166 Nietzsche§ 16). Nietzsche concluded this aphorism with the following observation:
'Terhaps we will then realize that the thing in itself is worthy of Homeric
laughter, since it seemed to be so much, virtually everything, but it is actu-
ally empty, that is, devoid of meaning" (2,38).
In Human, All Too Human, Nietzsche attempted to shore up our
appreciation for practical truths against the siren song of disastrous and
tragic sentiments. He sang the praises of practical science, which "can
no longer even be conceived apart from the natural sciences" (2,23; HH
I § 1). He also hoped that his inquiries would prove useful in expanding
our knowledge of people. Still, Nietzsche was treading on thin ice with
this pragmatism. Wherever he turned, the ice threatened to break. He
actually welcomed this sense of jeopardy and thrilled at the pleasure of
descent into a perilous realm. As we will see, he continued to be attracted
to the sphere "in which you die and rise from the dead" (Benn, Gesammelte
Werke 3,345). He was lured by mystery and the "orgiastic celebration of
music," because he sought a state of ecstasy and preferred the abyss to
terra firma. He was a canny and uncanny Romantic who prescribed him-
self a healthy dose of practical science from time to time.
For the moment, Nietzsche chose to leave aside the mystery of being,
though the more limited mystery of the social sphere continued to pre-
occupy him. He was highly susceptible to it and, for this very reason,
sought to be "lifted above" it to a safe distance.
Nietzsche's susceptibility to the lure of the social sphere was the
direct result of a compassionate bent in himself of which he was not
especially proud. He later inveighed against his own compassion. A sen-
sitive capacity for empathy intuitively grasps the long causal chains of
interpersonal suffering. If a link in the chain of cause and effect between
a particular deed and its deleterious effect is short, we call it guilt; if it
is somewhat longer, we call it tragedy. Guilt and tragedy can become
diluted to mere discontentment when the chains grow very long. A per-
son with a highly developed sense of justice will uncover scandal even
in this diffuse discontentment: one's own survival is predicated on the
suffering of others. Nietzsche, with his passion for tragedy and his pen-