Nietzche's Philosophical Understanding of Truth - Essay Example

Friedrich Nietzsche is among, if not the only philosopher whose works have been ed to numerous critical interpretations and evaluations. Numerous literature have been written about his papers and books, and innumerable interpretations have also arisen from his materials. Walter Kaufmann sees him as a radical empiricist because of his denial of metaphysical truths while supporting truths which are empirically derived. Others see him as the best example of a metaphysician, the essence of which is refuted by his works.There are many points between these two extremes in terms of the interpretations they gave to Nietzsche's works. However diverse the interpretations of the different scholars may be, they all agree that Nietzsche's philosophy is perspectival. Nietzschean thought claims that there is no singular truth or absolute truth. There is instead a multiplicity of truths. His philosophy states that there is no singular platform or vantage point from which absolute truth could be seen. However, there is also a multiplicity of perspectives, each with their distinct way of presenting the truth. Many scholars have searched for solutions to what appear to be cnradictions arising from Nietzsche's works. This paper however, only aspires to give an interpretation of his thoughts and philosophies. So that the human individual may survive and preserve his condition, given that he has none of the accouterments of beasts armed with the most deadly of natural weapons with which to defend themselves and dominate weaker specimen, Man has resorted to his intellect using the art of dissimulation. It is through "deception, flattery, lying, deluding, talking behind the back, putting up a false front, living in borrowed splendor, wearing a mask, hiding behind convention, playing a role for others and for oneself - in short, a continuous fluttering around the solitary flame of vanity", that Man is able to not only survive but also prevail over other species and his fellowmen. Given that man possesses such a nature, and such nature arises from necessity, it becomes a contradiction that Man should also possess a drive to find truth. Nietzsche states that men do not comprehend the truth through their senses, but merely receives stimuli through them. He is also deceived by his dreams, and does not have a full comprehension of himself since there are many things in his biological constitution that naturally could not be seen. Since Man's nature, mind and his senses and tools of perception do not fully reveal the truth, Nietzsche asks from where does the drive to find truth emanate As an individual needs to preserve himself against others, he also desires their company, being the social being that he is. As such, though he utilizes dissimulation for the purpose of self-preservation, he also tries to eliminate the most flagrant of this method. This compromise gives root to Man's need to find truth. Designations are given to all things and these assignations become the basis for the truths as individuals agree they should be. It is upon these designations that the difference between truths and lies are based. A person who lies is someone who applies the designation or word for one thing to describe another. If this results to harm for another individual or society, then he will be distrusted and even ostracized. Man responds in this way to lies because he is harmed by the commitment of fraud, and not the act of lying itself. It is not deception which is abhorred or condemned but the consequential negative effect it brings upon them. The greater the degree of harm, the more hostile society becomes to the fraudulent person. But the question remains on whether the words used as designations for truths are themselves consistent with what is "absolutely true". Nietzsche describes words as merely "the copy in sound of a nerve stimulus". The more incongruent or distant a word is from the nerve stimulus it is supposed to represent, the more false it becomes. Words therefore are arbitrary assignments which represent subjective interpretations of stimuli. The object which men try to describe through words are in themselves incomprehensible to those who created the word or language. Thus, Man uses metaphors to describe the relation of objects to himself. The stimulus is converted into a mental image. This serves as the first metaphor. The second metaphor is that the image representing the object is converted into sound. Thus, Man does not possess the actual truth about objects which are represented by sound in the form of words. What he has are metaphors of those objects and nothing more. A word becomes a concept not by itself as used by an individual, but when it is congruent with other similar uses or cases with which the word is employed. The concept of an object is arrived at when the original model of a word is retained, and all its distinguishing or unequal characteristics are taken out of the equation. The omission of unequal qualities and the retention of the original model of the concept as represented by words is considered as "honesty", because it is closest to the original model of the object being referred to. In this essay, Nietzsche describes "truth" as the accumulation of human relations which have been given assignations through poetry and rhetoric, and have been transferred