Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Note on texts and citations
- Chapter 1 Interpreting Nietzsche on truth
- Chapter 2 Nietzsche and theories of truth
- Chapter 3 Language and truth: Nietzsche's early denial of truth
- Chapter 4 The development of Nietzsche's later position on truth
- Chapter 5 Perspectivism
- Chapter 6 The ascetic ideal
- Chapter 7 The will to power
- Chapter 8 Eternal recurrence
- Bibliography
- Index
Chapter 3 - Language and truth: Nietzsche's early denial of truth
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 04 December 2009
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Note on texts and citations
- Chapter 1 Interpreting Nietzsche on truth
- Chapter 2 Nietzsche and theories of truth
- Chapter 3 Language and truth: Nietzsche's early denial of truth
- Chapter 4 The development of Nietzsche's later position on truth
- Chapter 5 Perspectivism
- Chapter 6 The ascetic ideal
- Chapter 7 The will to power
- Chapter 8 Eternal recurrence
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
Although Nietzsche chose not to publish his early essay “Truth and Lie in the Extra-moral Sense,” several factors favor a detailed examination of it here. In the first place, TL exerts considerable influence on the contemporary understanding of Nietzsche's achievements. The common belief that Nietzsche proves the non-existence of truth, at least of any truths accessible to humans, finds its major source in this essay. TL also functions as an important source for the belief that Nietzsche demonstrates the ascetic or life-negating character of the concern with logic and truth, and of philosophical (argumentative, straightforward, nonmetaphorical) style in general (Kofman, 33; trs. 210; Rorty, 1986, 11). Even those with doubts about what Nietzsche proves in TL have high praise for the essay (Danto 38).
TL also forms much of the basis for what I have called the nontraditional or radical interpretation of Nietzsche's position on truth. According to radical interpreters, Nietzsche denies the existence of truth, in the sense of denying that any of our beliefs correspond to reality. TL's extended defense of the claim that truths are illusions provides defenders of the radical interpretation with a major basis for interpreting much sketchier remarks about truth in Nietzsche's published works as denials of truth in this sense.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Nietzsche on Truth and Philosophy , pp. 63 - 94Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1991