Book Two: A Criticism of the Highest Values That Have Prevailed Hitherto
IV: How Virtue Is Made to Dominate§327 The domain of morality must be reduced and limited step by step; the names of the instincts which are really active in this sphere must be drawn into the light of day and honoured, after they have lain all this time in the concealment of hypocritical names of virtue. Out of respect for one’s “honesty”, which makes itself heard ever more and more imperiously, one ought to unlearn the shame which makes one deny and “explain away” all natural instincts. The extent to which one can dispense with virtue is the measure of one’s strength; and a height may be imagined where the notion “virtue” is understood in such a way as to be reminiscent of virtu— the virtue of the Renaissance, free from moralic acid. But for the moment how remote this ideal seems!
The reduction of the domain of morality is a sign of its progress. Wherever, hitherto, thought has not been guided by causality, thinking has taken a moral turn.