from one individual to another for further intensification through embellishment. These assignations after having been used through time and countless generations have acquired for themselves fixed or particular representations of what the human relations they represent are and should be. Truth is in fact an illusion created by Man which through long and extensive periods of use, have been forgotten to be illusions. They are mere representations which after having established itself through continuous usage and acceptance by Man, has ceased to become mere designation or representation, but became the object itself or what it is supposed to be. According to Nietzsche, truth is "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." It is therefore the duty of any society and the individuals within it to be truthful, by employing the accepted metaphors. In a moral context therefore, Nietzsche states that individuals are required by society to lie in a manner accepted by conventions. As everyone follows the same fixed convention of lying, then these lies become binding to members of the society. A person's lying becomes second nature, and he is unconscious of his action, since this had been molded by centuries of convention. This consistency with convention distinguishes him from the liar who is distrusted and censured by society. His ability to create concepts makes him a "rational being". He arrives at rationality by using cooler concepts -- toning down the metaphors he utilizes, by divesting himself of first impressions. First impressions are often more intense and colorful, more stimulating and vibrant to the perception. By watering down the impact of first impressions, Man is able to take a more generalized or universal outlook towards things. In Beyond Good and Evil, Nietzsche returns to the question of what drives Man to truth. Resounding his thesis from On Truth and Lies in a Nonmoral Sense, he contests that truth cannot result from deception, which he contended, is part of human nature in order to preserve himself. No such results can happen, and he argues that truth must have a separate origin which is the "thing" itself. Thus, Nietzsche's writings correlate truth with morality, being that the "truths" acceptable to society and considered as part of moral convention or are given fixed values, are in fact, not truths at all but mere assignations of men. It is from these designations made by society, that society derives its concept of what is good and what is evil. In The Gay Science and Beyond Good and Evil, Nietzsche conveys the way morality reflects society. He dwelt on the extremes of both good and evil in his writings. One of his theses claims that evil is expedient, or Man's instinctive nature leans towards evil. Thus, Nietzsche locates himself in the opposite position taken by society which stipulates that Man is essentially good, and that good in itself is expedient and evil is inexpedient. His works having been written in the late 19th century, were quite radical for those times. Nietzsche also contends that God could not exist without evil. Given the condition of opposites which are necessary to determine truths from falsehoods, then evil must exit for God to exist. Since evil is necessary for God's existence, then evil in itself is not evil at all. To illustrate, he used the example of a tree. He contended that a tree must have unfavorable conditions, which can be considered evil, so that it may grow strong and survive. He argues that Man must also experience evil so that he may grow strong and prevail over the perils he faces in his life. Good cannot exist without evil. His idea of morality is mainly based on the individual perspective rather than from the collective or societal perspective, such that truth is subjective to each individual. As such, morality may vary from one group of individuals to another. What may be moral to one group may be immoral to another, depending on the designations they have made and the concepts they have developed using such designations. He contends that the individual seeks truth and strives to be noble. Nobility is achieved not by sole devotion of one's self to others or something that is useless. In Man's effort to become noble, he must be able to divest himself of the ill effects of his enemies or the unfortunate circumstances which befall him. Instead, he must move and such an outlook and attitude would fortify him and make him strong as an individual. In adopting such attitude and behavior, the individual also divests himself of the capacity to despise his enemies, actually bringing to reality, genuine love one's enemies instead. Having relinquished his person of the capacity to despise others, then the individual has no other action except to honor his enemies. Nietzsche explains that in so far as the individual is able to form the concept of an "evil one" which is his enemy, this concept and his noble character also provides the concept of the "good one" which is himself. To Nietzsche, nobility is acquired not through the acquisition of honors but by being able to be self sufficient. Self sufficiency, as stated earlier, is derived from the person's ability to move forward and not be overly affected by the misfortunes he encounters nor the actions of his enemies, thereby fortifying him and preserving his person. In Beyond Good and Evil, he argues