A people that are proud of themselves, and who are on the ascending path of Life, always; picture another existence as lower and less valuable than theirs; they regard the strange unknown world as their enemy, as their opposite; they feel no curiosity, but rather repugnance in regard to what is strange to them.... Such a body of men would never admit that another people were the "true people"....
The very fact that such a distinction is possible,—that this world should be called the world of appearance, and that the other should be called the true world,—is symptomatic.
The places of origin of the idea, of "another world":
The philosopher who invents a rational world where reason and logical functions are adequate:—this is the root of the "true" world.
The religious man who invents a "divine world";—this is the root of the "denaturalised" and the "anti-natural" world.
The moral man who invents a "free world":—this is the root of the good, the perfect, the just, and the holy world.
The common factor in the three places of origin: psychological error, physiological confusion.
With what attributes is the "other world," as it actually appears in history, characterised? With the stigmata of philosophical, religious, and moral prejudices.
The "other world" as it appears in the light of these facts, is synonymous with not-Being, with not-living, with the will not to live....
General aspect: it was the instinct of the fatigue of living, and not that of life, which created the "other world."
Result: philosophy, religion, and morality are symptoms of decadence.