Middlesex University Research Repository An open access repository of Middlesex University research http://eprints.mdx.ac.uk Fitzmaurice, Thomas Joseph Martin (2001) Does Nietzsche have a coherent view of truth? Masters thesis, Middlesex University. [Thesis] Final accepted version (with author’s formatting) This version is available at: https://eprints.mdx.ac.uk/10823/ Copyright: Middlesex University Research Repository makes the University’s research available electronically. Copyright and moral rights to this work are retained by the author and/or other copyright owners unless otherwise stated. The work is supplied on the understanding that any use for commercial gain is strictly forbidden. A copy may be downloaded for personal, non-commercial, research or study without prior permission and without charge. 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See also repository copyright: re-use policy: http://eprints.mdx.ac.uk/policies.html#copy Middlesex University Research Repository: an open access repository of Middlesex University research http://eprints.mdx.ac.uk Fitzmaurice, Thomas Joseph Martin, 2001. Does Nietzsche have a coherent view of truth? Available from Middlesex University’s Research Repository. Copyright: Middlesex University Research Repository makes the University’s research available electronically. Copyright and moral rights to this thesis/research project are retained by the author and/or other copyright owners. The work is supplied on the understanding that any use for commercial gain is strictly forbidden. A copy may be downloaded for personal, non-commercial, research or study without prior permission and without charge. Any use of the thesis/research project for private study or research must be properly acknowledged with reference to the work’s full bibliographic details. This thesis/research project may not be reproduced in any format or medium, or extensive quotations taken from it, or its content changed in any way, without first obtaining permission in writing from the copyright holder(s). If you believe that any material held in the repository infringes copyright law, please contact the Repository Team at Middlesex University via the following email address: [email protected] The item will be removed from the repository while any claim is being investigated. Does Nietzsche have a coherent view of Truth? .0", "'_: .. 1~ ;. "_".:.: , !. :l!'. This thesis is submitted in partial fulfilment of thet;qui~e~e~ts for the degree or - .: ; . tfl!~'Qa Master of Philosophy in the School of Humanities and Cultural Studies, .;~:\",,~ . .._-_._.--- . ..... .. _"" .. Middlesex University by THOMAS JOSEPH MARTIN FITZMAURICE APRIL 2001 ii Abstract Anyone intending to write about Nietzsche faces an immediate problem - How is one to interpret him? I tackle this methodological issue in my first Chapter and set out the various modes of interpretation usually adopted. I also discuss the status of the Nachlass and indicate a personal position with regard to the use of these unpublished notes. In Chapter 2 I focus on whether Nietzsche does have a theory of truth. Early on he claims that truth is an illusion, but I argue that this position is untenable. Some American commentators attribute a pragmatic theory of truth to Nietzsche, but the textual evidence for this is lacking. As for the Coherence Theory, Nietzsche would only have accepted this if he espoused subjective idealism. He clearly rejects all forms of idealism. He was also firmly opposed to the Metaphysical Correspondence Theory. However, there is some evidence that he would have accepted a more conventional view of truth. My third Chapter is more psychological, focusing on motivation. Will to Power is the central concept here and I analyse this in detail. It turns out to be a Janus-faced concept. Internal Will to Power gets linked to asceticism and the Will to Truth, whilst external Will to Power is tied to the creation of values. The final Chapter is really a defence of objectivity. Perspectivism is frequently misinterpreted by Continental thinkers. I try to combat their relativistic readings and argue for a mature perspectivism. The latter does not entail a rejection of truth as commonsensicall y understood. My Conclusion is that Nietzsche is seeking to establish a more elaborate view of belief which acknowledges the body as a primary source of motivation. iii A Note on text and translations used in this study with abbreviations Ref Code / Title Published Translation Date BT / The Birth of Tragedy 1872 Golffings 1956 UM / Untimely Meditations 1873 -76 Hol1ingdale 