Verite et mensonge au sens extra-moral

by Friedrich Nietzsche, Philippe Cardinali, François Warin

Une critique radicale de l'idée de vérité qui nourrit la philosophie contemporaine et qui se présente comme un raccourci de la pensée nietzschéenne.

Genres: Philosophy, Nonfiction, Classics, Essays, German Literature, 19th Century, Language

80 pages, Pocket Book

First published January 1, 1873

About the author

Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche was a German classical scholar, philosopher, and critic of culture, who became one of the most influential of all modern thinkers. He began his career as a classical philologist before turning to philosophy. He became the youngest person to hold the Chair of Classical Philology at the University of Basel in 1869 at the age of 24, but resigned in 1879 due to health problems that plagued him most of his life; he completed much of his core writing in the following decade. In 1889, at age 44, he suffered a collapse and afterward a complete loss of his mental faculties, with paralysis and probably vascular dementia. He lived his remaining years in the care of his mother until her death in 1897 and then with his sister Elisabeth Förster-Nietzsche. Nietzsche died in 1900, after experiencing pneumonia and multiple strokes.
Nietzsche's work spans philosophical polemics, poetry, cultural criticism, and fiction while displaying a fondness for aphorism and irony. Prominent elements of his philosophy include his radical critique of truth in favour of perspectivism; a genealogical critique of religion and Christian morality and a related theory of master–slave morality; the aesthetic affirmation of life in response to both the "death of God" and the profound crisis of nihilism; the notion of Apollonian and Dionysian forces; and a characterisation of the human subject as the expression of competing wills, collectively understood as the will to power. He also developed influential concepts such as the Übermensch and his doctrine of eternal return. In his later work, he became increasingly preoccupied with the creative powers of the individual to overcome cultural and moral mores in pursuit of new values and aesthetic health. His body of work touched a wide range of topics, including art, philology, history, music, religion, tragedy, culture, and science, and drew inspiration from Greek tragedy as well as figures such as Zoroaster, Arthur Schopenhauer, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Richard Wagner, Fyodor Dostoevsky, and Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.
After his death, Nietzsche's sister Elisabeth became the curator and editor of his manuscripts. She edited his unpublished writings to fit her German ultranationalist ideology, often contradicting or obfuscating Nietzsche's stated opinions, which were explicitly opposed to antisemitism and nationalism. Through her published editions, Nietzsche's work became associated with fascism and Nazism. 20th-century scholars such as Walter Kaufmann, R.J. Hollingdale, and Georges Bataille defended Nietzsche against this interpretation, and corrected editions of his writings were soon made available. Nietzsche's thought enjoyed renewed popularity in the 1960s and his ideas have since had a profound impact on 20th- and early 21st-century thinkers across philosophy—especially in schools of continental philosophy such as existentialism, postmodernism, and post-structuralism—as well as art, literature, music, poetry, politics, and popular culture.

Reviews

[Rakhi Dalal · Rating 5 out of 5]

We live in a shallow world which is, barring nature, nothing but the manifestation of the superficial lives that people subsist in. A life of dissimulation which is the consequence of smugness, a form of self idolatry resulting from the arrogance which comes from an idea of knowledge; whatever little it is that we know of our, negligible and perhaps insignificant, existence on this tiny planet in a corner of the vast Universe. This little idea is comprehensible on account of human intellect which humans employ in order to survive. This intellect is unfolded into art of dissimulation, into illusions through which they readily deceive themselves. Man lets himself be deceived, thus living a non moral life. But then what it is that strive him to search for truth? It is the need to be accepted socially.

“But at the same time, from boredom and necessity, man wishes to exist socially and with the herd; therefore, he needs to make peace and strives accordingly to banish from his world at least the most flagrant bellum omni contra omnes. This peace treaty brings in its wake something which appears to be the first step toward acquiring that puzzling truth drive: to wit, that which shall count as "truth" from now on is established. That is to say, a uniformly valid and binding designation is invented for things, and this legislation of language likewise establishes the first laws of truth. For the contrast between truth and lie arises here for the first time.”

