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THE PERSPECTIVE OF A NEW PHILOSOPHER A Thesis submitted to the faculty of San Francisco State University In partial fulfillment of A d s' the requirements for PHIL the Degree • UH-f Master of Arts In Philosophy by Mauricio Arturo Ulloa San Francisco, California August 2015 Copyright by Mauricio Arturo Ulloa 2015 CERTIFICATION OF APPROVAL I certify that I have read THE PERSPECTIVE OF A NEW PHILOSOPHER by Mauricio Arturo Ulloa, and that in my opinion this work meets the criteria for approving a thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirement for the degree Master of Arts in Philosophy at San Francisco State University. Professor of Philosophy cXr^y'7'~ Sandra Luft, Ph.D. Professor of Humanities Abrol Fairweather Ph.D. Adjunct Faculty of Philosophy Department THE PERSPECTIVE OF A NEW PHILOSOPHER Mauricio Arturo Ulloa San Francisco, California 2015 In this paper, I will show why accounts that defend Nietzsche’s perspectivism by reinterpreting him to be more in line with a traditional epistemic theory are mistaken. First, I will compare what Nietzsche calls the old philosopher (traditional philosophers as we know them) and what he calls the new philosopher. Then, I will examine the traditional account of perspectivism as the view that there is no such thing as one universal, truth claim but instead multiple perspectives and explain how it has been defended against its biggest criticism: the paradox of perspectivism. The paradox of perspectivism states that if perspectivism is to be taken seriously it undermines itself as it becomes just another mere perspective and if it is not taken seriously perspectivism is ultimately reduced to relativism. I will look at how Brian Leiter, R. Lanier Anderson, Steven D. Hales, and Rex Welshon try to defend Nietzsche and I will argue that they fail to capture what Nietzsche is doing with his perspectivism. I argue Nietzsche’s perspectivism is not to be understood as an epistemic or metaphysical claim and, thus, the paradox of perspectivism is not an issue. Rather perspectivism should be understood as the only way we can live life-affirming lives in a nihilistic world within the confines of our human limitations. Under my interpretation, Nietzsche’s perspectivism is saved from being reduced to relativism because all that matters to Nietzsche is meaning. In other words, some values are meaningful and life-affirming and others are nihilistic and life- denying. That is by rejecting the concept of truth, which is life-denying, Nietzsche is able to once again place meaning in the individual’s perspective and the creation of life- affirming values while avoiding relativism by placing more meaning on life-affirming values and rejecting life-denying or nihilistic values. I certify that jt is a correct representation of the content of this thesis. ff//p As~ Chair, Thesis Committee Date TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction..........................................................................................................................1 Outline of Thesis......................................................................................................2 What are the Old Philosophers?.......................................................................................... 9 Mistake of the Antithetical.....................................................................................10 Mistake of Personal Prejudice...............................................................................11 Mistake of Language..............................................................................................16 What are the New Philosophers?.......................................................................................19 The New Philosophers’ Creation of Values.......................................................... 20 Perspectivism as Traditionally Understood...................................................................... 22 The Paradox of Perspectivism.............................................................................. 23 Two Major Ways of Defending Perspectivism..................................................... 25 Hierarchy among Perspectives.......................................................................................... 29 Brian Leiter............................................................................................................29 R. Lanier Anderson................................................................................................33 Steven D. Hales & Rex Welshon...........................................................................37 My Interpretation of Perspectivism.................................................................................. 42 Possible Contradiction?.........................................................................................52 Perspectivism as Will to Power.............................................................................53 References..........................................................................................................................59 v 1 INTRODUCTION "Supposing truth to be a woman—what then?" - Friedrich Nietzsche That philosophers are notoriously bad at wooing women, at least in Nietzsche's time, inspired Nietzsche to liken the results of philosophers "pursuing" truth with the results of their pursuit of women—both ending in catastrophic failures. Friedrich Nietzsche criticized philosophers for their belief that there are absolute truths and for their dedication to the pursuit of these so-called "truths". Truth as we know it and, more importantly, the value of truth is brought into question by Nietzsche. He asks why we pursue truth at all and why do we perceive it as having high value in our lives; why not pursue falsehoods instead: "What really is it in us that wants 'the truth'?... Granted we want truth: why not rather untruth? And uncertainty? Even ignorance?"1 Philosophers simply take for granted that truth is good and of high value, thus, worth pursuing. Such is the case that many of them have actually dedicated their entire lives to the pursuit of truth. Questioning the real value of truth, Nietzsche sets out to rectify what he considers to be previous philosophers' misconception of truth. He criticizes the metaphysical dogmas of the ascetic ideal and Kantian metaphysics as being "errors, nothing but errors!"2 In doing so, he creates a distinction and maps out transitional steps between 1 Friedrich Nietzsche, Beyond Good and Evil, trans. RJ. Hollingdale (England: Penguin Books, 2003), §1. 2 Friedrich Nietzsche, On the Genealogy of Morals, trans. Walter Kaufmann (New York: The Modern Library, 1992), §12. 2 old philosophers (i.e., Kant, Descartes, Plato) who deeply believe in the pursuit of truth on the one hand and what he calls "the new philosopher". The latter, according to Nietzsche, being a thinker that will think of truth in a different light—"For that we have to await the arrival of a new species of philosopher, one which possesses tastes and inclinations opposite to and different from those of its predecessors..."3 OUTLINE OF THE THESIS In this paper I will be taking a closer look at Nietzsche's perspectivism and his own account of truth, what he means by truth versus what is traditionally meant by truth, and why he rejects the concept of truth. My goal is to show why other accounts that try to defend Nietzsche's perspectivism or reinterpret him to be more in line with a traditional epistemic theory are mistaken. I will argue that, while Nietzsche rejects epistemic knowledge claims in his own theory called "perspectivism", what he means by perspectivism should not be understood as it is traditionally understood by philosophy. Perspectivism is traditionally understood as an epistemic theory that states all perspectives are subjective and thus equally true. As a matter of fact, perspectivism shouldn't be mistaken for any kind of epistemic or metaphysical theory at all but, instead, perspectivism should be understood as a way of living life-affirming lives in a 3 Nietzsche, Beyond Good and Evil, §2. 3 nihilistic world within the confines of our human limitations. I will show that Nietzsche's perspectivism is meant to help us realize our inability to attain what traditional philosophers call "truth". By bringing "truth", its existence, and its attainability into question it places less importance and less value on the concept of "truth". Ultimately, "truth" being less important allows us to redirect our attention towards the importance of living. In other words, my interpretation of Nietzsche's perspectivism claims that Nietzsche is not interested in establishing an epistemic or metaphysical theory; rather, what Nietzsche is interested in doing is rejecting the dichotomy of the real versus the apparent. In rejecting this dichotomy Nietzsche provides us with a way of living that is much more embracing of our human abilities and understanding. This allows us to better exercise our will to power by being life affirming and embracing our human experience rather than denying it. That is, by realizing the flaw in believing we can know an objective world we are then able to reject the existence of an objective world and our efforts in attaining knowledge of it, and thus focus on the creation of new values that help us transcend a world that is void of meaning and morals. In order to do this, Nietzsche gives us his perspectivism. I will first examine the ways in which an old philosopher differs from that of a new philosopher according to Nietzsche.
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