Chapter 49 Twilight of the Idols Twilight of the Idols

dusk of idols Twilight of an Idol 1889 1 The wisest men of all ages have passed the same judgment on life: it is useless.... Whenever and wherever they heard the same tone,--a doubtful, full of A sad, life-weary tone.Even Socrates said on his deathbed: "To live—means long sickness: I owe my savior, Asklepios, a rooster." Even Socrates seemed weary of life. —What does this indicate?Where does this point people to? -Once upon a time people would say (oh, they did, and rightly, our pessimists lead!): "There is something true here anyway! The consensus sapi-entium proves the truth."—We today Do you still have to say that?can we do this "Anyway, something is sick here."—that's our answer.These are the wisest men of all time, people should start watching them up close!Maybe they're all no longer standing?Are you late?All crumbling?Are you decadent?Perhaps wisdom appeared in the world like a crow excited by the smell of carrion? ...

① Latin: the agreement of the wise. 2 It was in those occasions when both learned and petty prejudices were strongly opposed to these great wise men that the irreverent thought first arose in my mind that they were models of decay.I see Socrates and Plato as symptoms of decline, instruments of the disintegration of Greece, pseudo-Greeks, anti-Greeks (see 1872 publication).The so-called consensus sapientium (on which I am getting more and more thorough) does not prove at all that these wise men are right because they agree on a certain point; are consistent in some respect, and thus negate—and must negate—life in the same way.Judgments about life, judgments of value, affirmations or denials of life, can never be true in the last analysis; they have value only as symptoms, they are considered only as symptoms—judgments of this kind are themselves stupid.One must try with all his might to grasp this astonishing mystery: the value of life cannot be estimated.Not by a living person, since such a party is even the object of the dispute, not the referee; nor by a dead person, for another reason, of course. —If a philosopher always regards the value of life in this way as a problem, his qualifications should be questioned, his wisdom should be called into question, and his actions should be regarded as unwise. --how?All these great wise men—are they not just decadents, are they not wise? —But, without further ado, I come to the question of Socrates.

①Latin, the agreement of the wise. 3 Socrates belonged to the lowest class of people by birth: Socrates was a pariah.Everyone knew, and even saw, how ugly he was.Yet ugliness itself is an objection, almost a disproof among the Greeks.Was Socrates a Greek?Ugly is often meant to be a mark of development hindered by and by hybridization.In another case, it appears as a development that is in decline.Criminal anthropologists tell us that the typical criminal is ugly: monstrum in fronte, monstrum in animo.But the criminal is a decadent.Is Socrates a typical criminal? —At least the judgment of the famous physiognomist is not contrary to this, and the friends of Socrates sound very unpleasant.A stranger passing through Athens, who was good at reading physiognomy, said to Socrates that he might be a monster—he harbored all vices and passions in his heart.And Socrates just replied: "You know me, sir!"

①Latin: Ominous omen of appearance, ominous omen of soul. 4 Not only the admitted debauchery and confusion of instincts reveal the decadence of Socrates, but also the fecundity of logic and the rickety malevolence for which he is famous.Let us also not forget the auditory hallucinations, such as "Socrates' demon", which are interpreted in a religious sense.Everything about him is exaggerated, comical, caricatured, and at the same time everything is Stealthy, secretive, evasive. ——I want to find out, what kind of peculiar constitution did Socrates' equation, the most bizarre equation in the world, "reason=virtue=happiness" come from, this equation is the same as all the instincts of the ancient Greeks Contrary to that.

5 What does it mean that, thanks to Socrates, the taste of the Greeks turned to dialectics?First, a noble taste is thus overcome; the untouchable prevails by means of dialectics.Before Socrates, dialectics was rejected by good society, it was considered crooked, it made people look bad.The youth are warned against it, and its whole gesture of reason is distrusted.Like honest people, real people don't flaunt their reasons like this.It's unseemly to try to show off why.Nothing that must first be proved is of little value.Wherever good manners still have prestige, where people give orders instead of "reasons," the dialectician is a buffoon, laughed at and not taken seriously. ——Socrates is a buffoon who makes people take themselves seriously. What does it mean?

