MetaChat - Untruth as a Condition of Life (Long Quote)

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12 October 2007

Untruth as a Condition of Life (Long Quote) →[More:]"The falseness of an opinion is not for us any objection to it: it is here, perhaps, that our new language sounds most strangely. The question is, how far an opinion is life-furthering, life- preserving, species-preserving, perhaps species-rearing, and we are fundamentally inclined to maintain that the falsest opinions (to which the synthetic judgments a priori belong), are the most indispensable to us, that without a recognition of logical fictions, without a comparison of reality with the purely IMAGINED world of the absolute and immutable, without a constant counterfeiting of the world by means of numbers, man could not live--that the renunciation of false opinions would be a renunciation of life, a negation of life. TO RECOGNISE UNTRUTH AS A CONDITION OF LIFE; that is certainly to impugn the traditional ideas of value in a dangerous manner, and a philosophy which ventures to do so, has thereby alone placed itself beyond good and evil." --Friedrich Nietzsche

post by: jason's_planet at: 13:58 | 6 comments

What is he referring to with "our new language," and who is the "we" in this quotation?

posted by Miko 12 October | 14:17

"Our new language" = his philosophical work.

"We" = the royal "we."

posted by jason's_planet 12 October | 15:24

It's good to know he considered himself beyond good and evil. Explains much!

posted by Miko 12 October | 16:12

I bet Nietzsche was a barrel of laughs at a party.

posted by essexjan 13 October | 01:58

That's pretty deep. He's saying that the things we treat as rock-solid absolutes, the things that drive us (honesty, integrity, perfection, love, and maybe 'god(s)') are the most imaginary concepts in life. Plato would probably agree, insomuch as the realm of thought is the loftiest realm in his gestalt. Nietzsche does qualify his claim of the phantasmal nature of truth by saying it's not necessarily a bad thing; but he's suggesting we call a spade a spade.

posted by Eideteker 13 October | 12:22

Plato would probably agree, insomuch as the realm of thought is the loftiest realm in his gestalt.

Hmmm. I thought Plato considered those absolutes real and the material world around us pale copies of those absolutes. I also can't imagine Plato saying, in so many words, "just go ahead and make up something to believe in. Doesn't matter if it's true or not, as long as it animates you and gives you a sense of purpose."

Nietzsche does qualify his claim of the phantasmal nature of truth by saying it's not necessarily a bad thing; but he's suggesting we call a spade a spade.

"It's very important to believe in these things, even though they're complete bullshit."

posted by jason's_planet 13 October | 16:31

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