Since such designations are accepted, the misuse of these in one way or other leads to lie. But what people don’t like is not the deception but the unpleasant consequences thereof.

“It is in a similarly restricted sense that man now wants nothing but truth: he desires the pleasant, life-preserving consequences of truth. He is indifferent toward pure knowledge which has no consequences; toward those truths which are possibly harmful and destructive he is even hostilely inclined. And besides, what about these linguistic conventions themselves? Are they perhaps products of knowledge, that is, of the sense of truth? Are designations congruent with things? Is language the adequate expression of all realities?”

Congruent Expressions

When we call an apple “apple”, is the designation congruent? The name of a word causes a nerve stimulation which is transferred into a metaphor (image) and then the image is imitated in second metaphor (sound). So when we hear/call different objects by their names, we are actually talking of metaphors and not the actual entities. The inferences from words, according to Nietzsche, further, is a result of false application and not of truth for if we cared much for truth then there would have been decisive standpoints of certainty instead of subjective stimulation. What I find noteworthy here is that since we are aware of objects and their inferences which we gather thereof, as a result of our exposure to them as being concepts which are long held in relation to us or things around, it is difficult for us to think of them as not congruent designations.

Nietzsche says that if we cared much about the truth then there wouldn’t be any need of so many languages. That might be true, but since the languages, from ancient times, have been developed worldwide in accordance with the need of natives of a particular geographical area, it is astounding to think that words developed in different languages for different concepts are not “true” in themselves.

Word as Concept

According to him, word becomes a concept when it doesn’t serve as a reminder of a unique or individual experience but that of different cases which may be similar to it e.g.

“We call a person "honest," and then we ask "why has he behaved so honestly today?" Our usual answer is, "on account of his honesty." Honesty! We know nothing whatsoever about an essential quality called "honesty"; but we do know of countless individualized and consequently unequal actions which we equate by omitting the aspects in which they are unequal and which we now designate as "honest" actions. Finally we formulate from them a qualities occulta which has the name "honesty." We obtain the concept, as we do the form, by overlooking what is individual and actual; whereas nature is acquainted with no forms and no concepts, and likewise with no species, but only with an X which remains inaccessible and undefinable for us.

But can we live on without designating words to concepts? How do we know of the ‘individual’ and ‘actual’ without actually designating words? How can we know of their existence without understanding them in relation to these words? Are we that capable of understanding the ‘X’ without words? If those words are not true, then what else is?

Nietzsche maintains that truth is nothing but- A movable host of metaphors, metonymies, 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 a people to be fixed, canonical, and binding. 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.

Truth in non-moral sense

The society imposes duty in order to exist, which means, to follow accepted metaphors to remain truthful. Morally speaking, this is lying in order to remain truthful to herd, by following fixed conventions. Man lies in accordance with the centuries old habits which in unconsciousness become a part of his rational being. Now this being is controlled by abstractions from which deviation is no longer tolerated and man becomes more comfortable with this known world rather than the perceived world of an individual. This structure of concepts is so articulately categorized that truth can only be found in the accurate sense in the designated category without any violation (strictly belonging to same class and order). For this construction, man can be admired and as far as seeking and finding truth is concerned; it is achieved through an analogy, for man strives to find truth similar to him. What is achieved finally is “assimilation” with the concepts.

But in order to live a moral life which is more meaningful and peaceful, it is necessary for man to forget this primitive world of metaphors and to believe, have invincible faith, that all the objects that are witnessed are “true” in themselves. That they have a meaning which may not necessarily be guided by the analogies man has created. To forget such a world of metaphors/ concepts is not easy, as, even if a man does escape from this, “his "self- consciousness" would be immediately destroyed.” And since these concepts are understood in relation with laws of nature, which we have impressed upon ourselves, it follows that it is us who bring properties to things.

Achieving morality through art

In conjunction with this, it of course follows that the artistic process of metaphor formation with which every sensation begins in us already presupposes these forms and thus occurs within them. The only way in which the possibility of subsequently constructing a new conceptual edifice from metaphors themselves can be explained is by the firm persistence of these original forms. That is to say, this conceptual edifice is an imitation of temporal, spatial, and numerical relationships in the domain of metaphor.

