328 Epilogue
don of the meaning and purpose of it all" (Simmel 3). Schopenhauer
had responded to this situation by interpreting senseless activity as a
metaphysical characteristic of the will. According to Simmel, Nietzsche,
in turn, linked Schopenhauer's metaphysics of the will to the concept of
development and the idea of enhancement. However, both Schopen-
hauer and Nietzsche rejected the notion of a final purpose and a goal of
development. Nietzsche was therefore required to think in terms of an
open rather than a teleological enhancement, a self-referential dynam-
ics of enhancement where life is its own purpose, designed to investi-
gate and elicit the possibilities inherent in it. Man, awakened to
consciousness, is the privileged locus of this kind of self-scrutiny of
life. Life undertook a very risky experiment with itself by using man.
The result is passed along to the drama of human freedom. As Ernst
Bloch later said, an "experimentum mundi" takes place within man.
Philosophy prior to 1914 intoned the theme of "life" in this lofty,
enchanting, and enchanted manner, full of levity and promise.
Nietzsche became the source of and the medium for this theme.
The outbreak of war in 1914 gave major new impetus to philosophi-
cal vitalism. A bellicose form of Nietzscheanism made its presence felt.
There were many powerful oppositions: vigorous (German) culture ver-
sus superficial (French) civilization; Dionysian community versus mech-
anistic society; heroes versus merchants; tragic consciousness versus
utilitarianism; musical spirit versus calculating attitude. Nietzsche's inter-
pretation of Heraclitus was cited in declarations that war was the great
analyst that would separate the wheat from the chaff and reveal the true
substance. To the agitated academics, the war seemed like the final
examination of a state needing to prove whether there was any life still
in it Either way, war was the hour of truth: 'The image of the whole,
great, extensive Man, of whom peace had revealed only a small grayish
middle zone ... this image now stands right before us. Only war meas-
ures the circumference and the scope of human nature. Man becomes
aware of his absolute grandeur and his absolute insignificance" (Scheler,
Genius 136).