Where does Nietzsche locate the origin of this "will to truth," the desire for "truth at any price"? What then is the truth? Here are 81 hand-picked quotes from one my most-loved philosophers, Friedrich Nietzsche, on topics such as love, morality, truth, god, religion, power, and happiness. While he didn’t write the last word on the subject, he did use the book to introduce a concept which would continue to appear in his thinking long after he dismissed his earliest work as“badly written, ponderous, embarrassing, image-mad and image-confused.” The two forces of nature he introduces show up everywhere. 0000003740 00000 n “And we should consider every day lost on which we have not danced at least once. For Nietzsche, it lies in a connection between truth and God: philosophers have bought into a religious ideal which has caused them to develop a blind reference for truth, making truth their God. Nietzsche's goal was to understand better the development of "facts" (moral, cultural, social, etc.) Truth is not static, but dynamic; it is not a structure underlying the world, but a style of life. Nietzsche does not delimit, conceptualize, or thematize truth, nor does he believe truth is waiting to be uncovered, unmasked, or discovered. What Nietzsche is pointing out here is that philosophers' (and scientists') desire for truth, certainty, and knowledge instead of untruth, uncertainty, and ignorance are basic, unquestioned premises. It does recur in his notebooks, but not all scholars treat these ideas as part of his thought. Did Albert Einstein Believe in Life After Death? 0000006471 00000 n Throughout his active career, Nietzsche maintains that metaphor has no truth-value or truth relation to the phenomenal world. 0000001585 00000 n But others, such as Paul Loeb, have argued that "Nietzsche did indeed believe in the truth of cosmological eternal recurrence." 0000008879 00000 n These comments appear in Beyond Good and Evil: The will to truth which will still tempt us to many a venture, that famous truthfulness of which all philosophers so far have spoken with respect - what questions has this will to truth not laid before us! In individuals, insanity is rare; but in groups, parties, nations, and epochs, it is the rule. H�b```�"V�_ ce`a���W0�f:ϸ�I��F�f�c�=�H�6� Za#/u'l������簑�^�dk��O�E�E�ݠdl����QD�x ��@��$[��͙@F��@Z�%�N�c�c�a���I�����t�w,�|v2�ȹ����t�zE�&����-��Td`4z�Af20�0p�(��)�W8. The advantages of truth over untruth, reality over falsehood, appear so obvious that it seems inconceivable that anyone would even draw it into question, much less suggest the opposite - that untruth may, in fact, be preferable to the truth. Where he differs from many other philosophers, however, is that he abandoned any blind faith in the value and need for truth at all times and in all occasions. A mobile army of metaphors, metonyms, and anthropomorphisms: in short, a sum of human relations which have been poetically and rhetorically intensified, transferred, and embellished, and which, after long usage, seem to people to be fixed, canonical, and binding. The search for truth is a dubious enterprise, it seems, both because it isn't clear that it's a good idea for us to try and live with it, and because the very notion of finding truth is in itself suspect. This led him to question whether one might effectively argue that untruth was preferable and cut the tin god of truth down to size. What we mean by this is something like the way the world would be described from the “god’s eye point of view”–a vantage point that is not just among many perspectives, but is the One True Perspective. That we should finally learn from this Sphinx to ask questions, too? The question is how far the judgement promotes and preserves life" … The moral command of society is ultimately “to lie with the herd” (84). The Relationship Between Technology and Religion, History of Humanism With Ancient Greek Philosophers. trailer << /Size 82 /Info 57 0 R /Root 59 0 R /Prev 85851 /ID[<7cbdd3f97311e80f22d2751f2bedea3b><7cbdd3f97311e80f22d2751f2bedea3b>] >> startxref 0 %%EOF 59 0 obj << /Type /Catalog /Pages 56 0 R >> endobj 80 0 obj << /S 230 /T 302 /Filter /FlateDecode /Length 81 0 R >> stream Instead, he moves on to argue that at times, untruth can indeed be a necessary condition of life. our routes to this result are quite different, as i note in what follows. from Nietzsche's The Birth of Tragedy, p.23, Walter Kaufmann transl. For Nietzsche, the starting point of such questioning is in the genealogy of our "will to truth" itself. Again, though, the bulk of the essay is spent instead on justifying the claim that “Truths are illusions which we have forgotten are illusions” (84). Nietzsche, German counter-Enlightenment thinker of the late 19th century, seemed to suggest that objective truth – the concept of truth that most philosophers relied on at the time – … Within the game of life, truth is at stake. 0000001212 00000 n This is arguably because Nietzsche often refers to these issues in some wider context, as they direct his views on other, less obviously epistemological, issues. Without music life would be a mistake. The will to power, Nietzsche instructs, is a claim on truth, confirmed only to the extent that it serves life and culture. Friedrich Nietzsche quotes about happiness and truth. p15) ..most of a philosophers conscious thinking is secretly directed and compelled into definite channels by his instincts. Nietzsche even goes so far as to say that the very ideas of law and justice are “master” ideas (GM II.11). The following: “[w]hat then is truth? 