The supposed motives. – Important as it may be to know the motives from which humanity has acted so far, it might be even more essential to know the belief people had in this or that motive, i.e. what humanity has imagined and told itself to be the real lever of its conduct so far. For people’s inner happiness and misery has come to them depending on their belief in this or that motive – not through the actual motives. The latter are of second-order interest.