Nietzche

3 – 12 – 12

Fredrick Nietzsche
• Most known for “The Genealogy of Morality” – book directed against Christian morality
• Slowly went insane and contracted syphilis
• Ironic → died inCatholic house with nuns who took care of him
• Essay
o In writing this essay, he says that all truths are illusions that we have forgotten are illusions
o Essay on knowledge and epistemology
oTalking about knowledge and truth in general
o Unpublished essay
o Written very early on in his career
o In it, he laments the inevitability of illusion
o Concludes that supposed truths are entirelycaused and driven by the will to power of another
o “will to power” – describes the nature of a human being; all human beings are essentially “wills to power”
• Means that we arebiologically/genetically programmed to advance ourselves/seek power/dominate
• His understanding of the human person → animals driven to gain power and we cannot not want this; it is part of who we are
• Those whoare more successful become leaders of their communities and thus influence the language and supposed “truths” in their communities
• Do so by influencing what is known in the community
• Whatthey know or believe to be true is therefore the perspective of another’s will to power
o He believes that everything is a product of someone else’s will to power
o Knowledge is deceptive forNietzsche meaning that all knowledge is the product of someone else’s attempt to manipulate and deceive
• Knowledge is stuff we make up to advance our own will to power
• Ex. Jews and their persecutiono
• Kind of a relativist/skeptic
• What is truth for him?
o We are not getting true “essence” of something through the gathering of sense-data
o These words are not expressing the actual thing,but rather describes us as humanity and how we perceive things
o The world contains no facts, just interpretations
• Get rid of authority and hold your own interpretations
• Essay
o Recoil...