IN HIS “VERSUCH EINER SELBSTKRITIK” (“Attempt at a Self-Criticism,” 1886), written fifteen years after Die Geburt der Tragödie (The Birth of Tragedy) was conceived with the thunder of the Battle of Wörth in the background (§1; KSA 1:11), Nietzsche highlighted — but recognized as problematic — the phrase which, in all, occurred three times in his book, namely, “dass nur als ästhetisches Phänomen das Dasein der Welt gerechtfertigt ist” (Versuch §5; KSA 1:17; “that the existence of the world is justified only as an aesthetic phenomenon”; compare GT §5 and §24; KSA 1:47 and 152). Nietzsche explained the phrase as follows in a passage containing two important words, Augenblick and Schein, which point to two key themes of Die Geburt der Tragödie derived from Goethe and Schiller: