The Joyful Wisdom ("La Gaya Scienza"): Complete Works, Volume TenNietzsche, Friedrich Wilhelm
PhilosophyPhilosophy
The Joyful Wisdom ("La Gaya Scienza"): Complete Works, Volume Ten
Nietzsche, Friedrich Wilhelm
Philosophy
_The Theory of Poisons._--So many things have to be united in order
that scientific thinking may arise, and all the necessary powers
must have been devised, exercised, and fostered singly! In their
isolation, however, they have very often had quite a different
effect than at present, when they are confined within the limits of
scientific thinking and kept mutually in check:--they have operated as
poisons; for example, the doubting impulse, the denying impulse, the
waiting impulse, the collecting impulse, the disintegrating impulse.
Many hecatombs of men were sacrificed ere these impulses learned to
understand their juxtaposition and regard themselves as functions of
one organising force in one man! And how far are we still from the
point at which the artistic powers and the practical wisdom of life
shall co-operate with scientific thinking, so that a higher organic
system may be formed, in relation to which the scholar, the physician,
the artist, and the lawgiver, as we know them at present, will seem
sorry antiquities!
114.
_The Extent of the Moral._--We construct a new picture, which we see
immediately with the aid of all the old experiences which we have
had, _always according to the degree_ of our honesty and justice.
The only experiences are moral experiences, even in the domain of
sense-perception.
115.
_The Four Errors._--Man has been reared by his errors: firstly, he saw
himself always imperfect; secondly,-he attributed to himself--imaginary
qualities; thirdly, he felt himself in a false position in relation
to the animals and nature; fourthly, he always devised new tables of
values, and accepted them for a time as eternal and unconditioned, so
that at one time this, and at another time that human impulse or state
stood first, and was ennobled in consequence. When one has deducted
the effect of these four errors, one has also deducted humanity,
humaneness, and "human dignity."
116.
_Herd-Instinct._--Wherever we meet with a morality we find a
valuation and order of rank of the human impulses and activities.
These valuations and orders of rank are always the expression of the
needs of a community or herd: that which is in the first place to
_its_ advantage--and in the second place and third place--is also the
authoritative standard for the worth of every individual. By morality
the individual is taught to become a function of the herd, and to
ascribe to himself value only as a function. As the conditions for
the maintenance of one community have been very different from those
of another community, there have been very different moralities;
and in respect to the future essential transformations of herds and
communities, states and societies, one can prophesy that there will
still be very divergent moralities. Morality is the herd-instinct in
the individual.
117.
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