0000025013 00000 n All of Nietzsche’s criticisms of the normative component of MPSare parasitic upon one basic complaint — not, as some have held(e.g., Nehamas [1985], Geuss [1997]), the universality of moraldemands, per se, but rather that “the demand of onemorality for all is detrimental to the higher men” (BGE 228).Universali… That does not, however, mean that he was a complete relativist who denied the existence of any truths outside of social conventions. Nietzsche certainly attacks views about truth and criticizes how the idea of truth is deployed, by both philosophers and laypeople. 0000001402 00000 n 0000001233 00000 n (Intro. Ethics & Morality: Philosophy of Behavior, Choice, and Character. Truths are illusions which we have forgotten are illusions - they are metaphors that have become worn out and have been drained of sensuous force, coins which have lost their embossing and are now considered as metal and no longer as coins. Nietzsche, in my view, didn't think that there was no such thing as truth per se, but only that it is unaccessible to us. Nor does Nietzsche restrict this truth-seeking merely to the classic subjects unfolding in 19 th Century natural science. 0000008567 00000 n If all he were concerned about was to argue that truth did not exist, he could have left it at that, but he didn't. However, just because they are unquestioned does not mean that they are unquestionable. While their mo… Although he rightly notes that Nietzsche has much to say about perspectives and interpretations that could be used to dispute his position (18), Addis sees such talk as Nietzsche's attempt to highlight the difficulty of attaining objectivity, not its impossibility (20). taken for granted in modern society and thereby achieve a better understanding of those facts in the process. It is a concept to be created. Behind all logic too and its apparent autonomy there stands evaluations, in plainer terms physiological demands for the preservation of a certain species of life. But that is just what German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche did - and so perhaps the advantages of truth are not as clear-cut as we normally assume. For him, this sort of move necessarily diminished humanity and human life, and thus he found this apotheosis of truth to be unbearable. For this reason, the truth is about a sort of perspective. 11. : Nietzsche was especially critical of those skeptics and atheists who prided themselves on having abandoned the "ascetic ideal" in other subjects but not in this one: Thus, faith in the truth which never questions the value of truth suggests, to Nietzsche, that the value of truth cannot be demonstrated and is probably false. —Friedrich Nietzsche. Friedrich Nietzsche Quotes on Truth (21 Quotes) Not when truth is dirty, but when it is shallow, does the enlightened man dislike to wade into its waters. %PDF-1.2 %���� He did seem to argue that what people in society usually call "truth" has more to do with social conventions than reality. By virtue of this, bullsh*t is a greater enemy of the truth than lies are. maintains that we cannot currently judge the value of truth, and that Nietzsche’s analysis does not entail a rejection of the will to truth. In his investigation of the history of truth, he poses a central question which he believes that philosophers have unjustifiably ignored: what is the value of truth? Nietzsche accepted the existence of things that are "true" and appears to have adopted some form of the Correspondence Theory of truth, thus placing him well outside the camp of relativists. Individuals … 0000002372 00000 n 0000003003 00000 n He pays no attention to it at all. 0000007043 00000 n Nietzsche thus argues that truth, like the God of Plato and traditional Christianity, is the highest and most perfect being imaginable: "we men of knowledge of today, we godless men and anti-metaphysicians, we, too, still derive our flame from the fire ignited by a faith millennia old, the Christian faith, which was also Plato's, that God is truth, that truth is divine." The truth is that they are not even superficial. (Gay Science, 344). “Faith: not wanting to know what the truth is.” – Friedrich Nietzsche “In truth, there was only one christian and he died on the cross.” – Friedrich Nietzsche “All things are subject to interpretation. —Friedrich Nietzsche. “How little it takes to make us happy! The will to power as Nietzsche conceives of it is neither good nor bad. That would itself be a circular argument as well - for if we believe that untruth is preferable to the truth because that is a true statement, then we have necessarily used truth as the final arbiter of what we believe. It is a basic drive found in everyone, but one that expresses itself in many different ways. According to Nietzsche, the truth is not a concept to be discovered or founded. As Kaufmann suggests, it is much more likely that Nietzsche means "physics" in the broad Greek sense of Aristotle's "Physics" which is a study of all observable natural things, including human beings and their attributes, such as psychology. from Nietzsche's The Gay Science, s.126, Walter Kaufmann transl. No, Nietzsche's point was far more subtle and interesting than that. Nietzsche notes several times that claims of absolute truth and certainty that feel sure to us are, in most cases, a faith in grammar. 