Nietzsche's Beyond Good And Evil: Chapter Analysis

Philosophers set their minds to find the truth within ourselves and in the universe. Philosophers set out to answer powerful questions like, “What is truth.” The question itself presents a multitude of more questions: “What defines truth,” “Who determines truth,” and etc. Hundreds of years have passed and there have been many that have attempted to find that answer. Philosophers such as Plato have dedicated their lives to study and pondered to discover the answer to “what is truth?” Those philosophers mentioned above are praised by many as the answer, however, there is another philosophers that calls philosophers of the past as being dogmatic and his name is Friedrich Nietzsche. The book “Beyond Good and Evil” by Friedrich Nietzsche contains his philosophy and along with that 296 aphorisms. The first chapter contains 23 of the 296 aphorisms and discusses how truths are developed from prejudices. Nietzsche begins the chapter by discussing how truth seduces the philosopher till the point that philosophers start question the value of truth. Seekers of truth such as metaphysicians believe in the antithesis of values (the world divided into truths …show more content…
While many philosophical teachings argue that we must view concepts with indifference and objectivity, Nietzsche says that philosophers still tend to fall under the influence of their own prejudice and instincts. Therefore, the argument that truths are far more valuable compared to falsehood is invalid. Falsehoods (prejudice and instincts) determine what people believe to be truths. Nietzsche bring up past philosophers such as Kant and Spinoza as examples of philosophers that have guised their prejudice as definite truths. This reflects Nietzsche belief that all philosophies are based upon the individual philosophers own life, in his own words, he believes that philosophies are the “confessions of its