As science is working continuously in the direction of concept/metaphor formation, so is this drive supported by myth and art. Art upsets the known categories of concept by bringing new metaphors, transferences and metonymies so that the refashioned world is colorful, irregular, lacking in results and coherence, charming, and eternally new as the world of dreams.

In this intuitive world, as long as man is able to deceive without injuring, the intellect is free. An intuitive artistic man shatters the old conceptual barriers and lives the life of ‘illusion’ and ‘beauty’ like an ‘overjoyed hero’. The dissimulation he engages in, expresses an exalted happiness. His life is different from that of the rational man’s who live in accordance with foresight, prudence and regularity. Therefore he lives a moral life in that sense.

Whenever, as was perhaps the case in ancient Greece, the intuitive man handles his weapons more authoritatively and victoriously than his opponent, then, under favorable circumstances, a culture can take shape and art's mastery over life can be established.

In essence, Nietzsche here speaks of the brilliance of living an artistic life which makes living more moral in the sense that it has more beauty and charm. An artistic man need not to obey the social conventions of morality but live a life which he considers as "true".

[b · Rating 5 out of 5]

we live in a society

[Steve]

On Truth and Lies in an Extra-moral Sense

Friedrich Nietzsche's Über Wahrheit Und Lüge Im Außermoralischen Sinne (On Truth and Lies in a Nonmoral(Extra-moral) Sense) is a fascinating little text written in 1873 (published posthumously) during the period of transition from dissatisfied classical philologist to the revolutionary philosopher/prophet he would become. It was dictated to a friend by the already half-blind 29 year old Nietzsche a year after the appearance of his first book, Die Geburt der Tragödie, which I discuss here:

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

Though many of the ideas in this text would appear in his later books, the fervor, eloquence and extremity rising to the surface of this young university professor's thinking are remarkable.

The text opens with a fable:

In irgend einem abgelegenen Winkel des in zahllosen Sonnensystemen flimmernd ausgegossenen Weltalls gab es einmal ein Gestirn, auf dem kluge Tiere das Erkennen erfanden. Es war die hochmütigste und verlogenste Minute der "Weltgeschichte": aber doch nur eine Minute. Nach wenigen Atemzügen der Natur erstarrte das Gestirn, und die klugen Tiere mußten sterben.

(In some remote corner of the universe, glitteringly poured out into numberless solar systems, there once was a star on which clever animals invented knowledge. It was the most haughty and mendacious minute of "world history", but it was only a minute. After Nature had drawn a few breaths, the star turned cold and the clever animals had to die.)

Having established how trivial mankind really is in the scheme of things, Nietzsche makes the case that the primary role of reason/intellect in this trivial human life is (momentary) preservation of the individual's life and that this preservation is attained primarily through simulation/deception, both of others and of oneself.(*) He explains that the "truths" mankind operate under are actually lies we told each other in order to live together, and then we forgot they were lies.(**)

He continues: We know only sensations, not things; language is but metaphor; concepts/abstractions arise by equating non-equal things and forgetting what is actual; we can't know the actual laws of nature, we can only know reflections/manifestations of them as "sums of relations"; our science is the result of our particular manner of perception and processing abilities.

Was ist also Wahrheit? Ein bewegliches Heer von Metaphern, Metonymien, Anthropomorphismen, kurz eine Summe von menschlichen Relationen, die, poetisch und rhetorisch gesteigert, übertragen, geschmückt wurden, und die nach langem Gebrauch einem Volke fest, kanonisch und verbindlich dünken: die Wahrheiten sind Illusionen, von denen man vergessen hat, daß sie welche sind, Metaphern, die abgenutzt und sinnlich kraftlos geworden sind, Münzen, die ihr Bild verloren haben und nun als Metall, nicht mehr als Münzen, in Betracht kommen.

(What then is truth? A movable host of metaphors, metonymies, 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 a people to be fixed, canonical, and binding. 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.)