that society's view of "evil" is misleading, People, he believed, were too conscious about how society saw them. He also believed that people depended too much on society to define for them what is good and what is evil, and that any deviation from the social convention would be construed as falsehood or evil. He also states that a false judgment is not an objection to that judgment. Instead, it is extant in the manner by which Man has utilized sounds, as he described in On Truth and Lies in a Nonmoral Sense. He states that even the falsest of judgments, which are themselves designated values of reality, serve the purpose of sustaining life and providing order in society. As Nietzsche postulates, "there are no truths". If such were the case, then will this statement be true This is part of the basis of Nietzsche's concepts of perspectivism and truth. Perspectivism as Nietzsche discusses it stipulates that a person's truth depends on the perspective from which that person is coming from. Given this premise that there is no truth outside a person's own perspective, then how can a philosopher claim that his stipulations are valid beyond his own perspective How could a truth that comes from a person's perspective be able to transcend the perspective of other individuals and thus become valid or acceptable. Nietzsche's philosophy has urged many to find a resolution. This philosophy is best understood not in the metaphysical sense, but should be taken in a collective manner wherein his "truth" is the best way to live life in the absence of an absolute truth. His specifications about perspectivism will show how it connects with his claims about truths. On the chapter "On the Prejudices of Philosophers" (Beyond Good and Evil), Nietzsche criticized the deficit in integrity on the part of traditional philosophers who claim that their ideas are a result of pure reason. He observed that traditional philosophers have arrived at their ideas through "the self-evolution of a cold, pure, divinely unperturbed dialectic: while what happens at bottom is that a prejudice, a notion, an 'inspiration,' generally a desire of the heart sifted and made abstract, is defended by them with reasons sought after the event". Thus, Nietzsche argues that the universality of such ideas are untrue and invalid, since they are but personal insights coming from a particular philosopher's perspective. Nietzsche's personal style also reflects his perspectivism concept. He sees an idea as a living entity which is bound by a cover by which it is presented for others to receive. Thus, it is illogical to dwell upon a philosopher's ideas without looking into the individual who wrote them. The idea and its presentation or package as seen by the rest of the world should also include the context from which it has emanated which is the philosopher from whence the idea sprung. Nietzsche considered himself primarily as a psychologist. Given this factor, he was more interested in the motivations behind the ideas or why they were written rather than the ideas themselves. The manner by which Nietzsche sees himself as a psychologist is manifested as he states that "every great philosophy has hitherto been: a confession on the part of its author and a kind of involuntary and unconscious memoir". He sees a philosophy as a product of the individual with motivations and belief systems which led him to construct or contributed to the construction of such a philosophy. Nietzsche therefore stipulates that a philosophy which is claimed to be universal in its application or "truth" is in fact a personal product. Significant in the statement is Nietzsche's acknowledgement that the personal contributing factors in the construction of a philosophy were unconsciously undertaken by the philosopher. The biases contained in the output of the philosopher are also latent as far as the readers are concerned. Nietzsche wants these unconscious prejudices become conscious. Since all individuals have no choice but to view the world from his own perspective, there is no means by which an individual can determine the absolute truth. To Nietzsche, with the existence of perspectivism, the concept of an absolute truth becomes incongruent. If perspectivism exists, then an absolute truth cannot possibly exist. He argues that there is a contradiction in terms for phrases like "immediate certainty", "absolute knowledge" and "thing in itself". Such terms are in fact used by philosophers from Plato, Kant to Schopenhauer to explain the presence of a transcendental world that is not touched by the prejudices of men. In other words, traditional philosophers from the Greeks to those of the modern age have used the idea of an absolute truth to maintain the position that ideas and philosophies can be universal as they claim them to be. Through Nietzsche, the posited universality of absolute truth is challenged. Simply stated, Nietzsche argued that it is not possible for any person to create, more so write down ideas without injecting their own prejudices. Although Nietzsche argues that there is no way by which absolute truth can be known, he also criticizes the prevailing skepticism of Europe during the late 19th century. He stressed that although a person may not know whether his beliefs are true or not, the individual may still do everything in his power (or the human will -- so that such beliefs may become