Perspectivism and Truth in Nietzsche’s Philosophy: A Critical Look at

Perspectivism and Truth in Nietzsches Philosophy A Critical Look at the Apparent Contradiction There are no truths, states one. Well, if so, then is your statement true? asks another. This statement and following capitulum go a long counsel in demonstrating the crucial problem that any investigator of Nietzsches conceptions of perspectivism and truth encounters. How can one who believes that ones conception of truth depends on the eyeshot from which one writes (as Nietzsche seems to believe) also posit anything resembling a universal truth (as Nietzsche seems to present the will to power, eternal recurrence, and the bermensch)? Given this idea that there is no truth alfresco of a perspective, a transcendent truth, how can a philosopher make any claims at all(prenominal) which are valid outside his personal perspective? This is the question that Maudemarie Clark declares Nietzsche commentators from Heidegger and Kaufmann to Derrida and even herself have been try ing to answer. The sheer amount of material that has been written and continues to be written on this conundrum demonstrates that this question will not be satisfactorily resolved here, but I will try to show that a resolution can be found. And this resolution need not return Nietzsches idea of perspectivism for finding some truth in his philosophy, or vice versa. One, however, ought to look at Nietzsches philosophical truths not in a metaphysical manner but as, when taken collectively, the best way to live ones life in the absence of an absolute truth. By feel at one of Nietzsches specific postulations of perspectivism, we can get a better idea of precisely how this term applies to his philosophy and how it relates to the tru... ...s lack of a direct response to this apparent contradiction ensures that this matter will continue to be hotly debated well into the future. For this seemingly simple contradiction of positing truths when one has denied all absolute truth s, Nietzsche gives a very complex and personal answer.BibliographyPRIMARY TEXTSFriedrich Nietzsche, Beyond Good and Evil, trans. R. J. Hollingdale (London Penguin Books, 1990).Friedrich Nietzsche, The Will to Power, trans. Walter Kaufmann and R. J. Hollingdale, ed. Walter Kaufmann (New York Random House, 1967).SECONDARY TEXTSClark, Maudemarie, Nietzsche on Truth and Philosophy (Cambridge Cambridge University Press, 1990).Solomon, Robert C., Nietzsche ad hominem Perspectivism, personality, and ressentiment, in The Cambridge Companion to Nietzsche (Cambridge Cambridge University Press, 1996), 180-222.