"On Truth and Lie in an Extra-Moral Sense") is an (initially) unpublished work of Friedrich Nietzsche written in 1873, one year after The Birth of Tragedy. It deals largely with epistemological questions of truth and language, including the formation of concepts. Every word immediately becomes a concept, inasmuch as it is not intended to serve as a reminder of the unique and wholly individualized original experience to which it owes its birth, but must at the same time fit innumerable, more or less similar cases-which means, strictly speaking, never equal-in other words, a lot of unequal cases. Every concept originates through our equating what is unequal. According to Paul F. Glenn, Nietzsche is arguing that "concepts are metaphors which do not correspond to reality." Although all concepts are human inventions (created by common agreement to facilitate ease of communication), human beings forget this fact after inventing them, and come to believe that they are "true" and do correspond to reality. Thus Nietzsche argues that "truth" is actually: A mobile army of metaphors, metonyms, and anthropomorphisms-in short, a sum of human relations which have been enhanced, transposed, and embellished poetically and rhetorically, and which after long use seem firm, canonical, and obligatory to a people: truths are illusions about which one has forgotten that this is what they are; metaphors which are worn out and without sensuous power; coins which have lost their pictures and now matter only as metal, no longer as coins. These ideas about truth and its relation to human language have been particularly influential among postmodern theorists, and "On Truth and Lies in a Nonmoral Sense" is one of the works most responsible for Nietzsche's reputation (albeit a contentious one) as "the godfather of postmodernism."
"On Truth and Lie in an Extra-Moral Sense") is an (initially) unpublished work of Friedrich Nietzsche written in 1873, one year after The Birth of Tragedy. It deals largely with epistemological questions of truth and language, including the formation of concepts. Every word immediately becomes a concept, inasmuch as it is not intended to serve as a reminder of the unique and wholly individualized original experience to which it owes its birth, but must at the same time fit innumerable, more or less similar cases-which means, strictly speaking, never equal-in other words, a lot of unequal cases. Every concept originates through our equating what is unequal. According to Paul F. Glenn, Nietzsche is arguing that "concepts are metaphors which do not correspond to reality." Although all concepts are human inventions (created by common agreement to facilitate ease of communication), human beings forget this fact after inventing them, and come to believe that they are "true" and do correspond to reality. Thus Nietzsche argues that "truth" is actually: A mobile army of metaphors, metonyms, and anthropomorphisms-in short, a sum of human relations which have been enhanced, transposed, and embellished poetically and rhetorically, and which after long use seem firm, canonical, and obligatory to a people: truths are illusions about which one has forgotten that this is what they are; metaphors which are worn out and without sensuous power; coins which have lost their pictures and now matter only as metal, no longer as coins. These ideas about truth and its relation to human language have been particularly influential among postmodern theorists, and "On Truth and Lies in a Nonmoral Sense" is one of the works most responsible for Nietzsche's reputation (albeit a contentious one) as "the godfather of postmodernism."
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Find On Truth and Lies in a Nonmoral Sense Friedrich Nietzsche in PDF, EPUB, ebook, audiobook, print, or library editions.
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8 books in catalog
Philosophical texts challenging traditional Western morality, aesthetics, and Christian theology reshaped nineteenth-century thought through radical critiques of truth and culture. Friedrich Nietzsche brought rigorous philological analysis to bear on foundational European beliefs, questioning the psychological motives underlying moral systems and modern secular doctrines. His philosophical work Thus Spoke Zarathustra presented an uncompromising vision of life-affirmation, cultural renewal, and individual self-overcoming outside conventional religious frameworks.
Born on October 15, 1844, in Röcken, Saxony, Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche was the son of a Lutheran pastor. He demonstrated exceptional academic aptitude early in life, studying classical philology at the universities of Bonn and Leipzig. In 1869, at twenty-four years of age, he was appointed Professor of Classical Philology at the University of Basel. However, severe physical ailments, including chronic migraines and digestive issues, forced him to resign his professorship in 1879.
Following his academic retirement, he lived as an independent scholar and author during the 1880s, dividing his time between Switzerland, Italy, and southern France in search of climates that mitigated his health conditions. In these years of relative solitude and modest financial means, he produced a series of influential philosophical texts before suffering a severe mental collapse in early 1889. He lived in the care of his family until his death on August 25, 1900, in Weimar.
His writings combine psychological diagnosis, cultural criticism, aphoristic brevity, and philosophical inquiry to expose false consciousness behind received social and moral ideals. Central to his thought is life-affirmation, an orientation that prioritizes creative power, earthly existence, and individual health over transcendental worldviews that devalue physical life. He examined how concepts of truth, language, power, and nihilism shape human consciousness, mounting trenchant critiques of both traditional morality and secular pieties.
8 books in catalog
Philosophical texts challenging traditional Western morality, aesthetics, and Christian theology reshaped nineteenth-century thought through radical critiques of truth and culture. Friedrich Nietzsche brought rigorous philological analysis to bear on foundational European beliefs, questioning the psychological motives underlying moral systems and modern secular doctrines. His philosophical work Thus Spoke Zarathustra presented an uncompromising vision of life-affirmation, cultural renewal, and individual self-overcoming outside conventional religious frameworks.
Born on October 15, 1844, in Röcken, Saxony, Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche was the son of a Lutheran pastor. He demonstrated exceptional academic aptitude early in life, studying classical philology at the universities of Bonn and Leipzig. In 1869, at twenty-four years of age, he was appointed Professor of Classical Philology at the University of Basel. However, severe physical ailments, including chronic migraines and digestive issues, forced him to resign his professorship in 1879.
Following his academic retirement, he lived as an independent scholar and author during the 1880s, dividing his time between Switzerland, Italy, and southern France in search of climates that mitigated his health conditions. In these years of relative solitude and modest financial means, he produced a series of influential philosophical texts before suffering a severe mental collapse in early 1889. He lived in the care of his family until his death on August 25, 1900, in Weimar.
His writings combine psychological diagnosis, cultural criticism, aphoristic brevity, and philosophical inquiry to expose false consciousness behind received social and moral ideals. Central to his thought is life-affirmation, an orientation that prioritizes creative power, earthly existence, and individual health over transcendental worldviews that devalue physical life. He examined how concepts of truth, language, power, and nihilism shape human consciousness, mounting trenchant critiques of both traditional morality and secular pieties.
