[lit-ideas] Re: Erin's Course Dilemma
- From: "Phil Enns" <phil.enns@xxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <palma@xxxxxxxx>, <lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Tue, 18 Jan 2005 19:09:15 -0500
No. It is accurate.
Phil Enns
Toronto, ON
palma@xxxxxxxx wrote:
is this true?
On Tue, 18 Jan 2005, Phil Enns wrote:
> Nietzsche rejects Truth as an absolute that stands apart from any
> particular context or perspective. That is, Nietzsche is rejecting
the
> notion that because something is true it is necessarily true for
> everyone. According to Nietzsche, science is the finest expression of
> this absolute notion of Truth.
>
> "To make it possible for this discipline [i.e. science] to begin, must
> there not be some prior conviction - even one that is so commanding
and
> unconditional that it sacrifices all other convictions to itself? We
> see that science also rests on a faith; there simply is no science
> 'without presuppositions.' The question whether truth is needed must
> not only have been affirmed in advance, but affirmed to such a degree
> that the principle, the faith, the conviction finds expression:
'Nothing
> is needed more than truth, and in relation to it everything else has
> only second-rate value.'" (Nietzsche, _The Gay Science_ §344)
>
> And yet life is full of deceptions, illusions and lies, so that the
> decision to affirm truth to such a degree cannot be based on any
> calculation of utility (How would one measure the utility of truth
> against deception?) but is itself a moral decision.
>
> "Consequently, 'will to truth' does not mean 'I will not allow myself
to
> be deceived' but - there is no alternative - 'I will not deceive, not
> even myself'; and with that we stand on moral ground. For you only
have
> to ask yourself carefully, 'Why do you not want to deceive?'
especially
> if it should seem - and it does seem! - as if life aimed at semblance,
> meaning error, deception, simulation, delusion, self-delusion, and
when
> the great sweep of life has actually always shown itself to be on the
> side of the most unscrupulous polytropoi." (Nietzsche, _The Gay
Science_
> §344)
>
> As an alternative, Nietzsche affirms truth as an expression of a life,
> or a kind of life.
>
> "What life does require is belief in truth, but illusion is sufficient
> for this. That is to say, 'truths' do not establish themselves by
means
> of logical proofs, but by means of their effects: proofs of strength.
> The true and the effective are taken to be identical; here too one
> submits to force. How then is one to explain the fact that any
logical
> demonstration of truth occurred at all? In the struggle between
'truth'
> and 'truth' both sides seek an alliance with reflection. All actual
> striving for truth has come into the world through the struggle for a
> holy conviction - through the pathos of the struggle." (Nietzsche,
"The
> Philosopher" §47)
>
> For Nietzsche, then, truth is not something that can be rejected or
> denied. Nietzsche acknowledges that he himself is driven by the fire
> lit by the Christian faith where truth is divine! (_The Gay Science_
> §344) Life requires truth but different forms of life will express
that
> truth differently.
>
> "Most of the conscious thinking of a philosopher is secretly guided
and
> forced into certain channels by his instincts. Behind all logic and
its
> seeming sovereignty of movement, too, there stand valuations or, more
> clearly, physiological demands for the preservation of a certain type
of
> life. For example, that the definite should be worth more than the
> indefinite, and mere appearance worth less than 'truth' ..." (_Beyond
> Good and Evil_ §3)
>
> It makes no sense to claim that Nietzsche rejects truth, since any
such
> claim would be an obvious performative contradiction. Instead Michael
> Chase would have been better off asking what claims about truth
> Nietzsche is rejecting. Nietzsche rejects any attempt to absolutize
> Truth, that is, to set it apart from life. In the place of this
> absolute Truth, Nietzsche locates truth as in the service of life.
Here
> is where Nietzsche and Derrida differ. For Derrida, truth is what
makes
> human life possible. For both Nietzsche and Derrida, truth is
> inescapable.
>
> Sincerely,
>
> Phil Enns
> Toronto, ON
>
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Ratio, enim, nisi judex universalis esse deberet, frustra singulis
datur.
[ _Quaestiones Naturales_, Adelard of Bath ]
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