When one considers how great and how close to us the _problem of existence_ is,--this equivocal, tormented, fleeting, dream-like existence--so great and so close that as soon as one perceives it, it overshadows and conceals all other problems and aims;--and when one sees how all men--with a few and rare exceptions--are not clearly conscious of the problem, nay, do not even seem to see it, but trouble themselves about everything else rather than this, and live on taking thought only for the present day and the scarcely longer span of their own personal future, while they either expressly give the problem up or are ready to agree with it, by the aid of some system of popular metaphysics, and are satisfied with this;--when one, I say, reflects upon this, so may one be of the opinion that man is a _thinking being_ only in a very remote sense, and not feel any special surprise at any trait of thoughtlessness or folly; but know, rather, that the intellectual outlook of the normal man indeed surpasses that of the brute,--whose whole existence resembles a continual present without any consciousness of the future or the past--but, however, not to such an extent as one is wont to suppose. And corresponding to this, we find in the conversation of most men that their thoughts are cut up as small as chaff, making it impossible for them to spin out the thread of their discourse to any length. If this world were peopled by really thinking beings, noise of every kind would not be so universally tolerated, as indeed the most horrible and aimless form of it is.[12] If Nature had intended man to think she would not have given him ears, or, at any rate, she would have furnished them with air-tight flaps like the bat, which for this reason is to be envied. But, in truth, man is like the rest, a poor animal, whose powers are calculated only to maintain him during his existence; therefore he requires to have his ears always open to announce of themselves, by night as by day, the approach of the pursuer. FOOTNOTES: [12] See Essay on Noise, p. 28. SHORT DIALOGUE ON THE INDESTRUCTIBILITY OF OUR TRUE BEING BY DEATH. _Thrasymachos._ Tell me briefly, what shall I be after my death? Be clear and precise. _Philalethes._ Everything and nothing. _Thras._ That is what I expected. You solve the problem by a contradiction. That trick is played out. _Phil._ To answer transcendental questions in language that is made for immanent knowledge must assuredly lead to a contradiction.