24

And now look at the other side, at those rare cases, of which I spoke, the most supreme idealists to be found nowadays among philosophers and scholars. Have we, perchance, found in them the sought-for opponents of the ascetic ideal, its anti-idealists ? In fact, they believe themselves to be such, these “unbelievers” (for they are all of them that): it seems that this idea is their last remnant of faith, the idea of being opponents of this ideal, so earnest are they on this subject, so passionate in word and gesture;⁠—but does it follow that what they believe must necessarily be true ? We “knowers” have grown by degrees suspicious of all kinds of believers, our suspicion has step by step habituated us to draw just the opposite conclusions to what people have drawn before; that is to say, wherever the strength of a belief is particularly prominent to draw the conclusion of the difficulty of proving what is believed, the conclusion of its actual improbability . We do not again deny that “faith produces salvation”: for that very reason we do deny that faith proves anything⁠—a strong faith, which produces happiness, causes suspicion of the object of that faith, it does not establish its “truth,” it does establish a certain probability of⁠— illusion . What is now the position in these cases? These solitaries and deniers of today; these fanatics in one thing, in their claim to intellectual cleanness; these hard, stern, continent, heroic spirits, who constitute the glory of our time; all these pale atheists, anti-Christians, immoralists, Nihilists; these sceptics, “ephectics,” and “hectics” of the intellect (in a certain sense they are the latter, both collectively and individually); these supreme idealists of knowledge, in whom alone nowadays the intellectual conscience dwells and is alive⁠—in point of fact they believe themselves as far away as possible from the ascetic ideal, do these “free, very free spirits”: and yet, if I may reveal what they themselves cannot see⁠—for they stand too near themselves: this ideal is simply their ideal, they represent it nowadays and perhaps no one else, they