true). This idea becomes consistent with his arguments about the absence of absolute truth since if truth was not transcendental, then Man has the freedom to create his own truths; to will them to become truths using every means within his power and ability. He sees the pervading sense of skepticism in Europe as the cultural "death of God" or in more graphic terms, "paralysis of will". Nietzsche stresses that people must have more reason to take action in light of the uncertainties they face. Given more uncertainties, more effort must be exerted by society to overcome them. Uncertainties should not be treated as insurmountable burdens that reduce men to immobility. Rather, such uncertainties should be treated as opportunities by which new things can be created. But a person cannot move without determination. Opportunities can only be made and realized through deliberate action. Therefore, a person must not be uncertain about himself. He must perceive and believe that his actions are true. The effectiveness of actions ca only be done iwith this positivist attitude, even if the belief upon which the action is based is a lie. "Truth is the kind of error without which a certain being could not live", Nietzsche wrote in The Will To Power. The judgments made by humanity are essential for its preservation. This he states in Beyond Good and Evil where he wrote, "for the purpose of preserving beings such as ourselves, such judgements [synthetic a priori judgements] must be believed to be true; although they might of course still be false judgements!" People must act with deliberateness and certainty although there is knowledge that the pretenses and the actions are uncertain. However, a contradiction seems to arise from this stipulation by Nietzsche. If by acknowledging perspectivism, humanity is able to recognize his world, being uncertain and divest of absolute truth, then it would be perspectivism itself that prevents Nietzsche to make any claim to the universality about the world. To this contradiction, Nietzsche postulates the doctrine of eternal recurrence, the will to power and Ubermensch. These so-called "Zarathrusian doctrines" are not intended as philosophical theses but as outlooks in life to help humanity preserve itself. It is important to note that the need to prevail in an uncertain world is given support by Nietzsche's Ubermensch. Literally translated from German, it is Overman. Ubermensch is an individual who fights modern values and in the process overcomes the flaws of humanity. The Ubermensch is an individual whose state of being has reached such a level that he is no longer susceptible to "pity, suffering, tolerence of the weak, the power of the soul over the body, the belief in an afterlife, the corruption of modern values." He is also undergoing a constant cycle of rebirth and growth, giving determining what is good and evil, and not allowing society or religion to dictate these upon him. He is removed from the influences of society and religion. He finds happiness in this manner. He creates his own set of values, which gives him happiness because the values he created allows him to adapt to an ever changing world. Since the world is dynamic, Ubermensch must also remain dynamic, constantly changing with the world. Since he is independent of society and religion, and creates his own values which are responsive to the changes constantly happening in the world, he is always in a state of bliss and fulfilment, capable of coping with the uncertainties that plague other men. His constant adaptation, rebirth and growth eaves little room for suffering. Consistent with his distance from religion, Ubermensch does not believe in an afterlife. Neither does he believe in the power of the soul over the body or in God, because he has no proof that God exists. This liberates him from the supernatural shackles that bound men to religion. He does not indulge himself in seeking rewards from Heaven. Neither is he paralysed from action for fear of punishment from Hell. He makes the most out of his life, using the values that he has created. He takes full control of the opportunities that open before him, taking positive steps because he possesses certainty in his motives and actions. Ubermensch does not have compassion for the weak. He sees compassion as the greatest of all human weaknesses. He believes that the weak undermines the growth of the strong. Nietzsche describes the Ubermensch in Thus Spake Zarusthra: "I teach you the overman. Man is something that shall be overcome [surpassed]. What have you done to overcome [surpass] him All beings so far have created something beyond themselves; and do you want to be the ebb of this great flood and even go back to the beasts rather than overcome man What is the ape to man A laughingstock or a painful embarrassment. And man shall be just that for the overman: a laughingstock or a painful embarrassment...". Though Nietzsche gives more emphasis on the personal and subjective aspects of philosophy, he also possesses traits of the traditional philosopher that he recognizes a contradiction when he sees one. If he would claim that the will to power, eternal recurrence and Ubermensch were metaphysically and transcendentally true, he would be espousing a contradiction. To consider them instead as "attitudes towards life" would make them viable and consistent with his philosophy. This