Let's face it: we do huddle together and tell ourselves comforting stories in the dark; if we didn't do that, how long would we last? Can you imagine the panic, the despair, the destruction? What has always fascinated me about Nietzsche is that he is a case study of someone who rejected all of those stories. I find every single major point made in this little text to be admissible. Very, very scary...

But as a natural scientist of long experience I know that, in fact, something "real" is being grasped by our pathetic intellects, languages and concepts. For I have seen how we poor creatures have re-shaped our world (and not always for the better); how we have predicted the manner in which nearly infinitely small particles should behave and have verified that they do precisely that; how we have sent human beings to walk on the face of the moon and have returned them safely to earth (and anyone who has a hint of physics and engineering knows the truly enormous amount of authentic understanding that undertaking required). So, yes, I am quite prepared to admit that all social/religious/moral truths are stories told in the dark. But, even if we realize that the little we know about science is negligible compared with what there is to be known, we also have clear evidence that we actually do know something. Perhaps, some day, we'll know something more.

Nonetheless, how true this is:

Der Mensch selbst aber hat einen unbesiegbaren Hang, sich täuschen zu lassen, und ist wie bezaubert vor Glück, wenn der Rhapsode ihm epische Märchen wie wahr erzählt...

(But man has an invincible inclination to allow himself to be deceived and is, as it were, enchanted with happiness when the rhapsodist tells him epic fables as if they were true...)

The original German is here:

http://gutenberg.spiegel.de/buch/3243/1

and an English translation is here:

http://pastehtml.com/view/crz4xb2u4.html



(*) Curiously enough, he calls man's dreams at night "lies" and reproaches him also for allowing himself to be lied to every night, when the year before in his first book he adopted the classical Greek position that dreams were the opportunity of revelation from the gods.

(**) He is thinking less of our scientific truths - which he, quite correctly, qualifies as negligible in comparison to what we don't know - than of our social/religious/moral truths.

[Gabrielė Bužinskaitė · Rating 4 out of 5]

A difficult read, not because of the wording, but the concept. Nonetheless, the bits I managed to grasp broadened how I see the world.

"What then is truth? A movable host of metaphors, metonymies, 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 a people to be fixed, canonical, and binding."

Ironically, Nietzsche points out that "truth" is a made-up human concept. Truths, to him, are illusions we forgot were illusions. The knowledge we humans have is purely subjective, limited, and worthless to other creatures outside our bubble. To Nietzsche, the world exists and will perish as a place of no knowledge.

I only wish he had provided more examples.

[Arcadia · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Truth are illusions which we have forgotten are illusions." *spooky noises*
So, my first attempt at Nietzsche. It did kind of scare me. It was very heavy and I really had to concentrate on each individual word in order to get the meaning of the whole paragraph. I do believe I managed to capture the essence of this short essay, the subjectivity of truth, and how we're living in a fictitious social construct based on the subjectivity of these truths, that us as self-indulging and ego-centered humans have assigned as 'meaning' to words, and hence effectively our life. Around halfway through I did kind of get the chills, a 'my life is literally a lie', but it was a very meditated and concentrated chill. This idea of intuitive versus rational man, was a bit far-fetched for me, in the sense of can such an 'intuitive' man exist? Maybe it's too abstract for me to credibly believe any reasoning, deductions or theories attributed to this intuitive man. My limited Euclidean mind! It reminded me in some sense of Scott McCloud's 'Understanding Comics' which now in retrospect, probably got many ideas from Nietzsche himself. "Everything which distinguishes man from the animals depends upon his ability to volatilise perceptual metaphors in a schema, and thus to dissolve an image into a concept." That was a lot of McCloud's point.
Sweet and succinct (although I won't lie and call it painless) introduction into Nietzsche. He definitely was a nutcase, no wonder!

[Lucía Rosa · Rating 2 out of 5]

Soy amiga de Nietzsche, pero soy más amiga de la verdad

[Kyle van Oosterum · Rating 5 out of 5]

Truth is like a spider web, which is delicate enough to be carried by the waves, but strong enough to not be blown apart. - Nietzsche (paraphrased slightly)

This is a beautifully written brief essay, which in as little as 8 pages summarizes the entirety of the human will to truth and all of its complexity. Where others have written colossal treatises on the subject of judgment and reason, Nietzsche chose to look at the worth of truth and perhaps the total subjectivity of it all.

