50 Nietzsche
ditional metaphysics, this recognition of the "essence" penetrates to the
basic good in the world and uncovers firm foundations. For
Schopenhauer, however, the core of the wodd was not solid ground but
an abyss, the depths of the will, tormenting existence, the heart of dark-
ness. "Just try to be all nature—it is intolerable," Schopenhauer noted.
Liberation lies not in the "what" of the discovered being but in the act
of distancing cognition, which is to say in the "how." Aesthetic distance
from the world means regarding the world while "absolutely not being
actively involved in it." This aesthetic distancing opens up a locus of
transcendence that must remain empty. Not volition, not obligation,
only being that has become completely visual, the "eye of the world."
Nietzsche called this Archimedean point of Schopenhauerian cosmic
alleviation "transfigured physis" (1,362; SE § 3). When he coined this
term, he had already developed his theory of the elemental life forces of
the Dionysian and Apollonian. In "transfiguredphysis" we reencounter
his idea of Dionysian nature subdued and refined by Apollonian influ-
ence. Unlike Schopenhauer, Nietzsche was powerfully attracted to
Dionysian nature; he sought to step right up to the abyss because he
envisioned even more alluring secrets there and considered himself
impervious to vertigo. At this point, his divergence from Schopenhauer
did nothing to dampen his enthusiasm to make Schopenhauer his
modeL
What did Nietzsche consider exemplary in Schopenhauer? He
admired the perfecdy self-assured, domineering posture of this philoso-
pher, who, in defiance of the spirit of his age, pronounced his judg-
ments and sentences as a "judge of life" and at the same time acted as a
"reformer of life" (1,362; SE § 3) through his philosophy of negation.
Nietzsche later called Schopenhauer's endeavor a "revaluation of val-
ues." To which values did he take exception? Nietzsche described his
own era when portraying the world that Schopenhauer wished to assail
and transcend. According to Nietzsche, this world was populated by
those who think of themselves with haste and exclusivity, "as people
have never before thought of themselves; they build and plant only for