Analysis Of Nietzsche's On Truth And Lies In A Nonmoral Sense

Improved Essays
The periscope of interest for this paper is Friedrich Nietzsche’s article, “On Truth and Lies in a Nonmoral Sense.” Nietzsche was categorized as a post-modern philosopher who, through his works, had a tremendous influence on Western philosophy. The particular piece of writing discussed here deals with the relationship that human language has on the formation of truths and lies. The meaning behind the text, if true, essentially makes us rethink everything we think we know. “On Truth and Lies in a Nonmoral Sense” is Nietzsche’s explanation of how and why humans have created their own perceptions of truths and lies. Nietzsche says that language is created by humans when they take an outside factor and internalize it to fit their own understanding. From this process comes the formation of concepts, and everything that fits that concept is deemed a truth while everything that falls outside of those …show more content…
It is only through the action of forgetting that man comes to believe these truths. The “truths” that we have today exist because they are what have been repeated throughout history. The solid concepts that make up human “truths” use science as their foundational unit. Nietzsche goes to conclude his paper by stating we as humans use manmade concepts to fit our environment and to interact with others in that sense. I also believe that Nietzsche is arguing his perspective that truth does not exist in reality and that the “truth” we know is a lie. He is saying that there really is no distinction between what is factual and what is made up because everything that man thinks he knows comes from the same origin, perception. The only true difference between a “truth” and a lie is the intent for which it is used. Nietzsche is saying that a truth is a lie but is not intended to be interpreted that way, while a lie is used in a “self-serving way [that is] damaging to

Related Documents

  • Improved Essays

    I want to start off by saying that Friedrich Nietzsche was one of the more complicated philosophers that I ever had pleasure of studying. What I took away from Friedrich Nietzsche opinions on the death of God is that he was referring to the declining belief and respect for God or religion in general. Nietzsche felt that with the loss of religion the west would lose its distinctive cultural identity. Friedrich Nietzsche was not a big fan of Christianity to say the least, but he still understood its importance and its benefits to the culture. Friedrich Nietzsche, in my humble opinion had a strange outlook on morality.…

    • 388 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Decent Essays

    Telling the truth all the time is nearly infeasible. Stephanie Ericsson’s essay titled, “The Ways We Lie” breaks down the activity of lying into subcategories of the different kinds of lies we tell on a daily basis. In addition, Ericsson’s essay manages to point out the elemental role that lying plays in our lives and our culture. We all lie, whether to abstain from confrontation, spare people’s feelings, conveniently forget, keep secrets, or even to justify our own words and actions. By clarifying the extent into which we all lie, Ericsson begins to insinuate the many, many ways we fib, by listing and describing each lie in it’s natural element.…

    • 135 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Telling the truth all the time is nearly infeasible. Stephanie Ericsson’s essay titled, “The Ways We Lie” breaks down the activity of lying into subcategories of the different kinds of lies we tell on a daily basis. In addition, Ericsson’s essay manages to point out the elemental role that lying plays in our lives and our culture. We all lie, whether to abstain from confrontation, spare people’s feelings, conveniently forget, keep secrets, or even to justify our own words and actions. By clarifying the extent into which we all lie, Ericsson insinuates a plethora of ways in which we fib, by listing and describing each lie in its natural element.…

    • 639 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In Nietzsche’s approach, he attempts to back up his claims by accusing other philosophers of not being able to think critically. He does not believe that the good man is the opposite of the evil man like previous philosophers believed. Nietzsche accuses past philosophers of establishing their beliefs based on the good man being opposite of the evil man. In Nietzsche’s Beyond Good and Evil, it is discussed that people are treated differently. He uses a larger scale to show the materialistic ethics in which the more powerful individuals in society can mistreat those that are more vulnerable.…

    • 952 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    He looks at empirical causes to explain the existence of morality in order to reason why it is the way it is. When analyzing his work, would seem like Nietzsche has a hollow concept of justice. What only every seems to be just is what the current laws that exists advocate for. There does not seems to be anything more or anything less to the statement. There is nothing grandeur to justice because the meaning can change just as easily as…

    • 1228 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    He says that god is a figment of our imagination. Nietzsche proposed the process of self-despoilment and self-debasement and that it is carried to extremes. He said that, “there is nothing good, great, and true that is not solely by grace” (page…

