116 Nietzscheattitude toward the world. "Metaphysical significance" lies solely in this
shift of perspective from peering around at objects of desire to taking a
good look at things. Here Nietzsche was still indebted to Schopenhauer's
concept of metaphysics, according to which metaphysical conscious-
ness is awakened from its dazed state by man's will, and the world thus
appears in a different light. It is therefore a matter not of discovering a
metaphysical world behind or above our world, but rather of experienc-
ing another, extraordinary condition, namely the aforementioned "puz-
zling emotion devoid of agitation."
In these reflections, Nietzsche continued to adhere so closely to his
mentor Schopenhauer that he adopted the latter's idea of overcoming
desire as a precondition for altering our perspective on the world. But
Nietzsche placed the emphasis elsewhere by stressing the active moment
of this process. The will is not extinguished; something within man
makes this "leap" and triumphs over the ordinary will. It is this some-
thing within man that rules the other resdess and oblivious something.
Ultimately, this calming something is nothing other than an extraordi-
narily strong will, which puts the foolishness of life devoid of con-
sciousness in its place. "Dionysian wisdom," with which we are already
quite familiar, is strong enough to endure a gaze into the abyss; it does
not shatter, but maintains a mystifying, almost cheerful tranquillity.
In his 1873 essay "Philosophy in the Tragic Age of the Greeks,"
Nietzsche described this type of "Dionysian wisdom" by using the
example of Heraclitus. "The eternal and exclusive process of becoming,
the utter evanescence of everything real, which keeps acting and evolv-
ing, but never is, as Heraclitus teaches us, is a terrible and stunning
notion. Its impact is most closely related to the feeling of an earthquake,
which makes people relinquish their faith that the earth is firmly
grounded. It takes astonishing strength to transpose this reaction into its
opposite, into sublime and happy astonishment" (l,824f.; PTA § 5).
Withstanding tumultuous existence in a particular type of perspective is
a matter not simply, as Schopenhauer thought, of contemplating and
eliminating the will but rather of activating another will: the will to con-