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Nietzsche and plato contrast
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Truth is a concept that Plato choose to believe it as a universal idea, Nietzsche choose to consider it as an agreed upon lie, and Cixous wants to make it possible for more than one truth to exist. Nietzsche and Cixous are somewhat on the same page when talking about the truth. However Plato is against Nietzsche’s idea, and believes that women fall under the neutral category of man, but Cixous wants that difference. Moreover, Nietzsche affirms that there is no truth until the society believes it, but Plato thinks there is only one truth, the forms. Cixous agrees with Nietzsche and so tries creating a truth for women in the society. Since Nietzsche and Cixous have slightly similar understanding on truth, their thinking on different types of …show more content…
truth is similar. However, Plato does not conform and as a result he has a different style in writing than them. According to Nietzsche, truth is an illusion that can exist in two different ways. First, truth is the lie that a group of people choose to agree. This creates languages, and laws that the society follows in order to be accepted by others in the society. Secondly, “The Truth” is made when following the rules becomes a second nature to the society or an individual; for example the laws of math and science. Nietzsche warns us that following one defined truth restricts us from thinking and finding a different possible answer. The fixed ideas or “The Truth” in our minds may not be the only probable truth, and so we must consider alternative solutions. As a result Nietzsche claims that there is no such thing as “The Truth” or truth instead a person should be more flexible and creative to identify possible answers. However Plato’s belief on truth is noticeably different from Nietzsche’s.
Plato believes that the truth comes from the forms, and is a fixed idea that cannot be changed. He suggests that the Forms are the only true objects that can provide individuals with a knowledge of the truth: they are universal and go beyond human experience. The only way to look and learn from the forms is to die because it is a journey for the souls. A person, who has lived a life of honor and shame will see the forms more closely as compared to the one who lived a life of insolence, and thus will know the greater truth depending on the life they live. However, Nietzsche comments that if the way to find the truth is to die, then basically the truth is dead, which indirectly means that truth does not exist. Nietzsche says, “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: On truth and lies, pg. 53). By this he means that if we chooses to follow the already defined path, it is like fog that covers the senses and the eyes of a man, which interrupts our mental processing to be able to think differently. Since Nietzsche believes that there is no real truth he want individuals to be creative, and not consider the fixed idea as the real truth. Plato disagrees because he believes in the theory of recollection and so presumes that souls learn everything from the past experiences and forgets details over it transmission from one body to another. For Plato, remembering is like recalling the truth from our past
experiences. Nonetheless, Cixous wants a difference; she does not want to follow a universal truth that Plato mentions. She agrees with Nietzsche that the society believes in agreed upon lie, and so she wants to make the women an agreed upon lie. In order to make that possible Cixous has to write “her self” into existence to make herself stronger and valuable in the society. Through her point of view, in order to make a difference in the existing truth society as whole has to believe in women. She want to inspire other women in the society to write like she was inspired by another woman: “I have been amazed more than once by a description a woman gave me of a world all her own which she had been secretly haunting since early childhood. A world of searching the elaboration of a knowledge, on the basis of a systematic experimentation with her bodily functions, a passionate and precise interrogation of her erotogeneity” (Laugh of Medusa, 28). The women, who gave a description of a world she has been secretly experimenting on, that is her body, influenced Cixous about the possibility that other women should also proclaim their empire through the act of writing. As a result, she wants women to write through the discovery of the female body and their experiences: unruly, excessive, confusing, messy and unrepeatable styles. Thus affirming acceptance in the society through the difference in writing.
