Explain and discuss Nietzsche on truth - Essay Example

What is truth? This is a question that humans have asked since the beginning of thought or rather since we started communicating through language. Truth has always evaded this question, as far as philosophers are concerned. But, if you ask this question to a common man/woman, the answer would be simple and incontrovertible, which only reflects his/her immediate ‘reality’. Nietzsche is a philosopher whose preoccupation with truth has driven him to such extremes where he had no option than to negate the existence of truth itself.

The interpreters of Nietzsche, on the other hand, tried to substantiate their philosophical biases using parts of Nietzsches arguments which could be interpreted as it suited them. This has led to a situation where contradictory interpretations were being validated by the same philosophy of Nietzsche. A birds eye view of all these interpretations and theories throws light upon the paths which human intellect passionately treads unhindered by the limitations of human comprehension. Before entering the intricate space created by Nietzsche regarding truth, the word, truth itself needs to be relocated in philosophical space and time so that further enquiries can be based on them.

There are several theories on truth of which the major ones are correspondence theory, coherence theory, constructivist theory and pragmatic theory on truth. While, some of these theories are in assonance with Nietzsches theory of truth, some are in direct contrast with it also. The correspondence theory of truth is the earliest theoretical model on truth. It tells us that “a proposition or sentence is true when it corresponds to an appropriate fact which is something in the world that makes a proposition or a sentence true” (Newman, 2002, p.1). Here the propositions or sentences are “truth bearers” and facts are “truth