A philologist by training, Nietzsche holds firm by the idea that there are no ideas or concepts or any actual sense data outside of metaphors - ascribing words to objects. Truth consists of a series of anthropomorphisms or "words", which we have learnt to imprint on our species. This simple idea calls into question everything that you can actually know or what you actually can't, in the first five pages.

When someone deceives us, we are not actually mad about the deception itself. We are mad about the effect it has on our lives. In the same way, we will desire truth insomuch as it has a positive effect on our lives, or we will just manufacture illusions to compensate for the lack of truth (or our inability to find it).

I highly recommend this essay (PDF versions galore) for its somewhat cleansing effects on the mind and for its lack of rigidity and bias. If not for that, for a masterful use of language, which will certainly entertain any reader.

[Rick-Phil · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this text back in 2017. I don't recall the words so much as the oblivion I found myself in as Nietzsche left me pondering morality and truth as well as self and others anew. Nietzsche has a talent for pushing over meta-narratives, and I do recall being shaken.

An excellent critical thinking piece.

[Pater Edmund]

Dazzlingly brilliant, and completely wrong.

[Shadin Pranto · Rating 4 out of 5]

রবিবাবু কহেন,

"..সেই সত্য যা রচিবে তুমি,
ঘটে যা তা সব সত্য নহে। কবি, তব মনোভূমি
রামের জনমস্থান, অযোধ্যার চেয়ে সত্য জেনো।"

রবিঠাকুর নিশ্চয়ই নীৎশের সত্যবিষয়ক এই খটোমটো ও ভয়ংকর দুর্বোধ্য প্রবন্ধখানা পাঠ করেছিলেন এবং সারকথা আত্মস্থ করেন। নতুবা মাত্র দুই লাইনে প্রবন্ধটির মূলভাব বলে দিলেন কীভাবে?

নীৎশের প্রথমদিকের লেখা এটি। যেখানে তিনি বলছেন, সত্য বলে সত্যি কিছু নেই। বরং যা আছে তা কেবল মানুষের তৈরি করা বয়ানমাত্র। যেমন: গাছের একটা অংশের নাম আমরা দিয়েছি পাতা। কিন্তু পাতার তো হাজার প্রকারের রকমফের আছে। সেগুলোও পাতা। তাহলে সত্যিকারের পাতা কোনটি? তাজা পাতা, শুকনো পাতা, মরা পাতা, আধপচা পাতা - কোনটি আসল পাতা? এমনই প্রহেলিকায় ভরা নীৎশের এই প্রবন্ধ।

তিনি সত্যকে মানুষের ধারণাগত একটি রূপ হিসেবে দেখেছেন। যা ভাষার মাধ্যমে কাজ করে। মিথ সৃষ্টি করে। নীৎশের কাছে সত্য হলো:

"What then is truth? A movable host of metaphors, metonymies, 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 a people to be fixed, canonical, and binding. 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. "

শব্দের মারপ্যাঁচে ভরা এক প্রবন্ধে সত্য কী তার সন্ধান করেছেন দার্শনিক নীৎশে। ধীরেসুস্থে যে কোনো পাঠক এই মহান দার্শনিকের সঙ্গী হতে পারেন। তবে তার বক্তব্য কতটুকু কী বোধগম্য হবে, সেটি বলা মুসকিল।

[Italo Lins Lemos · Rating 3 out of 5]

Este foi um dos textos que mais me influenciaram na época da graduação em Filosofia, dez anos atrás. Revisitá-lo agora foi, ao mesmo tempo, nostálgico e decepcionante.