This is no easy task for “if this man went down into the cave again and sat down in his same seat, wouldn’t his eyes-coming suddenly out of the sun like that-be filled with darkness?” (Plato, 5). Socrates is explaining that after becoming educated about the real truths it would be hard for a person to go back to a life where those truths are rejected. The freed man must use his reason to understand that those people in the dark still believe the shadows on the wall are real truths. They have not experienced for themselves what it means to be educated by the light and the man who has seen the light must proceed with patients and caution while trying to guild the prisoners out of the dark. He understands the struggle the prisoners will encounter, but through his understanding of his faith he knows not give up on the prisoners. This is because after he had become educated he was able to understand that putting his faith in God meant saving the prisoners. However, once they have reached the light it is up to them to decide what they truly want to put their faith into. So the man who has already seen the light will be understanding if a person chooses to follow a different faith based on the common truths they have experienced. For then, that person will have experienced the journey in becoming educated about the truths of their religion, and can use their reason to decide they want to follow a different faith. Similarly, in “The Confessions” Augustine describes his journey in discovering the truths about Christianity which he ultimately puts his faith
A longstanding debate in human history is what to do with power and what is the best way to rule. Who should have power, how should one rule, and what its purpose should government serve have always been questions at the fore in civilization, and more than once have sparked controversy and conflict. The essential elements of rule have placed the human need for order and structure against the human desire for freedom, and compromising between the two has never been easy. It is a question that is still considered and argued to this day. However, the argument has not rested solely with military powers or politicians, but philosophers as well. Two prominent voices in this debate are Plato and Machiavelli, both of whom had very different ideas of government's role in the lives of its people. For Plato, the essential service of government is to allow its citizens to live in their proper places and to do the things that they are best at. In short, Plato's government reinforces the need for order while giving the illusion of freedom. On the other hand, Machiavelli proposes that government's primary concern is to remain intact, thereby preserving stability for the people who live under it. The feature that both philosophers share is that they attempt to compromise between stability and freedom, and in the process admit that neither can be totally had.
The first reason for this would be because Nietzsche believes that Socrates and philosophy have killed art, and he also believes we do not need the truth because we have art and music. In “On Truth and Lies in a Nonmoral Sense” Nietzsche says that science is part of the “columbarium of concepts” (Pg. 150), this meaning simply that concepts kill, and since Nietzsche believes the truth is a concept, and then in turn he is saying the truth kills.
Philosophy can be defined as the highest level of clarity and understanding human thought can aspire to. In some ways, Plato’s Republic can be compared to George Orwell’s book 1984. It may seem strange to compare the two, however they are quite similar. Plato writes from the Western philosophy, while Orwell tells of a totalitarian society where all free thought is banned. However, the two versions of government, one being a utopian government, and the other being horrific, contain certain connections that will be made clear over the course of this paper.
Plato's rhetoric uses dialogue and dialectic as a means of making meaning known. Anthony Petruzzi says that Plato’s “Truth is neither a correspondence with an "objective" reality, nor does it exist solely as a coherent relation to a set of social beliefs; rather, truth is concomitantly a revealing and a concealing, or a withdrawing arrival” (Petruzzi 6). However, for Plato truth becomes a matter of correspondence or correctness in “the agreement of the mental concept (or representation) with the thing” (Petruzzi 7). In other words, the tr...
Thirdly, Plato and Aristotle hold contrasting views on the mechanism of finding the truth. Plato relied on the ability to reason in his attempt to explain the world. He produced his ideal world based on reason since such a world lies beyond the realm of the five senses. Plato ignored his senses because he believed his senses only revealed the imperfect forms of the ordinary world.
“There are no truths,” states one. “Well, if so, then is your statement true?” asks another. This statement and following question go a long way in demonstrating the crucial problem that any investigator of Nietzsche’s conceptions of perspectivism and truth encounters. How can one who believes that one’s conception of truth depends on the perspective from which one writes (as Nietzsche seems to believe) also posit anything resembling a universal truth (as Nietzsche seems to present the will to power, eternal recurrence, and the Übermensch)? Given this idea that there is no truth outside of a perspective, a transcendent truth, how can a philosopher make any claims at all which are valid outside his personal perspective? This is the question that Maudemarie Clark declares Nietzsche commentators from Heidegger and Kaufmann to Derrida and even herself have been trying to answer. The sheer amount of material that has been written and continues to be written on this conundrum demonstrates that this question will not be satisfactorily resolved here, but I will try to show that a resolution can be found. And this resolution need not sacrifice Nietzsche’s idea of perspectivism for finding some “truth” in his philosophy, or vice versa. One, however, ought to look at Nietzsche’s philosophical “truths” not in a metaphysical manner but as, when taken collectively, the best way to live one’s life in the absence of an absolute truth.