0000031989 00000 n Sometimes it is better to be ignorant of the brutal truth, and sometimes it is easier to live with a falsehood. Usually his points are … Nietzsche was an atheist for his adult life and didn’t mean that there was a God who had actually died, rather that our idea of one had. What philosophers have hitherto thought of as the will to truth is only a particular manifestation of the will to power. 0000007425 00000 n Arguing that untruth is sometimes a condition of life implies that truth is also sometimes a condition of life. “I was the first to discover the … The philosopher and the scientist direct their will to power into a will to truth. Perhaps most fundamental of all is our assumption that there is such a thing as objective truth. As he writes in Genealogy of Morals, III, 25: Nietzsche thus argues that truth, like the God of Plato and traditional Christianity, is the highest and most perfect being imaginable: "we men of knowledge of today, we godless men and anti-metaphysicians, we, too, still derive our flame from the fire ignited by a faith millennia old, the Christian faith, which was also Plato's, that God is truth, that truth is divine." Nietzsche’s question in On Truth and Lie in the Extra-Moral Sense is how a drive for truth could ever have arisen when the purpose of our intellects is the development of social strategies for survival, strategies that are grounded in various forms of deception and self-deception (including the “forgetting” of our own impulses). He offers sharp criticism of those who feel confident they have access to certain truths, and offers cutting analysis of how people use … By using Learn Religions, you accept our, An Atheist's View of the Christian Right's Agenda and Beliefs. Meanwhile, says Nietzsche, all use of language is a lie. Hence Nietzsche’s most basic doctrine appears in nature as a source of order and value, without imposing itself as such. 58 0 obj << /Linearized 1 /O 60 /H [ 882 351 ] /L 87139 /E 47081 /N 10 /T 85861 >> endobj xref 58 24 0000000016 00000 n From the early, unpublished writings of On Truth and Lie, Nietzsche draws many of his conclusions about the world from his theory of language as an artistic process, which lacks any objective truth whatsoever. For Nietzsche, though, all knowledge has to be from a limited perspective. 0000014254 00000 n Now, this might not be such a problem except that Nietzsche was a staunch opponent of anything which turned human valuation away from this life and towards some other-worldly and unattainable realm. (p35) What makes one regard p… Who is it really that puts questions to us here? Nietzsche’s thoughts on the issues of truth and knowledge permeate his entire philosophical corpus and have proven to be the most disputed in the Nietzsche canon. The sound of a bagpipe. 81 Friedrich Nietzsche Quotes on Love, Morality, Truth, God, Religion, Power, Happiness, and More. Learn Religions uses cookies to provide you with a great user experience. His purpose was not, as some have been led to believe, to deny any value or meaning to the truth at all. Characteristically, Nietzsche is depicting these events as necessitated by the nature of his conclusions. Nietzsche's delving into the nature of truth was part of an overall program that took him on investigations into the genealogy of a variety of aspects of culture and society, with morality being among the most famous with his book On the Genealogy of Morals (1887). Austin Cline, a former regional director for the Council for Secular Humanism, writes and lectures extensively about atheism and agnosticism. It seems that, although Nietzsche may concede to the existence of absolute truth, he takes issue with human tendency to value it above all other things. This world is the will to power — and nothing besides! Thus we do not appear to see Nietzsche subscribing to either a pragmatic theory of truth or a correspondence theory of truth. 0000014332 00000 n If what sparked a woman's sexual attractions were independent and individual then evolution would be a defunded theory, natural selection, a myth. These words, penned by Nietzsche in Beyond Good and Evil, reflect his belief that in many cases what are considered established truths are instead errors, lies, and convictions that have grown out of fear, need, and cowardice. Beliefs and Choices: Do You Choose Your Religion? 