Alefowl.com: bilingual books

Next chapter

Vom Nutzen und Nachteil der Historie für das Leben
Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche
(1874)

Downloading books is available only for authorized users

Downloading books is available only for authorized users

On the Use and Abuse of History for Life De l’utilité et de l’inconvénient des études historiques pour la vie

Foreword PRÉFACE
“Incidentally, I despise everything which merely instructs me without increasing or immediately enlivening my activity.” These are Goethe's words. With them, as with a heartfelt expression of Ceterum censeo (I judge otherwise), our consideration of the worth and the worthlessness of history may begin. For this work is to set down why, in the spirit of Goethe's saying, we must seriously despise instruction without vitality, knowledge which enervates activity, and history as an expensive surplus of knowledge and a luxury, because we lack what is still most essential to us and because what is superfluous is hostile to what is essential. To be sure, we need history. But we need it in a manner different from the way in which the spoilt idler in the garden of knowledge uses it, no matter how elegantly he may look down on our coarse and graceless needs and distresses. That is, we need it for life and action, not for a comfortable turning away from life and action or merely for glossing over the egotistical life and the cowardly bad act. We wish to use history only insofar as it serves living. But there is a degree of doing history and a valuing of it through which life atrophies and degenerates. To bring this phenomenon to light as a remarkable symptom of our time is every bit as necessary as it may be painful.

I have tried to describe a feeling which has often enough tormented me. I take my revenge on this feeling when I expose it to the general public. Perhaps with such a description someone or other will have reason to point out to me that he also knows this particular sensation but that I have not felt it with sufficient purity and naturalness and definitely have not expressed myself with the appropriate certainty and mature experience. Perhaps one or two will respond in this way. However, most people will tell me that this feeling is totally wrong, unnatural, abominable, and absolutely forbidden, that with it, in fact, I have shown myself unworthy of the powerful historical tendency of the times, as it has been, by common knowledge, observed for the past two generations, particularly among the Germans. Whatever the reaction, now that I dare to expose myself with this natural description of my feeling, common decency will be fostered rather than shamed, because I am providing many opportunities for a contemporary tendency like the reaction just mentioned to make polite pronouncements. Moreover, I obtain for myself something of even more value to me than respectability: I become publicly instructed and set straight about our times.

This essay is also out of touch with the times because here I am trying for once to see as a contemporary disgrace, infirmity, and defect something of which our age is justifiably proud, its historical culture. For I believe, in fact, that we are all suffering from a consumptive historical fever and at the very least should recognize that we are afflicted with it. If Goethe with good reason said that with our virtues we simultaneously cultivate our faults and if, as everyone knows, a hypertrophic virtue (as the historical sense of our age appears to me to be) can serve to destroy a people just as well as a hypertrophic vice, then
Space for Notes people may make allowance for me this once. Also in my defense I should not conceal the fact that the experiences which aroused these feelings of torment in me I have derived for the most part from myself and only from others for the purpose of comparison and that, insofar as I am a student more of ancient times, particularly the Greeks, I come as a child in these present times to such anachronistic experiences concerning myself. But I must be allowed to ascribe this much to myself on account of my profession as a classical philologue, for I would not know what sense classical philology would have in our age unless it is to be effective by its inappropriateness for the times, that is, in opposition to the age, thus working on the age, and, we hope, for the benefit of a coming time.

