The Twilight of the Idols; or, How to Philosophize with the Hammer. The Antichrist: Complete Works, Volume SixteenNietzsche, Friedrich Wilhelm
PhilosophyPhilosophy
The Twilight of the Idols; or, How to Philosophize with the Hammer. The Antichrist: Complete Works, Volume Sixteen
Nietzsche, Friedrich Wilhelm
Philosophy
_Casuistry of a Psychologist._—This man knows mankind: to what purpose
does he study his fellows? He wants to derive some small or even
great advantages from them,—he is a politician!... That man yonder
is also well versed in human nature: and ye tell me that he wishes to
draw no personal profit from his knowledge, that he is a thoroughly
disinterested person? Examine him a little more closely! Maybe he
wishes to derive a more wicked advantage from his possession; namely,
to feel superior to men, to be able to look down upon them, no longer
to feel one of them. This “disinterested person” is a despiser of
mankind; and the former is of a more humane type, whatever appearances
may seem to say to the contrary. At least he considers himself the
equal of those about him, at least he classifies himself with them.
16
_The psychological tact_ of Germans seems to me to have been set in
doubt by a whole series of cases which my modesty forbids me to
enumerate. In one case at least I shall not let the occasion slip
for substantiating my contention: I bear the Germans a grudge for
having made a mistake about Kant and his “backstairs philosophy,” as
I call it. Such a man was not the type of intellectual uprightness.
Another thing I hate to hear is a certain infamous “and”: the Germans
say, “Goethe _and_ Schiller,”—I even fear that they say, “Schiller
and Goethe.” ... Has nobody found Schiller out yet?—But there are
other “ands” which are even more egregious. With my own ears I have
heard—only among University professors, it is true!—men speak of
“Schopenhauer _and_ Hartmann.” ...[3]
17
The most intellectual men, provided they are also the most courageous,
experience the most excruciating tragedies: but on that very account
they honour life, because it confronts them with its most formidable
antagonism.
18
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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