Any kind of action is imperfect in proportion as it has been willed or conscious. The philosophers of antiquity _were the greatest duffers_ in practice, "because they condemned themselves" theoretically to _dufferdom,_.... In practice everything resolved itself into theatricalness: and he who saw through it, as Pyrrho did, for instance, thought as everybody did--that is to say, that in goodness and uprightness "paltry people" were far superior to philosophers. All the deeper natures of antiquity were disgusted at the _philosophers of virtue_; all people saw in them was brawlers and actors. (This was the judgment passed on _Plato_ by _Epicurus_ and _Pyrrho_.) _Result_: In practical life, in patience, goodness, and mutual assistance, paltry people were above them:--this is something like the judgment Dostoiewsky or Tolstoy claims for his muzhiks: they are more philosophical in practice, they are more courageous in their way of dealing with the exigencies of life.... 435. _A criticism of the philosopher._--Philosophers and moralists merely deceive themselves when they imagine that they escape from decadence by _opposing_ it. That lies beyond their wills: and however little they may be aware of the fact, it is generally discovered, subsequently that they were among the most powerful promoters of decadence. Let us examine the philosophers of Greece--Plato, for instance. He it was who separated the instincts from the polis, from the love of contest, from military efficiency, from art, beauty, the mysteries, and the belief in tradition and in ancestors.... He was the seducer of the nobles: he himself seduces through the _roturier_ Socrates.... He denied all the first principles of the "noble Greek" of sterling worth; he made dialectics an everyday practice, conspired with the tyrants, dabbled in politics for the future, and was the example of a man whose _instincts_ were the example of a man whose _instincts_ were most perfectly separated from _tradition._ He is profound and passionate in everything that is _anti-Hellenic_.... One after the other, these great philosophers represent the _typical_ forms of decadence: the moral and religious idiosyncrasy, anarchy, nihilism, (ἀδιαφορία), cynicism, hardening principles, hedonism, and reaction. The question of "happiness," of "virtue," and of the "salvation of the soul," is the expression of _physiological contradictoriness_ in these declining natures: their instincts lack all _balance_ and _purpose._ 436.