Greg Detre
Thursday, 30 November, 2000
Explain and assess Nietzsche�s criticism of the notion of
truth
Nietzsche � �On truth and � in an extra-moral sense� in D. Brezeale (ed), �Nietzsche: Early writings�
Nietzsche � Beyond good and evil
Nietzsche � The Genealogy of morals, especially essay III
A. Nehamas � Nietzsche, �Life as literature� � Feiii25
A. Danto � �Nietzsche???�, Feiii2II
M. Clark � �Nietzsche on truth and philosophy�, Feiii36
R. Schacht � �Nietzsche�, 190NieD/Sc
how difficult it is to criticise Nietzsche without feeling small
And how impossible it is not to react. And how easy it is to want to feel contemptuous of those who seek to attack him. How tempting it is to want to pay tribute by aping him, how difficult it is to follow him, and how this adds to his mysterious grand attractiveness, how one finds oneself writing as an orator imagining oneself as a Zarathustra and italicising with happy glorious Nietzschean abandon.
types of punishment
dogmatism and prejudice of philosophers
indeed, how can one affirm a truth when all access to truth has been exposed as delusions or the dogmatism of philosophers (including reason). neither dialectic nor its antithesis will get behind the veil of appearance � they are passions leading the way to that which does not exist
Is it that Nietzsche is searching not for truth, but the opposite of bad conscience???
honesty is the youngest virtue (and does not figure among either the Christian or Socratic virtues)
truths are still regarded as �winged dreams�, for we have never been placed in the situation of Tiberius: �study or perish�
Nietzsche is not a sceptic � in denying, �he learned again to affirm�
unreason = �delight in the human�
truth alone without opposition and untruth would make a bland and tiresome diet
�honesty is the great temptress of all fanatics�
pessimism???
contradictory/anti-trendy
art as opp ascetic
questioning reason
pity God for his ineloquence
�playing at truth� (in order to) disguise it
if truth does not offer consolation, the seekers of cures will be incapable of finding it
painters� colour-blindness as a form of interpretation???
Nietzsche as necessary jester
truth vs taste
honesty = youngest virtue (is present in neither Christian nor Socratic idea of virtue)
truths as �winged dreams� vs �study or perish!�
neither dialectic nor its antithesis will get behind the veil of appearance � they are passions leading the way to that which does not exist
seek tragedy + comedy in the theatre of life with your third eye
you see things in the light that your ego + mood project
we can�t examine truth other than human truths
if epistemological questions should be answered after substantive ones, then there�s a cycle of revision set up
naturalistic pg 54 �press reality into service�
truth vs knowledge
by repudiating a �true reality� beneath the one of appearance he is able to find truth + knowledge in the world around us while still saying �there is no �truth��
truth quotes on pg 58 � importance of truthfulness
if we don�t remember, why does the eternal recurrence matter?
wouldn�t we have to live all possible lives and paths anyway, not just the combination we live this time? in that way, it does not matter who we are or what we do � we all merge together including people who never were
how difficult it is to criticise Nietzsche without feeling small
And how impossible it is not to react. And how easy it is to want to feel contemptuous of those who seek to attack him. How tempting it is to want to pay tribute by aping him, how difficult it is to follow him, and how this adds to his mysterious grand attractiveness, how one finds oneself writing as an orator imagining oneself as a Zarathustra and italicising with happy glorious Nietzschean abandon.
indeed, how can one affirm a truth when all access to truth has been exposed as delusions or the dogmatism of philosophers (including reason). neither dialectic nor its antithesis will get behind the veil of appearance � they are passions leading the way to that which does not exist
painters� colourblindness is a form of interpretation
Nietzsche as the necessary jester???
Is it that Nietzsche is searching not for truth, but the opposite of bad conscience???
honesty is the youngest virtue (and does not figure among either the Christian or Socratic virtues)
truths are still regarded as �winged dreams�, for we have never been placed in the situation of Tiberius: �study or perish�
Nietzsche is not a sceptic � in denying, �he learned again to affirm�
unreason = �delight in the human�
truth alone without opposition and untruth would make a bland and tiresome diet
seek tragedy and comedy in the theatre of life with your third eye
�honesty is the great temptress of all fanatics�
you see things in the light of your ego and your mood
What does Nietzsche
mean by �woman�?
He is a misogynist. His characterisations of women tend to be derogatory and to stereotype them in terms of the feelings they arouse in men. He seems bitter yet almost amused and respectful - admiring, almost lecherous, but unashamed.
Woman is either whore or mother. Temptress, sex object, capricious and somehow desirable, natural � anathema too??? Or � pregnant, carrying the burden of the next generation, giving birth and bringing forth, an analogy for the creative act � in man.
How is wisdom a woman?
Does he really think this about woman? Or is it a bit of
a theme-ideal to make a point?
What can we see from
Nietzsche�s philosophy and assumptions about him? What does his metaphysics
reveal about his psychology?
The answer is either � nothing � for Nietzsche is so aware of this that he writes straight from the soul with no interposing distortions of prejudice, assumption and fear. Or � there is a great great deal to be seen, revealed by such honest philosophy. But his style is such that one feels niggardly and fears being branded a �philosophical labourer�, an angry herdmember tugging at his trouserleg, a parasite or peasant � one fears demonstrating one�s own misunderstanding and being targetted by questioning the master.
What is the difference
between �bad conscience� and the ascetic ideal (they are both the �will to
nothingness�)?
Can one become a philosopher, or are the sick incurable?
What is suffering? Why
do we have it? How should we bear it?
I think Nietzsche would say that some things just are � what you hold those things to be depends of course upon your interpretation � and perhaps each interpretation provides an answer as to �why suffer?�. But we must bear suffering as the healthy and strong, as a sublimation, as a given, without seeking justification, anaesthetic or cause.
credo quia absurdum sum/absurdus??? est
truth vs taste???
What are Nietzsche�s connotations of pessimism???
What does Nietzsche think about truth if not that it is
perspectivist, in Daybreak?
see Douglas Smith�s introduction to �A Genealogy of Morals�, especially 3rd essay
see Schacht, ending notes on woman and the value of knowledge
types
of punishment
dogmatism and prejudice of philosophers
and the harbingers and creators of all this, the new, genuine philosophers, the free spirits.
But the implications of living in a godless world are manifold and foundationless. If it is revealed that truth no longer offers consolation, then the �seekers of cures� will be incapable of finding it
|
preface |
|
|
31 |
45 |
|
52-4 |
91, 93 |
|
116-117 |
196 |
|
146 |
259 |
|
166 |
353 |
|
169 |
370 |
|
173 |
396 |
|
175-6 |
407, 418 |
|
181-2 |
424, 426 |
|
190-3 |
451-466 |
|
197 |
477, 479, 483 |
|
201 |
490 |
|
206 |
507, 511, 512 |
|
212-13 |
535, 536, 539 |
|
216 |
543 |
III 12, III 24
credo quia absurdum sum/absurdus??? est
truth vs taste???