Nietzsche

An Analysis of Nietzsche’s On Truth and Lies in a Nonmoral Sense

Friedrich Nietzsche’s On Truth and Lies in a Nonmoral Sense represents a deconstruction of the modern epistemological project. Instead of seeking for truth, he suggests that the ultimate truth is that we have to live without such truth, and without a sense of longing for that truth. This revolutionary work of his is divided into two main sections. The first part deals with the question on what is truth? Here he discusses the implication of language to our acquisition of knowledge. The second part deals with the dual nature of man, i.e. the rational and the intuitive. He establishes that neither rational nor intuitive man is ever successful in their pursuit of knowledge due to our illusion of truth. Therefore, Nietzsche concludes that all we can claim to know are interpretations of truth and not truth itself.

Analysis

In the first part of his work, Nietzsche asserts that: “The pride connected with knowing and sensing lies like a blinding fog over the eyes and senses of men, thus deceiving them concerning the value of existence” (Nietzsche 451-452). Here, it seems that Nietzsche is trying to reject any empirical sense of gaining knowledge. For example, I know that I am sitting on a wooden chair because I can see the chair, feel the texture of the wood, touch it, and even smell the aroma of it. But Nietzsche argues that we only perceive the surface of things, and our “senses nowhere lead to the truth" (Nietzsche 452). This is what Nietzsche meant by using the analogy of our senses being like a “blinding fog over the eyes” and thus deceiving us on our knowledge about things. But how do we know what is true from what is false? What is truth as opposed to lies?

Her...

... middle of paper ...

... something when it fact, we never ask ourselves why we know it. We tend to take for granted what counts the most in this world, that is, knowing ourselves. Human beings think that knowledge of things will lead them to enlightenment. But in reality, it is nothing but an illusion made by man himself to create a kind of path towards success. Those who follow this path will get nowhere close to success, rather, they bring upon suffering along the way, pulling us farther from ourselves. Thus, if only we were aware of this deceptive nature of language and metaphor to that of knowledge, we would come to understand that truth indeed is nothing but a man-made word and is therefore a mere figment of our imagination. The facts do not count, only our interpretations of them. So it seems that Reality then isn’t so far from our dreams, perhaps it’s really the other way around.