1983 HAH / Human all too Human 1876 -79 Hollingdale 1986 D / Daybreak 1880 - 81 Hollingdale 1882 GS / The Gay Science 1881 - 86 WKaufmann 1974 TSZ / Thus Spoke Zarathustra 1882 - 85 Hollingdale 1961 BGE / Beyond Good and Evil 1885 - 86 Hollingdale 1973 GM / On the Genealogy of Morals 1887 Douglas Smith 1996 TI / Twilight of the Idols 1889 Hollingdale 1968 A / The Anti Christ 1895* Hollingdale 1968 EH !Ecce Homo 1908* Hollingdale 1979 * Works completed by Nietzsche but published after his mental collapse. Unpublished Works (Nachlass) WP / The Will to Power Hollingdale & Kaufmann 1967 TL 'On Truth and Lie in a Non-moral Sense' D Breazeale 1979 PTAG Philosophy in the Tragic Age of the Greeks M Cowan 1982 A fuller list of Nietzsche's writings used in this study is provided in the general bibliography at the back of this work. iv Contents Preface v Acknowledgements ix 1 Approaching Nietzsche - a question of methodology 1 1. The German interpretation 2. The French readings of Nietzsche - a brief note 3. The American interpretations 2 Does Nietzsche have a theory of Truth? 21 Is Truth an illusion? Does Nietzsche have a Pragmatic theory of Truth? Nietzsche and the Coherence theory Nietzsche's rejection of the Metaphysical Correspondence theory The Minimal Correspondence theory of Truth 3 Will to Power - Ontology or Myth? 70 Appendix to Chapter 3: Nietzsche's Vision 103 4 Perspectivism and Truth - are they compatible? 113 Conclusion 129 Bibliography 135 v Preface Friedrich Nietzsche, philosopher, psychologist, Anti-Christian, philologist and musician, was, above all, a supreme writer of German prose. He was a very original thinker as well, but because of his literary tum of mind, he has been comparatively neglected in Anglo- American philosophy until fairly recently. To borrow a phrase of Walter Kaufmann's (1) 'he was in eclipse'. At best, he was seen as an impressive aphorist, whose psychological apercus partly anticipated the findings of Freud and at worst, as one of the latest and possibly the most outspoken of a long line of German opponents of the ideals of liberal enlightenment. It is only recently that Nietzsche has begun to receive the same serious consideration as a philosopher in English-speaking countries which has been commonplace on the Continent for the past sixty years or so. His works are no longer the sole preserve of enthusiasts and polemicists. Thanks in no small part to the recent output of some excellent translations of his writings and a number of serious studies of his philosophy, the realisation is dawning that this rather unlikely, even odd thinker, occupies a central place in the history of our thought and culture. According to Richard Schacht, 'his long neglect was no doubt at least in part due to the fact that a great many people formed their impressions of him from the uses made of him by such commentators as Bertrand Russell'. Russell, in his chapter on Nietzsche in his History of Western Philosophy says that, 'Nietzsche, though a professor, was a literary rather than an academic philosopher. He invented no new technical theories in ontology or epistemology; his importance is primarily in ethics, and secondarily as an acute historical critic ... '(2). He caricatures Nietzsche as the defender of evil who cannot be proved wrong, but who is to be despised. Towards the end of the chapter, Russell parades his moral distaste for Nietzsche's philosophy. He concludes that: 'the ultimate argument against his philosophy as against any unpleasant but internally self-consistent ethic, lies not in an VI appeal to facts but in an appeal to the emotions ... His followers have had their innings, but we may hope that it is coming rapidly to an end'. Happily, Russell's prediction has proved false. As already mentioned, over the past sixty years or so, Nietzsche has come more and more to occupy centre stage. His legacy haunts the modem world. His elusive works, with their characteristic combination of penetrating analysis of the modem predicament and suggestive, if ambiguous, proposals for coping with it, have appealed to many artists and philosophers. JP Stem summed up his immense contribution very well when he described Nietzsche as 'the seismograph of Modem Europe'. He was not just a great stylist but a profound thinker as well. He was also a rigorous thinker. Indeed, Gilles Deleuze (3) uses language more commonly associated with analytic philosophy to characterize his work: 'Not only does all the rigour of his philosophy depend on it [accurate use of terminology] but it would be wrong to question its style and precision.