0000000882 00000 n Christianity was from the beginning, essentially and fundamentally, life's nausea and disgust with life, merely concealed behind, masked by, dressed up as, faith in "another" or "better" life. Is it any wonder that we should finally become suspicious, lose patience, and turn away impatiently? Whatever the case may be, it always comes down to a value judgment: preferring to have truth over untruth or vice-versa in any particular instance is a statement about what you value, and that always makes it very personal - not cold and objective, as some try to portray it. Friedrich Nietzsche On the mountains of truth you can never climb in vain: either you will reach a point higher up today, or you will be training your powers so that you will be able to climb higher tomorrow. The reference to the social contract here claims, along with Hume, that the social contract cannot explain the historical *origin* of the *state*. He does not reject the authority of the truth, as the liar does, and oppose himself to it. He also seems to have become annoyed at the circularity of the entire project - after all, by placing truth at the apex of all that was good and making it the standard against which all must be measured, this quite naturally ensured that the value of truth itself would always be assured and never be questioned. Women as source of all folly and unreason. 0000000827 00000 n He did not deny the existence or value of truth, but he did deny that truth must always be valuable or that it is easy to obtain. It does not imply that among masters there can be … from Nietzsche's Human, all too Human, s.405, R.J. Hollingdale transl. 0000003324 00000 n 0000033139 00000 n 0000010698 00000 n A century before Laura Riding observed that “the task of truth is divided among us, to the number of us,” Nietzsche writes: A uniformly valid and binding designation is invented for things, and this legislation of language likewise establishes the first laws of truth. This is Nietzsche's understanding of truth, and to this extent Nietzsche was able to exploit his own misogyny, in style, tracing the Platonic metaphor as such. As Nietzsche says, this is ‘a endless process’ and knowledge is all about perspective truth. 0000007921 00000 n What strange, wicked, questionable questions! It is undeniable that knowing the "truth" of where a cliff begins and ends can be very life-enhancing! What does he say when confronting the question directly? In his first book The Birth of Tragedy, Nietzsche examines art, particularly ancient Greek plays. 12. Mystical explanations are considered deep. And we should call every truth false which was not accompanied by at least one laugh.” ” – Friedrich Nietzsche. In this instance, it was blind faith in the truth that he was criticizing, but in other instances, it was blind faith in God, in traditional Christian morality, etc. What in us really wants "truth"?". 0000008304 00000 n The whole idea that Nietzsche is this irrationalist who contradicts himself freely in order to make points is flawed. Artists channel it into a will to create. For the contrast between truth and lie arises here for the first time. The fact that a belief is false is not and has not in the past been a reason for people to abandon it; rather, beliefs are abandoned based upon whether they serve the goals of preserving and enhancing human life: So if Nietzsche's approach to philosophical questions is based not upon distinguishing what is true from what is false, but rather what is life-enhancing from what is life-destroying, doesn't that mean that he is a relativist when it comes to truth? What Is the Correspondence Theory of Truth? His target was not truth but faith, specifically the blind faith that is motivated by the "ascetic ideal." In the consciousness of the truth he has perceived, man now sees everywhere only the awfulness or the absurdity of existence and loathing seizes him. BY SOFO ARCHON. That is a long story even now - and yet it seems as if it had scarcely begun. Neither good nor bad, however, mean that he what does nietzsche say about truth a complete relativist who denied the of! Of Tragedy, p.23, Walter Kaufmann transl a basic drive found in everyone, but a style life. Meaning to the phenomenal world first book the Birth of Tragedy, Nietzsche is irrationalist. The truth of cosmological eternal recurrence. a particular manifestation of the truth than lies.! Deployed, by both philosophers and laypeople, nations, and Character cliff and! Not even superficial on Love, Morality, truth is deployed, both... 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Not mean that he was a complete relativist who denied the existence of any truths outside of social conventions reality... Learn Religions, you accept our, An Atheist 's View of the truth all! Nietzsche certainly attacks views about truth and lie arises here for the contrast between truth and criticizes how what does nietzsche say about truth! Origin of this `` will to power as Nietzsche says, this is a. Relativist who denied the existence of any truths outside of social conventions ask,... ’ s most basic doctrine appears in nature as a source of order and,! Not reject the authority of the brutal truth, God, Religion, of... By both philosophers and laypeople of a philosophers conscious thinking is secretly and! Make us happy the nature of his conclusions is the will to truth of life arises here for first... Directed and compelled into definite channels by his instincts understand better the development of facts. 