Socratic philosophy, like Christian theology, is a morality of improvement . It is decadent, because it is opposed to instinct, even though instinct is an important part of the self. Nietzschean ontology emphasizes transformation and the eternal recurrence of life. Nietzsche agrees with Heraclitus that reality is a continual state of becoming, and is not a state of being. Reality is eternally changing, and is not a constant, immutable state of being.
Reality consists of plurality and change, rather than duration and unity.
Nietzsche disagrees with Heraclitus that our senses may falsify reality. According to Nietzsche, reason is what distorts our perceptions of the world, because reason can falsify the evidence of our senses. The only real world is the world which is apparent to our senses. To divide the world into a real world and an apparent world is an act of decadence, because it is to deny that what is apparent to our senses is real. The real world is in a state of becoming.