It contains no construction _a priori_, no absolute legislation for all rational beings _in abstracto_; it lacks all official, academic sanction. Therefore, whoever thinks it not sufficiently fashionable, may return to the Categorical Imperative; to the Shibboleth of "Human Dignity"; to the empty phrases, the cobwebs, and the soap-bubbles of the Schools; to principles on which experience pours contempt at every step, and of which no one, outside the lecture-rooms knows anything, or has ever had the least notion. On the other hand, the foundation which is reached by following my path is upheld by experience; and it is experience which daily and hourly delivers its silent testimony in favour of my theory. [1] _I.e._, there is nothing either good or bad by nature, but these things are decided by human judgment, as Timon says. _V_. Sexti Empirici _Opera Quae Exstant: Adversus Mathematicos;_ p. 462 A _ad fin_. Aurelianae: Petrus et Jacobus Chouët, 1621. _V_. also: Sexti Empirici _Opera_, edit. Jo. Albertus Fabricius: Lipsiae, 1718, Lib. XI., 140, p. 716. [2] See _Die Welt als Wille und Vorstellung_, Vol I., § 62, p. 396 sqq., and Vol. II., chap. 47, p. 682. [3] In other words: If _a_ be a given offence, or virtuous act, and _x_ the punishment, or reward, proportional to it; then the punishment, or reward, actually inflicted, instead of being _x_, may be _x_^2 or _x_^3.--(Translator.) CHAPTER III. ANTIMORAL[1] INCENTIVES. The chief and fundamental incentive in man, as in animals, is =Egoism=, that is, the urgent impulse to exist, and exist under the best circumstances. The German word _Selbstsucht_ (self-seeking) involves a false secondary idea of disease (_Sucht_).[2] The term _Eigennutz_ (self-interest) denotes Egoism, so far as the latter is guided by reason, which enables it, by means of reflection, to prosecute its purposes systematically; so that animals may be called egoistic, but not self-interested (_eigennutzig_). I shall therefore retain the word =Egoism= for the general idea. Now this Egoism is, both in animals and men, connected in the closest way with their very essence and being; indeed, it is one and the same thing. For this reason all human actions, as a rule, have their origin in Egoism, and to it, accordingly, we must always first turn, when we try to find the explanation of any given line of conduct; just as, when the endeavour is made to guide a man in any direction, the means to this end are universally calculated with reference to the same all-powerful motive. Egoism is, from its nature, limitless. The individual is filled with the unqualified desire of preserving his life, and of keeping it free from all pain, under which is included all want and privation. He wishes to have the greatest possible amount of pleasurable existence, and every gratification that he is capable of appreciating; indeed, he attempts, if possible, to evolve fresh capacities for enjoyment.