Beyond Good and Evil · Chapter
267 explained
The narrator contrasts the modern European tendency of self-diminishment ('making the heart small') with the expansive spirit of ancient Greece, suggesting a fundamental decline in civilization.
What happens
The narrator contrasts the modern European tendency of self-diminishment ('making the heart small') with the expansive spirit of ancient Greece, suggesting a fundamental decline in civilization.
Themes in this chapter
Critique of Modernity
Directly criticizes the self-diminishing, small-hearted tendency as the fundamental trait of modern European civilization.
Characters to notice
- The Narrator
Critiques modern European civilization by comparing it to ancient Greek sensibilities.
- The Germans
Implied as part of the modern Europeans embodying the self-dwarfing tendency.
- Europeans
Explicitly named as the subjects of the critique for their 'self-dwarfing' nature.
Key passages
““ Siao-sin ” (“Make thy heart small”). This is the essentially fundamental tendency in latter-day civilizations.”
The core drive of modern civilization is to shrink one's spirit and ambition.
Presents a foreign proverb as a diagnosis of modern decay.
“I have no doubt that an ancient Greek, also, would first of all remark the self-dwarfing in us Europeans of today—in this respect alone we should immediately be “distasteful” to him.”
An ancient Greek would be repelled by our modern habit of belittling ourselves.
Uses a historical perspective (ancient Greece) as a standard to judge and condemn contemporary European culture.