Ethics: or the "philosophy of desirability."--"Things _ought_ to be otherwise," "things _ought_ to become different": dissatisfaction would thus seem the heart of ethics. One could find a way out of it, first, by selecting only those states in which one is free from emotion; secondly, by grasping the insolence and stupidity of the attitude of mind: for to desire that something should be otherwise than it is, means to desire that _everything_ should be different--it involves a damaging criticism of the whole. _But life itself consists in such desiring!_ To ascertain _what exists, how it exists_ seems an ever so much higher and more serious matter than every "thus should it be," because the latter, as a piece of human criticism and arrogance, appears to be condemned as ludicrous from the start. It expresses a need which would fain have the organisation of the world correspond with our human well-being, and which directs the will as much as possible towards the accomplishment of that relationship. On the other hand, this desire, "thus it ought to be," has only called forth that other desire, "_what exists?_" The desire of knowing what exists, is already a consequence of the question, "how? is it possible? Why precisely so?" Our wonder at the disagreement between our desires and the course of the world has led to our learning to know the course of the world. Perhaps the matter stands differently: maybe the expression, "thus it ought to be," is merely the utterance of our desire to overcome the world---- 334.