{"id":2003,"date":"2015-08-27T06:00:53","date_gmt":"2015-08-27T10:00:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bobfelton.com\/?p=2003"},"modified":"2015-08-26T07:06:57","modified_gmt":"2015-08-26T11:06:57","slug":"the-will-to-power-163","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.bobfelton.com\/?p=2003","title":{"rendered":"The Will to Power<\/i>"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Book Two: A Criticism of the Highest Values That Have Prevailed Hitherto<\/i>
A Criticism of the Words: Improvement, Perfecting, Elevation<\/p>\n

§396<\/b>   The priests and with them the half-priests or philosophers of all ages have always called that doctrine true, the educating influence of which was a benevolent one or at least seemed so — that is to say, tended to \u201cimprove\u201d. In this way they resemble an ingenuous plebeian empiric and miracle-worker who, because he had tried a certain poison as a cure, declared it to be no poison. \u201cBy their fruits ye shall know them\u201d that is to say, \u201cby our truths\u201d. This has been the reasoning of priests until this day. They have squandered their sagacity, with results that have been sufficiently fatal, in order to make the \u201cproof of power\u201d (or the proof \u201cby the fruits\u201d) pre-eminent and even supreme arbiter over all other forms of proof. \u201cThat which makes good must be good; that which is good cannot lie\u201d — these are their inexorable conclusions — \u201cthat which bears good fruit must consequently be true; there is no other criterion of truth\u201d —<\/p>\n

But to the extent to which \u201cimproving\u201d acts as an argument, deteriorating must also act as a refutation. The error can be shown to be an error, by examining the lives of those who represent it: a false step, a vice, can refute. This indecent form of opposition, which comes from below and behind the dog-like form of opposition, has not died out either. Priests, as psychologists, never discovered anything more interesting than spying out the secret vices of their adversaries; they prove their Christianity by looking about for the world\u2019s filth. They apply this principle more particularly to the greatest on earth, to the geniuses: readers will remember how Goethe has been attacked on every conceivable occasion in Germany (Klopstock and Herder were among the first to give a \u201cgood example\u201d — in this respect birds of a feather flock together). <\/p><\/blockquote>\n

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Book Two: A Criticism of the Highest Values That Have Prevailed HithertoA Criticism of the Words: Improvement, Perfecting, Elevation §396   The priests and with them the half-priests or philosophers of all ages have always called that doctrine true, the … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[3],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.bobfelton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2003"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.bobfelton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.bobfelton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.bobfelton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.bobfelton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2003"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.bobfelton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2003\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2004,"href":"http:\/\/www.bobfelton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2003\/revisions\/2004"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.bobfelton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2003"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.bobfelton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2003"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.bobfelton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2003"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}