mine life and faith in life—they, and not the Bösen and "robber-animals," are man's greatest danger.[1]
Fourth, we can now measure egoism and altruism from a standpoint superior to either. Dr. Dolson, perhaps the earliest philosophical student of Nietzsche in America, says that "the one name that can be given" to his system "without qualification is egoism"; but she straightway begins to make qualifications—and really they are most necessary.[2] For all depends on who or what the ego is. The egoism of one who represents the rising tide of life is justified, though only in those who reach the highest crest is it completely justified, all the rest having their ends more or less beyond themselves. The egoism of the sickly and the degenerate, on the other hand, is not justified, it is rather something pitiful and revolting.[3] In a similar way altruism is justified so far as there are (or may be) others better than ourselves; altruism under these conditions is justified, even if carried to the point of sacrifice. But altruism is not justified, when the "others" are not worth preserving and belong to those whose reason for existence has ceased to be (if it ever was). d
Fifth, life being essentially a process, a series of actions, a successive accumulation and expenditure of force, an adverse judgment is necessarily involved on viewing anything that is static, like pleasure or happiness, as an end. Life is not a means to enjoyment (Genuss). The noble soul does not wish to enjoy, save as it gives enjoyment.[4] Whether it be pleasure or happiness or Carlyle's "blessedness" or peace of mind or good conscience, any and all are but incidents by the way.[5] We are here rather to develop a certain kind and way of acting, and move toward a certain end; it is this, and not any momentary state or how we feel, that is the critical thing. It seems to be taken for granted in many quarters that pleasure of some kind
- ↑ Genealogy etc.. III, § 14.
- ↑ Op. cit., p. 101.
- ↑ Zarathustra, I, xxii, § 1. The egoism (Eigenliebe) of the "Siechen und Süchtigen" "stinkt" (ibid., III, xi, § 2). Cf. still further on the two kinds of egoism, Will to Power, § 873.
- ↑ Werke, XIV, 95, § 198; Zarathustra, III, xii, § 5.
- ↑ Werke, XII, 137-8, § 266. As to the various meanings of "peace of mind," see Twilight etc., v, § 3; as to "blessedness," Will to Power, § 911. Cf. the characterization of "enjoyment, coarse, heavy, brown enjoyment, as those who enjoy life, our 'educated' class, our rich men and rulers understand it" (Joyful Science, preface, § 4).
