The German word ‘Abgrund’, which is translated as ‘abyss’, literally means that which is without limit, end, or bottom; that whose limit, end, or bottom is non-existent, unavailable, or absent; that is to say, the limitless, the endless, and most importantly, the bottomless.
One of the meanings of the German word ‘Grund’ is ‘ground’ as ‘reason’. In this regard, ‘Ab-grund’ means the absence, non-existence, or non-availability of reason, sense, legitimacy, or justification; that is to say, that which is without any sense or reason. In his critique of Kant, Nietzsche makes use of the phrase “the abyss of reason”: the absence of reason in thinking and philosophizing.
In The Birth of Tragedy, Nietzsche talks about the “abyss of being” and the “abyss of things” in his attempts at showing the absence of any fixity in the Dionysian idea of the real. That is to say, being itself lacks stability and things, providing us with rootedness and security, are simply non-existent.
In the thinking-philosophizing of Nietzsche, the abyss is where there is danger. Danger and the abyss are encountered and experienced together, for Nietzsche thinks the abyss in relation to the Sphinx, who killed herself after Oedipus thought and answered the riddle.
By thinking the abyss and danger together, Nietzsche turns questioning and philosophy themselves into abysses into which one can throw oneself, losing oneself and one’s whole existence, by refusing and leaving behind any fixity concerning the tradition, morality, history, or metaphysics.
In Thus Spoke Zarathustra, Nietzsche refers to the eternal recurrence as an “abyss-deep thought”. Also in Thus Spoke Zarathustra, the sense of danger is present and dominant. For into this “abyss-deep thought” one is to, or might, throw oneself, bringing destruction to oneself.
Here self-destruction is the real danger. Here thought itself turns into an abyss, endangering oneself, the one carrying out the dangerous thinking, into which one might lose oneself, one’s whole existence. Also in Thus Spoke Zarathustra, the death of God as a thought, hint, future, destiny, or path, turns into an abyss into which ideals and values are to be thrown and abandoned.
In Beyond Good and Evil, Nietzsche talks about the abyss looking back when one looks into it in the sense that everything, that is, the entirety of our existence is dependent on how we think toward, respond to, and approach the abyss, that is to say, the danger, not only thinking and questioning, but our being itself, our ways of existing in the world, within a tradition and its truths, which are not true.
The danger has always been there, calling upon us to approach it and to think into and through it. Darkness is clarity; the darkness of the abyss and the clarity of the danger. This is an accomplishment. In Thus Spoke Zarathustra, Nietzsche questions whether one should feel pride in being glimpsed and seen by the abyss and whether the abyss delivers one into the highest self that one can ever reach.
That is to say, has one already reached the highest self simply by affirming the abyss and by being glimpsed by its bottomlessness? By looking back, the abyss is already confirming and acknowledging our questioning; it is waiting for us to reach a decision concerning existence. Looking back is a kind of waiting, a calling upon those who think, question, and refuse. The abyss is waiting, constantly looking back. Any response to this bottomlessness is philosophizing, thinking, that is to say, a way of existing.