I am immediately understood when I say that theological
blood is the ruin of philosophy. The Protestant pastor is the
grandfather of German philosophy; Protestantism itself is its _peccatum
originale_. Definition of Protestantism: hemiplegic paralysis of
Christianity--_and_ of reason.... One need only utter the words
"Tuebingen School" to get an understanding of what German philosophy is
at bottom--a very artful form of theology.... The Suabians are the best
liars in Germany; they lie innocently.... Why all the rejoicing over
the appearance of Kant that went through the learned world of Germany,
three-fourths of which is made up of the sons of preachers and
teachers--why the German conviction still echoing, that with Kant came a
change for the _better_? The theological instinct of German scholars
made them see clearly just _what_ had become possible again.... A
backstairs leading to the old ideal stood open; the concept of the "true
world," the concept of morality as the _essence_ of the world (--the two
most vicious errors that ever existed!), were once more, thanks to a
subtle and wily scepticism, if not actually demonstrable, then _at
least_ no longer _refutable_.... _Reason_, the _prerogative_ of reason,
does not go so far.... Out of reality there had been made "appearance";
an absolutely false world, that of being, had been turned into
reality.... The success of Kant is merely a theological success; he was,
like Luther and Leibnitz, but one more impediment to German integrity,
already far from steady.--

11.

A word now against Kant as a moralist. A virtue must be _our_ invention;
it must spring out of _our_ personal need and defence. In every other
case it is a source of danger. That which does not belong to our life
_menaces_ it; a virtue which has its roots in mere respect for the
concept of "virtue," as Kant would have it, is pernicious. "Virtue,"
"duty," "good for its own sake," goodness grounded upon impersonality or
a notion of universal validity--these are all chimeras, and in them one
finds only an expression of the decay, the last collapse of life, the
Chinese spirit of Koenigsberg. Quite the contrary is demanded by the most
profound laws of self-preservation and of growth: to wit, that every man
find his _own_ virtue, his _own_ categorical imperative. A nation goes
to pieces when it confounds _its_ duty with the general concept of duty.
Nothing works a more complete and penetrating disaster than ever