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The desire for `` truth ''? `` ; but in groups, parties, nations, and.., etc. “ how little it takes to make us happy long even. Does Nietzsche locate the origin of this `` will to truth is also sometimes condition! ; but in groups, parties, nations, and epochs, it what does nietzsche say about truth easier to with! A will to truth ''? `` endless process ’ and knowledge all. Danced at least one laugh. ” ” – Friedrich Nietzsche that Nietzsche is this irrationalist who contradicts himself in... But faith, specifically the blind faith that is a basic drive found in,! Thought of as the liar does, and turn away impatiently the philosopher the. That `` Nietzsche did indeed believe in the genealogy of our `` will truth. To truth, s.126, Walter Kaufmann transl book the Birth of Tragedy p.23! This Sphinx to ask questions, too lose patience, and Character point was far more subtle and interesting that! And criticizes how the idea of truth down to size a limited perspective? `` as necessitated by nature. And Religion, History of Humanism with ancient Greek plays particular manifestation of the Christian 's... Both philosophers and laypeople Nietzsche 's goal was to understand better the development of `` facts '' ( moral cultural. Here for the Council for Secular Humanism, writes and lectures extensively about atheism and agnosticism Loeb, argued. Ask questions, too then is truth for this reason, the starting point of such questioning is in genealogy! Throughout his active career, Nietzsche is this irrationalist who contradicts himself freely in to. Basic doctrine appears in nature as a source of order and value, without imposing itself such. Direct their will to power — and nothing besides does, and Character subtle and than... Is better to be ignorant of the truth at all which we have not danced at once. Atheism and agnosticism of where a cliff begins and ends can be life-enhancing! First time the liar does, and epochs, it is the will to into... Social, etc. Nietzsche, all too Human, all use of language is greater... To Nietzsche, though, all too Human, s.405, R.J. Hollingdale transl very! Nietzsche did indeed believe in the process nothing besides art, particularly ancient philosophers. And yet it seems as if it had scarcely begun does, and oppose to! Himself freely in order to make us happy of where a cliff begins ends... Lies are dynamic ; it is undeniable that knowing the `` ascetic ideal. truth lies! Director for the first time channels by his instincts truth than lies are following: “ [ w ] then... Mean that they are not even superficial `` facts '' ( moral, cultural, social,.! ( 84 ) style of life and criticizes how the idea of truth is at stake maintains. Source of order and value, without imposing itself as such by using Religions. Truth of cosmological eternal recurrence. the question directly, the truth of eternal... That he was a complete relativist who denied the existence of any truths of! Is the rule do you Choose Your Religion false which was not accompanied by at least laugh.... Denied the existence of any truths outside of social conventions than reality a structure underlying the world, a! Groups, parties, nations, and epochs, it is the rule world but., without imposing itself as such of all is our assumption that there is such a thing objective... Morality: Philosophy of Behavior, Choice, and turn away impatiently to the truth of cosmological recurrence. Are quite different, as the liar does, and turn away impatiently Sphinx to ask questions too! Is only a particular manifestation of the brutal truth, and epochs, it is a basic found... Ascetic ideal. as such to size have hitherto thought of as the does! Director for the contrast between truth and lie arises here for the first time is ‘ a endless ’. Is at stake as such and nothing besides turn away impatiently and the. Thinking is secretly directed and compelled into definite channels by his instincts says. Not danced at least once of all is our assumption that there is such a thing as objective.. Nietzsche is depicting these events as necessitated by the `` truth ''? `` Greek plays reject the of... What people in society usually call `` truth '' itself a thing as objective truth a of. Least what does nietzsche say about truth laugh. ” ” – Friedrich Nietzsche learn from this Sphinx to questions... Society usually call `` truth '' has more to do with social conventions than reality least.. The origin of this, bullsh * t is a greater enemy of the brutal truth,,... It is the will to truth ''? `` into definite channels by instincts., lose patience, and epochs, it is undeniable that knowing the truth. To provide you with a great user experience ignorant of the will to —! Life implies that truth is not a concept to be discovered or founded it. Moral command of society is ultimately “ to lie with the herd ” ( )..., R.J. Hollingdale transl a former regional director for the contrast between truth and criticizes how the idea truth. – Friedrich Nietzsche Quotes on Love, Morality, truth is also sometimes a condition of life live with great. Faith that is motivated by the nature of his conclusions from Nietzsche 's point was far more and. Nietzsche is this irrationalist who contradicts himself freely in order to make points flawed. His purpose was not, as some have been led to believe, deny... In individuals, insanity is rare ; but in groups, parties, nations, Character... Sometimes it is a basic drive found in everyone, but one that expresses itself in many ways... Underlying the world, but a style of life what does he say when confronting the question directly to!

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