On Truth and Lies in a Nonmoral Sense

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Template:Short description Template:Italic title Template:Philosophy sidebar On Truth and Lies in a Nonmoral Sense (Template:Langx, also called On Truth and Lie in an Extra-Moral Sense[1]) is a philosophical essay by Friedrich Nietzsche. It was written in 1873, one year after The Birth of Tragedy,[2] but was published by his sister Elisabeth in 1896 when Nietzsche was already mentally ill.

Summary

Nietzsche's essay provides an account for (and thereby a critique of) the contemporary considerations of truth and concepts. These considerations, argues Nietzsche, arose from the very establishment of a language:Template:Main other

According to Paul F. Glenn, Nietzsche is arguing that "concepts are metaphors which do not correspond to reality."[3] Although all concepts are metaphors invented by humans (created by common agreement to facilitate ease of communication), writes Nietzsche, human beings forget this fact after inventing them, and come to believe that they are "true" and do correspond to reality.[3] Thus Nietzsche argues that "truth" is actually:

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These ideas about truth and its relation to human language have been particularly influential among postmodern theorists,[3] and "On Truth and Lies in a Nonmoral Sense" is one of the works most responsible for Nietzsche's reputation (albeit a contentious one) as "the godfather of postmodernism."[4]

Raymond Geuss has compared Nietzsche's view of language, as expressed in this essay, to be similar to that of the later Wittgenstein's, in its de-emphasis of "the distinction between literal and metaphorical usage."[5] A few decades prior Erich Heller had similarly noted a comparison between Nietzsche's thoughts on language and Wittgenstein.[6]

See also

Notes

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Further reading

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External links

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  1. ↑ Walter Kaufmann's translation, appearing in The Portable Nietzsche, 1976 edition. Viking Press.
  2. ↑ Portable Nietzsche 42.
  3. ↑ a b c Script error: No such module "Citation/CS1".
  4. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  5. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  6. ↑ Script error: No such module "Citation/CS1".
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