Friedrich Nietzsche

« Du reste je déteste tout ce qui ne fait que m’instruire, sans augmenter mon activité ou l’animer directement. » Ce sont là des paroles de Gœthe par lesquelles, comme un Ceterum censeo courageusement exprimé, pourra débuter notre considération sur la valeur et la non-valeur des études historiques. On y exposera pourquoi l’enseignement, sans la vivification, pourquoi la science qui paralyse l’activité, pourquoi l’histoire, précieux superflu de la connaissance et article de luxe, doivent être sérieusement, selon le mot de Gœthe, un objet de haine, — parce que nous manquons encore actuellement de ce qu’il y a de plus nécessaire, car le superflu est l’ennemi du nécessaire. Certes, nous avons besoin de l’histoire, mais autrement que n’en a besoin l’oisif promeneur dans le jardin de la science, quel que soit le dédain que celui-ci jette, du haut de sa grandeur, sur nos nécessités et nos besoins rudes et sans grâce. Cela signifie que nous avons besoin de l’histoire pour vivre et pour agir, et non point pour nous détourner nonchalamment de la vie et de l’action, ou encore pour enjoliver la vie égoïste et l’action lâche et mauvaise. Nous voulons servir l’histoire seulement en tant qu’elle sert la vie. Mais il y a une façon d’envisager l’histoire et de faire de l’histoire grâce à laquelle la vie s’étiole et dégénère. C’est là un phénomène qu’il est maintenant nécessaire autant que douloureux de faire connaître, d’après les singuliers symptômes de notre temps.

Je me suis efforcé de dépeindre un sentiment qui m’a souvent tourmenté. Je me venge de ce sentiment en le livrant à la publicité. Peut-être se trouvera-t-il quelqu’un qui, par ma description, se sentira poussé à me déclarer qu’il connaît, lui aussi, ce sentiment, mais que je ne l’ai pas ressenti d’une façon assez pure et primesautière, de sorte que je ne suis pas parvenu à l’exprimer avec la précision et la maturité dans le jugement qui convenaient en la matière. Ce sera peut-être le cas de l’un ou de l’autre, mais la plupart d’entre mes lecteurs me diront que mon sentiment est absolument faux, abominable, anti-naturel et illicite, que, de plus, en le manifestant, je me suis montré indigne du puissant courant historique tel qu’il s’est produit, on ne l’ignore pas, depuis deux générations, surtout parmi les Allemands. Or, il est certain qu’en me hasardant de décrire mon sentiment au naturel, je hâte plutôt que je n’entrave les convenances universelles, car, de la sorte, je fournis à beaucoup de gens l’occasion de glorifier le courant susdit. Pour ma part, cependant, je gagne quelque chose qui m’est encore plus précieux que les convenances, c’est d’être instruit et éclairé publiquement au sujet de notre époque.

Inactuelle, cette considération l’est encore parce que j’essaie d’interpréter comme un mal, une infirmité et un vice, quelque chose dont notre époque est fière à juste titre — sa culture historique —, parce que je crois même que nous souffrons tous d’une consomption historique et que nous devrions tous reconnaître qu’il en est ainsi. Gœthe a dit à bon droit qu’en même temps que nous cultivons nos vertus nous cultivons aussi nos vices. Chacun sait qu’une vertu hypertrophiée — et le sens historique de notre époque me semble en être une — peut entraîner la chute d’un peuple aussi bien qu’un vice hypertrophié. Qu’on me laisse donc faire ! Je dirai, à mon excuse, que les expériences qui ont provoqué chez moi ces tortures, je les ai faites presque toujours sur moi-même et que c’est seulement par comparaison que je me suis servi des expériences des autres. Étant aussi l’élève des temps anciens, surtout de la Grèce, j’ai acquis sur moi-même, comme enfant de ce temps-ci, les expériences que j’appelle inactuelles. Ceci du moins j’ai le droit de me le concéder à moi-même, de par ma profession de philologue classique. Car je ne sais pas quel but pourrait avoir la philologie classique, à notre époque, si ce n’est celui d’agir d’une façon inactuelle, c’est-à-dire contre le temps, et par là-même, sur le temps, en faveur, je l’espère, d’un temps à venir.