6 One chooses dialectics only when there is no other alternative.He knew that the use of dialectics would arouse distrust in him, that dialectics lacked convincing power.Nothing is so easily removed as the influence of a dialectician, as the experience of every lecturing conference proves.Dialectics is only an expedient in the hands of a poor man.Before dialectics can be used, one must first force one's rights.So the Jew is a dialectician, Reinecke Fuchs is a dialectician: how?Socrates is also a dialectician? 7 Are Socrates' allegories a sign of rebellion?But a display of untouchable resentment?Can he, like an oppressed man, savor his own cruelty in the syllogism's sting?Was he seeking revenge on the nobles he had seduced? —The dialectician holds a ruthless instrument; he can become a tyrant by it; he uses his victories to make others ugly.The dialectician allows his opponent to prove that he is not an idiot, he infuriates and despairs him.The dialectician withholds the sanity of his opponent. --how?In Socrates, dialectics is just a way of revenge?

8 I have explained why Socrates is repugnant; now to say more about his method of seduction. —One of them was that he discovered a new sport, and he was the first master fencing in the circle of the Athenian aristocracy.He charmed the Greeks by appealing to their athletic impulses—he gave a variety to the gladiatorial fights between young men and boys.Socrates was also a great sex maniac. 9 But Socrates guessed something more.He sees through his noble Athenians; he understands that his case, the peculiarities of his case, are no longer exceptional.Everywhere the same recession was quietly brewing, and old Athens was at its end. —and Socrates knew that the whole world needed him—his methods, his cures, his personal technique of self-preservation... Everywhere instincts are thrown into confusion; Animo is already universally dangerous. "Impulse will become a tyrant; a stronger anti-tyrant must be found"... When the physiognomy revealed to Socrates that he was the source of all evil desires, the great ironist A sentence was also announced that gave us the key to understanding him.He said: "This is true, but I want to be the master of all this." How does Socrates become his own master? —His example is in the final analysis only an extreme example, only the most striking example of the general predicament that had begun at that time: no one is his own master anymore, instinct turns against instinct.He is alluring as such an extreme example—his frightening ugliness makes the extreme example visible; and of course he is even more attractive as the answer, the solution, the semblance that the case has been cured.

① Latin: Omen of the soul. 10 If one has to reason to become a tyrant, as Socrates did, there must be no small danger that something else has become a tyrant.Here reason is conceived as the saviour, and neither Socrates nor his "patients" can be rational at will - this is de rigueur, this is their all-or-nothing.The feverish appeal to reason throughout Greek thought indicates a dilemma: people are in danger, and there is only one choice: either perish, or—become absurdly rational beings... The morality of the Greek philosophers since Plato Doctrines have pathological roots; so does their emphasis on dialectics. "Reason = Virtue = Happiness" simply means: one must, like Socrates, create an eternal day - the day of reason - against the desires of darkness.In any case, you must be rational, sober, and understand that giving in to instinct and unconsciousness will lead to collapse...

①French: Strictly stipulated. 11 I have already explained how Socrates charms people: he seems to be a doctor, a rescuer.Is there any need to point out the error contained in his belief in "absolute reason"? — Philosophers and moralists think that by fighting decadence, they are free from decadence. This is a kind of self-deception.It is beyond their power to escape from decadence: the means of rescue they have chosen are themselves only an expression of decadence—they change the expression of decadence, but they do not eliminate decadence itself.Socrates is a misunderstanding; the whole morality of the good, including Christian morality, is a misunderstanding... The dazzling day, the absolute reason, the sober, calm, prudent, self-conscious, rejection of instinct, life against instinct, is itself only a One disease, another disease - not at all the way back to "virtue", "health", happiness... Instincts must be overcome - this is the formula of decadence.As long as life is on the rise, happiness is equal to instinct.

12 —Has the wisest of all self-deceivers realized this himself?Had he at last spoken it to himself in his dying wisdom? ... Socrates only wanted to die: - not the Athenians, but he poisoned himself. He demanded the poison from the Athenians... He said softly to himself: "Socrates is not a doctor. Death is the doctor here... Socrates himself is only a chronically ill..."