onJy proper di guise to the modesty of a god? A question worth asking. would be sur prising if some mystic hadn't at time ventured upon it. There are events of delicate nature that one would do well to bury in gruffness and make them unrecognizable. are deed of Jove and extravagant magnanimity which nothin g is more advisable than to take a and beat up the eye-witness of them, to cloud memory. There are people who know bow ~o and abu e their own memories in order to get venge on their sole accomplice: mode ty is in The things of which one is mo t a harned are no means the worst things; not onJy cunning i beneath a mask; there is much goodness in guile. could imagine that a man wbo bad something cious a nd vulnerable to hide might roll through rough and round like an old green h eavily wi ne cask: tb e subtlety of his mode y would it. The destinies and delicate decisions of a man i d eeply asha med happen to him on path that ever reach and of whose existence his nearest dearest mu t know nothing. The danger to his is hidden from their eyes, as is his life-security be regains it. Such a concealed one, who instinctively uses speech for silence and withholding, and