well: You use well to say that something was done in a good way.
among: If you are among certain things, they are all around you.
describe: To describe is to say or write what someone or something is like.
ever: Ever means at any time.
appropriate: When a thing is appropriate, it is right or normal.
concern: Concern is a feeling of worry.
instruct: To instruct is to teach.
experience: An experience is something you have seen or done.
cause: To cause is to make something happen.
wise: To be wise is to use experience and intelligence to make good choices.
allow: To allow something to happen means to let it happen.
sense: To sense something is to know about it without being told.
necessary: If something is necessary, you must do it.
purpose: A purpose is the reason that you do something.
still: Still is used when you say that a situation keeps going on.
benefit: A benefit is a good thing.
certain: If you are certain about something, you know it is true.
effect: An effect is a change made by something else.
essential: If something is essential, it is very important and necessary.
far: If something is far, it is not close.
immediate: If something is immediate, it happens quickly.
proud: If someone feels proud, they are happy about what they have done.
serious: When something is serious, it is bad or unsafe.
judge: To judge something is to say if it is good or bad.
thin: If someone or something is thin, they are not fat.
owe: To owe is to have to pay or give back something received from another.
position: A position is the way something is placed.
description: A description of someone or something says what they are like.
suffer: To suffer is to feel pain.
observe: To observe something is to watch it.
race: A race is a contest to see who is the fastest.
respond: To respond is to give an answer to what someone else said.
ancient: If something is ancient, it is very old.
mention: To mention something is to talk about it.
bit: A bit is a small amount of something.
consider: To consider something means to think about it.
destroy: To destroy means to damage something so badly that it cannot be used.
lie: To lie is to say or write something untrue to deceive someone.
serve: To serve someone is to give them food or drinks.
war: A war is a big fight between two groups of people.
worth: If something is worth an amount of money, it costs that amount.
appear: To appear is to seem.
pain: Pain is the feeling that you have when you are hurt.
comfort: To comfort someone means to make them feel better.
set: To set something is to put it somewhere.
fit: If something fits, it is small enough orthe right size to go there.
lack: If there is a lack of something, there is not enough of it.
public: If something is public, it is meant for everyone to use.
recognize: To recognize something is to know it because you have seen it before.
otherwise: Otherwise means different or in another way.
react: To react is to act in a certain way because of something that happened.
effective: If something is effective, it works well.
rather: Rather is used when you want to do one thing but not the other.
value: If something has value, it is worth a lot of money.
own: To own something means to have it. That thing belongs to you.
knowledge: Knowledge is information that you have about something.
respect: Respect is a good opinion of someone because they are good.
rich: If you are rich, you have a lot of money.
common: If something is common, it happens often or there is much of it.
different: Different describes someone or something that is not the same as others.

Next chapter

Vom Nutzen und Nachteil der Historie für das Leben Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche (1874)