    • 1742 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    1. (Summary) List and Describe or Define the different “Lies” Ericsson discusses. (Response) Would you add any? List and describe them.…

    • 767 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    n “The Ways We Lie,” author Stephanie Ericsson does a great job of explaining how and why everyone lies. Ericsson makes serval points that lying isn’t necessarily bad, however sometimes lies can have severer consequences. For this particular writing the audience is everybody, because she argues that everyone lies. Ericsson’s use of historical events provide logos or logical reasoning. She also apples to pathos by reaching to her audience emotions.…

    • 409 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    The author Friedrich Nietzsche in his text (“The Madman”, 1882) used a narrative to prove a point. To be more specific he wanted to show or demonstrate to people how bad was the status of religion and of faith in Europe around his time (1882-1887) the time when he was publishing “The Gay Science”. The story started with a man who is described as a “madman”. The madman begins by entering a marketplace and starts to shout loudly “I seek God! I seek God!”…

    • 1651 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Ways We Lie

    • 511 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Deborah Tannen, in “Sex, Lies, and Conversation,” an essay published in the 1990 The Washington Post, addressed misunderstandings to curb controversies regarding a chapter from Tannen’s 1986 book That’s Not What I Meant!. Tannen, a teacher at Georgetown University provides the public with scholarly research in the battlefield of communication between the sexes; bringing to light the stereotypical debate to whom is at fault in the negative communicational skills that endanger relationships. Stephanie Ericsson, in “The Ways We Lie,” a cover article from a 1993 issue of the Utne Reader, references life experiences, classifications, and quotes to rationalize the human need to lie. Ericsson, a screenwriter, a copywriter, and a recovering addict uses personal experiences to persuade readers that lying is an art form that cannot be lived without sending the assumption that lying is as vital to life as air is to breathing. Ericsson states “Sure I lie, but it doesn’t hurt anything.”…

    • 511 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Decent Essays

    In paragraph 14, Nietzsche reaches his conclusion to the essay. He contrasts the rational man, who he also refers to the stoical man with the intuitive man. Each type of man attempts to relate to his life in the world in which he lives for the entirety of his existence. It their methods which are different. The way that the rational man seeks to comprehend his world is through “foresight, prudence and regularity”.…

    • 135 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Great Essays

    Of those philosophers who seek to define life in some way, mostly positively, there are a set of provoking souls who seek to uproot any optimistic perspective such as Friedrich Nietzsche. He sees life as a bleak, ephemeral, meaningless, and deceptive time from birth until death as he explains in the essay “On Truth and Lie in an Extra-Moral Sense.” One of the subjects he especially focuses on is the topic of metaphors in language and naming empirical objects that surround us. When a human hears a word and brings about an image, that image is not universal amongst all humans; thus, the attempt to create a single sound to represent a varying subject should be considered unfeasible and a form of lying. Nietzsche puts forward the idea that because…

    • 1632 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In the fragment about the education of the guardians of the second book of the Republic, Plato argues that the stories narrated by the poets lack any moral substance. The problem with these stories is that they do not transmit the truth, but shadows of the truth. This premise is based on Plato’s theory about the mimetic nature of the poetic art. For Plato, the art of poetry is the result of a process of mimesis which consists in imitating the appearances of ultimate reality, but not reality itself. According to this notion, the art of the poet is doubly removed from reality and the poet himself cannot access the true nature of things.…

    • 1041 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Rhetorical Analysis by: Jonathan Robinson The death of honesty – William Damon This paper will basically explain how and where the writer “William Damon” uses rhetorical features in his article to attract the readers. Writers inevitably use rhetorical idioms in their article and positive spirit to keep the readers concentration active, and conscious. This Essay will help the reader analyze arguments in the reading by using the elements of a rhetorical situation, these elements include the: Subject, Text, writer, reader, and context.…

    • 884 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    Tell the truth. Every child is told these words by parents, teachers, adults. Truths denote facts and genuineness. Human beings struggle with honesty as part of the human condition. People need to be true to themselves before they can be so to others, but sin constructs challenges.…

    • 1087 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Great Essays