_The second_ series of questions: _wherefore_ suffer? ... and from this a conclusion is derived concerning the relation of the real world to our apparent, changing, suffering, and contradictory world: (1) Suffering as the consequence of error: how is error possible? (2) Suffering as the consequence of guilt: how is guilt possible? (A host of experiences drawn from the sphere of nature or society, universalised and made absolute.) But if the conditioned world be causally determined by the unconditioned, then the _freedom to err, to be sinful,_ must also be derived from the same quarter: and once more the question arises, _to what purpose?_ ... The world of appearance, of Becoming, of contradiction, of suffering, is therefore _willed; to what purpose?_ The error of these conclusions; two contradictory concepts are formed--because one of them corresponds to a reality, the other "_must_" also correspond to a reality. "_Whence_" would one otherwise derive its contradictory concept? _Reason_ is thus a source of revelation concerning the absolute. But the _origin_ of the above contradictions _need not necessarily_ be a supernatural source of reason: it is sufficient to oppose t_he real genesis_ of the concepts, this springs from practical spheres, from utilitarian spheres, hence the _strong faith_ it commands _(one is threatened with ruin_ if one's conclusions are not in conformity with this reason; but this fact is no "_proof_" of what the latter asserts). _The preoccupation of metaphysicians with pain,_ is quite artless. "Eternal blessedness": psychological nonsense. Brave and creative men never make pleasure and pain ultimate questions--they are incidental conditions: both of them must be desired when one _will attain to_ something. It is a sign of fatigue and illness in these metaphysicians and religious men, that they should press questions of pleasure and pain into the foreground. Even _morality_ in their eyes derives its great importance _only_ from the fact that it is regarded as an essential condition for abolishing pain. _The same holds good of the preoccupation with appearance and error_ the cause of pain. A superstition that happiness and truth are related (confusion: happiness in "certainty," in "faith"). 580. To what extent are the various _epistemological positions_ (materialism, sensualism, idealism) consequences of valuations? The source of the highest feelings of pleasure ("feelings of value") may also judge concerning the problem of _reality_! The measure of _positive knowledge_ is quite a matter of indifference and beside the point; as witness the development of Indici.