Downloading books is available only for authorized users
Downloading books is available only for authorized users
On the Use and Abuse of History for Life		De l’utilité et de l’inconvénient des études historiques pour la vie
Foreword		PRÉFACE
“Incidentally, I despise everything which merely instructs me without increasing or immediately enlivening my activity.” These are Goethe's words. With them, as with a heartfelt expression of Ceterum censeo (I judge otherwise), our consideration of the worth and the worthlessness of history may begin. For this work is to set down why, in the spirit of Goethe's saying, we must seriously despise instruction without vitality, knowledge which enervates activity, and history as an expensive surplus of knowledge and a luxury, because we lack what is still most essential to us and because what is superfluous is hostile to what is essential. To be sure, we need history. But we need it in a manner different from the way in which the spoilt idler in the garden of knowledge uses it, no matter how elegantly he may look down on our coarse and graceless needs and distresses. That is, we need it for life and action, not for a comfortable turning away from life and action or merely for glossing over the egotistical life and the cowardly bad act. We wish to use history only insofar as it serves living. But there is a degree of doing history and a valuing of it through which life atrophies and degenerates. To bring this phenomenon to light as a remarkable symptom of our time is every bit as necessary as it may be painful. I have tried to describe a feeling which has often enough tormented me. I take my revenge on this feeling when I expose it to the general public. Perhaps with such a description someone or other will have reason to point out to me that he also knows this particular sensation but that I have not felt it with sufficient purity and naturalness and definitely have not expressed myself with the appropriate certainty and mature experience. Perhaps one or two will respond in this way. However, most people will tell me that this feeling is totally wrong, unnatural, abominable, and absolutely forbidden, that with it, in fact, I have shown myself unworthy of the powerful historical tendency of the times, as it has been, by common knowledge, observed for the past two generations, particularly among the Germans. Whatever the reaction, now that I dare to expose myself with this natural description of my feeling, common decency will be fostered rather than shamed, because I am providing many opportunities for a contemporary tendency like the reaction just mentioned to make polite pronouncements. Moreover, I obtain for myself something of even more value to me than respectability: I become publicly instructed and set straight about our times. This essay is also out of touch with the times because here I am trying for once to see as a contemporary disgrace, infirmity, and defect something of which our age is justifiably proud, its historical culture. For I believe, in fact, that we are all suffering from a consumptive historical fever and at the very least should recognize that we are afflicted with it. If Goethe with good reason said that with our virtues we simultaneously cultivate our faults and if, as everyone knows, a hypertrophic virtue (as the historical sense of our age appears to me to be) can serve to destroy a people just as well as a hypertrophic vice, then Space for Notes people may make allowance for me this once. Also in my defense I should not conceal the fact that the experiences which aroused these feelings of torment in me I have derived for the most part from myself and only from others for the purpose of comparison and that, insofar as I am a student more of ancient times, particularly the Greeks, I come as a child in these present times to such anachronistic experiences concerning myself. But I must be allowed to ascribe this much to myself on account of my profession as a classical philologue, for I would not know what sense classical philology would have in our age unless it is to be effective by its inappropriateness for the times, that is, in opposition to the age, thus working on the age, and, we hope, for the benefit of a coming time. Friedrich Nietzsche		« Du reste je déteste tout ce qui ne fait que m’instruire, sans augmenter mon activité ou l’animer directement. » Ce sont là des paroles de Gœthe par lesquelles, comme un Ceterum censeo courageusement exprimé, pourra débuter notre considération sur la valeur et la non-valeur des études historiques. On y exposera pourquoi l’enseignement, sans la vivification, pourquoi la science qui paralyse l’activité, pourquoi l’histoire, précieux superflu de la connaissance et article de luxe, doivent être sérieusement, selon le mot de Gœthe, un objet de haine, — parce que nous manquons encore actuellement de ce qu’il y a de plus nécessaire, car le superflu est l’ennemi du nécessaire. Certes, nous avons besoin de l’histoire, mais autrement que n’en a besoin l’oisif promeneur dans le jardin de la science, quel que soit le dédain que celui-ci jette, du haut de sa grandeur, sur nos nécessités et nos besoins rudes et sans grâce. Cela signifie que nous avons besoin de l’histoire pour vivre et pour agir, et non point pour nous détourner nonchalamment de la vie et de l’action, ou encore pour enjoliver la vie égoïste et l’action lâche et mauvaise. Nous voulons servir l’histoire seulement en tant qu’elle sert la vie. Mais il y a une façon d’envisager l’histoire et de faire de l’histoire grâce à laquelle la vie s’étiole et dégénère. C’est là un phénomène qu’il est maintenant nécessaire autant que douloureux de faire connaître, d’après les singuliers symptômes de notre temps. Je me suis efforcé de dépeindre un sentiment qui m’a souvent tourmenté. Je me venge de ce sentiment en le livrant à la publicité. Peut-être se trouvera-t-il quelqu’un qui, par ma description, se sentira poussé à me