191

The old theological problem of "believing" and "knowing" - or, to put the matter more clearly - of instinct and reason - and thus the question whether in assessing the value of things instinct deserves more authority than rationality, which wants to assess and act according to reasons, according to a "Why?"- according to expediency and utility - it is still that old moral problem, as it first appeared in the person of Socrates, which had already divided minds long before Christianity. Socrates, in fact, set himself, with a taste for his talent - which was that of a superior dialectical thinker - at first on the side of reason, and, in truth, what did he do his whole life long but laugh at the awkward inability of his noble Athenians, who were men of instinct, like all noble men, and who could never provide enough information about the reasons for their actions? Finally, however, in stillness and secret he also laughed at himself. With his more subtle conscience and self-enquiry he found in himself the same difficulty and inability. But, he said to himself, does that mean releasing oneself from instincts! We must give the instincts and reason the proper help. We must follow the instincts but convince reason to assist in the process with good reasons. This was the real falsehood of that great ironist, so rich in secrets. He brought his conscience to the point where it was satisfied with a kind of trick played on itself. Socrates basically had seen through the irrational in moral judgments. Plato, who was more innocent in such things and without the mischievousness of a common man, wanted to use all his power - the greatest power which a philosopher up to that time had had at his command! - to prove that reason and instinct inherently move to a single goal, to the good, to "God," and since Plato all the theologians and philosophers have been on the same road - that is, in things concerning morality up to now, instinct, or as the Christians call it "faith," or as I call it, "the herd," has triumphed. We must grant that Descartes is an exception, the father of rationalism (and thus the grandfather of the revolution), a man who conferred sole authority on reason. But reason is only a tool, and Descartes was superficial.3

3. . . . Descartes: René Descartes (1596-1650), extremely important French philosopher and mathematician, one of the most important figures in the development of modern science and philosophy.
Friedrich Nietzsche - Beyond Good and Evil
Part V - Aphorism # 191

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