We have two great philosophers, Plato and Aristotle. These are great men, whose ideas have not been forgotten over years. Although their thoughts of politics were similar, we find some discrepancies in their teachings. The ideas stem from Socrates to Plato to Aristotle. Plato based moral knowledge on abstract reason, while Aristotle grounded it on experience and tried to apply it more to concrete living. Both ways of life are well respected by many people today.
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.
In Plato’s Republic he tells us how humans should live in to create harmony. This type of life is one in which we live a life of reason and righteousness. There are chose guardians to protect us however there are special qualities for these guardians in that they should be honest and fair. He notes that future generations should see the good ways so that in years to come when they become guardians they will follow in the previous steps. Socrates also notes the importance of truth so that its citizens won’t do wrong. That being said he also says that “falsehood really is of no use to the gods,” it is a “form of medicine” to men. In this idea lies are okay only if they benefit and protect the public. It is these types of lies that the benefits outweigh the consequence. These are essential to protecting the people and keeping them safe from enemies and so on. Plato also notes that public cannot reciprocate the same action as giving the “medicine” of lies, as they are not the “doctors”—the “doctors” will
Nietzsche wrote a piece called “God Is Dead”. Nietzsche wrote this piece based upon his view point of Christianity. Nietzsche rejected the Christian morality and believed that Christianity in Western Europe was heading into the wrong direction. “Christianity is Platonism for the people” was said by Nietzsche because, Plato believed that there was a better or pure world and could be accomplished by going back to the world we used to live. In another sense, Plato focused on a past life and ideas that came from that life to have a successful pure life. Nietzsche’s view of religion, he believed that by focusing on the scientism part of the religion, religion all together was moving from bad to worse. By saying “God Is Dead” which can be judged
First of all, people should be able to differentiate between the philosophers who are true and those who are false. At the first, Plato’s concept of philosopher was the wisdom lover then he proceeded to identify a true philosopher as the man who has access to the Form. This form show the purity of thought where philosophers can see the reality of the life not the fake life. For example, blue jeans and sky are the same colour b...
Greek philosophers Aristotle and Plato were two of the most influential and knowledgeable ancients in our history. Their contributions and dedication to science, language and politics are immensely valued centuries later. But while the two are highly praised for their works, they viewed several subjects entirely differently, particularly education practices, and human ethics and virtue.
Likewise, Plato’s philosopher king also uses the same concept but calls it “Justice” or “Good.” Similarly, to Machiavelli, who needs his Prince to have virtù to lead the people, Plato necessitates that his king use philosophical knowledge and emphasize justice to guide the unenlightened masses towards a just and stable society as well. When Socrates discusses the allegory of the cave, he remarks how when rulers must descend “to the general underground abode” where the masses “reside,” the ruler “will see a thousand times better than [the inhabitants of the cave]…because [the ruler has] seen the truth about things admirable and just and good” (Plato 520c). Plato believes that by seeing beyond the cave, and understanding the situation he exists in, the leader will have the appropriate ability to bring foresight and intelligence when making difficult decisions. While Plato’s and Machiavelli’s means of educating, changing and legitimizing political communities differ, the two philosophers share the same goal of using the benevolent dictators’ attained knowledge to lead the masses and their governments to prosperity and good fortune.
He wrote many dialogues, and one of them includes his famous dialogue called “Allegory of the Cave.” This dialogue explained how we were born into being very naïve people about our surroundings and taking things for granted, but eventually with the right education we grow to be philosophers that know the Form of Good. Society closes our eyes and whispers things to us in our ears and we believe it, in order to break free we need to educate ourselves into being more knowledgeable about our surroundings. We need to analyze even the smallest things, nothing is to be taken for granted because everything is more complex than what it seems (Plato, p. 26). Plato also states in his idea of self, the soul, that the soul is composed of three parts, our desires, the conscious awareness of reason and the spirited part which gets angry at injustice (Plato, p.40). His allegory and this idea about the parts of the soul connect with each other and might as well lead us to understanding what his idea truly means. Like the first argument, we could say that because our souls is what makes us alive, we are aware of the life we live, therefore we become philosophers only when we do not forget where we came from. This though, sounds contradicting to itself if we take the second argument in hand. If our soul is our life and our body is what carries it, than our ability to become philosophers depends solely on our ability to remove our soul from the body in