Nostálgico, pois me relembrou da abertura de horizonte que a leitura deste texto me causou. Nietzsche é, sem dúvidas, um excelente escritor, e o modo enérgico como ele apresenta os seus argumentos é cativante. Você sai do texto pensando "arrgh, a metafísica clássica é uma farsa!!11!", na medida em que, dado que este é um texto do jovem Nietzsche ("schopenhauriano"), ele delineia as consequências indesejadas da divisão do mundo em dois polos: o das aparências e o das coisas-em-si:

“O que é, pois, a verdade? Um exército móvel de metáforas, metonímias, antropomorfismos, numa palavra, uma soma de relações humanas que foram realçadas poética e retoricamente, transpostas e adornadas, e que, após uma longa utilização, parecem a um povo consolidadas, canônicas e obrigatórias: as verdades são ilusões das quais se esqueceu que elas assim o são, metáforas que se tornaram desgastadas e sem força sensível, moedas que perderam seu troquel e agora são levadas em conta apenas como metal, e não mais como moedas.” (p. 36).

Mas a minha experiência também foi decepcionante. Primeiramente, nenhuma das premissas que levam Nietzsche às suas conclusões recebe uma atenção especial. O estilo oracular do autor é, em muitos momentos, irritante. Em segundo lugar, a compreensão da natureza da metafísica (já em um contexto pós-Kantiano e pós-Darwiniano) parece ser uma ressaca do platonismo: se não há valores absolutos ou formas ideais, então tudo é uma mentira/fingimento/ilusão — o que hoje soa infantil.

Em suma, dizendo por conta própria e em termos históricos, este é certamente um texto importante. No entanto, como tudo na vida, é importante lê-lo com cautela e sem se deixar levar pelo canto das sereias — embora eu não queira colocar cera nos ouvidos, nem me amarrar a um mastro.

[Haridian García De Ara · Rating 5 out of 5]

La antesala a casi toda la filosofía continental del siglo XX y un buen punto de inicio para comenzar la lectura de Nietzsche, puesto que supone un gran resumen de su núcleo de pensamiento previo al desarrollo de su transvaloración de todos los valores en la etapa tardía.
El artículo, de unas escasas 20 páginas, se traduce en una absoluta devastación tanto para la metafísica occidental como para la teoría del conocimiento y el concepto de verdad, aspectos a los que Nietzsche acusa de mera antropomorfización de un aparente saber que, en última instancia, se tratan de una vulgar tautología. Su solución, como era de esperar, pasa por abrazar el irracionalismo de la mano de las artes, creadoras de metáforas genuinas que permiten generar ilusiones que posibilitan una existencia más plena que las mentiras del hombre intelectual.

[Jordi Drenthen · Rating 4 out of 5]

“Just as the bee simultaneously constructs cells and fills the, with honey, so science works unceasingly on this great columbarium of concepts, the graveyard of perceptions.” - Nietzsche

For more information on the book, read Kyle's review!

[Leonardo Di Giorgio]

È in un angolo remoto dell'universo scintillante che comincia il discorso nietzschiano sulla verità e la menzogna. In questo angolo di infinito si svolge la storia dell'uomo: un menzognero e tracotante istante per quell'essere che, a causa dell'intelletto, si credeva immortale, che vedeva i cardini del mondo ruotare su di lui. E invece era solo effimero, transitorio.

È tutta un'illusione la verità per l'uomo, tutto un giuoco tattile, uno scivolare sulle cose senza poterne saggiare la natura primigenia, vera. L'uomo nell'inganno cerca il conforto, la convenzione, e usa il linguaggio come strumento di analisi della realtà. L'uomo però dimentica la natura antropomorfica del linguaggio: il linguaggio è metafora delle cose che crediamo di possedere nella nostra conoscenza. Noi crediamo di sapere ma il nostro è un creativo lavoro di formazione dei concetti, vasti contenuti mentali raccolti sotto l'etichetta di una medesima parola. L'esistenza di tante lingue ci rivela l'arbitrarietà del linguaggio, la sua natura artistica e il modo in cui l'uomo crea quella "cupola infinitamente complicata" che è la menzogna: con i concetti a cui egli stesso dà vita. Ci rendiamo conto quindi che è la verità stessa ad essere antropomorfica, fondata dall'uomo per l'uomo, e che "l'indagatore di queste verità cerca soltanto la metamorfosi del mondo nell'uomo".