déclarer qu’il connaît, lui aussi, ce sentiment, mais que je ne l’ai pas ressenti d’une façon assez pure et primesautière, de sorte que je ne suis pas parvenu à l’exprimer avec la précision et la maturité dans le jugement qui convenaient en la matière. Ce sera peut-être le cas de l’un ou de l’autre, mais la plupart d’entre mes lecteurs me diront que mon sentiment est absolument faux, abominable, anti-naturel et illicite, que, de plus, en le manifestant, je me suis montré indigne du puissant courant historique tel qu’il s’est produit, on ne l’ignore pas, depuis deux générations, surtout parmi les Allemands. Or, il est certain qu’en me hasardant de décrire mon sentiment au naturel, je hâte plutôt que je n’entrave les convenances universelles, car, de la sorte, je fournis à beaucoup de gens l’occasion de glorifier le courant susdit. Pour ma part, cependant, je gagne quelque chose qui m’est encore plus précieux que les convenances, c’est d’être instruit et éclairé publiquement au sujet de notre époque. Inactuelle, cette considération l’est encore parce que j’essaie d’interpréter comme un mal, une infirmité et un vice, quelque chose dont notre époque est fière à juste titre — sa culture historique —, parce que je crois même que nous souffrons tous d’une consomption historique et que nous devrions tous reconnaître qu’il en est ainsi. Gœthe a dit à bon droit qu’en même temps que nous cultivons nos vertus nous cultivons aussi nos vices. Chacun sait qu’une vertu hypertrophiée — et le sens historique de notre époque me semble en être une — peut entraîner la chute d’un peuple aussi bien qu’un vice hypertrophié. Qu’on me laisse donc faire ! Je dirai, à mon excuse, que les expériences qui ont provoqué chez moi ces tortures, je les ai faites presque toujours sur moi-même et que c’est seulement par comparaison que je me suis servi des expériences des autres. Étant aussi l’élève des temps anciens, surtout de la Grèce, j’ai acquis sur moi-même, comme enfant de ce temps-ci, les expériences que j’appelle inactuelles. Ceci du moins j’ai le droit de me le concéder à moi-même, de par ma profession de philologue classique. Car je ne sais pas quel but pourrait avoir la philologie classique, à notre époque, si ce n’est celui d’agir d’une façon inactuelle, c’est-à-dire contre le temps, et par là-même, sur le temps, en faveur, je l’espère, d’un temps à venir.
well: You use well to say that something was done in a good way. among: If you are among certain things, they are all around you. describe: To describe is to say or write what someone or something is like. ever: Ever means at any time. appropriate: When a thing is appropriate, it is right or normal. concern: Concern is a feeling of worry. instruct: To instruct is to teach. experience: An experience is something you have seen or done. cause: To cause is to make something happen. wise: To be wise is to use experience and intelligence to make good choices. allow: To allow something to happen means to let it happen. sense: To sense something is to know about it without being told. necessary: If something is necessary, you must do it. purpose: A purpose is the reason that you do something. still: Still is used when you say that a situation keeps going on. benefit: A benefit is a good thing. certain: If you are certain about something, you know it is true. effect: An effect is a change made by something else. essential: If something is essential, it is very important and necessary. far: If something is far, it is not close. immediate: If something is immediate, it happens quickly. proud: If someone feels proud, they are happy about what they have done. serious: When something is serious, it is bad or unsafe. judge: To judge something is to say if it is good or bad. thin: If someone or something is thin, they are not fat. owe: To owe is to have to pay or give back something received from another. position: A position is the way something is placed. description: A description of someone or something says what they are like. suffer: To suffer is to feel pain. observe: To observe something is to watch it. race: A race is a contest to see who is the fastest. respond: To respond is to give an answer to what someone else said. ancient: If something is ancient, it is very old. mention: To mention something is to talk about it. bit: A bit is a small amount of something. consider: To consider something means to think about it. destroy: To destroy means to damage something so badly that it cannot be used. lie: To lie is to say or write something untrue to deceive someone. serve: To serve someone is to give them food or drinks. war: A war is a big fight between two groups of people. worth: If something is worth an amount of money, it costs that amount. appear: To appear is to seem. pain: Pain is the feeling that you have when you are hurt. comfort: To comfort someone means to make them feel better. set: To set something is to put it somewhere. fit: If something fits, it is small enough orthe right size to go there. lack: If there is a lack of something, there is not enough of it. public: If something is public, it is meant for everyone to use. recognize: To recognize something is to know it because you have seen it before. otherwise: Otherwise means different or in another way. react: To react is to act in a certain way because of something that happened. effective: If something is effective, it works well. rather: Rather is used when you want to do one thing but not the other. value: If something has value, it is worth a lot of money. own: To own something means to have it. That thing belongs to you. knowledge: Knowledge is information that you have about something. respect: Respect is a good opinion of someone because they are good. rich: If you are rich, you have a lot of money. common: If something is common, it happens often or there is much of it. different: Different describes someone or something that is not the same as others.

		Next chapter