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11 - Nietzsche’s Concept of Truth

from III - Power and Truth

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 February 2021

By
Rüdiger Bittner
Edited by
Otfried Höffe
Otfried Höffe
Affiliation:
University of Tuebingen
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Summary

“Truths are illusions of which we have forgotten that they are illusions” (TL 1). “Truth is a kind of error without which a certain kind of living creature would not be able to live” (KGW VII, 34 [253]). There is no truth (KGW VIII, 9 [35]). “The concept ‘truth’ is absurd” (KGW VIII, 14 [122]). Such claims occur not infrequently in Nietzsche’s writings.1 They are an affront to our normal understanding of things. Of course there is truth, we want to say. There are true claims, for example, one so simple as “Paris is the capital of France,” and they are not errors or illusions. To explain the concept of truth may not be easy, but it is not absurd. After all, we often use it without any difficulty.

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Nietzsche as German Philosopher , pp. 231 - 254
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2021

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