Schopenhauer and the Will to Style 51their day, and the hunt for happiness will never be greater than if it must
be seized today and tomorrow: because by the day after tomorrow, per-
haps the hunting season will have come to a permanent end. We live in
the age of atoms, of atomistic chaos" (1,367; SE § 4). Nevertheless, who
will be in a position to raise up the "image of man" in the midst of an
"atomistic revolution" that leads us down into "bestiality" or "rigid
mechanization"? (1,368; SE § 4).
Nietzsche considered three such images in recalling mankind's loftier
visions for man, namely those of Rousseau, Goethe, and Schopenhauer.
Rousseau focused on reconciliation with nature and restoration of civi-
lization to a state of nature. Goethe's man was contemplative and made
his peace with the circumstances of his life in wise resignation and a
sophisticated sense of style. The Schopenhauerian man discovered that
all human structures are designed to keep the tragic and senseless design
of life from being palpable. Everyday life is pure diversion. Although it
can plunge him into despair, the Schopenhauerian man aspires to lift the
veil of maya (illusion) and take the "voluntary" "suffering of truthful-
ness upon himself," which serves "to destroy his individual will and to
prepare for the complete upheaval and reversal of his being, the achieve-
ment of which is the true meaning of life" (1,371; SE § 4). Nietzsche
called this approach to life "heroic" (1,373; SE § 4). At that time, he was
unaware of a confessional letter Schopenhauer had written to Goethe,
in which the philosopher expressed himself in precisely this "heroic"
vein. The passage in the letter reads: "The courage not to keep any ques-
tion just in one's mind is what makes a philosopher. Philosophers must
be like Sophocles' Oedipus, who tirelessly searches for enlightenment
about his own terrible fate, even if he already suspects that he will be
horror-struck by the answers." Schopenhauer really did consider himself
as heroic as Nietzsche regarded him when he called Schopenhauer a
"genius" in his 1874 essay.
What constitutes a genius? Nietzsche contended that a philosophical
genius reassesses the value of existence and is a "legislator for the meas-
ure, coinage, and weight of things" (1,360; SE § 3). For the young