Ma è tutta un'illusione, peraltro logorata, un mentire con incoscienza. E nella "lotta" tra scienziato, artista e filosofo, è quest'ultimo ad avere la meglio: consapevole della menzogna la incoraggia e ammette la coesistenza di molteplici interpretazioni, tutte ugualmente legittime.

"Le verità sono illusioni di cui si è dimenticata la natura illusoria".

[Maximus · Rating 5 out of 5]

Веома занимљив есеј. Постојала је вечност без људског интелекта и опет ће постојати. Да ли је интелект само обмана? Да ли је истина само социјална конструкција друштва која се испољава кроз метафоре и појмове које су, у суштини, покушаји да се објективно сагледају субјективни доживљаји света и стварности? Да ли људи граде апстрактни свет око себе који није истинит јер он потиче од наше егоцентричности и немогућности да сагледамо свет као нешто што није људско? Да ли језик ишта објашњава?  Колико је стварно стабилно наше клупко паучине које се котрља по води стварности? Да ли је уметност и мит тај други језик који превазилази појмове, метафоре и науку? Који путеви постоје за човека и да ли боље пролази интуитивни човек или стоик? То су само нека од питања којима се бави овај есеј од 8 страница. Натеран сам да употребим и интуицију и појмов од стране овог дела. Ниче очарава као и обично.

[Gia Jgarkava · Rating 4 out of 5]

ნიცშეა კლასიკური - ძალიან კარგად და დალაგებულად ამბობს რა არ არის ჭეშმარიტება და რა (არ) არის სიცრუე... რომ ადამიანი და მისი სამყარო მეტაფორები და აბსტრაქციაა... მაგრამ, მერე რა უნდა ქნა, პასუხი არ აქვს

[joyce · Rating 5 out of 5]

yum yum

[Emma Morris · Rating 5 out of 5]

just learned the world doesn’t revolve around me..? …will continue to investigate.. 🤨

[Prerna Munshi · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am in absolute love with this ground breaking work of Nietzsche. What makes him great is humility. He is humbled of the realisation of the unknown, of that which can never be assimilated by our cognitive apparatus, of the residual that always remains, and yet he is awed of it, celebrating the infinite possibilities of the unknown in silence. This essay testifies that and which is why it shall always stay relevant.

Nietzsche attempts to de-establish the anthropocentric world view and the hegemony of the anthropomorphic truth. He talks about the innate human fallacy of submission to the ‘dream image’ , to the ‘Apollonian’ worldview which we take to be the real.
He argues how humans had to develop cognition/intellect to fend for themselves because unlike the other life forms, we were not naturally endowed. Therefore, Cognition is not special because it burdens us by thought.

He goes on to say how Truth is subjective and how we use language to reach this veneer of truth thereby speaking in metaphors. He argues how language can never point at the essence of things and in a Kantian way, says language can only express appearances or the phenomenology. Language becomes a mode of operation for an empirical world. Truth, for Nietzsche, is an illusion. Truth, for him, remains the domain of classification. He addresses the fragility of human beings because we build our world through the artificity of concepts.

Modernism thinks it is transcending through science. In Science, Nietzsche sees a foreclosure because even when Science appears to be transcending limits, it is repeatedly trying to establish some veritable facts tested in controlled settings and replicated. Nietzsche tries to show that the hubris man has had on his intellect , as such, has no natural base. Given the current times, when ‘enlightenment’ has been effacing every limit, this humble realisation is a gift.

Highly recommended!

[Laurent · Rating 4 out of 5]

Although much has been said about this short essay - see Kyle's review - I would like to add my small contribution to the pile by highlighting one passage that I found interesting:

Only by forgetting this primitive world of metaphor can one live with any repose, security, and consistency: only by means of the petrification and coagulation of a mass of images which originally streamed from the primal faculty of human imagination like a fiery liquid, only in the invincible faith that this sun, this window, this table is a truth in itself, in short, only by forgetting that he himself is an artistically creating subject, does man live with any repose, security, and consistency. If but for an instant he could escape from the prison walls of this faith, his "self consciousness" would be immediately destroyed.

