Lit Theory - Nietzsche - "On Truth and Lying in a Non-Moral Sense"

Friedrich Nietzsche

1.     “On Truth and Lying in a Non-Moral Sense”

a.     The human intellect is meaningless, pitiful, transitory, and it is dwarfed by nature.

                                               i.     Clever animals created cognition.

                                             ii.     It did not exist before man.

                                            iii.     It will not exist after man, and man’s existence is a blip on the history of planet or cosmos.

b.     Man centers the cosmos around him and is arrogant to presume his thoughts have meaning.

c.     We are unable to perceive nature as intellect, cognition, and feeling distort our perceptions.

                                               i.     The most common mode of distortion is through deception.

                                             ii.     Dissimulation – deception where the truth is concealed.

d.     Man’s perceptions are “immersed in illusions.”

                                               i.     Man does not see accurately see things, only forms.

                                             ii.     Man’s perceptions doe not lead him to truth, they just process stimuli.

e.     With these failings, where does the drive to find truth come from?

f.      Truth starts with the first actions towards groups as people start defining and giving mutual understanding to things.

                                               i.     Language produces truth through shared understanding.

                                             ii.     Language also produces lying. 

                                            iii.     The liar using words, “Tokens of designation” to make the unreal appear to be real.

                                            iv.     The lie itself holds little import, but the harm or damage that the lie can generate is what concerns people.

g.     To infer from the fact of our senses that there is an object outside of us is “applying the principle of sufficient reason wrongly.”

                                               i.     The multiplicity of words affirms that there is little truth in the description of a thing. 

                                             ii.     Seeing a thing, through stimuli and translated into an image is the first metaphor.

                                            iii.     The image then being imitated by sound becomes the second metaphor.

                                            iv.     We believe that when we speak of trees and things, we have knowledge of things themselves, yet we only possess metaphors of the things that in no way correspond to the original entities.

                                             v.     Men’s interpretations of things are off if language is used as language is an extended metaphor at best. 

                                            vi.     Language does not extend to the essence of a thing.

h.     A concept is produced by overlooking what is individual about a thing.

                                               i.     Nature knows neither forms or concepts.

i.      What is truth?  It is:

                                               i.     Metaphors, metonymies and other relations, that are

                                             ii.     Intensified, translated, and decorated, and

                                            iii.     Have been used for a long time, and

                                            iv.     Strike people as firmly established.

                                             v.     Truths are illusions that have forgotten they are illusions. They are worn out metaphors.

                                            vi.     Truth is the obligation to lie in accordance with firmly established convention.

j.      Humans are separated from the animals due to the ability to dissolve images into concepts. Sublimate sensuous metaphor into schema.

k.     This enables classification and disregards individuality. 

                                               i.     Classification enables concepts used by the superstructures to subjugate people.

                                             ii.     Truth means classifying things and obedience to the ruling class.

                                            iii.     We create our own definitions and concepts and then apply them as discoveries to the outside world.  Not really all that impressive.

l.      Correct perception is non-existent.

                                               i.     There is no causality between object and subject.  There is only an aesthetic way of relating.

                                             ii.     The only things we know about an object are the notions we place on them.

m.   Language builds the edifice of concepts.

                                               i.     The desire to create metaphors is strong.

                                             ii.     The drive finds release in art and myth.

                                            iii.     Humans have an urge to be deceived.

1.     A reference to plays, television, etc.

  

Works Cited

 Nietzsche, Friedrich. “On Truth and Lying in a Non-Moral Sense.” The Norton Anthology of Theory and Criticism.  Ed. Vincent B. Leitch et al.  2^nd ed. New York: W.W.Norton & Co., 2010. 759-774. Print.