Friedrich Nietzsche, On Truth and Lie in an Extramoral Sense

Truth is a seemingly uncontainable concept, which as men, we strive to obtain on a daily basis. It would seem that truth is the one thing that humans attempt to conquer through the duration of their physical lives. However, it is this need for truth, this journey to find it, where truth is lost in the rhetoric man places upon it.

Summary

Within the context of Friedrich Nietzsche's "On Truth and Lie in an Extramoral Sense", he demonstrates how difficult and yet how easily the theory of dissimulation and perception can intermingle. He displays this in a circular thought pattern within the scope of his essay. He illustrates how all that we know to be truth at one time was an illusion, and discusses the act of manifesting truths by repeating the same lie until it becomes true. (Like the old saying: lies until s/he believes it's true)

It is man who strives to find the truth in the universe, but falls short, due to the extreme nature of language and the fact that language is essentially a man made concept. It is man who imposes explanations and rhetoric on objects, thoughts and theories, because it simply cannot be, it must be explained and categorized. Nietzsche describes how metaphor is fundamentally the bane of the journey into a higher self, because man implies a great deal of trust in language, when language itself is biased and learned. How can a man find a hidden truth of a higher plane of existence in something that he created himself? "Similar to the way in which astrologers considered the stars to be in man's service and connected with his happiness and sorrow, such as investigator considers the entire universe in connection with man: the entire universe as the infinitely multiplied copy of one original picture - man." This begs the idea that there are no "true" original ideas, because as time passes, man imposes its own metaphor on that original idea, to make it his own, thereby multiplying the copies, and taking the idea farther from the original truth. He uses the very metaphors he denounced to illustrate his point: truth is an illusion that we have forgotten is an illusion, because we have multiplied the concept so many times over that we believe it to be true.

Interpretation

If a lie is an illusion, truth an illusion we have forgotten is an illusion, and dreaming the eternally repeated dream forces that dream into truth, then truth is interchangeable with lies and all that is truth and lies is a dream; all that is a dream is an illusion. So what is reality? Perception? What is perception? Judgment? What basis does judgment stand on? Truth? All that is truth is a lie, what is, is not. Applied to language, how can one trust anything that one has learned?

The beauty of what Nietzsche speaks on it is how intrinsically trusting we are to the perception of reality. As human we anthropomorphize all that we don't understand, (ie. miracles, science, philosophy, etc) and tend to attempt to explain them through language so that the mind can wrap itself around the concept, all while exclaiming that we are on a sojourn for truth. We are going to find ourselves, but can one be found if all that one knows is illusion? Can one be found if the very language we vest ourselves in is inherently biased, since it was man who created it?

The more that man strives to obtain truth, the farther he gets away from it, because of the simple truth that he is man, and simply lacks the cleverness to find it. This essay reminds me of Douglas Adams' thoughts in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, where it is concluded that humans are only the second cleverest creatures on earth. I believe we are the second cleverest, because we spend too much time looking for answers which we have already dissimulated with concepts and rhetoric that are only familiar to ourselves. As Buddha might say, to find truth, one must go inward, but all searches for truth begin outward, in the universe, in nature, which is why we are the second cleverest creatures on the earth. (Anyone with their life in order would know where his towel is...¹)

1) Adams, Douglas, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. New York: Random House, September 1995.