The Will to Power · Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche
_C._
Problem: why has the _image of the other world_ always been to the disadvantage of "this" one--that is to say, always stood as a criticism of it; what does this point to?-- A people that are proud of themselves, and who are on the ascending path of Life, always; picture _another_ existence as lower and less valuable than theirs; they regard the strange unknown world as their enemy, as their opposite; they feel no curiosity, but rather repugnance in regard to what is strange to them.... Such a body of men would never admit that another people were the "true people".... The very fact that such a distinction is possible,--that this world should be called the world of appearance, and that the other should be called the true world,--is symptomatic. The places of origin of the idea, of "another world": The philosopher who invents a rational world where _reason_ and logical functions are adequate:--this is the root of the "true" world. The religious man who invents a "divine world";--this is the root of the "denaturalised" and the "anti-natural" world. The moral man who invents a "free world":--this is the root of the good, the perfect, the just, and the holy world. The _common factor_ in the three places of origin: _psychological_ error, physiological confusion. With what attributes is the "other world," as it actually appears in history, characterised? With the stigmata of philosophical, religious, and moral prejudices.
As interpretations (_not_ as established facts)--and in what respect were they perhaps necessary interpretations? (as "preservative measures")--all in the sense of a Will to Power. Our values are _interpreted into the heart_ of things. Is there, then, any _sense_ in the absolute? Is not sense necessarily _relative-sense_ and perspective? All sense is Will to Power (all relative senses may be identified with it). The desire for "established facts"--Epistemology: how much pessimism there is in it! The antagonism between the "true world," as pessimism depicts it, and a world in which it were possible to live--for this the rights of _truth_ must be tested. It is necessary to measure all these "ideal forces" according to the standard of life, in order to understand the nature of that antagonism: the struggle of sickly, desperate life, cleaving to a beyond, against healthier, more foolish, more false, richer, and fresher life. Thus it is not "truth" struggling with Life, but _one_ kind of Life with another kind.--But the former would fain be the _higher_ kind!--Here we must prove that some order of rank is necessary,--that the first problem is _the order of rank among kinds of Life._ The belief, "It is _thus_ and _thus,_" must be altered into the will, "Thus and thus _shall it be._" _(m)_ Science.
Text from Project Gutenberg, public domain in the United States.