Although it is not one of the most noteworthy parts of this essay, I found interesting that it seems to embody the ultimate goal of Zen Buddhism - to escape the world of arbitrarily assigned metaphors and metonymies in which we live, the self-deluding web of concepts that form our perception - which in many ways I find to be the greatest possible achievement of mankind: to escape ourselves (not a very welcoming thought, I must admit!).

On the whole: excellent essay rich with nuggets of Nietzschean wisdom interplayed with his 'somewhat' cynical humour. A great read.

[Alin Cristian · Rating 5 out of 5]

„Truth is like a spider web, which is delicate enough to be carried by the waves, but strong enough to not be blown apart.” (Nietzsche)

Această lucrare este un scurt eseu (de doar 8 pagini) ce rezumă întreaga voința umană care tinde să cunoască adevărul și toată complexitatea sa. Nietzsche crede ferm în ideea că nu există idei sau concepte care să nu se fi născut din metafore. Și având în vedere faptul că metaforele au fost create de către oameni, putem concluziona că, deci, și adevărul.

Adevărul este o mulțime mobilă de metafore care au fost intensificate, transferate și înfrumusețate poetic și retoric și care, după o lungă utilizare, par a fi pentru un popor ca fiind fixe, canonice și obligatorii. Adevărurile sunt iluziile despre care am uitat că sunt iluzii - sunt metafore care s-au uzat și au fost golite de forța senzorială, sunt monedele care și-au pierdut ștanțarea și sunt considerate acum ca fiind de metal și care nu mai sunt monede (citat aproximativ ;)...).

[M · Rating 3 out of 5]

"The free intellect copies human life, but it considers this life to be something good and seems to be quite satisfied with it. That immense framework and planking of concepts to which the needy man clings his whole life long in order to preserve himself is nothing but a scaffolding and toy for the most audacious feats of the liberated intellect. And when it smashes this framework to pieces, throws it into confusion, and puts it back together in an ironic fashion, pairing the most alien things and separating the closest, it is demonstrating that it has no need of these makeshifts of indigence and that it will now be guided by intuitions rather than by concepts."

[Nathan · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's easy to present truth as illusory when you haven't defined it or established a full context for it.
Yet, Nietzsche demonstrates his thesis by attempting to divine the truth about "truth" by way of intuition and clever metaphor.
He paints the truth-seeker as a deceiver and pretender--and he does so consistently, as this essay is just such a deception.

[Vladivostok · Rating 5 out of 5]

Truth as adherence to metaphor. Concept as an edifice constructed by these associations of language. Here we catch the first rays of Nietzsche's dawn of supra-morality. Very short, but very dense.

[Bere Tarará · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excelentes ensayos para entender concepciones básicas del filósofo

[John David Latour]

I’ve stopped my reading spree to comment on this work. I’ll finish the review later, but just wanted to write my immediate thoughts. Here I go:

I’ve never felt more alone than after having read Nietzsche. This work in particular left me both awed by Nietzsche's insight and bereft (word of the day!!) of the comfort which that very same insight might typically bring. It is a text that, in its ruthless honesty, isolates the reader—both from others and from oneself—yet compels you to ask what, if anything, lies beyond the illusions it so brutally shatters.

maybe I’m just one step away from becoming the Übermensch

ok back to reading 🤩😤😤

[Carolina Álvarez Valencia · Rating 5 out of 5]

Espectacular. Personalmente disfruto más este Nietzsche joven con sus preocupaciones epistemológicas y ontológicas, que aquellas metafísicas de su etapa más tardía. Aquí la pregunta sobre la verdad y el conocimiento es supremamente agitadora.

[Tornike Bratchuli · Rating 5 out of 5]

არაკომპეტენტური 5*... "ტრანსცენდენტალური ესთეტიკის" შემდეგ უდიდესი შვებაა :D

[Pedro Pirata · Rating 5 out of 5]

Nada que añadir.

[Peter Hyllested · Rating 5 out of 5]

fortæl dem!