Faced with the anxiety that hits us when we are about to practice something ‘for real’ — an angst telling us we are on the ground, and face uncertainty and cost if we are to engage in action which can accomplish anything — we cry out to be rescued by a theory.
Theories abstracted away from the existential arena in which our action must strive with strife are, according to Nietzsche, ‘about as much use as knowledge of the chemical composition of water would be to a sailor in danger of shipwreck.’