happens given the premise that in an uncertain world, it becomes necessary for humanity to create values which would sustain it. Using these three "attitudes towards life" as vehicles, humanity can then formulate criteria by which our lives can be measured. If these three doctrines can be used to measure how life affirming a person's life is, then it is not important to Nietzsche if they are metaphysically true and transcendental true or not. "The falseness of a judgement is to us not necessarily an objection to a judgementThe question is to what extent it is life-advancing, life-preserving, species-preserving, perhaps even species-breeding". Since truth is not of primary importance to Nietzsche, he therefore refrains from making metaphysical claims to truth if it were not necessary. Although Nietzsche refutes the existence of an absolute or metaphysical truth, he does not negate that varying levels of truthfulness may exist. He explained that "Perspectives and interpretations are always subject to measure, not by comparison with some external 'truth,' perhaps, but by evaluation in their context and according to the purposes for which they are adopted." This presents the philosopher as having tools which he derives from his perspective. How well he uses these tools which are available to him gives him logic. These tools provide him with reason. And his reasoning would be based restricted by his limited perspective. These tools would also determine the volume of prejudice that would affect or be included in his work. This theory is supported in Beyond Good and Evil, as he refers to the "the free spirits". He is referring to the individuals who need space to distance themselves from the temper and concerns of the world, "are born, sworn, jealous friends of solitude". These are philosophers who see things from a "fishbowl" point of view, detaching themselves from the emotions and tendency of others in society. These philosophers maintain their objectivity with the conscious effort of filtering their own emotions and beliefs so as not to taint their ideas. Nietzsche gives importance and credence to this idea of a "free spirit" and the philosophy of distance. He also believes that perspectives are the product of an individual's culture. Therefore, some perspectives are more valuable than others. It may also be said that some perspectives are more truthful than others. The expansion of an individual's perspective would allow that person to create a more valuable perspective. Looking at it in another way, the non-existence of "non-perspectival" seeing does not automatically mean that there cannot be an" omniperspectival seeing". If an absolute truth is in reality absolute only from a single person's perspective and not transcendental to others, it does not negate the possibility that there is an absolute truth existing somewhere. Seeing from a perspective limited to individuals would men that the accumulation of knowledge a person has can be further enhanced and improved with the addition of other perspectives. Exapnsion of what is true as seen from the perspective of an individual can be achieved if other perspectives can be added to it. Thus, Nietzsche sees science as an instrument through which perspectives can be expanded such that falseness is reduced and the individual draws closer to truth. There is unification of ideas coming from different perspectives, wherein science plays a major role, such that an absolute truth if it exists, is drawn closer. Nietzsche's ideas about truth changed after writing Beyond Good and Evil. But though his ideas may have changed, his later works still stipulate the importance of the personal, subjective aspect of philosophies. His concerns dwelt on the influences which crept into the works of philosophers and their motives for writing, as well as, the influences on their beliefs. Nietzsche did not adopt a position that would support an impersonal interpretation of truth. He contends that a perspective only has meaning to an individual once it is interpreted accordingly by his own limited perspective. To treat perspectives as mere points of view would ignore the critical elements in Nietzsche's perspectivism. His philosophy negates the idea that an absolute truth can be drawn through an amalgamation of different perspectives. A philosopher who injects his personal essences into his works would not appreciate it given that its objectivity is doubted. The three doctrines of eternal recurrence, the will to power and the Ubermensch, were considered by Nietzsche not as metaphysical truths. Instead, he considers them as "attitudes towards life" which enables people to live life in the most life affirming way. These three doctrines are vehicles by which humanity can improve the quality of life, even in the face of uncertainty. Sources: Friedrich Nietzsche, Beyond Good and Evil, trans. R. J. Hollingdale (London: Penguin Books, 1990). Friedrich Nietzsche, The Will to Power, trans. Walter Kaufmann and R. J. Hollingdale, ed. Walter Kaufmann (New York: Random House, 1967). Clark, Maudemarie, Nietzsche on Truth and Philosophy (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990). Solomon, Robert C., 'Nietzsche ad hominem: Perspectivism, personality, and ressentiment,' in The Cambridge Companion to Nietzsche (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996), 180-222. Read More