The whole direction of values was towards the _slander of life_; people deliberately confounded ideal dogmatism with knowledge in general: so that the opposing parties also began to reject _science_ with horror. Thus the road to science was _doubly_ barred: first, by the belief in the real world; and secondly, by the opponents of this belief. Natural science and psychology were (1) condemned in their objects, (2) deprived of their artlessness.... Everything is so absolutely bound and related to everything else in the real world, that to condemn, or to _think away_ anything, means to condemn and think away the whole. The words "this should not be," "this ought not to be," are a farce.... If one imagines the consequences, one would ruin the very source of Life by suppressing everything which is in any sense whatever _dangerous or destructive._ Physiology proves this _much better_! We see how morality _(a) poisons_ the whole concept of the world, _(b)_ cuts off the way to _science, (c)_ dissipates and undermines all real instincts (by teaching that their root is _immoral_). We thus perceive a terrible tool of decadence at work, which succeeds in remaining immune, thanks to the holy names and holy attitudes it assumes. 585. The awful recovery of our _consciousness:_ not of the individual, but of the human species. Let us reflect; let us think backwards; let us follow the narrow and broad highway. _A._ Man seeks "the truth": a world that does not contradict itself, that does not deceive, that does not change, a _real_ world--a world in which there is no suffering: contradiction, deception, variability---the causes of suffering! He does not doubt that there is such a thing as a world as it ought to be; he would fain find a road to it. (Indian criticism: even the ego is apparent and _not_ real.) Whence does man derive the concept of _reality_? --Why does he make variability, deception, contradiction, the origin of _suffering;_ why not rather of his happiness? ... The contempt and hatred of all that perishes, changes, and varies: whence comes this valuation of stability? Obviously, the will to truth is _merely_ the longing for a _stable world._ The senses deceive; reason corrects the errors: _therefore,_ it was concluded, reason is the road to a static state; the most _spiritual_ ideas must be nearest to the "real world."--It is from the senses that the greatest number of misfortunes come they are cheats, deluders, and destroyers. Happiness can be promised only by Being: change and happiness exclude each other. The loftiest desire is thus to be one with Being. That is the formula for the way to happiness. _In summa:_ The world as it _ought_ to be exists; this world in which we live is an error--this our world should _not_ exist. _The belief in Being_ shows itself only as a result: the real primum _mobile_ is the disbelief in Becoming, the mistrust of Becoming, the scorn of all Becoming....